The speaker describes himself as the class comedian, a role that seems to trap him. He is always late, and his classmates smile at it without really minding. But the poem suggests that being funny is tiring. He calls the comedian's life "weather-beaten" and "edge-trodden," as if he is worn down and living on the margins, even while everyone is watching him.
The audience is part of the pressure. Spectators "expect / To laugh," and the image of a "hostage situation" makes that expectation feel like a threat, with peers pushing words toward his throat. He is not choosing to perform so much as being forced to.
The ending turns inward. He imagines people forgetting how tired and plainly dressed he looked, yet remembering only "the boy / Who was never there / On time." The mood is wry but lonely, and the last lines hint that he fears being known for a single running joke instead of who he really is.