Will Franken vs the Comedy Unleashed/"anti-woke" grifting dickbags [split topic]

[banana]

This is very funny:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxtVpwy4FBE

[banana]

Background:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeZFFHh2MEQ

[pcsjwgm]

This is very funny:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxtVpwy4FBE

I enjoyed that. He talks more about his experiences with Comedy Unleashed in the following videos, and he provides some interesting insight into the "anti-woke" grift of Andrew Doyle and his friends. He performs a few sketches in the second video.
"Thou Shalt Not Criticise Comedy Unleashed"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmwmXeUpYCo
"Saturday Night Lockdown with Comedy Unbelievable"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or1KAUKpGSQ
Apparently CU censored left-wing comedian Alasdair Beckett-King, and it's good to see Franken supporting Beckett-King and Sam Whyte (who Doyle threatened with legal action, as we know). He is quite annoyed that Toby Young and Count Dankula were given platforms without having proven themselves in comedy, other than tweeting about women's (and a minor's) tits and teaching a dog to make a Nazi salute.

Franken is a stupid cunt, though. Says he doesn't believe in climate change, claims that the left's criticism of Israel is a cover for their anti-semitism, and rants about the "communists" of Spiked despite the fact that the ex-RCP goons abandoned Marxism for Reason magazine-style libertarianism long ago. There's also a bit where he sneers at Comedy Unleashed for inviting a hijab-wearing comedian (Sadia Azmat, who didn't make it for unknown reasons). Yeah, I know Andrew Doyle most likely invited her in a cynical attempt to prove that CU wasn't simply a safe space for largely right-wing white men to moan about political correctness, and I think this is partly what Franken is getting at, but Franken has made clear his contempt for POC daring to do comedy in his "Defining the Norm Awards" article, so I couldn't help but sense some unpleasantness and bigotry in his statement.
https://www.spiked-online.com/2016/08/25/the-defining-the-norm-awards-the-nominees/

[Small Man Big Horse]

Vaguely sort of on topic, but I noticed that Tony Law was part of the Comedy Unleashed panel where they're commissioning online videos - https://www.chortle.co.uk/other-news/2020/04/01/45785/comedy_club_commits_%C2%A310k_to_new_online_content - I really didn't think he'd be involved with cunts like that.

[Wayman C. McCreery]

Ugh yeah, he started to come across as a free-speech-at-all-costs type on Twitter about a year ago.

https://twitter.com/mrtonylaw/status/1108783204343922689?s=21

https://twitter.com/mrtonylaw/status/1124786618865471489?s=21

https://twitter.com/mrtonylaw/status/1130835355308056577?s=21

Those aren't the best three examples - just the easiest ones I could find.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Aw fucking hell, that's genuinely upsetting, I've been a huge fan of his for years and to see him come out with such shit is bleak and then some.

[Duckula]

Aw man why did I have to read that about Tony Law. Fuck him.

[Petey Pate]

I heard from this forum's DJ one record that people in the comedy scene were naming Tony Law as the next most likely Andrew Lawrence, i.e. to come out as a bit right wing.

I'm not sure if I've seen right wing surrealism before so I guess he would be filling an unexplored comedy niche.

[MojoJojo]

Taking bets that this thread will reach 2 pages in 2022.

[dissolute ocelot]

I'm not sure if I've seen right wing surrealism before so I guess he would be filling an unexplored comedy niche.

Salvador Dali was pro-fascist. In a purely cynical way.

[Wayman C. McCreery]

Even more off-topic, but I'm always surprised when I see progressive acts (Sara Pascoe, Daniel Kitson, Nish Kumar, Kiri-PM) gigging at Backyard Comedy Club (home of Comedy Unleashed), which is owned by anti-feminist, anti-Muslim transphobe Lee Hurst.

[ajsmith2]

"Thou Shalt Not Criticise Comedy Unleashed"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmwmXeUpYCo

This is fascinating. Franken as the idealistic individualistic self made working class right winger coming up against the reality of Young et al's decadent old world/old boys club privilege which exploits the values he stands for. He's so close to figuring out that this is what will always happen.

