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Stand up comedy consisting mostly of "Do my opinion on politics fucking ROCK or what?"
I mean, George Carlin and Bill Hicks will always hold a special place in my heart as far as cynic humor goes. But I just can't find myself enjoying them very much anymore, recommending them anymore to people new to stand up, and I feel like a jackass quoting anything they have to say.
Most of their posts making fun of conservatives and fundies were already somewhat cringe inducing by default. But now, every time I hear their "this is what's wrong with humanity, guys" jokes, it just feels like they're stating the obvious (though I'm told that's kind of the point when it comes to self appointed only sane men?). You know, kind of how people on facebook will repost a stock "text over picture" picture of that Mark Twain quote about never arguing with stupid people, when in all probability they're the people Mark Twain was warning you about. So now you wonder if that irony was intentional as far as the person posting the image goes.
I dunno. Thoughts?
Comments
I recently decided I wanted to get into stand-up comedy, and I've already done a few open mic nights and such in a few cities. It has gone surprisingly well.
This is probably one of the only forms of comedy, besides prop comedy and musical comedy, that I can not do. I don't want to be on a big soapbox the whole time. George Carlin is still one of the greatest, but I will have to agree.
So your problem with these comics isn't that they blandly attack cultures they don't agree with, often coming up with nearly as (or more) odious ideas in the process that aren't always clear how much they're exaggerated for comic effect...but that you already agree with them?
I find this is more common in US comedy. Comedy from the UK, for instance, is, well, based more on humour. Not to put too fine a point on it. But it seems to me that the US has a weaker comedy roster barring a handful of individuals.
Funnily enough, this topic came up on my tumblr like a few hours ago.
So uh copypasta time
See, what bothers me about guys like Carlin and the like is that they often blame “people” for society’s problems. People meaning dudes and dudettes like you and me. The average kind. And while there’s a degree to which that is true, I feel that by and at large, most of the problem comes not from that but from the fact that we live in a pretty fucked up society where the people in power benefit from that ignorance and perpetuate it.
Stuff like racism and sexism these days doesn’t really come in the form of the direct oppression we saw in the 1950s (That isn’t to say that direct oppression is gone, but simply that is much less prominent and much more sneaky) but instead comes from ignorance.
That’s why I like guys like Bill Hicks better. Sure, they are also willing to insult the people who buy into institutional bullshit and party lines, but what they really aim to do is to send a wake-up call. There is something wrong with the world and it’s the people in charge and the way they perpetuate a fucked up culture in order to remain in charge. And there is nothing wrong with you for buying blindly into it, and here is why: Because you were born in it. The first images, the first words, the first sentences and thoughts you ever interacted with were part of this culture. And you were raised in it too. Your peers bought into it. Hell, even your parents bought into it.
That’s why I hate so much how much of tumblr culture is based on insulting and berating people who in most cases aren’t even aware of the fact that what they’re doing is wrong. And it’s exactly that sort of culture that tends to revere people like Carlin as prophets of true against a sea of insanity. And while Carlin wasn’t exactly wrong (Or even bad at what he did, in my opinion), his way of seeing things, of blaming people who are just symptoms of the problem is pretty much problematic.
so uh yeah.
I really enjoy Hicks and Carlin, but I know that I have a strong streak of righteous indignation at the wretched things that people do to each other that borders on the truly misanthropic. It's the same reason that I find Frankie Boyle enjoyable: Hearing someone vent bile is just fun and cathartic sometimes.
Then again, I also really like Eddie Izzard, who basically just rambles, so I'm not all about vitriol.
Are you really going to drag provincialism in to this? Seriously?
Yes? No? I have no idea. I wasn't intending to say anything political, except that more comedians outside the USA (such as UK comedians) have more apolitical approaches. And are probably funnier for it. I guess you could call that "provincialism", inasmuch as different entertainment scenes having different common types of content is provincialism.
Just Humour me, Alex.
By request.
Yeah, I kinda agree with Alex too. Although I think there are good US apolitical comedians, though (Donald Glover's Weirdo is a weird hybrid I find entirely too amusing). Also, one of my pet peeves with Carlin is the fact that people often overlook his sillier yet (In my honest opinion) funnier bits, like his bit about dogs or his routine on supermarkets.
Meh, you can't cram a thoughtful, moderate consideration of political issues into vitriolic comedy, pithy aphorisms or posts on social media. Give people some leeway: folks blurt out oversimplifications of issues all the time, and I sure as hell have had some discussions which made me feel stupid in retrospect, precisely because I actually know better but wasn't in the mood for in-depth thinky antics at the time.
If you interpret every political joke and opinion in your FB feed as smug, naïve posturing instead of people giving a quick-fire reaction because they don't have the time to type out something thoughtful, you might as well abandon the site altogether.
Yes, but if you only see this sort of thing without them once making a more thoughtful post, it does seem more and more likely that is the extent of their thought on their issue. And also, people need and excuse to want to leave FB now and burn and salt Zuckerberg's fields?
I'm personally somewhat surprised people expect meaningful, well-informed debates performed on Facebook.
V Sure, I'm off already. That was not my intention at all.
Not this derail, the FB merit debates never bring up anything new.
If you insist on having a u in it, that's kinda related to provincialism too.