By Tanya Fedak
Plus IconTanya Fedak
See All Add us as a Google Preferred Source
Add us as a Google Preferred Source 
Behind every great joke is a story. At least that was the case for comedian Jo Koy and his viral joke about attending a Los Angeles Dodgers game with his late stepfather, Sgt. Fred Harrison, a decorated Army veteran who was battling cancer.
Koy sat down with Variety for an episode of “Anatomy of a Joke: Spotlight,” presented by Icon Live, where he explained how the bit came to life. In his Netflix stand-up special, “Jo Koy: Blue in the Face,” he recounts taking Harrison, a devoted Dodgers fan, to one of the team’s baseball games. But when the game stretched into extra innings, Koy began joking about his stepfather’s exhaustion, delivering the now-viral punchline: “He served two tours of Vietnam, and he’s going to die in a fucking Dodgers game!”
Related Stories
