Comedy - when is it unfunny

[titch juicy]

Otta Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I think perhaps the best modern day example of

> marmite comedy is Mrs Brown's Boys.

>

> My parents think it is hilarious. Some people I

> know who are my age think it's hilarious. It's

> ratings show that many many people watch it, so

> presumably think it's hilarious.

>

>

> I am missing the joke.

I am also missing that particular joke.

Didn't it recently win some kind of funniest show award?

[Sue]

I went to see Jerry Sadowitz sometime in the eighties, in a quite small Arts Centre.

He had some sidekick with him who at one point during the evening proceeded to expose himself to the audience.

I'm still not sure whether I should have found that funny or not, tbh. I'm not sure whether I would now, either.

But I can't remember the context. Or whether I laughed at the time.

[Salsaboy]

You're right. In todays political correctness gone mad world I shouldn't be insulting to people based on their size, creed, colour, sexual orientation, number of children they have, job shy or not, if they are vegetarian or indeed vegan, in fact anything and especially if they are funny or not. I hang my head in shame about calling Gervais a fat fcuk.

Following on from this though, everyone who has posted on this thread is comedeyist. Shame on all of you.

malumbu Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Salsaboy - why do you seem to have to revert to

> the language of the street? Gervais is in deed

> over rated and not funny. Do insult him for that

> but not his size.

>

> You should organise a one to one with

> aforementioned Nick Helm (a fat and bearded fcuk

> to use your terminology) where you can fcuk and

> cant at each other to your hearts content.

> Preferably in a sealed room without any connection

> to the outside world where nobody can hear you or

> read about it. The last one alive wins.

>

> Now that is what I call funny.

[malumbu]

Wow

In my youth we freely used mong (downs) and spas (spastic) as insults. Thanks God we've moved on. If that is too politically correct for you then it is a sad day.

Now I don't car about chalkboard vs blackboard, and brainstorm vs brainshower.

It just seems to be a shallow insult/argument quoting PC. Whilst funny tubby comics such as Jo Brand used their size to good comic effect, and perhaps as she lives just down the road she would sit on you. In a crushing rather than other sense.

Go and think about your words and write a 500 word essay.

[DovertheRoad]

Jim Davidson - a white comedian who made jokes about black culture to a predominantly white audience.

Lenny Henry - a black comedian who made jokes about black culture to a predominantly white audience.

Both had 1980's output that made me feel uncomfortable tbh.

[DovertheRoad]

Plus add the next 36 years for Jim Davidson.

[Lynne]

Many many years ago there was a TV comedy show called "Not the 9'O'clock News" . Very funny, "Fast Show" type of thing. A great show, I thought. Then they did a sketch about Argentinian torture and not only I didn't find it funny, but I never found anything they ever did funny again. Not a moral or ethical decision, just some sort of internal switch went off. An odd experience.

So, comedy isn't just about being funny.

[Earl Aelfheah]

Otta Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I think perhaps the best modern day example of

> marmite comedy is Mrs Brown's Boys.

>

> My parents think it is hilarious. Some people I

> know who are my age think it's hilarious. It's

> ratings show that many many people watch it, so

> presumably think it's hilarious.

>

>

> I am missing the joke.

God yes. What the hell is that about. See also, 'two pints of larger and a packet of crisps', which was one of the most popular TV comedies of the last decade and completely unfunny (imo).

[Jeremy]

DovertheRoad Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Jim Davidson - a white comedian who made jokes about black culture to a predominantly white audience.

> Lenny Henry - a black comedian who made jokes about black culture to a predominantly white audience.

>

> Both had 1980's output that made me feel uncomfortable tbh.

You wouldn't be the first person to criticise LH for playing up to a white audience, but at least he was able to base his comedy on informed observations. Unlike Davidson, who I suspect knew nothing about the Jamaican people, but just liked taking the piss out of them. It's an unfair comparison.

[Earl Aelfheah]

My main issue with Lenny Henry was that he wasn't funny. Davidson is a nasty piece of work imo.

[Henry_17]

Rah,

Pretty far fetched to assume all those big brother voters could just be wrong.

