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.
Saw Holbrook in Sacramento as Twain from the second row. Unbelievable presentation. I love wit and i think you have to include that as comedy.
Mark Steyn is funny and very biting on our side.
I like Garrison keillor (don’t not me yet) Despite all th liberalism’s and his last year attack on Trump every week, he was always a great story teller. His week in Lake Wobegon makes him Twain-like for my money and his voice is memorable and unique. The gut that replaced him i a great musician, but the storytelling is gone.
I find Lily Gomlyn funny and i know she’ll slip in some very liberals tuff but she has a creative mind.
I saw Prior with a mostly dressed up back crowd at the circae star in the Bay Area. Patty LaBelle opened. It wa son of the vest shows I have ever scene.
I go back to Sid Cesear, Groucho Marx (one of my all times) and laughed at the Real mcCoys wit my immigrant grandfather who barely spoke English.
Seinfeld never works blue. I ;ike comedians in the car getting coffee and his series. seen him twice live. Would pay again. He loves the work and other comedians. He’s the best since Williams died.
Rpbun Williams worked but but his mind was unbelievable. A dirtier version of Jonathan Winters. I like both of them.
No one will ver top Korman and conway or Burnett in that curtain dress. The look and the longest laugh ever submitted as evidence.
I’m 70 and comedy is different, but i don’t see my kids looking at coms or laughing at etertainment. If they do, it ill be streaming or web sites like the one Will Ferrell started.
Toime changes everything. I watched the most episodes of the history of comedy on CNN and they showed broadway clips and stand up from the 50s and 60 and tonight women comics. But humor changes and time changes and some onus are ridding into the sunset. We ill always need political jesters and finny people I just wish a new mprrt saul of Lenny bruce would emerge to use the envelope while;e i can watch them/
Thanx for the thread ROTFLMAO
It wasn’t the cheese student who was the worst part, it was the owner who fired the comedian. People have to stand up and tell snowflakes and PCers, STFU.
He said in an interview that that sketch was inspired by an aunt of his in Quebec. Fantastic cook, made a wonderful bouillabaise...and that was how she began it, pureeing an entire fish in the blender.
Maybe the best.
For those who don't know; he was a US marine in WWII.
Many, many of the great entertainers of his generation served in the military.
They were patriots, unlike most of the modern day entertainers.
Jonathan Winters - USMC
Stars Who Served: http://tinyurl.com/StarsWhoServed
winters appeared with Carson’s predecessor Jack pair many times. Paar would have him and object and Winters would do 5 minutes and Paar who was a reserved guy would be in stitches. I remember when her turned a stick into a fishing rod and did the sounds of casting the line and seeing the fish in
Here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwWDa1xPTPA
Oops!
US Marine with a capital M
Semper Fi brother.....
“I watched a few old episodes of All In The Family and no, it could not be televised today. All ethnic humor.”
Gloria: Daddy, do you know how many people commit suicide with guns every year? (Arguing about gun control.)
Archie: Would you feel better, little goil, if all those people jumped off of buildings?
And they think Archie was the dumb one.
carey said he was picked by Carson’s comedian scout one night. He wasn’t scheduled but on the list. One day they had a cancellation and they ant Carey. But there were no cell phones and the calls missed him as he went around LA that day. Three months later they finally booked him and he killed with his self depreciating humor about how he looked.
Thanks!
Mel Brooks started there as a bus boy
One of the many “comics” that I would try to watch and sit there stone faced the whole time, not even cracking a smirk at his attempt at comedy.
Now, I know that's not right ... I have it on good authority that he actually got his start ...
... in Judea.
I miss Gracie Allen she died way too early. Burns was a straight man and had subtle wit, but she was a great comic with facial expressions and a wacky naiveté.
When Kennison told the starving African refugees to move someplace where food would grow, I laughed for days. My wife at the time was sure i was the sickest person she ever met.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMyb0vPtaj0
Me too...now I mostly watch French and Italian dramas on MHz Networks (no cable necessary, they air on subchannels of broadcast stations).
“Un Village Francais” (A French Village), set in a small French town during the German occupation of WW2, has been one of the best, most thought-provoking series I’ve seen in a long time. Many times during the recent election I would look at the political unrest going on, then think of something that happened during the series, and tell myself “things could be a whole lot worse”.
Benny Hill on you tube
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=benny+hill&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#q=benny+hill+youtube
and that was just Part 1. No one names a movie Part 1 and then doesn’t d a sequel. No one out Brooks.
She should work nude.
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