That was how he did it, he would pick on people. Because of his facial expression and his tone of voice, his body language, the timing of his words and phrasing, he used to get away with his sarcastic put-downs.

But for some people he pushed every button and irritated them hugely. Some people just absolutely could not stand the guy. Even just hearing his voice tones just made them crazy. He was criticized a lot.

The majority of people though, did see him as caustic and witty. Yet he was very entertaining to the majority of people. He didn’t have to do his routine that way. He did many different things but he really found a style that worked for him, and he did it on purpose. And for the most part it worked for the majority of people.

The Law of Requisite Variety

There’s a mathematical principle called the Law of Requisite Variety. The Law of Requisite Variety says “the element in a system with the most options, or the most flexibility, will control the system”.

For instance, think about a car. What is the most complex part of a car but is also the part of the car that is most likely to break down or have trouble first? It’s the engine. Why? The part of the machine with the most moving parts and the most complexity is the first and most likely place for it to break down. In the Law of Requisite Variety the element in the system with the most options or the most ways it can break down is the one that’s going to control the system.

In a car that’s the engine. Though you can have a brake or transmission problem, the brakes and transmission are not as complex overall as is the engine and are less likely to give you problems initially because they have fewer ways they can break. Brakes and transmissions have fewer options as to how they can break.