[Angelina]

my un-comedy fave was when I was in Brixton and the comedian got annoyed with me and my other for not paying him attention and kissing obviously annoyed him so much he forgot that his (rather extreme) insults and verbal abuse could be heard at the back of the room even without his mic on...(sound carries in old cellars)..

He got booed off and then tried to start a fight.

Not funny.. and just a bit thankful there were a hundred witnesses.

[LadyNorwood]

Richard Herring in a pub up at Crystal Palace - Lord Norwood is a bit on the large size and RH thought he'd have a pop at him about it..... I replied something along the lines of "is that the best you can come up with, lame" and we walked out, think we got more laughs than RH who was a lost for words....

[????]

Didn't something similar happen to him on a flight LadyN*? or was that someone else

*not the walking out bit

[Otta]

rahrahrah Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> My main issue with Lenny Henry was that he wasn't

> funny. Davidson is a nasty piece of work imo.

See I thought LH was funny at one point. Admittedly it was a very long time ago, and it probably got forgotten after being buried under lots of not very funny. But I still smile when I see clips from Live & Unleashed (1989).

But I was 11 at the time.

Agree with Jeremy that it's not fair to compare that to Jim Davidson though.

RE 2 pints of lager, I remember watching it a bit when it very first came out, and finding some of it mildly amusing in a very badly acted Hollyoaks being naughty kind of way.

But that was very short lived, and I was amazed to find it still going YEARS later.

[*Bob*]

I?ve given up getting particularly hot under the collar about this on the whole. If someone wants to go and watch something generally harmless, get into a jovial mood, laugh at stuff and then come home to their insipid, pointless lives then big deal, so what. My Mum too loves the dreaded Mrs Brown. It doesn?t make her a moron, she just likes it. The only definition of something being 'funny' is that it makes people 'laugh' and different people laugh at different things so there it is.

That said, it?s the dirge of TV comedy panels that gets me riled, because they?re on EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME - and seem to only be frequented by the same rotating cabal of mediocrity who are simply fortunate enough to have been touched with the magic Avalon Management stick. Watching them is like being trapped in Jongleurs on a bad night - an experience I have had more than once but never want to repeat.

[Help-Ma-Boab]

Chris Moyles sidekick - Comedy Dave. Come to think of it, Chris Moyles.

[DovertheRoad]

Jeremy Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> DovertheRoad Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > Jim Davidson - a white comedian who made jokes

> about black culture to a predominantly white

> audience.

> > Lenny Henry - a black comedian who made jokes

> about black culture to a predominantly white

> audience.

> >

> > Both had 1980's output that made me feel

> uncomfortable tbh.

>

> You wouldn't be the first person to criticise LH

> for playing up to a white audience, but at least

> he was able to base his comedy on informed

> observations. Unlike Davidson, who I suspect knew

> nothing about the Jamaican people, but just liked

> taking the piss out of them. It's an unfair

> comparison.

Not a fair direct comparison. But whilst you could say LH got a pass on the basis of colour...he def didn't endear himself to a certain portion of the black community. And I respect their right to feel like that. Perhaps most telling is that he has long since dropped that material.

[Otta]

Well for starters it was a bloke from Dudley doing a terrible South London accent as Delbert Wilkins.

Where as The Real Maccoy (4 years later) made a point of using African and West Indian accents.

 

[malumbu]

Don't pick on our Lenny. If you want to pick on someone make it David Jason who was miles off a Peckham accent - which in any case was filmed in Bristol. Or the classic John Nettles where they decided that he should have a SW accent even though they sound nothing like that in Jersey (Begerac). Or Dick Van Dyke. Or some of the mish mash in East Enders where they can't even get the ethnicity right (oh you have brown skin, you can be a generic South Asian).

[malumbu]

Specially for Salsaboy, and perhaps Grok, tickets going for Ricky Gervais for Children in Need. Go on, you know you want to, don't let me stand in your way

http://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/shows/children_in_need_insert_16nov16

[camberwell70]

Watching England.

[teddyboy23]

2 cannibals eating a comedian.one turns to the other and saids.here does he taste funny to you.