On the “Comedy, American Style” at his Traverse City Film Festival this morning, Michael Moore announced plans to launch a comedy festival in the waterfront town, beginning in 2010. Likely taking place the first week of March — “the deepest, darkest part of winter” in Michigan, Moore noted — The Traverse City Comedy Arts Festival will be a collaboration between Moore and comedian/actor Jeff Garlin, who participated in this morning’s panel with Moore, Larry Charles, TCFF 2009 Lifetime Achievement honoree Paul Mazursky, Wavy Gravy, and Austin-based filmmakers Bob Byington and Ben Steinbauer, whose three features (Byington’s Harmony & Me and Registered Sex Offender and Steinbauer’s Winnebago Man) are being screened here as the sole exemplars of “the new hotbed of American independent cinema.” As described by Garlin and Moore this morning, the comedy festival seems to be an attempt to spin-off  the experience of the comedy panel, which has become an annual tradition at the film festival, anchored by frequent guests Garlin and Charles, into its own thing. With that in mind, here are five things I learned from the assembled geniuses during today’s 90 minute session:

Things that aren’t funny are funny.

An overarching theme of the panel was that things that you’re not supposed to joke about make the best fodder for jokes. Moore recalled an early writing meeting on his show TV Nation, in which he made a list of a number of taboo subjects — the Holocaust, the death penalty — and set his staff to work turning each into comic theater. A similar impulse underlined Byington’s RSO, which screens here tonight and tomorrow. “I couldn’t believe that no one had ever made a film about a sex offender,” he said. “I thought, if you just followed a guy through all the stuff he had to do after getting out of prison, you couldn’t miss.”

Paul Mazursky shot JFK.

Mazursky was trying to explain how he transitioned from stand-up comic to filmmaker. “i was in Dallas and did 45 minutes [of stand-up] without a laugh,” he said. “Then I knew, it was time to change careers.” Charles: “So then you went to the book depository…”

Funny people are immune to improvements in the collective spirit.

Moore suggested that America is entering into an age of optimism. “People seem to feel a little better these days,” he said. Even though we’re going through this horrible recession, we’ve come out of some dark years.” Larry Charles was not convinced. “I still feel like shit,” he said. Garlin concurred, “The funny people always feel like shit.

Why is comedy a boys club? Manners.

A female audience member asked the assembled boys on stage to account for there not being a woman on the panel. “The last time I did this panel there was a woman on it,” Garlin said, “Yeah,” Moore shot back, “And we didn’t let her talk!” That’s because, Garlin said, “Being a gentleman has nothing to do with comedy.” Related: Charles said Sarah Silverman’s Blackberry email signature line reads, “Sent from my balls.”

And also sort of related:

Everything you need to know about obscenity can be found in The Beverly D’Angelo Handbook.

Moore commented that he’s “in trouble” for choosing to show Milos Forman’s Hair on a giant screen at an open-air screening. “It said it was PG on IMDB. Little did I know, or I had forgotten, there were three minutes of Beverly D’Angelo’s breasts.” Garlin and Mazursky disputed the notion that anyone was traumatized. “Four minutes cause damage. Three minutes are okay,” said Garlin. “You’d know if you’d read The Beverly D’Angelo Handbook.” “I know Beverly very well,” Mazurksy said, “But I’ve never seen her tits that big in my life. I love Traverse City!”