CONGRATULATIONS to our two comedians who have their sights set on RAW Comedy finals success. It's a remarkable achievement, given that comedy is an inherently funny thing.

Everyone (well, almost) has a sense of humour, and many think they are funny - until you put them on stage and give them a mic, that is. Very little terrifies like standing before a crowd of unknowns, desperate for a laugh. And that's the catch. There's no middle ground. The job description is brutally simple.

Either the audience laughs, or you die an excruciating death before dozens of strangers, digging ever deeper for that elusive laughter and hoping that just once the world will relent and swallow you up; or that maybe you'll be lucky enough to be taken out by a timely sniper.

In that moment, I promise from experience that anything seems like a better option.

A big part of our social media problem is the belief that people can say what they want, and if it's offensive, well, "it's just a joke, lighten up”. And it's done from behind the safety of a computer screen.

Yes, jokes can be about anything. But only if done very, very well. And you learn that fast. If your offensive joke fails on stage you can try to blame the audience for not "getting it”, or you can join reality and understand that, actually, the joke simply sucks and should never be touched again.

It's a lesson everyone should learn at least once.