LOL, the speed with which I came here as soon as I saw this on twitter.
As someone who was barely aware he existed until last year, but has since watched his specials and does think he's very funny, but isn't quite sure why people are so attached to him or why they've projected this non-threatening soft boy persona onto him, I am very interested to see just how people react to this news.
He definitely seemed... not like this lol. I went to a taping of his show in LA (years ago) and he was very kind and personable and his wife was there.
Tbh the real highlight was Bill Hader randomly coming into the audience to say hi to everyone though.
I mean I get that he's very clean cut and often looks like he time traveled from the 1950's, but it's like nobody actually listened to a lot of what he was saying about himself in his own standup.
He does tell some specific stories of his drunken behavior, but I was more referring to how he himself has said that part of the weirdness of him being a very self destructive alcoholic is that physically he looks like a boy scout and people have a hard time reconciling his image with his behavior and it's how he often got away with things.
And also, while all his stories about his drinking are very funny and well told, there has always been a bit of an edge to them imo (and if I'm being perfectly honest, I've always felt his wife stories also have an edge to them).
Yeah, that's true. True story, I randomly met Neal Brennan once and the subject of Mulaney came up and he said that he is actually a very dark person but it's just hidden because he's so funny. And it's true, he's been pretty open about it but he has always seemed so non-threatening.
he's been pretty open about it but he has always seemed so non-threatening
Yeah, that's sort of the crux of it for me. He himself has been very clear about who he is, and if you strip away the humor a lot of his stories are told with, they are actually very sad and it's clear there are a lot of issues there, but people see someone who's clean cut and polite and funny and refuse to acknowledge the darkness that is so clearly there.
This makes me think of the thread about his divorce filing and the poster who thought his wife should be more supportive, without anything particularly to indicate that she wasn't.
It also reminds me of a comedian who said, and I don't remember which one or maybe it's been said by more that one, that comedians are some of the most miserable people on the planet.
That immediately came to mind when Bill Cosby's true character was revealed, and it comes to mind every time something goes down with a comedian that surprises people.
Yeah, I honestly thought it was common knowledge that most comedians are actually either very dark or very sad people or have some sort of demons they struggle with.
I totally believe that about comedians always being miserable and damaged somehow. It seems to come with the territory. I've seen too many BTS about stand-ups
My brother was an amateur stand up comedian and even though we have dealt with some shit in life, he’s a fairly normal person. He’s also pretty hilarious in his story telling. But, not being miserable sucked for him because the other guys just didn’t fully accept him. Once he started his family, he eventually just left the scene because it was pretty depressing.
But, unless you hung out with these people backstage (which I did, a lot) you’d never know quite how fucked their lives are because they make everything just SOUND funny/relatable on stage.
I remember watching the Phil Hartman 20/20 and everyone was like “you would be surprised at how dark he was”. Stephen Root was like “oh he wasn’t an open person, he’s a comic”. And so did his friends.
It’s pretty common knowledge that comedians are generally repressed and dark people. I think Hader mentioned it on the It Chapter 2 press tour. Marc Maron basically remade his career getting into it. Etc. etc.
I do wonder if it's a Catch 22 for some in that behavior or darkness is expected so some make a a choice to embrace it because they can do it without consequence/nominal backlash. They are grown azz adults and as I type this I'm trying to think of instances of women comics acting out on their 'darkness'. Roseanne is the only one that comes to mind, people might say Ellen but I would maybe disagree about her.
Darkness and 'demons' are tolerated from men societally overall. It may be that we don't hear about it more from female comics because the number of A list male comics far outnumbers them.
As someone who was barely aware he existed until last year, but has since watched his specials and does think he's very funny, but isn't quite sure why people are so attached to him or why they've projected this non-threatening soft boy persona onto him, I am very interested to see just how people react to this news.
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Tbh the real highlight was Bill Hader randomly coming into the audience to say hi to everyone though.
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And also, while all his stories about his drinking are very funny and well told, there has always been a bit of an edge to them imo (and if I'm being perfectly honest, I've always felt his wife stories also have an edge to them).
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Yeah, that's sort of the crux of it for me. He himself has been very clear about who he is, and if you strip away the humor a lot of his stories are told with, they are actually very sad and it's clear there are a lot of issues there, but people see someone who's clean cut and polite and funny and refuse to acknowledge the darkness that is so clearly there.
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It also reminds me of a comedian who said, and I don't remember which one or maybe it's been said by more that one, that comedians are some of the most miserable people on the planet.
That immediately came to mind when Bill Cosby's true character was revealed, and it comes to mind every time something goes down with a comedian that surprises people.
Reply
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My brother was an amateur stand up comedian and even though we have dealt with some shit in life, he’s a fairly normal person. He’s also pretty hilarious in his story telling. But, not being miserable sucked for him because the other guys just didn’t fully accept him. Once he started his family, he eventually just left the scene because it was pretty depressing.
But, unless you hung out with these people backstage (which I did, a lot) you’d never know quite how fucked their lives are because they make everything just SOUND funny/relatable on stage.
Reply
It’s pretty common knowledge that comedians are generally repressed and dark people. I think Hader mentioned it on the It Chapter 2 press tour. Marc Maron basically remade his career getting into it. Etc. etc.
Reply
Darkness and 'demons' are tolerated from men societally overall. It may be that we don't hear about it more from female comics because the number of A list male comics far outnumbers them.
Reply
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