Is Comedy Less Funny Lately?

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Traditional comedy is simply experiencing a similar death to many other forms of old media. You no longer need to suck corporate cock in order to get your material out there for everyone to see, so all thats left to fill positions on SNL and late-night talk shows are boring shills who play it safe because they're too afraid to take a risk and lose what little audiences remain.
 
For me, a guy called Frankie Boyle was a good example of comedy in recent years. I don't think I've seen any mainstream comedians in the UK or the US who would go anywhere near the levels he did. More recently he just writes articles for left wing newspapers and is pretty political, but there was a time when he was getting sued every other month, and when people were protesting outside of his gigs.
 
The sad thing is, a lot of the unfunny chucklefucks we all love to hate these days actually do have the capacity to funny, they mostly just forsake it for the sake of cheap laughs and ticket sales. I mean even Amy Schumer, the absolute pinnacle of modern unfunny comedians, has actually proven that she can actually make some solid jokes here and there when she's not doing standup consisting entirely of "muh vagina" and "reee republicans" jokes. There are quite a few of these people that actually do have potential, but none of them tap into it because they're so comfortable with their cookie-cutter routines that don't really challenge anything and usually rely on non-edgy shock humor.

I'm also noticing that any time I actually do find something genuinely funny on tv anymore it almost always goes out in a ridiculously short amount of time. Like I loved Key and Peele but that show seemed like it's run ended way too abruptly. Maybe I just have an affinity for shitty shows that get cancelled super early, idk.
 
I miss Doug Stanhope at his height of absolute heinous disregard for propriety, manners, or anything even resembling human decency.
 
I don't necessarily agree with the statement that "the left" killed comedy. George Carlin was a life-long liberal, pretty outspokenly so, and he was also fucking hilarious. I want to believe that if he were still with is today, he would be one of the loudest voices speaking out about the strangle hold that the social justards currently hold on comedy.
 
I get why some people would rate my previous comment :optimistic:, but Carlin spent literally his entire career pushing the boundaries of what you could and couldn't say. Yes I will grant you that during much of that time, the people most in opposition to that boundary-pushing were the right wing fundies, but he did also speak out against political correctness, quite a lot.

Shit, Piss, Cunt, Fuck, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, and Tits. (And to a lesser extent- Fart, Turd, and Twat.)
 
UnKillFill said:
I don't necessarily agree with the statement that "the left" killed comedy. George Carlin was a life-long liberal, pretty outspokenly so, and he was also fucking hilarious. I want to believe that if he were still with is today, he would be one of the loudest voices speaking out about the strangle hold that the social justards currently hold on comedy.
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Carlin was that iconoclast that while popular was not successful in the traditional sense. I'm not talking about him not being an accomplished comic, he was indeed. He was however hilarious as shit because he came from a time when comics were expected to be blunt and the jesters who spoke the truth. That's why people like Lenny Bruce and Carlin were hilarious. They didn't give a fuck about what some committee thought. At the same time, the same committee think groups couldn't be bothered to give them the level of exposure they deserved.

That's why Carlin was never promoted nearly as much as current comics are. He wasn't safe, he wasn't nice, and he wasn't blind to the bullshit both sides of the political spectrum were and are feeding us these days.

That's why you didn't see much of Carlin compared to a safe comic you see today. Sure he did cameos in movies and he had specials and did commercials but it was nowhere near what the safer comics of today get.

Same with Patrice O'Neal. The fucker was a sharp son of a bitch. He spoke bluntly about race and wasn't "fuck whitey" like some comedians. He was honest about how blacks nowadays are controlled by their blackness and that women will make false accusations of rape. Guy was falsely convicted of it after running a train (consenual) on a white girl in Boston in the 80's.

He was a very successful comic but he was not promoted or allowed to get anywhere near what hacks these days get. He saw the bullshit that Hollywood and the industry will do to keep people in line and just wanted to have as he put it "his ceiling fan". Here's the O&A clip. It's an hour long but I guarantee it's worth a listen.

 
It feels like comedians are 'annointed' these days. We're expected to find certain people funny because the media thinks we should rather than because of any organic appeal. One of the first examples of this I noticed was Tina Fey, who is a talented writer so it didn't feel quite as phony. But when there was this bizarre push for the likes of Amy Schumer and Seth Meyers, it became obvious to even casual observers that we were watching the comedy equivalent of a manufactured boy band.
 
Another unfortunate trend is the "Am I right?" routine, wherein the comic doesn't get laughter so much as a clap and people yelling "That's so true!" All you have to do is say something the audience agrees with and grin like and idiot.

"Hey... today's video games are too high tech. Sega Genesis, that thing was the best, am I right???"

"Whoo hooo! So true!"

You know what isn't there? A goddamn PUNCHLINE.
 
ChurchOfGodBear said:
Another unfortunate trend is the "Am I right?" routine, wherein the comic doesn't get laughter so much as a clap and people yelling "That's so true!" All you have to do is say something the audience agrees with and grin like and idiot.

"Hey... today's video games are too high tech. Sega Genesis, that thing was the best, am I right???"

