Lewis Black

I admit that I am not a huge fan of Lewis Black. Personally, my comedic interests just do not match up with his routine and topics. When I watch comedy, I don't really like it to be a constant tirade or commentary on political issues. It's not that I am against what Black is saying, but I think that the world is full of political rants and stand-up comedy can be a form of escapism from this world of angry pundits and ranting talk show hosts. So when Lewis Black spends an hour on the ineptitude or shortcoming of the Bush administration, I find it monotonous and repetitive of what I am surrounded by constantly. I would rather hear a comic tell silly jokes about bodily functions because not every joke has to be intellectually current in my opinion. The world is already so politically charged and partisan-based that I get annoyed when it infiltrates into the world of comedy. Obviously humor has always been married to the political administration and a way of satirizing or poking fun at our leaders. However, I just personally don't enjoy it.

I am a fan of The Daily Show which takes such an approach to making fun of politics as was coincidently the spring board for Lewis Black's career. However, there is a difference between the two forms of comedy. The Daily Show takes a more laid-back and absurd approach to criticizing the mistakes of the world. Lewis Black just comes off as angry, grumpy and cynical. Some people like that. I prefer to have an optimistic view of the world and thus am not a part of Lewis Black's intended audience. I think he just yells so much and then he creates a greater cynicism and mistrust in today's society. From his perspective, we are all doomed and being led around by complete clowns. While this may have some truth in it, it certainly does not help matters to instill anger in everyone around. 

Some people are certainly capable of being fans of Black. I feel like he attracts an older audience who may be either more politically involved or more cynical in their outlooks of the world. Either way, I respectfully disagree with Black's approach and wish him luck in his endeavors. 

Wanda Sykes

Wanda Sykes has a very distinct and recognizable persona. I personally know her most not from her stand-up routine but as the angry accuser of Larry David on Curb Your Enthusiasm. She is constantly around to comment on Larry's mistakes and wrongful actions and will show up at his front door to yell at him and accuse him of wrongdoing. In regards to her stand-up, she has a very critical look at the world such as being stuck with a racist dolphin or the ups and downs of men. Much like her character on Curb Your Enthusiasm, she has no qualms about angrily commenting on the mistakes of the world around her and championing for a collective following of people who are affected by the same problems. 

I was actually very surprised to learn of Sykes' sexual orientation. Not because I targeted her as a heterosexual or homosexual, but because she never really mentioned any of it during her stand-up routine. But, there are few lesbian comedians that really incorporate the topics into their acts. I guess Ellen Degeneres brings it up occasionally, or at least hints at it, but she had such a public coming-out that it would seem unfulfilled if she didn't mention it somewhere. If the audience doesn't publicly know about the orientation, there probably is no reason to really bring it up in a stand-up routine unless it could add substantially to the humor. If a women, or man for that matter, comedian admit their sexual orientation during their routine and it wasn't commonly known like Degeneres' is, it could possibly take away from the focus of the humor. It would distract the audience's attention and bring it away from the main goal of telling jokes and making humor. I don't even really think it is that important unless it is a major part of a comedian's persona such as the flamboyantly gay comedian character. 

Overall, I think that Sykes' major stand-up attribute is her ability to sound funny when angry. Whether she is yelling about a racist dolphin or yelling at an incompetent Larry David, she just has a dominant angry voice and makes it extremely humorous. 

Mitch Hedberg

I have been aware of Mitch Hedberg for several years and I think my opinion on him has changed many times. When I first noticed him, a part of me thought that maybe he was trying to hard. He does have a very up-front character. The long hair, sunglasses and distinctive voice can come on a bit strong if not pulled off with style. Or maybe I wasn't appreciative of his extremely literal and fresh approach. But, as time went on, I really learned to enjoy his stand-up. I think it is because of the outside-the-box perspective he gives on topics or the inventive wordplay which only a growing student can appreciate. 

