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Comedians Who Got Popular BECAUSE They Were Bad?

Started by MortSahlFan, August 26, 2019, 11:01:47 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

MortSahlFan

Maybe they thought a guy/gal was funny-looking, funny-sounding, something physical or non-comedic that makes him or her popular. Maybe something from their non-comedic life that made someone sell tickets?


hummingofevil

It's a fine line between comedians who are popular because they are bad and comedians that are shit but popular. I'm genuinely perplexed how anyone finds anything Lee Nelson has ever done funny but I don't think his fan base are ironic it's-so-bad-it's-good types. And surely anti-comedy doesn't count. If so Neil Hamburger, Tim and Eric and Ed Aczel are my favourites of that particular line of entertainment but they are objectively not bad at what they do.

Are you after a comedy equivalent of The Room?

One possible candidate is Alonzo "Hamburger" Jones. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-gytvj1w2w He is utterly dreadful but the nature of the Def Comedy Jam audiences is that they know they kinda have to laugh along of the vibe really doesn't work. I suspect far too many of that audience actually rate him though.

Edit: Tony Clifton is the best I can come up with actually. But then again where is the line between him, and say Les Dawson. If you intentionally doing bad comedy and getting laughs then is it really bad comedy?

Maybe this should be about the delusion comics? People who are deeply unfunny but can't see it but still get an audience.

dunelm

Quote from: hummingofevil on August 27, 2019, 12:58:29 AM
One possible candidate is Alonzo "Hamburger" Jones. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-gytvj1w2w He is utterly dreadful but the nature of the Def Comedy Jam audiences is that they know they kinda have to laugh along of the vibe really doesn't work. I suspect far too many of that audience actually rate him though.

That audience is definitaly finding him genuinely funny. His 'material' is shit he just knows how to work that audience.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley


MortSahlFan

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on August 27, 2019, 11:40:50 AM
Rupert Pupkin.
It's been years since I've seen "The King of Comedy"... Thanks for the reminder.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley


Shaky

America is full of these - Gallagher, Carrot Top, Larry The Cable Guy et al.


EOLAN

Quote from: Shaky on August 28, 2019, 06:59:39 AM
America is full of these - Gallagher, Carrot Top, Larry The Cable Guy et al.

Went to see Carrott Top when Honeymooning in Vegas. Thought he was quite good. Delivering jokes at a good pace and keeping a good rhythym and variety of jokes in relation to one liners and props.
Although maybe I just thought he was great because of the awfulness of the support act.
Know he gets some bad rap for being voted comedian of the year or something that irked Bill Hicks; when Hicks felt he was doing far more important material. Would certainly see Carrott Top as a well rehearsed pop band with a series of catchy songs to Hicks' being more of a prog-rock style album and deep cuts act.

JCR

Quote from: Cheesewogg on September 12, 2019, 12:27:25 PM
Henning Wehn?

Thought his bit about Scottish football/sectarianism was really good.

Seen Lee Nelson live at Edinburgh a few years back, and while most of the show was simple crowd work, he was clearly very sharp, and his audience were massively into the show, to the point it made it special.


Replies From View


Replies From View

Jimmy Carr must be deliberately shit or it makes no sense.

NJ Uncut

Quote from: Replies From View on September 12, 2019, 06:02:17 PM
Jimmy Carr must be deliberately shit or it makes no sense.

I think he'd quick n can be good n that but his whole act is "I am a shite" in a moral sense and there's a lot of cringe

I don't know how it would work without an audience guzzling the arse off it. Like, say he's at home in front of a mirror. Just a stream of SHOCKING THINGS

And his odd hoot of a laugh. At himself, reverberating off the walls.

Maybe he heckles himself for practice.

Shaky

Quote from: EOLAN on September 12, 2019, 12:34:26 PM
Went to see Carrott Top when Honeymooning in Vegas. Thought he was quite good. Delivering jokes at a good pace and keeping a good rhythym and variety of jokes in relation to one liners and props.
Although maybe I just thought he was great because of the awfulness of the support act.
Know he gets some bad rap for being voted comedian of the year or something that irked Bill Hicks; when Hicks felt he was doing far more important material. Would certainly see Carrott Top as a well rehearsed pop band with a series of catchy songs to Hicks' being more of a prog-rock style album and deep cuts act.

But... his face. Nah, that's fair enough. I've never really watched much of his material, to be honest.

QDRPHNC

Quote from: hummingofevil on August 27, 2019, 12:58:29 AM
It's a fine line between comedians who are popular because they are bad and comedians that are shit but popular. I'm genuinely perplexed how anyone finds anything Lee Nelson has ever done funny but I don't think his fan base are ironic it's-so-bad-it's-good types. And surely anti-comedy doesn't count. If so Neil Hamburger, Tim and Eric and Ed Aczel are my favourites of that particular line of entertainment but they are objectively not bad at what they do.

"Anti-comedy" as a label confuses me, and it's a little unfair, I think (this is not directed at you). It feels too close to liking something ironically (which I also question).

I don't love On Cinema because it doesn't make me laugh. I love it because they're playing with the form of what comedy is, and pushing certain aspects to the limit. The episode where Tim lists everything Joe Estevez has ever been in. You laugh because you can't believe he's doing this. Then you stop laughing when it goes on for too long. Then you start laughing again at the sheer absurdity of it. It's still comedy.

JCR

Quote from: Replies From View on September 12, 2019, 06:02:17 PM
Jimmy Carr must be deliberately shit or it makes no sense.

He won an audition to be the face of channel 4 back in the day, if I recall correctly. At one point it was going to be Brendon Burns, which just would have been weird

earl_sleek


Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Replies From View on September 12, 2019, 06:02:17 PM
Jimmy Carr must be deliberately shit or it makes no sense.

Because I'm being lazy, here's two posts from 2009, one mine, one not:

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on October 23, 2009, 01:05:29 AM
I had a job interview at Jongleurs once, as they planned at one point to expand their website and have original humour on there as well as listings. I was interviewed by Maria Kempinska, and have to say she was a very sharp, hard nosed and borderline unpleasant woman, and I was pleased to be able to turn the job down when offered it as I'd already found employment elsewhere.

Anyhoo, part of the interview was to go along to the Camden venue and review the night, and it's easily one of the most average gigs I've seen. The Highlight was a pre-fame Jimmy Carr, who was a lot less 'risque' back in those days, and had a list of genuinely funny one-liners. Literally a list too, he was reading them out from a book, commenting "Some comedians learn their sets. Good for them." The rest of the gig was poor though, with Rhona Cameron rambling on weakly, and somewhat shockingly the headline act was an old man in a wheelchair who thought that because he was disabled it was okay to be racist and homophobic.

That alone was enough to put me off, but on the odd occasion I've flicked through Time Out their line up's always seemed pretty weak, I never understood why they didn't take more risks, as other comedy clubs do quite successfully. But then I guess they've just chosen to stick to trying to appeal to their core audience of the aforementioned stag and hen do's.

Quote from: greencalx on October 23, 2009, 08:20:58 AM
This is why I was perplexed by opprobrium levelled at Jimmy Carr on this very board as he was entering the wider consciousness, as I had only seen him in this mode at the Fringe - the one-liners were genuinely funny, and impeccably timed. But somehow he went shit the second he became 'famous'.

Cold Meat Platter

Always with the requests for lists, MortSahlFan.
To quote one of our most beloved and acclaimed comedians, "what's that all about?"