If you like that, you need to see Stewart Lee. Stewart Lee has made that into an art form; he berates his audience, telegraphs and sabotages his own jokes, explains why things should be funny then explains why he's not funny in a hilarious way. His latest show is entirely built around the idea that he has no material. For one show, he just walks out onstage and begins

So, I don't want to waste any time faffing around or trying to create a good atmosphere in the room, so what I'm going to ask you to do in about 30 seconds is clap for about three seconds. Not as if it were the top of the show. I don't want any whooping or cheering, but just clap as if I'd already been on for about a quarter of an hour and it was going all right and everyone is in a good mood. I'd just done something that was OK, and I'll come off the back of that on the move, as if we're already in the show in full flight and you'll see that works just as well as if I'd done something good.

Then leads into this joke:

Now, so I was in a cab on a Sunday night going from Waterloo to Hackney, and suddenly the cab driver turned around and his opening conversation or gambit was to say this genuine sentence. He said, "These days you get arrested and thrown in jail if you say you're English, don't you?" Look, we've all done it. You're probably like me. Sometimes a cab driver or someone might say something like that and you go, "Yeah." You know, just for a quiet life. Or if they go, "My face is made out of electricity and ham," and you go, "Yes, it's awful when that happens. "My friend had that. An electric ham face." Or if they go, "All mice are gay and they're from space, aren't they?" You go, "Yeah, the bloody gay space mice. I can't stand them. They make me physically sick." You're just, you know, for a quiet life. But on this occasion I thought, "I wonder what he means?" I said to him, "What did you say?" And he said, "Oh, these days, "if you say you're English you get arrested and thrown in jail." I said, "When did this come in?" And he said, "No," he said, "if you say you're English these days, mate. "You get arrested and thrown in jail." I said, "Are you...? "What, if you say, just if you say you're English you get arrested and thrown in jail?" He goes, "Yeah. These days," he said, "if you say you're English you get arrested and you'll be, you'll be just thrown in jail." I said "In, in, jail." He goes, "Yeah, these days. These days, mate, if you say you're English, right, "these days, you'll get arrested and you'll be thrown in jail." "I said, " You'll be thrown...? "Actually thrown in jail, just if you, if you say you're English." He goes, "Yeah, these days. "Say you're English these days, you'll get, you'll be thrown in, "arrested, and then you'll be thrown in jail." I said, "You'd be actually be thrown in jail?" He goes, "Yeah." I said, "Just for saying you're English?" He goes, "Yeah," he said, "say you're English these days. "You get arrested and you'll be, you'd be thrown in jail." I said, "Thrown in, you'll be thrown in jail if you just say, just for saying you're Eng...?" He goes, Yes, you will." "These days," he said, "if you say you're English "you'll be arrested and you'll be thrown..." I said, "Absolutely, are you saying, what are you saying? "If you say you're English these days, you'll be arrested and thrown in jail?" He goes, "Yes, these days, if you say you're English, you just say that, and you'll be arrested "and you'll be thrown in jail." I said, "Thrown in, you'll be thrown in a jail? "Just if you, and arrested, just if you say..." He goes, "Yeah, you'll be arrested, then thrown in jail just for saying you're English." I said, "Just for saying you're English you'll be arrested?" He goes, "Yeah." I said, "Are you cer..." I said, "Are you sure? "Will you be arrested and thrown in jail these days if you say you're English?" And he said, "No." Right. I'd worn him down, "But..." he said, "but.." he said, "if on an official form where it says " 'nationality' you cross out British and you write in 'White English' "they will send that form back." Now, that's not strict... It's not the same as being arrested, is it? But it is a very thin line, to be fair.

Before the joke fully lands he cuts to footage of a hostile friend interviewing him about his practice of paying cab drivers to say things he's written so he can then reference the conversation in his stand-up shows.

I don't have time now to have adventures or experiences or ideas, so it's best if I can provoke the response I want from a person and then pass it off as something that actually happened. I mean, it didn't, it didn't not happen. It just didn't happen really.