I have noticed as I have grown inexorably towards death that I seem to laugh less and less with the passage of time. I’m sure most people don’t laugh as much as they did when they were 9, but I am troubled by my cynicism towards comedy, a medium I have always loved, like a whore, I wouldn’t marry it, but it often would do anything I wanted in the sack with no strings attached. I cannot say this so much now, as I think world comedy is in the doledroms, I have grown bored of my whore shall we say.
Your mission – if you choose to accept it — is to persuade me that comedy isn’t all shit, this message will self destruct before some period of time pertinent to your reading speed.
Here is Stephen Fry giving a comparison between US and British comedians.
-The american comedian stands as hero
-The british comedians play more the submitting one.
This is an over generalization, but does he have a point?
Stephen Fry annoyingly brilliant as usual. I’m not wanting to compare English comedy to American because I think both have had their moments and vivre le difference. I definitely see his point about the hero and the antihero though, it is a very well thought out argument, the bastard has a way with words that most of us would if not envy kill him for.
I think often it’s just harder to be funny these days, as many races and people have seen it all. And it’s such a varied field now, it’s hard to pin it down to what any one person will like: whether it’s a clown like Baldrick or Rimmer, the failures or the Eitist Frasier a success, who has far too much dignity to realise he is a clown, and thus it works so well.
Of course both Hugh Laurie and Stepehn Fry have an immense amount of respect for America (Hugh went on to star as Doogie Howser, and Stephen Fry drove a taxi into the Alamo after becoming so fat his large cab couldn’t handle as well any more), but that aint the joke. It’s funny because of contrast.
Incidentally Stephen Fry is on the record as saying Hugh Laurie is perhaps the finest Actor to grace the stage and take a punch. He is good at what is technically called the pratfall and of course that metal bar irony.
Graham Norton came to my attention in Father Ted where he was simply brilliant, and he is naturally witty and funny too, his interview technique is superb, he can have anyone in the palm of his hand, no matter how serious and embarrass them and make them laugh no matter how self important or not.
Alan Carr I don’t always get but he is a witty man. Johnathon Ross, is naturally funny, and naturally very good at what he does, comedy or otherwise.
QI is hilarious more often than I care to mention and quite interesting too. 8 out of 10 cats also funny. I do prefer Would I lie to you though, but then I am a massive fan of Mitchell, he just has an artistry unparalleled, he can make me laugh with an angry rant and a sublime mot juste, or just with a turn of phrase.
I love Never Mind the Buzzcocks, and the comedians therein have a nack for both mockery and the ridiculous.
Denis Leary is talented as an actor, and as a comedian he can crack me up with his sarcasm. Eddie Murphy’s stand up got me through a lot of my childhood, and I farted on a lot of heads playing the fart game.
I’ve never looked at coca cola the same way since Bill Hicks, nor at the sexual pleasure from cigarettes.
Robin Williams is a funny man, odd but he is so anarchic.
Lot of funny people, but I am still not sure about comedy any more, what’s next?
I do like of course much comedy, but I somehow feel that it’s not going to be so good in the future, it is of course up to me to stop being so cynical but…
I don’t like put downs either, but I do enjoy the funny banter that these guys offer - I think that there’s some British comedy that I will never get or like, and Steve Coogan is one of them… along with Fawlty Towers and Allo Allo.
Hey, if you like Alan Carr and the rest then good luck to you, I just want to be laughing about something that isn’t either a gay bloke saying something crude and rude or someone putting the boot into a soft target (such as soap operas and supermarkets).
I also like Stewart Lee, though his condescending atheism does annoy me at times. But I adore the way he’ll happily take the audience through a really elaborate joke for the sake of a punchline that isn’t particularly funny, just so he can build in some references to stuff that interests him. It’s a lot easier to just do the Jimmy Carr thing and have lots and lots of one-liners, or make smug, snobbish comments to try to make others look stupid like Stephen Fry.
Though Fry is occasionally hilarious as a comic actor, such as in Absolute Power and certainly in Blackadder.
I think you grow out of Allo Allo at the point you realise that the fallen Madonna with the big boobies are not funny, and nor are racial stereotypes when milked to death.
Fawlty Towers I have to disagree on it is probably the best thing, John Cleese has done other than saying he is the Messiah I should know I’ve followed a few, and your fucking nicked my beauty.John Cleese and Connie Booth wrote great comedy together.
Stephen Fry, I don’t really find that funny, but I like him generally. He’s the kind of person I find ‘watchable’ even if he isn’t making me laugh out loud.
I think the point is, John Cleese wrote it, whereas Palin and Klein were just actors in it.
I find Jonathan Ross pretty basic. I watched him interviewing David Attenborough, probably one of the most interesting people on the planet, and constantly asking him about animals he has seen having sex. I think my Nan would have stifled a giggle. But she died ten years ago. Sex isn’t such a big deal these days but Jonathan Ross is still giggling about it like a ten year old in sex ed.
Tralix: as per the ‘challenge’, I just posted this thread: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=181190 . Do you find thís funny?
Comedy obviously changes with time. People used to think that Charlie Chaplin was hilarious, but I find his comedy inane.
What do you mean it was ‘ok’ - it’s ace. Where else would you find Jamie Lee Curtis masturbating with a thick piece of rope while John Cleese mutters away in Russian? Where else would you find an American hitman pretending to read Nietzsche?
Hell just froze over, I agree with SIATD. Damn its cold, frost bite.
I find that quips and one liners make people giggle no matter the age. Let it fly out the mouth and most will laugh. Mating/spousal one liners tend to cause the most humor.
For me, British humour really evolved from the over-used cliches with the advent of Blackadder and Red Dwarf… before that I just watched for the sake of watching, regardless of the absence of being amused…
Futurama has me in stitches every time (and that includes the re-runs) and although I don’t watch American Dad or Family Guy, when I do happen to catch them they too are hilarious.
I’ve not seen Life of Brian in years, I should rewatch it. I preferred the quest for the Holy Grail, because it’s a sort of shitfaced, low-budget Indiana Jones spoof, but it was made before Indiana Jones. Have you ever listened to the Goon show? Spike Milligan was a comic genius. Very similar sort of thing to Python - very clever guys being very, very silly.
Ok… now you got me with Spike M… he was a comedy genius and funny as hell, and I read all of his books and caught all of his shows, and awaited with bated breath for his next offerings to come - I think his humour came from a deeper place than his peers/his predecessors, which appealed to more enquiring minds than just the sheer lunacy that was ‘de rigour’ at the time.
I would so have married him, and had his mixed mixed-race babies
MMMmmmmmmmm… I agree and disagree, it didn’t evolve in the 70’s or the 80s but it has changed. Not saying it’s any more sophisticated but it is better done.
I do like Futurama, I do like any American cartoon, as they seem the only mediums where you are allowed to offend someone without a formulaic approach to comedy, and a script full of producer driven, what worked once or twice or ten times will always work. Comedy has to evolve like anything else and what that takes is creative people, not dried up old hacks.
Not that all American comedy is crap, but it like English comedy is going through a bit of a dol drums atm. Repeat regurgitate and expect people who see the same joke time and time again to think it is funny. It most certainly has not all been done before, but what very dull people like to churn out has.
