The Sad State Of Being Funny
"People say that rape can't be funny. I disagree....picture Porky Pig raping Elmer Fudd"
George Carlin
I was watching the season premiere of Last Comic Standing earlier tonight on NBC and between it and the commercials for American Gladiator and the new Nashville Star reality series hosted by Billy Ray Cyrus, I was struck by a rogue wave of dysphoria.
First, I can't grasp the concept of a comedy competition. Why introduce such a humour-draining element into the stand-up comedy world? Comics are notoriously insecure to begin with and far more entertaining when they're on-stage. I've seen the green room of comedy clubs and trust me, its not worth a TV show.
Second, the medium in which they are competing, by definition, puts extreme limitations on the material you can cover and the type of personality likely to succeed and is open to more corruption and influence than you can shake a stick at. There's no way on earth that you can tell me that any of the past winners of Last Comic Standing are more worthy of that title than someone like Doug Stanhope, Bill Hicks, Richard Pryor or George Carlin, none of whom would stand a chance on the show becuase of their stubborn reluctance to alter their material to succeed. Bill Hick's final appearance on Late Night with David Letterman had to be cut out entirely because of his refusal to tailor his set. Comedy that is safe enough for mass TV consumption is not comedy. Its the wart on the ass of comedy.
Third, humour is subjective. Everyone finds different comics funny. Take a look at a Larry The Cable Guy show versus a Doug Stanhope show. Both get laughs. The great equalizer is the mood and momentum in the venue at the time. Either its that laughter is contagious or people are sheep but the truth is that a successful comic works the crowd and builds the energy. Some comics just don't work in some rooms so to make decisions as to who moves forward based on 3 minutes in one room seems impossible or, at the very least, inadvisable.....unless the decisions have already been between the agents of the comics involved and the producers of the show....just saying.
Fourth: (from 1992)
Fifth: (from 1993)
So yeah, not much has changed. It just seems to get just a little sadder each time it comes around.
George Carlin
I was watching the season premiere of Last Comic Standing earlier tonight on NBC and between it and the commercials for American Gladiator and the new Nashville Star reality series hosted by Billy Ray Cyrus, I was struck by a rogue wave of dysphoria.
First, I can't grasp the concept of a comedy competition. Why introduce such a humour-draining element into the stand-up comedy world? Comics are notoriously insecure to begin with and far more entertaining when they're on-stage. I've seen the green room of comedy clubs and trust me, its not worth a TV show.
Second, the medium in which they are competing, by definition, puts extreme limitations on the material you can cover and the type of personality likely to succeed and is open to more corruption and influence than you can shake a stick at. There's no way on earth that you can tell me that any of the past winners of Last Comic Standing are more worthy of that title than someone like Doug Stanhope, Bill Hicks, Richard Pryor or George Carlin, none of whom would stand a chance on the show becuase of their stubborn reluctance to alter their material to succeed. Bill Hick's final appearance on Late Night with David Letterman had to be cut out entirely because of his refusal to tailor his set. Comedy that is safe enough for mass TV consumption is not comedy. Its the wart on the ass of comedy.
Third, humour is subjective. Everyone finds different comics funny. Take a look at a Larry The Cable Guy show versus a Doug Stanhope show. Both get laughs. The great equalizer is the mood and momentum in the venue at the time. Either its that laughter is contagious or people are sheep but the truth is that a successful comic works the crowd and builds the energy. Some comics just don't work in some rooms so to make decisions as to who moves forward based on 3 minutes in one room seems impossible or, at the very least, inadvisable.....unless the decisions have already been between the agents of the comics involved and the producers of the show....just saying.
Fourth: (from 1992)
Click to viewFifth: (from 1993)
So yeah, not much has changed. It just seems to get just a little sadder each time it comes around.