Get the sand out of your vag (Seinfeld says colleges too PC)

Chad Sexington

Chad Sexington

Celt Z said:
I'd really love some younger comics to weigh-in to see if they're having similar issues reaching an younger audience.
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I've done some open mic on younger crowds; I live near the university here in town so the bars often have that population. I'm hardly one of the funniest people -I'm also new- but I can say I haven't felt like pulling punches or being sensitive. Maybe I'm not big enough for offence to register, or maybe I'm just not offensive.

Cajungal said:
For the record, I just wanna say that Larry the Cable Guy is absolutely not funny.
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Cannot agree with this enough.
 
Zappit

Zappit

Staff member
Celt Z said:
I see this list, and if you include Seinfeld and Rock, I think there's a lot of truth in what @Zero Esc said:


No one is saying these guys aren't funny, but people under a certain age just aren't their primary audience anymore. And the same thing happened when they were up-and-coming: appealing to a younger audience with a different style of comedy. Comedy has, and does, change with the times. When was the last time you heard vaudeville acts or Henny Youngman-types finding a college audience? I'd really love some younger comics to weigh-in to see if they're having similar issues reaching an younger audience.
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The thing is, this younger audience turns on "their" stars at the drop of a hat. The slightest potentially offensive material sends them into a frothing frenzy. Look at Whedon. One of the most progressive writers in entertainment, making huge cultural contributions to the LGBT cause, crucified online for making Black Widow vulnerable and humanly flawed. They even went nuts because she was locked up for five minutes in the movie. Lessee, Loki was locked up, Thor was locked up...

Look at the guy picked to take over the Daily Show. He's pretty funny, but about three out of the hundreds of jokes and one-liners offended some people, and they ripped him up.

There's too many people in the younger audience who don't find anything funny, because they're lacking the ability to laugh. Why the hell would any comedian even want to try to engage people like that?
 
phil

phil

To me the thing about "offensive" comedy is that you just have to be bringing something new to the table for it to actually be funny and not crossing that line to just plain offensive. The best examples I can think of are the differences between The Chappelle show and Mind of Mencia. One of Chappelle's best and earliest sketches was the Clayton Bigsby sketch where a blind black man believes himself to be white and is raciest against black people as a result. This was so off the wall and witty that it was hilarious even though without context it would just be Dave Chappelle yelling racial slurs for a few minutes.

Mind of Mencia on the other hand had a sketch called Punji at the 7-11 where Mencia plays an Indian store clerk hurling obvious insults at cookie cutter stereotypes coming into the store. Right off the bat we're already in an over done and just plain not funny situation. Of course all the customers end up being just as bland an unoriginal. The Redneck white guy tells him to speak American, the fat black lady says she'd be thin too if she could get a personal trainer while buying nachos and the black guy robs the store to which Mencia just says "of course!" There's no real new ground being explored with any of it and, to me, is closer to the edge of offensive than Chappelle literally yelling the N word and White Power over and over.

Similarly Adult Swim had a cartoon called Minoriteam for a little bit that had the same problem. It centered around a team of minority super heroes who all had powers based on their stereotypes. The Chinese guy was super smart, the black guy was fast the mexican had a super powered leaf blower and so on. It wasn't even really offensive because it was just so tired and dumb it was like being offended at your grandparents for saying colored that one time. On the other hand you also had The Boondocks which was able to actually look at and poke fun at aspects of black culture because it was able to give it a twist or present it in a new light that hadn't been done to death.

I think the problem, in relation to the main topic, comes in that people aren't taking the time to really reflect on things that could possibly offend them. I understand that they have their guard up because this is the generation that's mostly grown up online which is still a largely toxic environment. How long ago was it that people were posting that meme of Beast grinning with a caption that said "just do it f----t" or something to that extent? And were the people posting it homophobic at their core or were they just posting something with the word f----t in it because this is the internet and that's just what you do? If you can't play an online game for more than a few minutes without someone calling you a n----r is it any surprise that the group of people who are legitimately sick of that behavior are becoming more vocal and quicker to call foul on things as they pop up?

Personally I think this will work itself out over time. For every post about how offensive this thing or that thing is I see two talking about how tired people are about hearing how offensive it is. And that's the problem too, is that everyone has a voice now thanks to the social media bukkake we expose ourselves to on a daily basis so we're bombarded with everyone's opinion about every little thing 24/7.
 
Cajungal

Cajungal

Staff member
^You said it. In my experience, people are willing to be "forgiving" if there's more to what you're saying than just "let me shock and/or disgust you."

And even then there needs to be wiggle room. Louis CK has a great bit about an attractive couple where he says, "I want to see what their kid looks like. Who knows, maybe I wanna fuck their kid too." And when the audience groans, he says, "That's just me saying something awful because I know how you'll react" <--or something similar. Then he says something worse and laughs this playful, evil laugh. It's a great bit. For me personally, it reminded me of my dad and brother, who say things just to get a rise out of me. It makes me love them more, but it also drives me crazy sometimes. It's just plain fun and powerful to know you can push people's buttons. Sometimes that's the joke. "Listen to how horrible this is... can you imagine if people were really like this? Oh, they are sometimes? Well, if you don't laugh you'll cry..."

Comedy, art, film, music... we have to be willing to let these people have some freedom or else we're going to be a sad, boring bunch of people. If you don't like it, don't buy it or walk out of the theatre. That's your right.
 
DarkAudit

DarkAudit

Zappit said:
The thing is, this younger audience turns on "their" stars at the drop of a hat. The slightest potentially offensive material sends them into a frothing frenzy. Look at Whedon. One of the most progressive writers in entertainment, making huge cultural contributions to the LGBT cause, crucified online for making Black Widow vulnerable and humanly flawed. They even went nuts because she was locked up for five minutes in the movie. Lessee, Loki was locked up, Thor was locked up...

