Smalltalk is often smalltalk because we don't want to waste mental bandwidth with the conversation and yet don't want to offend. I agree that probing this state

Smalltalk is often smalltalk because we don't want to waste mental bandwidth with the conversation and yet don't want to offend. I agree that probing this state is exactly why we should use brand conversation starters, unless you are clearly in a position where you might want to talk. That's probably difficult to see for a comedian, since he's never wasting mental bandwidth with conversations -- it's the thing they do!