I think that his stage persona is something that people are either turned on or turned off by. He certainly tailors his look to approach a certain audience. I am not saying that only stoners or drug-users can enjoy him, but he undoubtedly has that look and view on life. The chuckle, hair and wardrobe look like a leftover hippie from years ago. Also, his commentary on life sounds like something you might hear from a stoned teenager who is glued to the couch. Obviously that is unfair to restrict him and his audience to such a simple category, but the look and feel are undeniable. However, where the ramblings of a stoner might end up sounding inane, Herberg is able to pull off such observations with charm and intellect. He is like a sillier version of Jerry Seinfeld. He makes observational humor but usually takes it in a more bizarre direction. For example, talking about Pringles' original business plan was to make tennis balls or feeling embarrassed in one's responses at a heavy metal rock concert. 

Overall, I learned to appreciate the ingenuity and originality of Hedberg's joke setup. I takes real talent to be able to approach observational humor with such inventiveness and freshness. He doesn't really hit on topics which other comedians speak about. A lot of what he says are just odd perspectives on life which the majority of the audience had never really considered before. There isn't much imitation and originality is his M.O. It is truly a tragedy that such a comic died so early. 

David Spade

I was very surprised to see David Spade doing stand-up. I was aware that he was on SNL where many stand-up comedians flourish in acting or writing, but I had never known Spade to be a stand-up comedian. Having said that, there wasn't anything particularly different between his stand-up routine and his usual characters and skits. On SNL, he was known for a segment on Weekend Update in which he would smugly comment on the in's and out's of Hollywood. Also, every role he played in movies such as Tommy Boy and Black Sheep, he is a sarcastic realist always commenting on the absurdity of situations. His stand-up is not much different. He sarcastically tears apart his own life and the lives of others. This begs the question: How often is there a change between stand-up persona and other work? Some actors who do stand-up comedy have movies or television shows which are merely extensions of their routine. These people include Tim Allen, Ray Romano and Jerry Seinfeld. However, some people such as Steve Martin or Robin Williams have very different stand-up/work personas and approaches. I guess some of it has to do with how marketable the persona is. Tim Allen plays a men vs. women routine and Jerry Seinfeld is a constant observer of mundane points. These routines can easily be expanded into television sitcoms. However, people like Steve Martin or Robin Williams don't have as easily identified persona and thus they are not as pigeon-holed into doing work which is a direct reflection of that stand-up. 

As for David Spade, I don't think he has been completely marketed as the wise-cracking, sarcastic straight man but the majority of his work surely reflects it. I think that in the past few years he has grown longer hair and looked for different work. Maybe he is trying to branch out of that character or maybe he is just trying to take it in a different, new and fresher direction.

Dave Chappelle

I have always been a fan of Dave Chappelle and his stand-up/television work. "Killing Them Softly" and "For What It's Worth" are, in my opinion, laugh out loud hilarious and able to produce the same response after repeated viewings. For example, I have heard that bit about kid's cartoons about fifteen times and when I watched it in class, I laughed about as hard as I did when I saw it for the first time.
Anyway, I tried to indentify why I found Chappelle so humorous. Yes, he does have good material and the subject matter and punchlines are hilarious. However, I think it is a little more than that. Eddie Murphy, when asked his secret to being funny, said that he was just born with the ability to tell a joke well and sound funny. I think the same is true for Dave Chappelle. A lot of this humor has to do with his voice and especially his "white person voice". Whenever Chappele imitates a white person, he always talks in a high-mannered, uptight and snooty tone and it makes the joke sound hilarious. I can understand why a black audience member would find it funny as it portrays a different race. However, I think that white people can find just as much humor in something like that. I don't find it offensive or degrading. I have met people that talk like that but I don't so I do not feel like I am really the target of any joke. What would happen if a white comedian tried to imitate a black person? I am sure that he or she would use a voice which sounds like at least a part of the racial population much like Chappelle uses a voice that sounds like a minority of the white population. A black viewer or listener would think "I know people that talk like that, not me, but I have heard it before". It may seem like a fair and equal comic trade-off but it does not work that way. The minority of a population is always able to poke as much fun at the majority but the majority is cruel if they jab at the minority. I am not quite sure how that works but I think it is fair.
In a democratic nation like America, the majority vote wins thus has the power. Therefore, whichever people are in the majority are most likely to control the power through numbers. (I am not saying white people are more powerful than the black race, or any other race for that matter, but simply that majority rules). Thus, just like I have mentioned before in such examples as presidential humor, there is a longstanding tradition of poking fun and making jokes at those in power. If the president came on TV and started ripping on the American public, surely it would not go over well. However, Letterman can go on TV every night and take shots at the government's expense. That is just how the humor flows. There is no vis-versa.
Therefore, to sum up, I think black people can make fun of white people but white people (for the most case, unless done very tastefully) cannot make fun of black people. And I am fine with that because I think it is all hilarious.

