Classic Comedy: Was It Ever Funny? - US comedy doesn't hold up?

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TaimuRadiu said:
Seinfeld was very funny; there's even a trope called "Seinfeld is Unfunny" named for how people don't get how it's funny now. It was leagues ahead of anything in its time and was essentially about a bunch of sociopathic New York Jews.

For SNL you have to reach deep into the 70s with the original Not Ready For Prime Time Players. By the 80s it became "safe" after being nearly cancelled after Lorne Michaels left the programme. Oh and after Al Franken got fired by ripping on the head of NBC for, among other things, OKing SUPERTRAIN, a Love Boat style drama about a giant train. (Not lying, I have a huge soft spot for late 80s / early 90s SNL because I grew up with it. By the mid to late 90s it became a pile of crap. Remember that the show just got worse and Norm knew this.)

Same for National Lampoon's Vacation, which is arguably the best of the series. It was about a dysfunctional family going on a road trip, which was stuff you never saw movies being made about at the time, and it wasn't really family friendly either.
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Back in the late 80s/early 90s, some cable network or another would show some best of SNL and particular the mid to late 70s SNL. I didn't get it. Not much of it was funny, to me. I suspect it was sort of "you had to be there at the time" kind of thing.

Actually a lot of SNL is like that, as a great deal of what they do is/was topical. My SNL preference was the mid to late 80s cast, but even watching some of that now, some of it doesn't hold up. Even the best years of SNL, watching it at the time, there were some "shit your pants with laughter" bits, some mid stuff, and a shitton of filler.

For me, Seinfeld was always a bit "meh". It would occasionally get a good, hearty guffaw out of me, but mostly it's just innocuous "comfort TV. Something to have on in the background while you do other things.
 
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Judge Dredd said:
95% of stand up comedy from the states.
"Race, race, race race race, racism race race, president, race."

The other 5%? Same as above but replace "race" with "jews".

For British comics, it's hard to name ones Americans would like. Lee Evans might be a safe bet? Jack Dee maybe?
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In the case of comediannes, vagina vagina sex vagina.

Don't feel like looking through this thread, so give me late stickers for mentioning MadTV. That show was good until it let Bobby Lee do a John McCain impression. The joke being that McCain is old. Does it matter which sketch I'm referring to? No, it doesn't. In retrospect, it's good that show ended, otherwise it would have met the same fate SNL did and become obnoxious woke slop.
 
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Ultrapenguin said:
Really though I've had the same thing where nobody would shut up about Monty Python, then eventually I saw it and stuff like The Holy Grail was bizarre and quirky, but not actually that funny. It could just be a matter of cultural sensibiliti
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I'm in the same boat. Everyone lauds Monty Python, but I could never get into it. I watched the Holy Grail but I found myself more bored than entertained. It was like when a co-worker shows you an overly long video on their phone that they think is funny, and you kinda have to pretend you find it funny too for the social benefit even though it's not funny at all.

I think the only piece of British comedy that I really enjoyed was Peep Show. I could watch that on repeat, just like Seinfeld.
 
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kawaiikat420 said:
I'm in the same boat. Everyone lauds Monty Python, but I could never get into it. I watched the Holy Grail but I found myself more bored than entertained. It was like when a co-worker shows you an overly long video on their phone that they think is funny, and you kinda have to pretend you find it funny too for the social benefit even though it's not funny at all.

I think the only piece of British comedy that I really enjoyed was Peep Show. I could watch that on repeat, just like Seinfeld.
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This was the only Monty Python movie bit that ever actually made me laugh.


That and the whole Biggus Dickus joke actually makes me laugh. I've seen both Holy Grail and Life of Brian. In my opinion, Life of Brian was way better.
 
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kawaiikat420 said:
I'm in the same boat. Everyone lauds Monty Python, but I could never get into it. I watched the Holy Grail but I found myself more bored than entertained. It was like when a co-worker shows you an overly long video on their phone that they think is funny, and you kinda have to pretend you find it funny too for the social benefit even though it's not funny at all.