[Tony Yeboah]

Bit more on it here https://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2020/04/10/45853/i_was_censored..._by_the_free_speech_stand-up_night%21 Not quite sure what to make of it all, maybe just Franken looking for publicity, but it makes them all look a bit daft

[Barry Admin]

This is very funny:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxtVpwy4FBE

This is absolutely fucking phenomenal. I'd seen the Greta Thunberg set before and really enjoyed it, but this is absolutely outstanding, holy shit.

[Barry Admin]

Was gonna start a new thread but just split this one off instead.  Comedy Chat regulars will absolutely love that show above, I think. 

It attacks many of the people we've been criticing for the last 6 months or so, and is one of the most ferociously brilliant, ballsy and hilarious sets I've seen in.... I don't even know.

As a bit of background, you may want to read this - that's one of the Triggernometry hosts (Konstantin Kisin), who Franken has a major issue with.  The gist of it is that Kisin once refused to book Franken, stating that he was too controversial, and yet he's now positioned himself as one of these free speech warriors that they have these days.

Little bit more background: the Andrew Sabiskey thing had just happened, and Toby Young started fawning over this idiotic little eugenics-advocating cunt.  Toby Young was then given a spot on Comedy Unleashed, despite not being a comic, much to Franken's chagrin.  He recognises that all these guys are medicore comics, but fawn over each other in the Spectator, and constantly promote each other in a really disingenuous, slimy way.

That's probably enough.  I just really wanted to give this more visibility as I think a lot of people here will really enjoy the digs at Andrew Doyle, Douglas Murray and all those other tedious chancers.

Also really looking forward to this 14-hour reading Franken is doing of Paradise Lost.  I'm gonna plough through his youtube channel now, I'm watching a folow-up video to the set linked above, and he's a fascinating, brilliant, fearless orator.  And he really makes Andrew Doyle look like a tiny pathetic little prick.

[Retinend]

I've heard of this guy. He was recently recommended to me by a London-based comic who was out going door to door for Corbyn in the last election, yet said this was his favourite new comic - in spite of the controversy. He was also a Sadowitz fan so I presumed this favourite new comic would be outrageous in that vein. Upon now hunting around on his YouTube channel on the back of this thread, I was very surprised to see how earnestly anti-woke he is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdOdHlHdqYU
From his own channel: an appearance on the news as an "arm's-reach" pundit, which he himself titles "Will Franken Supports Trump". I take this as an act of affrontery, supposing there is more to his support of Trump that meets the eye, but he has a ton of awful alt right types in the comments section all this same. He is being funny, but funny in order to attack the trump protesters (just as he attacks the act of protesting in the Thunberg set).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aCMJ2hfBQU
"A Clockwork White"

This is definitely the best anti woke comedy I've seen. It's got a lot of Cook and Morris in its DNA.

That aforementioned London comic gave me 8GB of his material (PM me if interested), including something that appears to be entirely about William Blake. The above show also shows him to be a literary man. What a discovery!

[ajsmith2]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdOdHlHdqYU
From his own channel: an appearance on the news as an "arm's-reach" pundit, which he himself titles "Will Franken Supports Trump". I take this as an act of affrontery, supposing there is more to his support of Trump that meets the eye, but he has a ton of awful alt right types in the comments section all this same. He is being funny, but funny in order to attack the trump protesters (just as he attacks the act of protesting in the Thunberg set).

I've said it before, but it bears repeating on this thread. The one thing I really can't get with about Franken is his (seemingly) unquestioning Trump love. I've often despaired at how self-styled right wing 'intellectuals' throw away threir principles  to get behind Trump 100% when it means endorsing a useless pile of rubbish who's never read anything longer than his own signature and doesn't care about  anything beyong his own fringe, but the difference there is I don't like those people or what they're trying to do, so at least even if it frustratingly doesn't make sense, in a way the delusion is deserved punishment.

But with Franken, he's an imposingly talented comic performer and naturally funny man, an enthusiastic but unpompous reader  and (as far as it appears) an earnest, self made self improver and truth seeker. And yet here he in that video falling for Trump's cardboard cutout of a deal and worse still, bending over backwards and debasing his own principles to defend him. It's fucking heart breaking actually when you think about how earnest Franken is in his work and how much Trump truly doesn't give a fuck about him or anyone like him. Is it just to trigger the libs like all those other dicks? Or does he really think Trump has the working classes best interests at heart? Either way it's a sad shame.

