Gagging is saying a line with your attention focused on getting a laugh from the audience, as opposed to saying a line that just builds the reality and moves the scene forward.

Taking and giving

From a review of an improv performance:

"Gagging is when a performer goes for the immediate payoff. He or she spouts out a joke, usually very funny, which has the side effect of not advancing the scene. Normally, the scene degenerates into a series of less and less effective jokes after this."

Perhaps the reason Gagging is dangerous is that search for "immediate payoff". We call lines in improv "offers" because they offer something to your scene partner to use and build on. Shooting for an immediate payoff usually gives you a line that uses up comedic potential without creating any.

But this also suggests that there might be a good time for gagging: the last line of a scene.

Usually Gagging disappoints the audience, because it doesn't give them the self-revelation of your imagination that they crave to see. They see it as giving in to your fear of them, and they lose respect for you.

Sometimes Gagging gets a laugh. Often that laugh comes at the expense of the scene. The scene stalls because nothing is happening. The reality dissolves, and the audience sees you no longer as a cab driver and a German tourist but as two people standing on stage each trying to get laughs for yourselves.

Temptations

When a scene isn't going well or you think you aren't contributing enough, you can start feeling that need to "be funny right now". Here are some common ways of gagging:

Reinterpret what someone just said as a homosexual come-on.
Insinuate that your scene partner is gay or not getting enough sex.
Say naughty words, like "wiener" or "blow job" or even "arm pit". Snicker, snicker.
Obstinately block anything your scene partner says or does.
Pull the rug out from under your scene partner's illusions.
If a line just got a laugh, repeat it.
Say a funny line or joke that you planned before the performance.
Make funny faces in order to cue the audience that "I am being funny now. You are supposed to laugh at this." Bozo the Clown was the master of gagging.
Misinterpret-by-puns everything your partner says. For example, if your partner mentions the Nile, be sure to say, "Denial is not a river in Egypt!" If your partner says, "My bicycle is broke", say, "Aw, your bicycle doesn't have any money?"
Make references to how stupid the president is, or some other insult that declares that you share the audience's political loyalties.

While these all tend to send a scene exactly nowhere, any of them might be perfectly natural if they flow out of the action. There's no need to consciously avoid doing those things, there's just danger in carrying them around in your tool belt, ready to whip out every time you think you're not being funny enough.

If you have a habit of reaching for one of these, you might want to consciously avoid it for a month or two during improv, as a sort of Exercise. After that, if it happens, it will probably happen naturally from the scene, not because you were reaching for "a sure thing".

Am I gagging?

Er, uh oh. You don't want to worry about whether you're gagging. You certainly wouldn't want to avoid saying funny things for fear of gagging. The value of this concept is to distinguish between your naturally funny, spontaneous self and the consciously engineered sort of comedy that doesn't come from losing yourself in a scene. If this distinction is just leading you to feel inhibited, then forget it.

It might help to remember that people do not always agree about what is gagging and what isn't.

If you tell Your Personal Search Engine to "avoid gagging", it won't give you much--except gags. Instead of "avoid gagging", try "build the scene".

Responding to a gag

Ok, your scene partner has just gagged. In a child's voice, you said, "Daddy, my bicycle is broke" and daddy replied, "Aw, what's that you say? Your bicycle doesn't have any money? It's 'broke'? Ha ha, yuk yuk yuk!" What can you do to keep the scene alive after this?

Just respond in character. Yes And the gag with whatever your imagination gives you. If you feel an emotion, use that. For example, letting yourself be the child whose daddy has just responded to your problem by trying to make a joke out of it, you might feel angry. So be angry. You might say in a quiet voice, "Daddy, I'm going to kill you." Or, "Can I talk to Mommy, please?"

In this way, you retroactively turn the gag into a great, scene-building line. The audience now perceives this rich, troubled relationship between you. You can now explore this relationship further. Perhaps further action will reveal why daddy behaves that way. With some gags it's very hard, but there is always a way to weave a gag into the reality of the scene by treating it as action and letting it pull you someplace new.

Antidotes

Ok, you feel the temptation to gag and you want to know what to do instead. But every alternative just seems to be another gag. Or self-inhibition. Ack, how to escape this downward spiral??!!

The antidote to gagging is just all the usual Improv Skills. However, if you're stuck in a scene feeling like you need to be funny, here are some things you might bring to mind to get you back on track:

•	Take Your Time. You don't need to respond instantly. You can give yourself a moment to absorb what's just been said and see what you see in your imagination.

•	Establish a Platform. The temptation to gag is especially strong when there are not characters in a place doing something meaningful to them.

•	Advance the scene. There is really nothing else to do in improv but advance the scene in every line.

•	Listen. Focus on what your scene partner is doing or saying or just said. Let that spur your imagination.

•	Take The Obvious Choice.

•	Play Double Word Association with yourself. Word-associate on what your scene-partner just said, word-associate on that word, and now you've got something new to put into the scene, which arose from your unconscious reaction to the scene and not from your conscious desire to be funny.

See Paradox Of Improv, "Always Funny" Stuff that Doesn't Work in Improv.