That’s not funny!
Stand-up comedy has it roots in many different kinds of entertainment from the late 19th century. There’s traces of vaudeville, English Music Hall, minstrel shows, humorist monologues of various kinds, and even circus clown antics. In the US it developed into a club act in the 1950′s and 60′s. It quickly gained a reputation of the ultimate (at it’s best) kind of freedom of speach, with subjects that included politics, race relations, sex and as much personal stuff as you could cram in there. It was led by guys like Jerry Lewis, Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Woody Allen, Redd Foxx, Bill Cosby and the duo of Mike Nichols & Elaine May.
Some of those people you have heard about, but eventhough they were big stars, many people my age (30′ish) and younger, have never heard of the Nichols and May. But they were huge on the mainstream comedy scene and on TV in the 60′s…
The genre further developed in the 70′s and 80′s with Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, George Carlin, Robin Williams, Andy Kaufman, Eddie Murphy, Jerry Seinfeld, Sam Kinison, Billy Crystal and many others. New genres like observational comedy popped up, and the mench behind the mic, had an even bigger opportunity to become a star.
The language didn’t get any nicer, but the chances that were taken, were at least as big, and sometimes even bigger, than before…
It sounded a bit like this:
So i wonder….. and pardon my french, but how can two of the biggest comedians right now be so fucking un-funny? Where did it all go wrong???
Dane Cook and Jeff Dunham have between the two of them:
- Won Grammy’s
- Had the highest charting comedy album in 28 years
- Been dubbed “America’s favorite comedian”
- Been the highest grossing comedian in North America
- Appeared in movies
- Have sold millions of dvd’s
- Have about half a billion Youtube hits all together
How did that happen? The mainstream has always taken the edge of the edgiest performers, or should i rather say, the performers that allowed that particular tradeoff. But at the moment really mainstream comedy has become so safe, that it’s like watching a Disney movie.
You know the general plot, you know that at some point they will throw a supersafe curveball, that is still supposed to shock you… within reason. You know there will be ups and downs, and all of that wrapped into a nice glossy layer of so-called “funny”.
It goes a little something like this….
I seriously didn’t laugh once…. instead please give me Lenny Bruce any day of the week!
This particular clip, that i’ll leave you with, is the last thing you would expect from a guy with Bruce’s reputation, but isn’t that the beauty of stand-up comedy??
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The only “good” stand up from the US over the last decade or so seems to have come from the minorities and even those are usually overhyped weak routines. I personally blame the US comedy watching audiences, they seem to love cheering and laughing at the notion of comedy rather than waiting for actual funny material. Stick to the real home of standup and comedy, the UK. We’ve never been short of great stand up acts and they cover all spectrums from cerebral, self-deprecating to offensive and pantomime-esque. There is definitely something for everyone who enjoys real humour and quality comedy.
Got to say I agree…saying that though, whilst in NY a couple of months ago I went to a standup night and I was literally in tears. Saw maybe 10 acts and all of them were so funny, I didn’t expect it at all. Ok maybe the JD and long island iced teas make you giggle a bit more but believe me there was a wealth of comedy talent even in this one showcase that I saw.
Maybe it’s becoming like music where soulless mediocrity is championed and rises to the top of the popular listings and for the real stuff you have to dig a bit deeper.
I’m inclined to agree. The proliferation of information and content in the modern day has bought us in contact with some great stuff we’d never find but it’s also bought to the forefront so much more mediocrity and content that we as people really detest.
Anyone even slightly left of centre is bound to feel alienated at some point by what seems to be a complete lack of intelligence in the general populace, but this is just something we have to come to terms with by finding like minded people to enjoy the good stuff and at the same time keeping an open mind about the rest.
Who knows, one day you might find something you enjoy just as much as everyone else does.
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