As I said on my other rant about this, watching a Franken routine where he casually mentions or refers to Trump as a Good Thing That Only Idiots Question is like watching George Carlin put the world to rights, but every so often testifying how it's a self evidently great idea to smear yourself in your own shite. Or, imagine a left wing equivalent to Franken (I can't think of an exact analogue off the top of my head, which no doubt is to the left's shame) but they're hard for Biden. Like they don't mention it all the time but much of their comedy is predicated around the 'truth' that questioning Biden would be a truly stupid thing to do. Even if they were the best comedian in the world otherwise, those bits would still grate hard.

He's seen through CU and all the shite round that and fucking brilliantly so, I hope he's able to apply some critical thinking to Trump in future: hey, here's a real challenge for someone in Franken's position : do a comedy routine about Trump's failings that doesn't translate as 'Orange Man Bad' to a right wing audience and makes them question their beliefs. I think he'd be more than up to it. Until then this element is  like the turd in the punchbowl Franken-wise for me.

[sevendaughters]

I picked through this thread slowly and it seems, at least to me, to be more accurately summarised as dull poor non-conformists vs. irritating entrepreneurial conformists, all of whom are pitiable in some way but none of whom are funny.

[hummingofevil]

One thing I wonder about Franken is how much his politics are driven by reactions to his work. For context.

I saw the first Edinburgh show that got all the buzz. It was brilliant. Layers upon layers of characters and voices in a late night stop with hot (literally), slightly drunk crowds where everything came together to be intoxicating. Definitely impressive and at times very funny.

I then saw him the next year in one of Pleasance lecture theatre rooms at 4 in the afternoon and it was shit, he hated every second of it and spent the last 20 mins of the gig basically explaining how he is going to sack his agent (it wasn't a routine - he felt like he was just talking to us) and just goes back to his flat every tea time and gets stoned by himself. He was genuinely miserable as.

Anyway, I wonder what happened in between. One of the things I loved about the first show was his black-female characters. I genuinely thought they were quite empathetic and interesting characters and in context didn't feel there was anything wrong with him doing it in a one-man show with probably 20+ different characters in it. There was nothing racist in the material itself (and nowhere near as offensive as mainstream BBC favs Little Britain or League of Gentleman for example) but wonder if at some point he got called out for doing those voices in principle (is black voice a thing as opposed to black face?) and this leap from open minded free-speech fairly standard hippy American to full on libetarian was in part a reaction to seeing his own career get sabotaged.

Then of course came the trans stuff which I will not comment on as I have no idea what he was going through. I want to give him the benefit that it was not a prank (I lean to towards it being a genuine process he was working through) but the shows he did about realising he was not a woman contained multiple referrences to gangs of intolerant youths harassing him that definitely had racial undertones. It was uncomfortable to watch on a number of levels.

---

I think it is also worth remembering that whilst the right are far better at maintaining a united face when push comes to the shove in fucking over the rest of us, that they will always loathe each other more, as they see each other as more of a genuine threat to their own ladder climbing. As much as we like to think Toby Young really hates the poor they are just a tool for him to be able to write shit about; who he really loathes is the other cunt who might take his column in the Spectator. That concept trickles down I suppose.

[Blinder Data]

Or, imagine a left wing equivalent to Franken (I can't think of an exact analogue off the top of my head, which no doubt is to the left's shame) but they're hard for Biden. Like they don't mention it all the time but much of their comedy is predicated around the 'truth' that questioning Biden would be a truly stupid thing to do. Even if they were the best comedian in the world otherwise, those bits would still grate hard.

Like Greg Proops' unending adoration for Hillary Clinton?

I saw Will Franken at Edinburgh maybe 9 years ago and it was a great show. A bit near-the-knuckle but in that way that many American stand-ups tend to be less PC than those from the UK.

He seems a very talented comedian with a unique back story but his unfortunately views on Trump stink and are difficult to square with everything else he says.

[His Name Is Death]

Like Greg Proops' unending adoration for Hillary Clinton?

Proops has gone all in on Biden and Kamala Harris too. Was on a Biden virtual fundraiser not long ago.

If you're looking for your 'left wing' equivalent to Franken, look no further.

