Posted on 02/12/2017 6:22:15 AM PST by Kaslin
Comedy has been intertwined with my existence since my earliest memory. Every Sunday night we watched giants like Alan King or Myron Cohen on Ed Sullivan. Watching the Three Stooges over and over again or the Marx Brothers is how I grew up. As I got older I grabbed on to the brilliant Steve Allen and then was introduced to comic geniuses by the master himself, Johnny Carson. But today it seems like this country has lost its sense of humor, and it is killing me and the rest of us.
When I was in my early 20s we went to the comedy clubs of Los Angeles during the era when Jay Leno was the emerging king. We had Richard Lewis, Gary Shandling and Jerry Seinfeld as budding superstars. We used to party with Budd Friedman, the owner of The Improv, on the weekends after it closed for the night. My personal favorite was the often dark but always masterful George Carlin. The question is would any of these people make it today?
There is an assault on comedy from all sides. I recently watched Can We Take a Joke? which in 75 minutes will make you think ‘no, we can’t.’ The film reiterated what I already knew – the bastions of free thought (colleges) are killing comedy because of political correctness. I had already written how Jerry Seinfeld -- who does a very clean, but hilarious stand-up show -- will not appear at colleges. This movie showed how comedians like Jim Norton, Lisa Lampanelli and Gilbert Gottfried are fighting back against the killjoys. You know, the people who don’t want anybody to be offended even though comedy is usually about offending people.
I personally come from the Mel Brooks School of Comedy – throw everything you can up on the wall and hope something sticks. The sad thing is I make a lot of Jewish jokes, but I must say after I make the joke that “I can say that because I am Jewish.” We are all afraid someone will be offended.
One of the greats that is still around is Don Rickles. He is the king of insult comics. He insulted everyone so no one thought Rickles was ever actually offensive. He would probably never make it today. Great comics say edgy things. I remember seeing Joan Rivers live. There were times I covered my face and leaned over to my wife and whispered “Did she really just say that?” She was both funny and irreverent.
Can We Take a Joke? refers to the god of comedy freedom as Lenny Bruce who suffered for the battles to be able use certain questionable words in a public comedy routine. Not too long after Bruce’s death, George Carlin was doing his routine Seven Dirty Words with impunity. Would he be able to do that routine on a college campus today without being run off the stage?
Then there is the other extreme. Because of political correctness, the only people you can make fun of anymore are white males who happen to be straight and Republican. Political humor has been around for ages. Bob Hope was a master of making fun of politicians, but never getting political. Johnny Carson did a great stand-up routine every night for 30 years on the Tonight show and we never knew what his personal politics were and Jay Leno followed in that tradition.
Comedy Central started to change things with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. They occasionally attacked left-of-center stupidity, but their mainstay was attacking those stupid and bigoted Republicans. It used to be Republicans were just evil. Now they are stupid, racist and anti-woman. This has continued on with all the offshoots like John Oliver, Samantha Bee and Trevor Noah. Seth Myers is a very funny guy, but his decisions to cut off half of his potential audience is baffling. This happened with David Letterman who lurched more and more to the Left as his show on CBS continued and he became less and less funny. Making fun of people with whom you have political differences may seem funny to some, but it wears thin after a while telling the same old joke.
We now have television comedy all centered on attacking white male Republicans, and we have everyone else intolerant of anything that might offend anyone. We need to be able to laugh at whatever we are, whether that be Jew, black, Asian, gay, Hispanic, female, male or large-headed. I recently watched some episodes of You Bet Your Life from almost 60 years ago. Groucho skewered everybody of any background who was a guest on the show. It was flat-out priceless.
The funniest routine I ever saw was Mort Sahl, a man of the Left, sting the idiots in Hollywood over the scripts he wrote for their movies. You can take both sides. Richie Pryor, a comic genius, was never funnier than when he made fun of himself after he set himself on fire freebasing cocaine. Making fun of himself was mastered by Rodney Dangerfield. My wife and I went to see him on our second date. Sitting there doubled over in laughter may have sealed the deal as we were engaged 13 days later.
Lewis Black, maybe the funniest guy around today is another man of the Left, but if you go see him he attacks the Left as much as the Right. Carlin was like that also.
Possibly the greatest gift I ever received was from my son, who for Father’s Day a couple years back got me a complete box set of everything the Three Stooges ever made. I still think Curly is the funniest person who ever lived. Or was it Buddy Hackett or Groucho …?
The important thing is that we get back to not taking ourselves so seriously. Lighten up and listen to an Albert Brooks album. Life is short; laugh it up.
There have always been “blue” comedians, they just couldn’t broadcast it on the big three networks back in the day. Dirty jokes are as old as jokes themselves, just go read some ancient Roman graffiti.
