Will there come a time where comedians don't need to actively go out and perform live anymore? Obviously many stand-ups have made that move over the decades: in the 70s and 80s you'd get off the working men's club circuit by bagging yourself a nice TV quiz show. But even those comics would still pop out to a sports and social club of an evening to crack out a bit of blue for a few extra quid. But in future, could you just stay in and do gigs?

We were chatting here recently about how James Bond films would be very different if he played new casino games online rather than old traditional ones in casinos. We can do most things at home these days, from pretty much all of the shopping to virtual business meetings, cinema-style movie-watching to sociable arcade-style video-gaming. And yep, you don't need to go anywhere near a casino to play roulette or blackjack, or whatever. At home you can even smoke, for that classic '60s Bond vibe.

It might not be the most exciting film, admittedly, but if Bond did do the high-stakes stuff at an online casino real money wouldn't need to be spent on putting him up in a luxury hotel, which must be a huge burden on the taxpayer, this many films in. That got us thinking: could live comedy one day go the same way? Let's face it, like going to the cinema, watching comedy isn't actually a very sociable event.

As anyone who's ever used a stand-up show as an occasion to meet an old friend knows, you're probably better off just staying in the pub really; unless the conversation is going badly, then comedy can be an absolute godsend. If it's going well though, the main event can soon become somewhat intrusive. You'll be chatting away happily, catching up on stuff for whatever the timeframe is between the doors opening and the compere coming on, then be forced to shut up for ages while some total strangers tell you what they've been up to instead.

And woe betide you if you start chatting again: that's worse for a comic than you heckling or walking out. It does raise the question: why do we bother trying to find people to go to these places with? You might as well forget all the diary logistics, go separately and just meet up in the pub at some later date to discuss it at your leisure.

Of course, comedy is different to film. Random stuff happens at live events - punters getting roasted by the comic for talking, for example - and there's more atmosphere than in a cinema. Still, the idea of recreating it at home has been tried. Virtual reality stand-up certainly hasn't taken off yet, despite several attempts at live-screening a gig to headsets, but one day we'll surely recreate that experience at home, too.

We'll presumably get to a point eventually where our online world will just exist all around us, like in Tony Stark's lab, at which point comedians will stop leaving the house and just do their sets from home. Vloggers make lucrative careers from something similar, after all, and it'll really save on travel hassles.

Your favourite comic will conjure up his or her choice of green-screened virtual venue - the 02, or The Stand, or wherever, for a reasonable license payment - then a virtual audience will log on and pop up. The performer does the gig, logs-off, then pops next door to watch telly with the other half. Or heads upstairs for a whole different type of online entertainment, to work off that adrenaline.

Of course, this may also do irreparable damage to the nation's budget hotels, but that's progress.