RealGM

I like Demetri Martin a lot as well and his delivery is often Hedberg-esque, if anyone is unfamiliar with him.

My sister wanted to be an actress, she never made it, but she does live in a trailer. She got halfway. It's like she's an actress, she's just never called to the set.

I bought some tartar control toothpaste. I still got tartar, but that **** is under control.

I LOVE Dave, Killing Them Softly is probably my #1 of all time. I also think many people overreact and complain too much and agree with the “comedians make jokes, get over it” premise. BUT... but... in relation to Michael Jackson’s victims on the HBO special, saying flat out “I don’t believe them.” Man... that one is too far for me.

The difference between Jeselnik joking about rape and Chappelle’s joke here is that Jeselnik’s jokes are about a horrible thing in general while Dave’s joke is at specific victims.

Loving the standup talk though. Rushmore is so hard to narrow down. I love stand up and watch a lot of newer stuff. But I have a confession guys: I have never seen any Carlin and very limited Pryor or Murphy. So I acknowledge that most people might have those guys up there but for now I’ll leave them out of my Rushmore consideration.

My top guys, don’t really know how to rank them so, loosely tiered:

Chappelle
Norm MacDonald- Norm is so weird and some people don’t get it but he’s brilliant to me.


CK
Bill Burr
Mitch Hedberg

Tom Segura
John Mulaney
Nate Bargatze- recently discovered him, anyone see his new Netflix special or episode on The Standups on Netflix?

I finally got around to seeing Hereditary. What in the hell did I just watch?

I thought Chappelle’s standups on Netflix have all been hilarious and brilliant

ClassicJack wrote:I really enjoyed this as much as their episode of Comedians is Cars. I was as shocked as Eddie that Seinfeld had Bernie Mac as his GOAT. I mean, I love Bernie but...the best?

Watch on YouTube

Thanks for posting this. Loved it.

They talk about offensive jokes at one point. Jerry says if something is offensive, it has to be that much funnier. So if a joke is super offensive it better absolutely kill. I think there's something to that. Eddie followed that up by saying most offensive jokes simply aren't all that funny. Probably because they rely on shock value and there isn't much else there.

Watched the Chapelle special tonight. The parts that fell flat were when he was simply trying to provoke rather than be funny (aka "trolling"). Identifying as a Chinese man? What are you, 11 years old? I felt like I was watching bad Def Comedy Jam from 1989. You are a smart dude, use your damn brain and come up with something clever. I really liked the 2nd half. He seemed to get on a role after the LGBT stuff which wasn't too offensive to me but I didn't think was very funny.

emunney wrote:

JimmyTheKid wrote:a comedian on Mount Rushmore

Who's on the comedy Mount Rushmore? Dave is in the conversation but, man, it's a hot competition. If you were to go with just everybody's first two specials, I think Dave would be an EASY #1.

Murphy. Carlin. Robin Williams. Seinfeld. Lenny Bruce. Steve Martin. Chris Rock. Richard Pryor. Maybe even Joan Rivers.

That's of the top of my head.

I saw Robin Williams at the PAC, he was hilarious, most of it was improv stuff, so good. Saw Eddie Murphy, great. Saw Carlin too, that guy was a comic genius. Rock, Pryor, Martin all great. Chapelle is too hit and miss. Sometimes hilarious, often bleh. Kevin Hart was funny for about a week.

is anyone else enjoying Succession as much as I am?

Anyone seen the Terror? Thinking about giving it a go, have neard blasting review from a friend I usually trust regarding series

I watched Chappelle's Special this weekend. I went into it having read a lot of the criticisms of his set. They didn't push me off from watching it, as I needed to get a sense of the jokes themselves by hearing them delivered myself.