Thank you.
I was certain that the clip was with John Belushi... but that was a long time ago.
Ditto that. He was a tremendous loss to Western Civilization. Sam, and Lee Atwater.
‘Lots of good SCTV shows on youtube - yeah!
But that would mean destroying all of Archie’s hilarious put-downs of Gloria and Meathead. No thanks!
I am a fan of Kathleen Madigan. Her take on day to day life is hilarious. Also the late John Pinette.
There have always been “blue” comedians, they just couldn’t broadcast it on the big three networks back in the day. Dirty jokes are as old as jokes themselves, just go read some ancient Roman graffiti.
There may have but do you remember any of them? Dirty jokes are far different from wide scale humor broadcast to the population.
Last show I went to see I left shortly after it began. So filthy I could not see the humor. Not much to laugh at today that is supposed to be humor.
Think how many careers he helped launch. Sadly Jay Leno and others never would do this. So real exposure for new talent in the mainstream is not what it was.
Drew Carey was one of the last people that went on Carson to help launch his career. He said in interviews he dreamed and dreamed to be on the show and he finally got his shot. He hoped his routine would be good enough for Johnny to call him over for a brief interview. Evidently Carson did not do this all everyone and if he did you knew you had really arrived. Well Carey achieved that and more.
Today's so called comics are just not that funny. It is either bad political jokes and/or bathroom humor, which I really hate. The political jokes are all venomous and hate filled and not funny.
I remember sharing In class TV shows!
We would write a small Skit and stand up
and share it.
Dragnet is one that sticks in my head.
“There may have but do you remember any of them?”
Sure, how about the old Redd Foxx routine - “What’s the difference between a pickpocket and a peeping tom?” .... “The pickpocket snatches watches....”
Wait a Minute...
YES - a great one! Bag O' Glass ads from the bowling alley in New Jersey!
Akroyd was in his prime!
Remember this one?
"Try These On For Size, Conny Chung!"
That’s one.
“Hal Holbrook do Mark Twain”
I’ve been trying to find those recordings, but I haven’t seen them since they were on vinyl.
Jonathan Winters had Carson rolling off his chair with some of the spontaneous things he would do with a prop on the Tonight Show.
He didn't have to say a word -- the laughs came with his facial expressions and perfect timing.
How we could stand to have more comedians with Jonathan Winters' talent . . .
There was another one, I think also on that same TU show, where Martin had to do a drunk test that was insane.
Nah, I missed that one!
Thing that kill comedy:
Late night talk show monologues which relate the same setrotyes, even untrue, and are misty liberal.
Donald Trumpshas yuge plan or small have. We will hear that for the next 8 Years. Letterman: Bush is stupid every nigh for 8 years (but Obama saying we have 57 states is not or when he stutters without a teleprompter). Letterman having on political guests and leading with “i don’t know anything about politics and then ranting or pontificating for 5 minutes.
Seh Meyers RE[eating eery night anti conservative fake news.
Lena Dunham supposedly popular comic actress being a radical wannabe feminist fate ass.
All politicians being political especially off stage.
Bill Cosby going from wholesome great storyteller and role model to serial rapist.
A; Franken putting a satellite dish n his head 20 times on SNL and becoming a senator.
SNL repeating the same characterizations every week and slamming the bush cabinet members and staff while continuing on Trump. The overwhelming liberal SNL weekend news which pre-supposes we all agree.
Sit coms which are noting but sexual innuendos which the husband does’t get, but the 13 year olds do.
What happened to Jim carrey?
I could go on, but this is my short list.
He was the last non PC comedian I can think of, next to Mr. Warmth
I saw a comedian tell a story once about performing at a college. He was supposed to perform at the college a few nights in a row. On the first night, one of his jokes was about going to a Chinese restaurant that only had chopsticks, no forks. After the performance, the guy who’d hired him came up to him and told him he was fired. Apparently some Chinese students had complained. When the comedian asked what he’d said that was so wrong, he was told, “You said forks are better than chopsticks.” For this, some Chinese students made a point to complain about the guy and demand he be fired!
There was a little girl comedian on America’s Got Talent last season who made fun of Trump and expressed her desire that Hillary would win the election. Howie Mandel told her, “I guess Republicans won’t vote for you.” And she did get voted off.
That was a just dumb kid, but I don’t know why comedians of all ages don’t realize that they’re cutting their audience in half. There’s a way to do political humor where both sides will laugh at it. The comedians of the past used to manage it. Today the hatred of Republicans/conservatives/men is just too strong. Celebrities, businesses, etc. seem happy to lose money just for the satisfaction of bashing those they hate.
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