Is Comedy In Trouble?

More of a raconteur than a comedian maybe -

 

Big changes in the short term future. On Comedy Central, the Daily Show is about to be taken over by Trevor Noah. If he turns out to be as weak of a replacement for Jon Stewart as Larry Wilmore has been for Steven Colbert, then weeknight political comedy is in deep trouble. Wilmore seems to have no interest in attracting white viewers. Also, we're about to find out if Steven Colbert can be as funny and popular being himself as he was playing a fictional conservative character. He takes over Letterman's how next week.

All this change has me a little concerned.

 

I wouldn't let it concern me where it comes to comedy in general (which of course does not depend on shows like the Daily show or people like Jon Stewart and Letterman alone).

 

Colbert starts his new job tonight! CBS, 11:35 PM.

I'm still worried that he won't be as popular or effective now that he isn't playing the fictional character that we have known for all these years. Who has ever done that before?

​

 

Rowan Atkinson? I'm guessing you mean in comedy.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgT5TO42PUY

 

I think I can stop worrying about The Daily Show. It's pretty much the same writing staff, producing the same quality of material that we're used to, and Trevor Noah can deliver it. Critics are going to blast the hell out of him because he isn't Jon Stewart, but that doesn't matter in the long run because loyal fans of this show want it to continue, and we don't care about critics at all.

What else is on at 11:00 anyway? Some local news idiot telling you, "Jones Street is going to be closed tomorrow for a pipe replacement" and showing you high school football highlights. Somebody kicked a 15-yard field goal! Wow!

 

This is a sad thing in deed. Humor helps us process such things as racism. It breaks down walls in our own perception, enabling us to see it in others, and then even in ourselves. It takes a dirty offensive reality and enables us to all laugh at it--and because it is socially accepted as funny under the guise of comedy--the real life dirty offensive reality is defused as nothing more than a joke-----a racially insensitive bigot becomes a joke, rather than representing a socially accepted norm of behavior.

Because of the work of such comedians as Archie Bunker, there is no more racism in America today. (I'm joking!) But in all seriousness, there are far fewer people that have the opinions that Archie Bunker parodied.

But we should not be surprised by this development, which is why the comedy is now more important than ever. We have reached the stage of denial----a point where racism has been repressed into the collective shadow (and I am using racism as an example, but it is true for all the biases and prejudices). Collectively, as a culture, we know that racism is bad---so we deny that we are racist. We project our own racism onto others. We demonize it. But our denial and repression of it means that we are not facing it, and dealing with it. Instead it stays hidden, unrecognized, where it festers until events like Ferguson play out.

It is always very difficult to recognize, face, and deal with shadow elements------but humor does wonders at aiding in this process.

 

No. Comedy should be funny. Being "clever" isn't funny.

 

So far, you've been neither clever nor funny.

 

Well if you find me UNfunny, I'm obviously doing something right! LOL

 

Great way to start out with a new account at a new forum, motherfucker! I'm sure you'll be around for a long time and make lots of friends. Not.

 

Thank you. I do like a warm welcome at my entrance.

 

Comedy is a science i think, you can tease people easily and people might start crying because of you, but the actual thing is that if you can make happy anyone, people laughs on your jokes act, or any other activity. Comedy is contineous process and i dont think deu to any person its stopped or even distrubed. So there is now affect if someone stop comedy.

 

Not with these debates going on:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-McIdVuY88&index=3&list=PLi_iu5SegOb1XWUS2AE6ArbxKstjniuzH As with Chris Rock and jerry Seinfeld? I can't speak for Chris Rock, but Jerry Seinfield lasted like a half-hour at my school. people heckled him and he just walked off. They just got so big they don't want to and don't need to put up with it.

 

Hecklers? Must be those damn niggaz again. :d

 

Umm. . .no. My college was pretty damn white, so just a buch of frat douches trying to make a name for themselves. If you were riffing off Richard Pryor than I apologize and that shit is funny.

 

This seinfeld fella is talking out of his arse, in my opinion.

His thing about the gay french king for example, the problem is....the joke isn't very funny. I'm sure there was a time when you could rely on getting a laugh from it just because it includes the word "gay" and at other times in his career that has been a punchline in and of itself, but modern audiences maybe just ask for a little more? like wit?

Sounds to me like an out of touch comedian blaming political correctness for the fact that he cant get away with the same lazy material that had them roaring in the aisles in the early 90's.

I'm a big fan of stand-up and go fairly regularly and I see this a lot. For example, I remember seeing a fairly old school comedian do a bit about how Idris Elba was being considered for James Bond. He basically launched into an exaggerated Jamaican accent with lots of "mons" and just said a lot of James Bond's catchphrases. It was a studenty crowd and there were no laughs. He went on to basically blame the audience for being too PC and up themselves to laugh. The real reasons people weren't laughing were:

1) It wasn't funny.
2) It wasn't original or creative
3) Idris Elba doesn't even have a jamaican accent, so the joke makes no sense.

But the comedian had "The rise of PC" to blame for his ineptitude so he took it. Despite the fact that comedians like Jim Jefferies and Frankie Boyle regularly play to crowds made up in exactly the same way with material that is deliberately offensive, non politically correct and vulgar, and regularly get laughs and huge success playing to sold out venues. It's because they're good at what they do. If political correctness is changing comedy, its doing so by punishing lazy comedians who'd rather rely on stereotyping and common assumptions than good material.

Also, you know what? if you want to be a touring comic, maybe think about adapting your material to the room your playing rather than blaming the room? or, if you refuse to edit material to suit an audience (which should be apart of your job) there are venues and nights put on specifically for people to perform near-the-knuckle shit, why not go to them? I garuntee your Jamaican accent routine or gay french king joke will go down just as badly there, because it's shite.

But maybe performing it after someone doing a well written routine about pedophilia, race or AIDs or some shit to resounding applause will convince you that maybe its your material that's the problem not the PC culture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM8EVIbNxk4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmsV1TuESrc

 

^This^

Kind of how every other generation thinks this generation's music sucks. Hell, I bet no one in their late teens early twenties has even seen Seinfeld (the show).

 

I'm still missing Jon Stewart, but John Oliver's weekly show on HBO is quite similar, and Samantha Bee's new show on TBS is even better, and you don't need an HBO subscription to see it.