The truth is, many of the criticisms I've seen of Chappelle came off as a bit bizarre to me considering that he's made many of the same kinds of jokes going back to his rise to prominence with the three-headed monster of "Killin Em Softly," "Chappelle's Show," and "For What It's Worth." He made fun of R. Kelly pissing on a 15 year old and blamed the 15 year old for "not getting out of the way." He made fun of Elizabeth Smart, accusing her of being stupid for not escaping. He claimed he didn't believe Michael Jackson's accusers. So it's not like this subject matter is fundamentally different. I just think it all depends on how it lands - the context of the joke, the message the joke is sending, and ultimately, how funny it is.

So I watched the special. And watched him deliver his jokes. And...well...

It wasn't all bad - he made some pretty funny and even insightful comments - but too many of his jokes (especially in the first half of his set) landed as being mean-spirited instead of being humorous. I think this is a product of him becoming so ultra-mainstreamed and incredibly famous - he doesn't see a need to have a filter because, frankly, he knows people are going to watch him no matter what.

I don't think joking about ANYTHING is off-limits. But if you're going to talk about controversial subject matter - especially if you're "punching down" so-to-speak - I think you're turning up the difficulty setting on your set and you've got an even bigger responsibility to ensure that it lands well. Too often, it didn't in this case.

This looks hilarious.

Just finished watching this show called Perpetual Grace LTD. It's on EPIX, but I binged it with a free trial of the channel on Amazon. It's really good, definitely as good as anything else on TV right now. Kind of feels like Fargo, definitely has a Coen Brothers vibe.

The cast is awesome. Jimmi Simpson (one of the McPoyle brothers on It's Always Sunny) is the lead. Terry O'Quinn plays a Texas ranger named Wesley Walker, you've got Ben Kingsley, Luis Guzman, Kurtwood Smith (Red Foreman from That 70's Show).

The trailer below doesn't really do it any justice, but gives you the general idea anyway. I highly recommend it.

Beorn wrote:Anyone seen the Terror? Thinking about giving it a go, have neard blasting review from a friend I usually trust regarding series

Season 1, or season 2?

Jojo Rabbit looks amazing. Waititi has created or had a hand in some of the best comedy of the last 10 years.

humanrefutation wrote:I watched Chappelle's Special this weekend. I went into it having read a lot of the criticisms of his set. They didn't push me off from watching it, as I needed to get a sense of the jokes themselves by hearing them delivered myself.

The truth is, many of the criticisms I've seen of Chappelle came off as a bit bizarre to me considering that he's made many of the same kinds of jokes going back to his rise to prominence with the three-headed monster of "Killin Em Softly," "Chappelle's Show," and "For What It's Worth...."

I have been thinking about some similar themes after a comment on stand up by Emmuney a few days back. He mentioned he was ranking comedians "by their first two specials" and it dawned on me how difficult it is for a stand up to keep his/her audience engaged over the decades. And as people ranked their "Mount Rushmore" of stand ups, there really were none that were (stand up) icons in multiple decades. Pryor, Martin, and Murphy went on to great success in movies. Seinfeld and Larry David kept fans laughing via later tv projects. But I think it is impossible to pull off the fine line between comic, social critic, psychologist, and icon over multiple decades... because culture changes too much.

I think this is actually a huge reason Chappelle walked away for a few years. His early work resonated with a public (by exposing cultural and social ironies) in an almost iconic way. And I think he knew that was simply unsustainable for multiple reasons. Like Bob Dylan, neither set out to be cultural icons, they just were so good at what they did that a generation adopted them as such. Dylan has been making records forever, but after the mid 70's, he was not longer the defining voice of an entire era. Just a songwriter with a great resume. In the same way, 2019 Dave Chappelle is still a funny and quirky guy. But its not 2003 any more, and the tone and perspective that brought him to the top is not something that 2019 will tolerate in the mainstream. I'm sure most will use that as a criticism of the twitter/PC movement. But I think this exact dynamic has been true throughout the history of stand up. If you go back and watch the material of a really revered guy like Don Rickles, it will make you cringe. Times change. Attitudes change. Things people will laugh at in public change.

There will always be some up and comer who puts things together in a way that builds a massive following. And there will always be an element of fame and money that challenges a comic to keep in touch with that "every man" in the audience. Some real Rocky III stuff going on there.