Quarantine for alienating comedy opinions

[Kryton]

Alan Partridge is dull and lame and should have been put to bed twenty or so years ago.

Not having that. His books, his standalone shows and MMM are very good. In fact the new writers have breathed fresh air into his character.

[Dewt]

Stewart Lee is overrated. There I said it.

I think I might agree with that, although I still love Stewart Lee. It just feels like he did some really great stuff and then people got into the habit of saying it was genius even when he did the exact same thing over and over and over again.

It's not as bad as I'm making out. Every set he's done has been full of great content. It's just that he's been pushing the same boundary for 15 years.

I was amazed that he was still doing "this side of the room" a decade ago.

[SavageHedgehog]

Don't know if this would be an unpopular opinion around here, but almost everything I ever saw of what might be termed "the Tina Fey era" of Saturday Night Live was dreadful (and I do like quite a bit of prior and some later SNL), so I was shocked I liked 30 Rock so much.

Don't get on with most of the "edgy" animated stuff from the last 10-15 years; Archer, Bojack Horseman, Rick & Morty, Big Mouth etc, just find most of it unpleasant and unfunny and often ugly to boot. "Oh but it's a searing and profound look at depression once you get past the first 20 episodes", zzzzzzz...

Some Simpsons from the last 20 years is quite good. Even when it's not I usually get at least one decent laugh (although I haven't seen much from the last 5 years).

[Dewt]

Have you definitely watched much of Bojack? It's not very edgelordy.

[mr. logic]

Not having that. His books, his standalone shows and MMM are very good. In fact the new writers have breathed fresh air into his character.

The new stuff has for me rendered the old stuff rubbish, as this Alan is a much more interesting and funny character

[SavageHedgehog]

Have you definitely watched much of Bojack? It's not very edgelordy.

Not that much, but nothing I saw amused or entertained me in any way.

[Ray Travez]

Not having that. His books, his standalone shows and MMM are very good. In fact the new writers have breathed fresh air into his character.

Yeah, I can't defend my view in any way. Perhaps it's just that I personally dont have any interest in the character any more.

And that's my alienating comedy opinion!

[rue the polywhirl]

Bojack Horseman was a great show till after 2 seasons when the wokeness took over and all the humour started eating itself and its condition only improved slightly in the final season.

[mr. logic]

Not that much, but nothing I saw amused or entertained me in any way.

Agreed

[ajsmith2]

Arrested Development Season 4 is a masterpiece, and most people who don't like it just didn't have the patience to deal with the different pace of the earlier episodes taken individually and so short sightedly wrote it off,  ultimately only denying themselves the chance to enjoy the greatest AD achievement of all.

(Season 5 really is fairly ropey though).

[Small Man Big Horse]

Arrested Development Season 4 is a masterpiece, and most people who don't like it just didn't have the patience to deal with the different pace of the earlier episodes taken individually and so short sightedly wrote it off,  ultimately only denying themselves the chance to enjoy the greatest AD achievement of all.

(Season 5 really is fairly ropey though).

I partially agree with you as I really enjoyed certain episodes of season 4, but still maintain that a couple are real stinkers, and Tobias becomes a lot less funny during the Netflix years.

And Season 5 is all over the place, there's still a couple of decent episodes but some really terrible, mirth free ones, and I absolute hate the ending and the revelation

Spoiler alert

that Buster is a murderer.

[close]

Daniel Kitson is a mumbling stuttering fuck. Can't understand how people have the patience for that.

He stutters it's true, but I've never heard him mumble, I think he's a very clear and articulate performer.

[Clownbaby]

I agree that Arrested development Season 4 is much better that people were saying it was. I was bracing myself for a mess based on what people told me but I enjoyed it pretty much right through. I agree that Tobias wasn't so funny though. He's always been on a thin line for me but there was something about the storyline with him and Maria Bamford junkie lass that was messy and kind of irritating.

The GOB/Tony Wonder episode though. It's one of my favourite episodes of any comedy show. I was so glad that my favourite character got the best story treatment. Loved it. Sadly can't say the same thing about my GOB in season 5, I don't know what they were trying to do there. I'm still only halfway through season 5 and I can't bring myself to watch the rest of it

[Blue Jam]

Another fan of Arrested Development season 4 here. Not seen season 5 yet though...

I like a bit of Archer but I find it enjoyably daft and pleasantly undemanding. It's a bit throwaway, something I can dip into when I'm in the mood rather than a show I could binge-watch. Nowt wrong with that of course but is it generally more highly-regarded than this?

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Taken in isolation, if you can ignore everything else you know about the man, Ricky Gervais' performance as David Brent is a brilliant piece of acting.

[Blue Jam]

Ricky Gervais is like Jack Whitehall in that he's limited as an actor but happens to play one character very well.

The difference is that Jack Whitehall seems aware of his limitations and plays that same character over and over again, while Gervais isn't and tries to play more sympathetic characters and fails.

[Retinend]

Bill Hicks gives me a really nasty vibe. Vain, phoney, and apathetic. I can't really rationalise it since I like plenty of their comedians that are not classically "nice".

