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Areas of comedy/ comedy genres you just don't find funny

Started by 23 Daves, April 27, 2005, 01:10:48 PM

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The Mumbler

Quote from: "PeachSmints"Another vote for women's issues humour. Periods, leg shaving, love of chocolate etc.
When flipping channels, if I see a woman stand-up I end up inadvertendly carrying on to the next channel without even hearing what she has to say.  Not fair, I know, but I'd rather not risk having to hear the old  "Hey, what if men had periods?" joke one more time.

To be fair, Ben Elton used to do a great "What if men had periods?" routine. in the 80s  "I'd just stepped out of the pavilion to bat, and would you believe it, my period started".

Are there that many women doing stand-up on TV these days anyway?

PeachSmints

Quote from: "The Mumbler"Are there that many women doing stand-up on TV these days anyway?
On Comedy Central (American cable-tv station, dunno if it's something you know about) there seem to be a lot. It's what I have to make do with while at university.

The Folks on the Hill
"Animated political satire series, following the fortunes of Northern Ireland's leaders as they go about their daily lives, written and performed by impressionist Sean Crummy."


I don't know how to categorise this comedy show, other than 'woeful'. Crummy animation and crummy jokes focused on repellant politics. Has anyone seen this show?

Mr. Analytical

Hmmmm...

Comedy's really an area where I'm notably uncerebral.  Every other area of my tastes is marked by intellectualisation and principles and strong tastes whereas comedy it's just a matter of what I find funny.

I love Phoenix Nights but don't find the Office Funny.  I've rewatched black books loads of times but I don't like League of Gentlemen.  I adore the first series of Curb but the second and third series left me largely cold (though I think that's because he's never written anything as funny as the incest survivors group).

I even found Nathan Barley funnier than Jam which drove me round the twist with its silly production values which I still think is a huge joke by Morris directed at us, his fans.

I'm also of the view that outside of a dozen sketches (the most famous ones that featured in the film) Python is colossally over-rated.  The bulk of that series sank without a trace, despite them being seen as demigods I bet no mainstream comedy fan would be able to remember one single sketch from the last series without Cleese.  For ever Dead Parrot there are endless numbers of unfunny sketches that throw in names of dead writers and philosophers.

HOWEVER, in terms of types of comedy I don't like I'd list self-consciously whacky stuff like Vic and Bob and Harry Hill's original series (and Jam and Python actually).

I'd also say all of french comedy.  It's astonishing, alternative comedy simply never arose in France.  So acts still do "spectacles" in theatres, lots of musical comedy and comic characters that are almost universally unfunny.  Variety never died in france.

I also don't like comedy that's mean-spiritedly reliant upon making the general public look like twats.  So Trigger Happy TV and all of its non-postmodern ancestors, comedians who pick on the audience and vox pops-style stuff where they walk up to someone with a clipboard.

Humour that's supposedly making fun of celebrities but is in fact fawning over them like a piss-drinking submissive by letting them in on the joke.  I'd include French and Saunders,  Bo Selecta, Ali G and loads others in here.

I also absolutely hate the entire cast of Goodness Gracious me who have produced dozens of hours of unfunny programming and continue to do so because they wrote that Going for an English sketch.

biniput

The problem with farting jokes is that they may be funny when spontaneous or every now and then but such things on tv are very hard to reproduce. The fact that you are watching tv at all often destroys any such hope of chance. Yes French clowns are indeed a sort of cultural vegetation. There should be beat-em-ups on the Play Station where you have a selection of the worst to fight it out to see who gets on the newest celebraty dignity marathon (big brother plus goat fucking plus confesions plus miming the previous activities for prizes plus fake charity plus faked fights plus embarrasing attempts at drama or poinant moments or attempts at conversation plus.......). say Chav Vs Mime artist who can only mime moves so gets totaly c***ed over every round. the cast of say West life make up the last bosses with king cake head (half cheggwin half robby williams half abbey titmuss half jordan half timmy mallet half freddy star half jimmy carr etc) as the final summation of the collosus of entertainment offal.

Just imagine being any of the Good life cast beating up Dom Jolly.

Jokes about celebraties seem too dull for words as they all are so scripted.

It's 5am so bear with me. I don't find a hell of a lot of topical humour funny.  If it's not done extremely skillfully it's so quickly redundant. But I do find On the Hour/TDT/NTNOCN funny because they cast their nets wider,  getting at entire rituals, institutions and the like rather than making bitchy barbs at individual people.  (Yes, I know they did that too but can you imagine anyone now coming out with the Eyewitness sketch or the Crash at Big Street Station?)  The horrible realisation that culture and society is barely evolving is what makes it so funny to me, that an awful lot of it was made during a Conservative era but now in the supposed green fields of New Labour fuck all has changed.  Which is why the Conservative Party Conference sketch ("I like curry, but now we've got the recipe, is there really any need for them to stay?"-you know the one) is still hilarious to me 20 years later because absolutely nothing has changed.  That's funny.

I guess it's down to skill, really.  What springs to mind is  "competition answers" in Saturday Night Fry in which Stephen Fry attacks a minister and a proposal as a gross breach of rights but so unbelievably skillfully.    Topical comedy to me nowawdays seems to consist of things like-  "Anne Widdecombe has a big arse/Michael Jackson orders a little Mac when he goes to McDonalds".  Concentrating on feeble bit players and safe targets.  Who fucking cares?