I'll give you Dennis Leary, I do think he's very funny. Hicks, I found him to be unfunny. I'm drawing a blank on Louis CK, though I know the name.Originally Posted by PeterG
I'll give you Dennis Leary, I do think he's very funny. Hicks, I found him to be unfunny. I'm drawing a blank on Louis CK, though I know the name.
Louis CK is raunchy as hell and a very funny (and talented) man. His FX show Louie is a side-splitter and basically a one-man production (writes, produces, edits, and even does some camera work). It's also very touching at times. Highly recommended (seasons 1-3 are streaming on Netflix)!
I'll be seeing Brian Regan this Sunday night.
"That gum you like is going to come back in style."
Whatever happened to Emo Phillips? I saw him several times live back in the day too and always though he was hilarious, but then he just seemed to drop off the radar at some point. He was definitely one of the comedians the people either “got” or did not think was funny at all.
I have seen quite a few comedians over the years, but there is a lot of sameness to many of them. A few that stick out for me would be:
Sam Kinison: I saw him 3 times. The first two he was so funny I had tears in my eyes for almost the whole show I was laughing so hard. Love him or hate him, he was unique, and worked a crowd like no one else I have ever seen. The 3rd time I saw him he was well into his heavy partying years, and he was not nearly as good. It was actually kind of sad and pathetic that last time.
Jim Breuer: I’ve seen Breuer live twice and the first time he did 90 minutes of non-stop really really funny shit. This show was in a theater and he had a band with him when he did his Brian Johnson (and other rockers) impressions. I saw him again a few years ago in a club. He has become more family friendly (dropped a lot of the stoner humor). He was still funny, but at the same level as that first show.
Lewis Black: I’ve only seen him live once, but he killed it and was very funny. Lots of political humor, which is not always my thing, but Black can pull it off.
Allan spent some time in our local Kalamazoo jail for distribution of cocaine back when he we a college student here at WMU. He and the town eventually made up though and he filmed one of his HBO specials here at our State Theater. I was always kind of lukewarm on his comedy, but a lot of people around here loved him since he came up through the local clubs.
I have actually seen Mencia live twice and thought he was hilarious. Like Rickles there were defiantly some cringe inducing moments during the show, as they come from the same school of comedy, but I thought his live show was really good. He is another one that has pretty much dropped off the radar though. Have not heard much of anything about him lately. I’ll agree with Lopez, I never got it with him.
Another guy I used to really love back in the day was Larry Miller. He was sharp.
First of all, you know nothing about me, so don't assume to. Second I think it is you that has the hang-ups, going by the amount you keep trying to defend racist humour.
Please accept that I don't agree with you.
Political correctness always gets bandied around by the offenders like some kind of excuse whenever anyone takes offence. It has nothing to do with PC it has to do with being nasty and unkind.
"So anyway, at least I see Al-Qaieda are concerned about overpopulation of the world, so they reduced it by a few thousand when they took out the WTC"
Q: do you find that offensive?
+1
See, those ethnic, racial, religious, political, etc., jokes don't offend me, personally. (And I have a million of them.) But, I understand how others may, legitimately, be offended by them. So, I think they have a very narrow place in today's lexicon. What gets me is how some people try to extrapolate their personal views onto everyone else. "They don't offend me, so nobody else should be offended." Those people live in bubbles and refuse to see the rest of the world for what it is.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
+1 That is exactly what Yanks is doing.
It's also what you're doing. "I'm offended, so everyone should be offended." It's a bell curve. There are things that tend to offend most people (dead baby jokes), things that offend few people (Miyazaki movies), and things that offend some people (farts). No one can get through life without being offended by something that doesn't bother others. No one has a right not to be offended. All you can do is ignore people you do find offensive. I find a lot of what Bill Maher says offensive. I don't try to shut him down, I ignore him.
I'm definitely in the "did not think was funny at all" camp.
LOVE Lewis Black.
I think Mencia had a lot of crap thrown his way for stealing material. I think he's kind of a pariah among other comics now.
That's not what he's saying at all. In fact, he's saying the exact opposite - he's not offended, but he understands how others could be.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
Me, too. I find his schtick incredibly annoying.
Me, too. Scary how much we agree on some things, huh?
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
I will say that few make me laugh like Rodney Dangerfield did.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
Haha! Indeed!
