Posted on 12/21/2024 11:00:50 AM PST by thecodont
It wasn’t long ago when most comedians shared the same game plan as Nate Bargatze. The 45-year-old stand-up veteran—whose latest Netflix special arrives on Christmas Eve, and has a holiday variety show airing tonight on CBS—has dutifully steered clear of every pressure point currently mangling American society. Unlike so many other comedians his age, Bargatze is fundamentally disengaged with the curdled rage over the trans debate, racial justice, or “wokeness” writ large. Nor has he adopted the surly demeanor of the lefties who dominated the scene in the 2000s—guys like Patton Oswalt and David Cross, who managed to shape every punchline into an indictment of George W. Bush.
Instead, Bargatze resembles an archetypical, and mostly outmoded nightclub comedian—the journeymen of the ’70s and ’80s, who orbited from casino lounge to casino lounge with a winning demeanor and a joke book chock-full of airplane food. He touches nothing topical, and he never works blue. The irreproachable cleanliness of his material almost comes off as fanatical—Bargatze is loath to use even the verb sucks on stage, and the closest he’s come to discussing his Christian upbringing is a story where, as a preteen wreathed in piousness and fear, he ratted out his friends for watching Friday the 13th. All of this makes Bargatze a radical in his own right. In 2024, there is little commercial upside to quotidian comedy, especially when even the milquetoast Jerry Seinfeld and Ricky Gervais have enthusiastically enlisted in the culture war. And yet, somehow, Bargatze is more famous than ever. Maybe there is a method to the mildness?
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Posting this because it is refreshing to read about non-topical, non-political, non-”blue” comedy.
LOL! The George Washington skit is great.
The Author could not have packed more snark into that article about what seems to be a pleasant guy if he had used a jackhammer.
A thumbs up for the subject of the article.
A big toes down for the author.
Nate Bargatze talks about going to community college, not knowing what extra virgin olive oil is and abusing the DoorDash app.Nate Bargatze Stand-Up Monologue - SNL | 7:33
Saturday Night Live | 15.1M subscribers | 2,068,805 views | October 6, 2024
He’s good. Josh Johnson is also very good, very witty, and keeps it clean. Refreshing to see these guys not going for the cheap route.
Brent Butt is having a Netflix special?
Oh... who’s this guy?
Andrew Dice Clay? Inoffensive? You gotta be kidding!
“ Posting this because it is refreshing to read about non-topical, non-political, non-”blue” comedy.”
Especially from Slate.
I like him immensely.
Also like Henry Cho, amd Tim
Hawkins.
Slate’s people should get out more often. Nate isn’t alone; Tom Papa, Leanne Morgan, Kathleen Madigan, Jim (I hate Trump) Gaffigan, Jerry Seinfeld, Tom Cotter and wife, Jeff Dunham.
Of course, that said, we truly miss Sam Kinison.
Prior to this moment I never heard of him
Does he really exist?
Oh... who’s this guy?
Writer and star of Corner Gas, a Canadian TV comedy.
It was pretty good.
I know who Brent Butt is, since they said least offensive comic ever, assumed it was him... I meant who is the guy they are referencing in this article.
Seems the author of this piece has never watched any “Dry Bar Comedy”....
I enjoy the vids for their lack of utter filth that passes for humor these days.
Like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_UegL1R3X8
We used to love Gaffigan until he went TDS. Now we love Bargatze. Pretty sure Clay or Buck is good friends with Bargatze, too.
Seems the author of this piece has never watched any “Dry Bar Comedy”....
I enjoy the vids for their lack of utter filth that passes for humor these days.
Like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_UegL1R3X8
Tim Hawkins is great! We saw him live once at a homeschool convention.
I think he was offered the opportunity to go mainstream, but turned it down since he wanted to keep his Christian comedy perspective….
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