How Can He Do That With a Straight Face?

For its comedy issue last year, GQ magazine reviewed more than 23,000 jokes--everything from one-liners to just plain witty remarks--gleaned from books, the Internet and audio- and videotaped performances. The magazine also polled dozens of humorists and comedians.

The result was what GQ called “the 75 funniest jokes of all time.”

Comedian Steven Wright--he of the deadpan, what’s-the-hurry delivery--had five jokes in the top 75, including No. 5: “If I ever had twins, I’d use one for parts.”

No. 16 is another keeper: “I’ve been getting into astronomy, so I installed a skylight. The people who live above me are furious.”

And it’s hard to resist repeating No. 42: “When I was a little kid, we had a quicksand box. I was an only child . . . eventually.”

So how does the sober-faced comedian feel about being so well represented?

“I can look at it two different ways,” says Wright, 44, sounding only slightly less laid-back than he does onstage. “I am very honored to be on that list. But the other part of the brain says, ‘They can’t really make up that list. They couldn’t have judged [them all]. It’s like judging the best curve on a wave. There’s too many of them.”

GQ, of course, dished up only a sampling of Wright’s offbeat comedy. But if your appetite’s sufficiently whetted, drop by the Sun Theatre in Anaheim, where the comic will be serving up a full-course meal Friday.

Wright once said he likes to bypass topical subjects in his act such as sports, politics and television. Instead, he focuses on either the “little things” in life--such as lint and hinges--or the “giant issues,” like space and time and why we’re here.

But when it comes to defining his unusual brand of humor, Wright said by phone from his home in Santa Monica earlier this week, he never gave it a thought until people started writing about it.

“I guess it’s abstract,” he said after a pause. Then after another pause he added, “They’re just jokes, but underneath that they’re based on ‘the world is crazy.’ That’s all. It’s just playing out the insanity in the world.”

Exposing the underbelly of the world’s psyche wasn’t his intention when the Cambridge, Mass.-born comic started telling jokes at a Boston comedy club in 1979, a year after earning a degree in mass communications from Emerson College in Boston.

“But after 15 years of doing it, I looked and said, ‘I’m actually saying the world is crazy,’ ” he said. “I didn’t know that; I just thought, ‘They’re jokes.’ ”

Wright’s off-the-wall humor and lethargic stage presence travel well. He just returned last Friday from a successful concert tour in England and Ireland. Although he does occasional small parts in movies (“The Muse,” “Natural Born Killers”), stand-up comedy remains his primary focus. He plays about 60 theater dates a year.

But he’s also a filmmaker--or more accurately, an occasional filmmaker.

His first short film was “The Appointments of Dennis Jennings,” a comedy about a man (Wright) who kills his psychiatrist (British comedian Rowan Atkinson). Wright co-wrote the film, which won an Oscar for best live-action short film in 1989.

Now, more than a decade later, his second short is making the rounds of film festivals: “One Soldier,” a post-Civil War story in which Wright not only stars but which he also wrote, produced and directed.

Wright knows what you’re thinking.

“Why so long?” he said of the 11-year lapse between film projects. “I’m seeing a team of psychiatrists right now to answer that question.”

After completing his Oscar-winning first film, he explained, he simply returned to stand-up. Then a decade later “I thought, ‘I’ll try doing that again, and I’ll direct.’ But I don’t know why so long.”

The 30-minute “One Soldier,” shot in black and white in a stark, Bergmanesque style, is about a man--a Union soldier home from the war--obsessed with the unanswerable questions of life. In the end, he discovers he shouldn’t have been so concerned. He should have just enjoyed life and had a few laughs.

Wright said he shares his character’s interest in seeking the answers to life’s big questions.

“The difference is, the guy learns the lesson and then he’s executed for killing the wrong guy in the war. He doesn’t get to put it into practice because he’s killed.”

In that sense, the character has one up on his creator.

“I’m still obsessed. It still bothers me why we’re here,” Wright said, breaking his verbal stoicism with a big laugh. “I haven’t learned the lesson.”

BE THERE

Steven Wright, Sun Theatre, 2200 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim. Friday, 8:30 p.m. $31.50 to $36.50. (714) 712-2700.

“One Soldier,” Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, 10:45 a.m. Sunday. It will also air on the Independent Film Channel in June.