Look at the guy picked to take over the Daily Show. He's pretty funny, but about three out of the hundreds of jokes and one-liners offended some people, and they ripped him up.

There's too many people in the younger audience who don't find anything funny, because they're lacking the ability to laugh. Why the hell would any comedian even want to try to engage people like that?
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Iggy Azalea got crucified for long-since deleted tweets to the point that LGBT groups were calling for boycotts of her appearance at a Pride event in Pittsburgh this weekend. Eventually the backlash reached critical mass and she canceled.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
DarkAudit said:
Iggy Azalea got crucified for long-since deleted tweets to the point that LGBT groups were calling for boycotts of her appearance at a Pride event in Pittsburgh this weekend. Eventually the backlash reached critical mass and she canceled.
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If there's one thing that's safe for ridicule, it's Iggy Azalea. I think that's a grand unifying force we can all get behind, no matter your personal politics.

She actually does look like a Wayans in drag, a la White Chicks.

 
DarkAudit

DarkAudit

GasBandit said:
If there's one thing that's safe for ridicule, it's Iggy Azalea. I think that's a grand unifying force we can all get behind, no matter your personal politics.

She actually does look like a Wayans in drag, a la White Chicks.

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I think the local NBC affiliate is just using the story to repeatedly air clips of her "Fancy" video.

Which immediately makes Weird Al's "Handy" play in my head. :p
 
Bowielee

Bowielee

DarkAudit said:
I think the local NBC affiliate is just using the story to repeatedly air clips of her "Fancy" video.

Which immediately makes Weird Al's "Handy" play in my head. :p
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On a completely tangential note, I can't believe that Weird Al is still cranking out such good music. Mandatory Fun was great.
 
jwhouk

jwhouk

See, it's funny that Al wasn't thought much of other than a novelty act when he first came out in the '70's. And now? He's this beloved entertainer with a huge hit album and great videos.
 
DarkAudit

DarkAudit

jwhouk said:
See, it's funny that Al wasn't thought much of other than a novelty act when he first came out in the '70's. And now? He's this beloved entertainer with a huge hit album and great videos.
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He still got a few "worse than Hitler" critiques for Word Crimes, but those were from of the most unhinged of the tumblr screechers.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

jwhouk said:
See, it's funny that Al wasn't thought much of other than a novelty act when he first came out in the '70's.
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Oh, some of us knew.
A wit like that isn't something you stumble into, it's something you spend effort cultivating.

--Patrick
 
Mathias

Mathias

sixpackshaker said:
Now just imagine doing standup in front of 300 Charlies.
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"Hi, folks. I just flew in and boy, are my arms tired!" :D

FLEW IN ON THE CLOUD OF PATRIARCHY AND WHITE PRIVILEGE! I BET TSA DIDN'T EVEN CAVITY SEARCH YOU! :mad:

BY "TIRED ARMS" DO YOU MEAN TIRED FROM RAPING SOMEONE! :cry:

WHO DO YOU MEAN, BOY!??! THAT'S RACIST. HATE CRIME!!!! :mad:

"FOLKS" IS A TRIGGER WORD FOR ME. IT REMINDS ME OF MY OPPRESSIVE PATRIARCHIST PARENTS ! I AM OFFENDED!:eek:
 
Mathias

Mathias

DarkAudit said:
Three pages in, and no one's done this yet?
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I watched the full video of that lady flipping her shit; there are like two other instances of her doing the same thing to street preachers. I don't think she understands the irony of being a living breathing fucking stereotype.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
I almost posted this when I saw it a couple days ago, but I stopped myself. It's about perfect.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

You want to talk comedy? Let's go timing--that comic strip got across the same joke and takes 10 seconds to read.

I think it's funny how millennials talk about the coming end of the baby boomers as if that's somehow going to free them of criticism, not realizing that gen x is right on their heels to be the crotchety old men bitching about kids these days.
 
AshburnerX

AshburnerX

Zero Esc said:
I think it's funny how millennials talk about the coming end of the baby boomers as if that's somehow going to free them of criticism, not realizing that gen x is right on their heels to be the crotchety old men bitching about kids these days.
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About the only thing Gen X is indignant over anymore is the fact that the Millennials are poised to overcome them before they get a chance to rule the world like previous generations. They are politically insignificant at this point, even if they DID lead the charge for Gay Rights (a fight they've all but won at this point). Even if they weren't, Gen X is pretty much the same politically as Millennials.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

AshburnerX said:
About the only thing Gen X is indignant over anymore is the fact that the Millennials are poised to overcome them before they get a chance to rule the world like previous generations. They are politically insignificant at this point, even if they DID lead the charge for Gay Rights (a fight they've all but won at this point). Even if they weren't, Gen X is pretty much the same politically as Millennials.
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I hope you're right, because some Gen-Xers I know don't seem to realize they're becoming their parents.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

jwhouk said:
Never did quite get that whole "Generation X" thing. Mostly because my dad wasn't a baby boomer.
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There's some generational gaps that I'm not sure are paid much attention. My dad wasn't a baby boomer either, but my wife's was, yet she's younger than me.


On topic, the culture is so PC these days, even Fozzie can't get a laugh:

 
Covar

Covar

Still reading, but Jesus Christ.

During the 2014–15 school year, for instance, the deans and department chairs at the 10 University of California system schools were presented by administrators at faculty leader-training sessions with examples of microaggressions. The list of offensive statements included: “America is the land of opportunity” and “I believe the most qualified person should get the job.”
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