I think the only piece of British comedy that I really enjoyed was Peep Show. I could watch that on repeat, just like Seinfeld.
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Python was best in sketches like the muppets
they have trouble carrying a long narrative
Peaches the Wonder Cat said:
Of course the best WKRP scene doesn't even have music.
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there's a fan restoration on archive, but yeah WKRP had some good stuff
I had a boss who was like, one or two degrees of separation from the real Turkey Drop, either he worked with the guy or with somebody who did, forget which
 
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TeaBaggins said:
A famous football player who murdered his ex-wife but got away with it and was acquitted. It's pretty much common knowledge that he did it and he's a murderer.
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Technically OJ Simpson is the father of influencer culture. If he didn’t chop up Ron and Nicole, there’d be no trial, no Robert Kardashian being like “he vas my friend... I believe in juice…”, no media circus, no Kim getting a taste of the spotlight. Fast-forward: Ray J dick, billionaire makeup line, Kanye meltdown, Pete Davidson somehow involved.
 
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I have a distinct memory of being in 4th grade and a couple of my classmates were reciting lines from MadTV. I didn't watch the show so I brought up something from SNL and I got one kid literally staring at me pissed off saying "we don't like SNL we only like MadTV." Which may have been when I first realized what it felt like looking into the soul of autism.

I watched it a few years later and there were a few funny bits, Will Sasso is funny, so is Aries Spears but for the most part many of the main cast members I don't find very funny at all and some of the bits are just gross.

When I did get access to comedy central I would watch it when my parents were out and loved comic remix. First time I ever saw anti-comedy stuff was one comic using a marionette to punch her in the face while she cried, I don't know who this comic was but I remember that vividly.
 
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TeaBaggins said:
I did always appreciate that Mad TV was one of the only sketch shows that openly called out R Kelly for being a statutory rapist, back when nobody else was saying it.
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R. Kelly has had the slowest cancellation in recorded history. This man was out here running a sex cult and people were still like, “But ‘Step in the Name of Love’ tho.” Gaga did a duet with him where he plays the president and she plays a sex secretary or something, pretending she didn’t know what he was about until people in her Instagram comments went nuclear.

I’m not even a moral absolutist about art. I’ll still listen to Chuck Berry or whatever. But R. Kelly hasn’t been relevant since Space Jam.
 
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Captain Syrup said:
View attachment 7679831

R. Kelly has had the slowest cancellation in recorded history. This man was out here running a sex cult and people were still like, “But ‘Step in the Name of Love’ tho.” Gaga did a duet with him where he plays the president and she plays a sex secretary or something, pretending she didn’t know what he was about until people in her Instagram comments went nuclear.

I’m not even a moral absolutist about art. I’ll still listen to Chuck Berry or whatever. But R. Kelly hasn’t been relevant since Space Jam.
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2002. This sketch came out in 2002. It really did take that long to finally get him. Lady Gaga is laughable and completely bullshit, by the way. She openly defended working with R Kelly back when she did that song with him, and even defended him:

At a press conference in Japan in 2013, Gaga defended the collaboration, saying: "R Kelly and I have sometimes had very untrue things written about us, so in a way this was a bond between us."

Also:

Seal's Fly Like An Eagle > R Kelly's I Believe I Can Fly.
 
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In Loving Color is the best sketch show ever, followed by Mad TV. SNL has its moments.

My exposure to British comedy was purely through Comedy Central in the 90s (back when CC actually gave a fuck about comedy). They would air random shit including Monty Python, The Young Ones, a few others I’m forgetting. I figured out that British comedy is different. Now I didn’t say bad. It just took me a minute to get use to it.

TaimuRadiu said:
It's about how nothing you do really matters and how family road vacations are shitty and stupid and why places like Disneyland (sorry, sorry, "Walley World") are not places you should want to go to.
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Yes, and it’s all so relatable in some way. Everyone’s had that family vacation or gathering where you just wanted to stab yourself in the neck repeatedly with a fork.

Travoltron said:
3) I'll add a couple old shows I've discovered in reruns recently. Soap and Mama's Family. I actually went out and bought the DVDs because I liked them that much.
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I was going to bring up Mama’s Family. It’s actually a spin-off from The Carol Burnett Show, so if you liked that you’ll probably like this (especially if you’re southern).

TeaBaggins said:
I also think they royally screwed over Michael Fishman. The entire show revolved around Becky and Darlene while DJ was pretty much written off the show and severely underused. If the writers couldn't give the family members equal time, then there really was no point in continuing it.
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The Conners sucked, but to be fair, Fishman wasn’t a great actor, especially after he lost that “cute kid” energy from Roseanne. And his son died at some point, so I think he left.

This thread is a lot of fun, thanks for making it!
 
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TeaBaggins said:
Also Kids In the Hall.
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Wasn't that the weird Canadian show where they did a ton of drag and committed too hard? Uncomfortably hard.

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