[Retinend]

Well he's certainly an open book - 90 minutes of navel-gazing here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmwmXeUpYCo
"Thou Shalt Not Criticise Comedy Unleashed"

I didn't watch it all but, in response to hummingofevil it seems that (by his own account) he first began to turn rightward back when he was a schoolteacher in the Bronx and felt like the black kids he taught needed a good dose of competitive individualism rather than namby pamby liberal apologetics (which merely set the bar low, in his opinion). He also tells a story of going to university to study and resenting the activistism-oriented professors who gave easy grades to the simple minded. In telling both stories he has a Bounderby-like indignation at having come from the bottom and having received no help to get where he is (especially not from the privileged, whom he associates with progressivism). His Paradise Lost project is - again, this is all from the video - a deliberate "fuck you" to people who embrace woke pop culture and consider themselves educated.

He's definitely an interesting character and I admire how little he cares about how people perceive his politics, and moreover even less concerned about breaking rank politically. I don't know how serious he is about politics but it seems incidental to what he is doing in the realm of comedy, which is really exciting.

[Pink Gregory]

Proops has gone all in on Biden and Kamala Harris too. Was on a Biden virtual fundraiser not long ago.

If you're looking for your 'left wing' equivalent to Franken, look no further.

Fuck me am I glad I stopped listening to his podcast.  Bending over backwards to defend the rapist on 'his side'.  Smartest Man in the World.

[Bronzy]

You couldn't be more leashed

[Dusty Substance]

Fuck me am I glad I stopped listening to his podcast.  Bending over backwards to defend the rapist on 'his side'.  Smartest Man in the World.

I gave up on the Proopscast around the beginning of 2016 when his comedy to politics ratio flipped and it became a very preachy and boring podcast.  I can only imagine what the last four years of his podcasts have been like - I might dip into a couple just for morbid curiosity.

You couldn't be more leashed

Did anyone else see Norm reaching out to Jordan Peterson on Twitter, inviting him onto his podcast? I really hope that happens.

As for Will Franken - The Greta routine and the follow up set are both outstanding. I listened to the Thou Shalt Not Criticise Comedy diatribe and his Saturday Night In sketches, too. I'll explore the rest of his You Tube stuff over the next few days.

He's a very interesting man and quite prolific, too. His channel is full over videos over an hour and from what I've seen so far it's more than just your usual one man aimless rants. It's been a few years since i heard them but he's got a whole bunch of audio material on his podcast: http://willfranken.libsyn.com/

He mentioned in one of his videos that his glasses make him look a bit like Peter Sellers. He's right and Sellers is a clear influence on his comedy style. His German EU scientist character is based on Dr. Strangelove.

[evilcommiedictator]

I think there's an interesting discussion to be had about how people judge comedy, based on the political leanings and beliefs, (which is the intended theme of Unleashed, except without the hacks), but to answer that you'd need to *gasp* have intellectuals who has studied broadly share their findings, without consulting the small-town people who are badly looked down upon by everyone just because they're from a small town and everyone hates them and thinks their racist and hate their God.

Seriously though, I've just watched this his Climate Change Trans Counselling bit, and I can see that lots of people would think it funny, and there's good angry silly shit in there, but for me, it's tainted by almost the same material used maliciously for the past 10 years. He just seems to be trying to apply salve to the massive chip on his shoulder, which is good fuel for comedy (Hicks and Carlin wave from their weed in the afterlife), but like, am I just being a pedantic shithead by not being able to get even a small bit of enjoyment from any of it because internally I'm screaming his hypocrisy back at him, as if someone forced me to read a Spiked article?

[sambwel]

This is absolutely fucking phenomenal. I'd seen the Greta Thunberg set before and really enjoyed it, but this is absolutely outstanding, holy shit.

A couple of good gags but mostly "libertarians are just fag conservatives". As someone who's never seen this guy before I think you need to be far more invested in the backstory to call this phenomenal

[McFlymo]

his "Chinese corona impression" ...... Ugh. Just, what am I missing here? It's cool and hip to be racist and offensive again, because ooo complex and hip back story of in fighting among loads of wankers? He's a different sort of right wing, because he's calling out other right wing guys? "anti-woke" is great now? I don't understand, CaB, what has happened to you?

[chveik]

yeah I don't get it either. hard to turn off that Greta Thunberg vid, I can't see what differenciates him from any other disphit comic.

[sambwel]

No matter how many times his Greta thing is mentioned, I am resolved to treat it like an actual Greta speech and simply not watch it.