[Dewt]

Doesn't help that he's Alex Jones

[Blue Jam]

Never liked Bill Hicks either. After hearing people rave about him I was hugely disappointed when I finally listened to Rant In E Minor.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Ricky Gervais is like Jack Whitehall in that he's limited as an actor but happens to play one character very well.

The difference is that Jack Whitehall seems aware of his limitations and plays that same character over and over again, while Gervais isn't and tries to play more sympathetic characters and fails.

Exactly.

[Hey, Punk!]

I think that Stewart Lee is so good at his best that I can forgive his weaker material. I don't even care that he's known for being a 'clever' comedian. He's one of the few people that's managed to make me laugh so much that I ache.

I don't think he's overrated at all.

[Bazooka]

I don't really enjoy stand up comedy that much. It's partly my poor attention span (I find watching an hour+ of one person talking on an empty stage nearly impossible), but even leaving that aside I just much prefer comedy in many other forms. I've been to and genuinely enjoyed quite a few live stand up gigs (Stewart Lee, Doug Stanhope, Rob Newman and Chris Barrie, weirdly, and a few others) and watched loads more on TV  but I've always found my mind wandering after half an hour or so and would rather watch the same comedians doing a sketch show or sitcom or something. I've been to quite a few comedy club night type things too and while the sets are much shorter and more manageable it sort of goes the other way then as they're almost always comedians I've not heard of before so by the time you get a handle on their act it's over.

I'm also pathologically averse to uncomfortable heckling situations, where the stand up either can't handle it or they're  overly cruel, or the heckler tries to be funny, or any number of other cringey outcomes which are usually avoidable if you're watching a recording but are always a possibility when it's live. Doug Stanhope had a woman who was heckling him thrown out by security at one gig and the whole incident was just awkward and offputting.

I'm the same as you for the most part, when I saw Stewart Lee live doing the Pear Cider routine, and as good as it was I thinking c'mon mate let's move on.  I think it's why Harry Hill is my favourite stand up without question, he is zany, surreal and will start a joke but not finish it and then return to it later, which suits my cranium to a t. That and he just has pound for pound really good gags.

[Spiral King]

Fist of Fun Series 1 is better than all of This Morning With Richard Not Judy. Series 1 of FoF and their Radio 1 music show are by far their best material as Lee and Herring.

Edit: Also, probably more damning, Ian News (from the radio, mind) is funnier than Histor's Eye. Although Stewart Lee doing the Ian Ketterman/Plinny Harris voice will never not be funny.

[thelittlemango]

My unpopular opinion is that I find it off-putting when people describe a comedy show they've seen as 'lovely' etc. as I assume it's not going to be very funny and instead will be overly sentimental. I find it tiring that so many shows are like this, it's why I love Daniel Kitson's work in progress shows where he's riffing on things and have laughed until my ribs hurt but find some of his other shows a bit trite and "this is important".

An example I can give is a new comedian who I think is good but had this as the tagline for a recent show: "Politics for idiots, feminism for lads, love stories for louts and self-care for those who don't".

Something about that made me feel like I'd be watching someone talking emotionally about learning experiences in a humorous way, rather than something that would make me laugh a lot and it's very prevalent, I think sentiment and import can be used as a bit of a crutch when it's used in the comedy world.

[Alberon]

I think I might agree with that, although I still love Stewart Lee. It just feels like he did some really great stuff and then people got into the habit of saying it was genius even when he did the exact same thing over and over and over again.

It's not as bad as I'm making out. Every set he's done has been full of great content. It's just that he's been pushing the same boundary for 15 years.

I was amazed that he was still doing "this side of the room" a decade ago.

Of course! That's it!

We've all seen him do the bit in every show where he keeps repeating something to the point it stops being funny, becomes annoying and eventually, eventually becomes funny again. But now I see he's doing it with his whole career.

Lee is at the stage now where the repetition is getting very annoying. But that does mean we have a killer show to look forward to in about five years.

[Ornlu]

The dad was the only thing I found funny when I tried watching a few episodes from the first series. I couldn't get into it partly because I couldn't help comparing it unfavourably to Grandma's House.

Do the rest of the family step up comedy-wise in the following series?

The GOB/Tony Wonder episode though. It's one of my favourite episodes of any comedy show.

Same!

Taken in isolation, if you can ignore everything else you know about the man, Ricky Gervais' performance as David Brent is a brilliant piece of acting.

Isn't this pretty unanimously agreed upon here?

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Isn't this pretty unanimously agreed upon here?

There is no unanimous agreement here. This thread confirms that.

[Ornlu]

Hands up who thinks Gervais as Brent ISN'T unanimously funny?

...

That's... mental

[chveik]

The Office isn't that great

[DrGreggles]

Hands up who thinks Gervais as Brent ISN'T unanimously funny?

[beanheadmcginty]

The Peanuts comic strip is absolute nuclear grade dogshit. Utterly mystifying why anybody gives it the time of day. It's as bad and baffling as all those shit webcomics and is almost certainly entirely responsible for them, so in many ways is actually worse than Hitler.