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
I understand how others could be as well. I also understand how people could be horribly offended by Sarah Silverman and plenty of others. That's fine. It's when people decide they're going to be the sensitivity police that the trouble starts. And I support anyone's right to speak out against someone and say, hey, I don't like what you said and here's why. I just don't like the idea of making them not say it, not with Lenny Bruce or anyone else. And I'm just saying people have to have a thick skin in some cases, or not put themselves in venues where they're going to hear it. Do you think I don't find things said about Glass Hammer on this forum hurtful and offensive sometimes? It's like someone insulting your child. I just know that everyone can't like everything and I don't take it personally. If someone is doing comedy that is really, truly racist, shun them and move on. I don't agree with everything Don Rickles says, or think it's all very funny but I don't think it's born in hate, just observation of differences- which is where comedy comes from. Really, almost all comedy and laughter hurts someone to some degree. It's all about "us" pointing out something about "them". Even when Chris Rock does a routine about, "there's black people... and then there's ni@@ers."
And please know at the end of the day I'd rather people err on the side of caution and sensitivity. Seriously. I'm with you guys on that.
I think the last time I saw a comedian it was Brian Regan. He was almost too clean. I once saw Ray Romano do a bit about jerking off in the shower without swearing once and I laughed my ass off.
Of course my gold standard was Pryor. That first movie of him doing standup was just relentless. I remember the first time I saw that my face actually hurt afterwards from laughing so hard.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
Sure, but worse, it's simply not funny. Was that a Rickles joke? If it was, I have to imagine there was a larger context, where maybe he was making fun of terrorists. Then maybe the humor content goes up.
I guess my biggest beef is people getting offended so easily. The old expression I'm sure we all used as kids was "sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me". But I guess most people let words hurt them all the time. I do get offended by things, of course, but usually it just means I move on to something else. I think of the show South Park, at times I find it hysterical, other times downright disgusting. I accept the fact that they go out of their way to offend everyone. So maybe there is an episode poking fun at Christians, so I turn it off. Easy enough to do. My only gripe with the show is when it's network airs it earlier in the day. I don't think they do that now, but I know in the past they have.
As to comedians, people like Bill Mahr and Sarah Silverman tick me off, I can't stand them. So I just choose not to watch them. I only break that rule when "School of Rock" is on, though I cringe with her annoying scenes in that. Oh well, I'm not even good with self imposed boycotts...
I was happy to have seen George Carlton before he passed. Smart man and so dam funny. But sadly by the time I saw him over in Northhamton at the big club on the strip (about a year or two before he died) he was obviously having a bit of a bad night and seemed bitter about how fucking stupid people are in general and he was pretty insultive to the audience.
Rickles was my Fathers generation of comedian, glad to see he still holds his own out there and enjoys working.
Of course, not being of the daily persuasion in this opinion laden public prog bathhouse, my diatribe of recent lucubration is perhaps as welcome as a rats teat. One often is forced to weigh the desire to flash judgment within against the effort required as well as the value this knowledge will be to the greater good of all mankind or whatever inhabits the current spa. At best, its a slippery slope.
Probably 20 years or more ago we went to see The Amazing Jonathan headlining a comedy show, and he had a bunch of other comedians as his opening acts. Steve Sweeney, Kevin Knox, and 1 or 2 others. Sweeney and Knox were so funny it got painful at times. Sweeney's stuff probably wouldn't play as well outside the Boston area because a lot of it had to do with the way people act & talk around here and various Boston idiosyncrasies, but damn. My sides were killing me.
Love Bill Mayer. Intelligent and dead ringer analysis of all things stupid.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that Scott doesn't find South Park funny at all. Scott??
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
Saw him at the Kowloon and I couldn't agree more. Probably the funniest comedian I have ever seen live. Lucky for us, he was MC'ing that night so we had some bonus time between the other acts. Talk about side-splitting.
"That gum you like is going to come back in style."
No, it's not. Not at all.
And I agree in principle that no one has a right not to be offended. That however does not mean that lots of people are offended on a regular basis by the unkind and rude things said by people, especially comedians.
Also, while it might be technically true to say that no one has a right not to be offended that has joined the ranks of that other hackneyed phrase "political correctness" used as an excuse for poor manners, rude behaviour and language in an ever increasingly hard and unkind world, where anything goes and many people have neither the manners nor good judgement nor kindness in their bones to not hurt other people.
Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Richard Pryor, Stiller & Meara, Nichols & May & Carlin would be my all-time favorites.
Today's comedians I appreciate: Bill Maher, Sara Silverman, Jimmy Fallon, Tina Fey & Chris Rock.
The aforementioned range from PG to X rated.
"My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"
President Harry S. Truman
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