Your Favorite American Social/Political Satirists?

[MortSahlFan]

Funny but also accurate. There's been some who have been funny, but it didn't really address what was going on, and some just engaged in a lot of trivia and gossip

Mort Sahl
Bill Hicks
George Carlin
Dick Gregory
Bill Burr
Louis CK
Doug Stanhope
Dave Chappelle
Dov Davidoff

[DJ Bob Hoskins]

Stephen Colbert is his Bush-era Colbert Report days was peerless in my opinion. His apex being the White House Correspondents' Dinner speech in 2006.

https://youtu.be/IJ-a2KeyCAY

[MortSahlFan]

Stephen Colbert is his Bush-era Colbert Report days was peerless in my opinion. His apex being the White House Correspondents' Dinner speech in 2006.

https://youtu.be/IJ-a2KeyCAY

I miss THAT Stephen Colbert. Now he's just an establishment stooge who isn't funny anymore. Amazing how network TV renders some impotent.

[Tony Yeboah]

PJ O'Rourke

[Chriddof]

The best American satirist is Bill Burr, who once did a great big poo on the floor. It went into the Guinness Book Of Records for being the widest poo ever, and can be found under the entry "This Is The Widest Poo Ever". But then Ricky Gervais did an even bigger poo, and put it in a wheelchair, and everyone pretended it was nice and Bill Burr was cross. Sadly Norm McDonald didn't ever do a poo, but now he is becoming the equivalent of poo in the ground, and that's what matters.

Also Dennis Miller once had a go at doing a poo, but it was just confusing and no one knew what they were looking at.

[The Mollusk]

The best American satirist is Bill Burr, who once did a great big poo on the floor. It went into the Guinness Book Of Records for being the widest poo ever, and can be found under the entry "This Is The Widest Poo Ever". But then Ricky Gervais did an even bigger poo, and put it in a wheelchair, and everyone pretended it was nice and Bill Burr was cross. Sadly Norm McDonald didn't ever do a poo, but now he is becoming the equivalent of poo in the ground, and that's what matters.

Also Dennis Miller once had a go at doing a poo, but it was just confusing and no one knew what they were looking at.

Spank was a pioneer in this field. The field of pooing as a means of satire.

[chveik]

Carrot Top

[BeardFaceMan]

Stephen Colbert is his Bush-era Colbert Report days was peerless in my opinion. His apex being the White House Correspondents' Dinner speech in 2006.

https://youtu.be/IJ-a2KeyCAY

I've been watching a lot of Colbert Reports lately, the dude is fucking fierce. Currently watching some from around 2010/11 where he forms a super PAC, he's really good.

[Noodle Lizard]

I don't know if "satirist" is the term I'd use to describe them, but Carlin and Stanhope had the biggest impact on me when I was a teenager, and I still think both of them at their best are difficult to top. Deadbeat Hero is an incredible special that holds up to this day, as do most of Carlin's 90s specials. Sadly, Carlin is dead and Stanhope may as well be.

Bill Hicks was admittedly a bit of a revelation when I discovered him aged 15 or 16, but it wore off fairly quick and I find him quite difficult to rewatch now.

[sutin]

Bill Hicks was admittedly a bit of a revelation when I discovered him aged 15 or 16, but it wore off fairly quick and I find him quite difficult to rewatch now.

I imagine it's been said often but Hicks is someone that seems impossibly funny and exciting when you're a teenager and impossibly lame and cringy when you've grown up.

[Noodle Lizard]

I imagine it's been said often but Hicks is someone that seems impossibly funny and exciting when you're a teenager and impossibly lame and cringy when you've grown up.

He was also one of the first stand-ups I'd been exposed to outside of Lee Evans or Eddie Izzard and the like, so it's fair to say he was somewhat instrumental in teaching me that comedy wasn't all just about doing funny jokes. But yeah, as you say, it's a bit embarrassing to go back to. Not that he's particularly bad or anything, I think he was actually perfect for his time, more that it reminds me of how it resonated with a teenage version of myself, and that was a pretty shit teenager.

[tribalfusion]

Ted Alexandro
Lee Camp
Dave Anthony
Nato Green
Judah Friedlander
Maria Bamford
Hari Kondabolu
David Cross
David Feldman

& back in the day:

Bill Hicks
George Carlin

If we are talking about outside stand-up comedy, it would be many of the people involved with the journal The Baffler through the years.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

for a solid six or seven years, it was Chris Onstad

[__steve__]

I imagine it's been said often but Hicks is someone that seems impossibly funny and exciting when you're a teenager and impossibly lame and cringy when you've grown up.

His style and timing would absolutely work today, but much of his material is just too "of its time" and out of date to resonate these days, eg Gulf War, early 90s politics. 

[sutin]

His style and timing would absolutely work today, but much of his material is just too "of its time" and out of date to resonate these days, eg Gulf War, early 90s politics. 

Okay. Absolutely not what I was talking about at all.

Bill Hicks is a comedian for teenage boys. Sex(ism), drugs and rock 'n' roll. Once you're an adult he sounds incredibly naff.

[BeardFaceMan]

Okay. Absolutely not what I was talking about at all.

Bill Hicks is a comedian for teenage boys. Sex(ism), drugs and rock 'n' roll. Once you're an adult he sounds incredibly naff.

Funny, there sure seemed to be a lot of adults who liked him at the time. If you want to focus on one aspect of his act and ignore all his other material like the Gulf War, politics, the LA riots, smoking, his parents, the devil, racism, marketing etc then sure, you have a point about him being just "Sex(ism), drugs and rock 'n' roll".

[sutin]

Funny, there sure seemed to be a lot of adults who liked him at the time. If you want to focus on one aspect of his act and ignore all his other material like the Gulf War, politics, the LA riots, smoking, his parents, the devil, racism, marketing etc then sure, you have a point about him being just "Sex(ism), drugs and rock 'n' roll".

Come on, ignore the first three topics on your list and you're basically proven my point!

[BeardFaceMan]

Well, yes, that was my point, that in order for your summary to work you have to ignore a lot of his stuff.

[McChesney Duntz]

And, let's be fair here, Hicks never got the chance to mature into an older, wiser commentator, and I do believe there were signs that he was starting to lean that way before he went.

But some of what he left behind is truly embarrassing, yes - I noticed that Netflix did him a service and chopped what seems like an hour out of his "Randy Pan the Goat Boy" thing from their version of the Revelations special.

[sutin]

Oh that's great, Goat Boy is awful shit.

[MortSahlFan]

Oh that's great, Goat Boy is awful shit.

I love Bill Hicks, but that goat boy shit is shit.

His best stuff is the non-released stuff, especially the bad audio shows. I think it was self-consciousness. When he did things like his HBO Special, he trimmed down the best stuff, probably hoping to improve his career. His Letterman appearances were all mediocre. He needed over an hour to riff, brainstorm aloud, interact with the audience, etc.