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"Comedians" that aren't funny


Shaki

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Too fucking many of them.

Who's actually funny that's going about at the moment?

I just watched something called "Comedy Cuts" maybe Cutz with a "Z", anyway it was on BBC3 or ITV4 or one of these freeview channels. It was utter gash. A half hour show called "comedy cuts(z)" with nothing funny in it?! How do these people get on TV? Are the public more easily amused than me?

All the British comedians seem to have this observational comedy style with dead-pan delivery with a pause before their "stating the bleeding obvious" sarcastic punchline and that bores me. Little Britain (arguably the most successful British sketch show in the past 5 years?) makes me laugh maybe 1-2 times an episode and I'm not talking about belly laughs, more of a light snigger. That is not good enough.

My jokes are pretty funny, my friend's jokes are pretty funny, I laugh about 27 times a day. I like funny things. I like comedy. Where's the good stuff on TV/DVD/VHS? I'm sick of having to make myself laugh.

I want recommendations outside the following:

Funny to reasonably funny things I am aware of: Reeves & Mortimer stuff, Ricky Gervais stuff, Bill Hicks, Rich Hall, Eddie Izzard, Billy Connolly, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Mighty Boosh, Russel Brand when he's not presenting TV shows...

Not funny things I am aware of: Little Britain, "Am I bovvered", The Vicar of Dibley, Comedy Cutz, any female comedian that ever walked the planet (unless you can recommend someone I've not tried) and of course most things trying to pass as comedy.

I just want to laugh at something.

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Counter-argue all you want, but I don't think Bill Hicks is actually a funny comedian at all.

I used to think Al Murray was terrible, but on reflection of his stand-up clips on YouTube, he's actually a genius.

The worst I've ever seen is the black woman that's on Mock the Week occasionally. Horrific.

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I also think Bill Hicks was vastly over-rated. Most fo the time I thought he just repeated one joike over and over and over, dshouted alot and condescended every fucking person on the planet.

Right on the bastardin' nail, min :up:

One of my ex-colleagues was right into him (no, not you Chris) and constantly cross-referenced and quoted him in whatever discussion we were having.

The thing was that although Hicks' material was good and relevant for the time, his delivery was obnoxious in the extreme.

Listening to his CD's was like sharing airspace with that clever, but constantly moaning uncle who ruins every family occasion by finding fault with everything and everybody.

So if Hicks was still alive (did he ever aim his vitriol at any tobacco companies, the stupid cancer-y fag-smoking cunt???) I'd say to him what I said to uncle Charlie at my 18th birthday bash...

..."Is there anything that you DO like, ya miserable auld CUNT"....

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The worst I've ever seen is the black woman that's on Mock the Week occasionally. Horrific.

You're wrong about Bill Hicks, but you're bang on about her. Gina Yashere. Why the fuck is she on TV? She must have a well worn set of kneepads. When she is on Mock The Week they actually do have to add on laughter track after she says something (you can hear the change in the sound). Then they cut to an edit of Dara laughing at something else. She boils my piss.

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Hmmmm

There are some really funny comedians from the states, here are some I recommend.

Dave Attell

Mitch Hedburg (RIP)

Jim Gaffigan

Greg Giraldo

Dom Irrera

Brian Regan

I know a lot of people will slate me for bringing americans into this but I don't care. Stand-up is much more developed there and more competitive.

I'm quite a fan of some early classic stuff especially Bill Cosby's comedy albums. Again people are gonna go "he's not funny" but it's very interesting to listen to some of his stuff from the late 60's, early 70's and you'll find pretty much that our very own Billy Connelly has made a career from ripping him off.

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I also think Bill Hicks was vastly over-rated. Most fo the time I thought he just repeated one joike over and over and over, dshouted alot and condescended every fucking person on the planet.

great shout! i find he makes a few good observations and the rest of the time he's intensely irritating.

one of the best stand up performance i've ever seen was bernie mac on def comedy jam. actually, taking about that series, there are quite a few good women on there too.

i like loads of stuff, much of it being in the richard pryor, eddie murphy, chris rock vein. i saw danny bhoy at the edinburgh festival last year and he was mighty funny. each to their own tho.

/x

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Guest bluesxman

I find Bill Hicks observational humour, facial expressions and mannerisms hilarious personally. It's true that he had a reliance on certain material that brought about over-familiarity but there were always other little gems in there to make up for it and while he stretched a joke too far at times, ther eare plenty other comedians who just don't know when to stop with a particular theme. The longest available live video footage of him has too many overlaps of material,the CD's and the more recently released Sane Man DVD are essential for different material.

Eddie Izzard's surreal brand of humour was great for a while, Unrepeatable, Definite Article, Glorious and Dressed To Kill are all pretty great, but he really lost it, that last DVD he had out, Sexie was it?, I tried 3 times to watch it and had to give up, it was so dire.

The Richard Pryor live DVD that came out the other year is good, I do like Dylan Moran but actually find him funnier in Black Books than as a stand up.

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I can't believe I forgot Richard Pryor. As far as delivery goes, Richard was the fucking king.

Oh, and my point about Bill Hicks, by repeating it over and over and over, I didnt mean from gig to gig over many years. I meant in the same bit.

Give you an example, his bit about "if theres anybody in from marketing"

"kill yourself"

"no seriously kill yuorself"

"you might think theres a joke here, no, actually kill yourself"

"see they're all thinkng 'he's going for the *whatever* market there"

"kill yourself"

"see now he's going for the *whatever* dollar"

"kill yourself

and on

and on

and on

and on

or the bit about Bush being "dead"

2hes dead, hes dead,t hat rat fuck is dead, we were shooting at him for years, yes, he;s dead, hes dead hes dead hes dead hes dead hes dead hes dead blah blah blah blah blah"

as far as women go, Victoria Wood is FUCKING hurrendous.

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Guest DustyDeviada

At first I was thinking that the people who were slagging off Bill Hicks must be on crack, but then I remembered that at 29 I'm perhaps at the upper end of the age scale on this site and most people didn't actually hear him while he was alive.

I myself came across him around 91/92, back in the good old days when there was no intermeweb and only four telly channels. They showed his set from the Montreal Comedy Festival I think on Channel 4 late at night. Hilarious, just one of the funniest things I have ever seen, loved him after that, right up until the day when Danny Baker casually mentioned on his Radio 1 show that Bill Hicks had died (again, pre-internet).

But a lot of his material was topical (Gulf War, New Kids on the Block etc) so I can see how people wouldn't necessarily find it funny these days. Also, much better to discover something for yourself than to have people ramming it down your throat, if your expectation levels are higher of course there is a chance you will end up disappointed.

So, I guess what I'm saying is, "You had to be there." Those of you who weren't, tough luck dudes, you'll just have to take our word for it, Bill Hicks was one of the greatest comedians who ever lived.

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