Yes, today’s comic talent is unbelievably bad. Probably because they come up through the comedy clubs rather than the hardscrabble days of vaudeville. I just finished reading Harpo Marx’s entertaining (and well-respected!) autobiography “Harpo Speaks” and was amazed at the 20 years the brothers played and lived in filthy theatres and filthy boardinghouses before they hit the big time.
I suggest buying the newly released dvds of “Bilko” and “Car 54 Where Are You?” to see some brilliant comic acting.
Well, I don’t think all comedic talent is bad, its just many of the ones who get tapped for TV do not seem to be among the best.
This wasn’t always the case.
Your examples of the Marx Bros is a good one, but you don’t have to go back that far really.
Bill Cosby for example is a comedic genious, and rarely ever worked blue.
To many of the comedians that get tapped for the “big time”, IE TV today I really think are mediocre at best. They aren’t the stars of their craft IMHO.
You may be right that the comedy club circuit may be part of the problem, its always easy to go for the cheap dirty joke, or the shock value punchline. True comic genious stands up to the test of time, and most that are out there today in terms of spotlight won’t be remembered.
I would say of the people I consider comedians on TV, the top of his class today, for better of worse is probably John Stewart. I don’t share much with him in terms of his political view points, but he is a truely great comedian.
Tosh is a 1 trick pony, who’s already passed his prime, which was a given, given the model he’s using.. take videos from the internet that are funny and poke fun at them... and toss in some hack kneed same punchline gay jokes in between. Problem with this is, there are only so many truly funny videos... Once you work through the backlog that existed before you had your show.. the quality goes down, and that’s exactly what has happened to his show already. His standup is ok, but nothing spectacular.
I don’t know, I am not saying all comedians are bad, but it just seems that the ones that get tapped for sit coms tend to be mediocre at best.