"Whoo hooo! So true!"

You know what isn't there? A goddamn PUNCHLINE.
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It's like canned laughter in sitcoms. Watch a clip of Big Bang Theory with the laugh track removed. It's just them saying stupid boring nerdface shit. Oddly I think the character Sheldon has potential to be funny because he's autistic as fuck and it can be played for laughs because even though he's a scientific genius, he's a social tard. Instead they just him spout random science shit. Then the audience laughs, that means you need to laugh, friend!

And their cameos are so forced and unfunny.

Comedy in the mainstream has always been pretty shitty. Underground comedians have always been funny because they aren't beholden to anyone but the audience. They need to make them laugh or they die off.
 
Same reason comics and sci-fi/fantasy literature (and a good chunk of gaming) have gotten so stale and crap in the last few years. Its all become about joining the right cliques, jumping through the right hoops, screeching at the proper targets, ticking the correct boxes, and networking with the right PR/marketing people over any actual talent.

I mean, why bother signing up a talented man or woman who focuses solely on bettering their craft when you can hire some talentless schlub who will publicly give you asspats (both figurative and literal) and declare war on your personal enemies for you while incorporating all your whims and pet causes of the week, and who you can roll on stage to say 5 minutes of hastily googled jokes (with the butt of the joke alternating between FFFucking white maaales, drumpffff, or the internet boogieman of the week) and get massive applause and laughs from a carefully selected audience and get rave reviews from comedy critics who are all in the same private facebook REEEsist group with you and are all very grateful for you hosting the weekly wine tasting night?
 
Maxliam said:
That's why Carlin was never promoted nearly as much as current comics are... He wasn't safe, he wasn't nice, and he wasn't blind to the bullshit both sides of the political spectrum were and are feeding us these days.

...That's why you didn't see much of Carlin compared to a safe comic you see today. Sure he did cameos in movies and he had specials and did commercials but it was nowhere near what the safer comics of today get.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=q0jPL6cIqI0
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A lot of his career happened later in his life, but the dude was literally the host of a children's program. (Hell, that's where I first saw him. It was actually really funny to hear his standup act years later)

After that, he apparently got his own 2 season Fox sitcom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_George_Carlin_Show
(I don't remember it either, but it happened).
In interviews I've also heard him say, he was never really happy "selling out" like that which is why he didn't do more stuff like it. I think he really did prefer the standup.

Yeah, he wasn't starring in Ghostbuster reboots or anything, but I do think he was bigger outside of just his comedy than you're saying.
 
I don't think comedy has really been on the decline. The problem is that most comedians these days aren't interested in telling jokes. They're only interested in siding with the left or right and making fun of politics rather than making fun of the IDEAs of politicians. People generally don't want to take a crack at one another anymore because it's "too offensive", but at the same time want to make grandiose speeches about how each side is a murderer because of xyz...

It's like they want to have their cake and eat it too. People want to be vicious to one another, but instead of telling crude jokes, they have to hide that they can't tell a joke and make a huge political speech about why they are not allowed to be slightly humorous because it'll be "too offensive". Most stand up comedians I see today don't tell really good jokes like for example, the infamous Salt and Pepper Diner joke. Instead, they go on and on about current events. Something I go to comedians to escape from.

I don't watch John Mulaney or Dane Cook to hear about Trump or the elections. I look at their shit to escape from that. The same can be said for most modern comedians. I know Trump exists. You don't need to remind me.
 
Absolutely. Modern comedy isn't even comedy at all, it's nothing more than someone standing on stage and ranting "fuck whitey!" and other stupid identity politics bullshit. Also, the one and only thing they ever talk about is Trump. "Trump did this, Trump did that!".. what are they going to do when Trump is no longer president, since 99% of their comedy routine revolves around Trump?
Even when it's not lefty bullshit, it's very, very "safe" as if they're scared shitless to offend anyone. Remember shows like Drawn Together where the whole premise was that it was offensive? Back then it seemed like society was breaking free from all the puritan-esque crap, but now it's a whole lot worse than ever.
 
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UnKillFill said:
A lot of his career happened later in his life, but the dude was literally the host of a children's program. (Hell, that's where I first saw him. It was actually really funny to hear his standup act years later)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=O4dBWMePlLc
After that, he apparently got his own 2 season Fox sitcom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_George_Carlin_Show
(I don't remember it either, but it happened).
In interviews I've also heard him say, he was never really happy "selling out" like that which is why he didn't do more stuff like it. I think he really did prefer the standup.

Yeah, he wasn't starring in Ghostbuster reboots or anything, but I do think he was bigger outside of just his comedy than you're saying.
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I'm not saying he wasn't successful but he would have gotten way more exposure if he was a big sellout shill like the current crop of "comics" you're seeing lately. I enjoy the fact that no matter how much he rubbed the same committee thinktank the wrong way, they had to begrudgingly give him gigs because of demand.

I have a copy of his book "When will Jesus Bring the Porkchops" and it's funny as hell. The guy was always an outside compared to some comics who were given shitty sitcoms that lasted way too long.
 
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