George Carlin, again.

On our second (or third?, maybe even fourth) viewing of George Carlin, I noticed many of the same things and even some new aspects to his humor.

I think a lot of Carlin's humor or appeal comes from the recitation which makes up a big part of his stand up routine. For example, in his "I'm a Modern Man" routine, there may not be a lot of jokes that are particularly laugh-out-loud hilarious. On the other hand, it is incredibly impressive that he not only wrote such a string of high-impact lines but also memorized and recited it well. I think it would be hard enough to memorize a comedian's routine of setups and punchlines not to mention such a dense and intricately worded speech as Carlin's. In fact, I think this applies to most of his stand up. Many of his bits, or rather speeches, seem as if they could be read by a man off of a sheet of paper at a lectern facing an audience. This is not only because of their length and basis on exact memorization but also because many of these speeches feel as if they are meant to lecture a crowd. Yes, they are for the purpose of humor as well but also to teach and harangue.

Also, it seems to fit into a common theme that Carlin, the anti-establishment/government/society comic would maybe tone it down a little bit as his career went on. I am not saying he cleaned up his act or made it cheerful and bright, but he did probably do less chaotic acts which resulted in arrests. Also, he played the conductor on the children's show "Shining Time Station" on PBS which is certainly not an venue for his "Seven Dirty Words" routine or anything or the sort. However, similarly raunchy comedians have been known to calm down as their careers progressed. Eddie Murphy, the man who came out in a red jumpsuit and dropped n-words and grabbed his crotch can now be seen in such family-fun movies like "Daddy Day Care" or "Doctor Dolittle". Steve Martin, the man whose routine used to involve spitting out his water onstage and mentioning drugs, etc. can now be seen in "The Pink Panther 2" and "Cheaper By The Dozen". Maybe humorists and comedians have some revelation as they age that they are maybe growing out of the profanities and crudeness and may need to refocus some of their material. Maybe it is because they have families. Maybe their priorities are rearranged. I will say though that for as old as Carlin was while remaining comedically active, his act didn't clean up all too much. At least not when compared to the aforementioned comics. So, in that sense, I guess he should be commended for keeping it relatively crude into old age.

Presidential Humor

As we read the Lyndon Johnson piece in class, I started to wonder about the entire concept of presidential humor. I think that it is only natural, at least in modern times, to make jokes at the expense of those in higher power. Since government is always the subject of scrutiny, it would only make sense that the head of the government would receive his fair share of flak. I am not sure if president jokes have extended back into the history of America, but they have certainly been a part of popular culture for the past fifty years (at least since Saturday Night Live has existed). 

It has been easy for comedians to find humor in the past few decades. They have had a president who resigned due to a criminal scandal, one who was impeached because of an extramarital "affair" and a cowboy with poor speaking skills. Humorists have probably been having a blast whenever any of those presidents spoke on national television. Also, it seems that recently, with criticism of George W. Bush, comedians have given off-handed comments about their personal political preferences (liberal in social and economic matters).

This makes it very difficult with the election of Barack Obama. First of all, he stands for many of the things and issues that several of these comedians criticized Bush for not having. Second, he is black. Can these comedians and late night hosts(who are mostly white, i.e. Leno, Conan, Letterman, Ferguson, Kimmel) come us with any sort of material to make their time-honored pokes at the president. He hasn't made many blunders yet, at least not compared to Bush, and any jokes about his race would be borderline offensive. I am sure it could be pulled off tastefully but I don't think many white comedians are willing to take the risk.

I do not know how to circumvent this "humor problem". My best advice would be for comedians to hammer down their best Obama impressions (Fred Armisen has already nailed an immaculate one on SNL). That would definitely provide laughs. Other than that, I guess this people are just going to have to wait for the president to screw up, for better or for worse.