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Comedy fail :(

Fritzo

Fritzo

Lifer
Growing up, one of my favorite comedy shows was Steve Martin's Showtime special "Comedy is not Pretty". That laid the groundwork for my sense of humor for the next several decades. I still find it hysterical, and recently found a VHS tape of the performance.

For a treat, I dubbed it to DVD and thought I would show it to my kids.

They watched it for 5 minutes, said "This sucks" every 20 seconds, and then left the room to go play Rock Band on the XBox.

I was really disappointed and even a bit angry that they just poo-pooed something I loved like that. 🙁 Do my tastes just suck or is something like Steve Martin too old for people to relate anymore?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VmtNntThPo
 
Do they like comics like Dane Cook?

Steve might just have an older style humor that they don't relate to.
 
his stand up is not my kind of humor. and growing up i saw so many people adopt his humor in everyday life and it made me want to rip their face off.
 
comedy just doesn't age well, you might as well have tossed em some chaplin.

and yea i didn't find the clip funny....it was actually kind of sad. perhaps that stuff was more taboo then, now stripped of that it just seems infantile, and without any wit. its not that steve martin is old, its that the culture and society has moved on.
 
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0roo0roo said:
comedy just doesn't age well, you might as well have tossed em some chaplin.

and yea i didn't find the clip funny....it was actually kind of sad. perhaps that stuff was more taboo then, now stripped of that it just seems infantile, and without any wit. its not that steve martin is old, its that the culture and society has moved on.
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I dunno, Eddie Murphy's 'RAW' and Eddie Izzard's 'Dress to Kill' are just as funny now as when I first saw them. Raw is almost 30 years old now.
 
CrackRabbit said:
I dunno, Eddie Murphy's 'RAW' and Eddie Izzard's 'Dress to Kill' are just as funny now as when I first saw them. Raw is almost 30 years old now.
Click to expand...

Yea, maybe I have a bad sense of humor, but I can watch Eddie Murphy's Raw any time, and it'll still be funny. I don't care much for Steve Martin, then or now, anyway.

I'm 24, btw, if that's any context.
 
0roo0roo said:
comedy just doesn't age well, you might as well have tossed em some chaplin.

and yea i didn't find the clip funny....it was actually kind of sad. perhaps that stuff was more taboo then, now stripped of that it just seems infantile, and without any wit. its not that steve martin is old, its that the culture and society has moved on.
Click to expand...

I disagree on that go look at some of Red Fox's and Richard Pryor's clips back in the 70's and tell me they are not funny. I would link some clips but they are real dirty and I'm at work.
 
CrackRabbit said:
I dunno, Eddie Murphy's 'RAW' and Eddie Izzard's 'Dress to Kill' are just as funny now as when I first saw them. Raw is almost 30 years old now.
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Delirious was awesome too and he did that before Raw.


Jeffg010 said:
I disagree on that go look at some of Red Fox's and Richard Pryor's clips back in the 70's and tell me they are not funny. I would link some clips but they are real dirty and I'm at work.
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Richard Pryor was a god... His stuff was/is timeless.

How long has it been since Robin Williams did any standup? It has to be 20+ years since he toured. Bob Golthwait. Sam Kinnison has been dead for 20 years. Most of his best stuff is over 30 years old.

There are so many of them...
 
0roo0roo said:
comedy just doesn't age well, you might as well have tossed em some chaplin.

and yea i didn't find the clip funny....it was actually kind of sad. perhaps that stuff was more taboo then, now stripped of that it just seems infantile, and without any wit. its not that steve martin is old, its that the culture and society has moved on.
Click to expand...

Some comedy ages better than others. Go back and watch old Richard Pryor, he's still hilarious.
 
To Fritzo,

I can sympathies with you, you are a victim of older generation, as an old fogie, you by definition can't win. The younger generation on the other hand, self decides, they are the very definition of cool.

It happened to me when I was young, all that long hair, free love and hippie, was some thing any one over thirty could not possibly understand as a mantra. But as something various philosophers and humorists say in a variety of ways, the problem with childhood is its wasted on children. And in a few years when your kiddies Xboxes are only antiques that are uncool, maybe your kids will finally come around to appreciate your humor.

Or we can maybe appreciate that first Western Philosopher in Socrates, whose matra then was that the younger generation was going to hell in a hand basket. Here we are some 150 generation later, and I sure believe ole Socrates was right.

Now that I am old enough to be an old fogie, I wonder about all these kiddie creates where men wear ear rings, women have tattoos, and both sexes have slit ears and weird body piercings. But I still try hard to remember I was young once.
 
Lemon law said:
To Fritzo,

I can sympathies with you, you are a victim of older generation, as an old fogie, you by definition can't win. The younger generation on the other hand, self decides, they are the very definition of cool.

It happened to me when I was young, all that long hair, free love and hippie, was some thing any one over thirty could not possibly understand as a mantra. But as something various philosophers and humorists say in a variety of ways, the problem with childhood is its wasted on children. And in a few years when your kiddies Xboxes are only antiques that are uncool, maybe your kids will finally come around to appreciate your humor.

Or we can maybe appreciate that first Western Philosopher in Socrates, whose matra then was that the younger generation was going to hell in a hand basket. Here we are some 150 generation later, and I sure believe ole Socrates was right.

Now that I am old enough to be an old fogie, I wonder about all these kiddie creates where men wear ear rings, women have tattoos, and both sexes have slit ears and weird body piercings. But I still try hard to remember I was young once.
Click to expand...

this

Trying to get my Nephew to appreciate some of my favourites from my youth was near impossible. He liked Spaceballs and that's about it, everything else was "Old".
 
I just had revelation of sorts a few days ago when I watched some Lenny Bruce stuff.

I am a huge fan of Izzard and CK. Both are guys who are very influenced by Bruce. I have watch all of their stuff. I have also enjoyed some stuff I have seen of Bill Hicks. Another person who was very influential on them.

But what I have noticed with Hicks, and especially with Bruce is that I can see how they influenced and molded the comics I love and I can appreciate how ground breaking and different their material was, I can't help but see how dated and for lack of a better phrase "played out" their material is now.
It is hard to time travel with comedy. Their style and innovation is impressive but the jokes and punch lines are just not quite as sharp and witty all these years later.

It is almost like Scotch. I love the stuff. I have tried some expensive stuff and I can appreciate the complexity and flavors and all those things that Scotch lovers talk about. BUT, the price makes in inaccessible and not really my thing.

I dont know. I respect and appreciate those that came earlier and I do find some of their material pretty fucking funny.

But with that said, I watch that Steve Martin clip and have a good chuckle at his funny gestures about sex but not nearly as hard as when I saw Zach Galifinakis 5 years ago. Though they were both doing really goofy physical comedy, Zach was fresh and bizarre and Steve Martin is the guy who made me laugh when I was 8 and watched the Jerk.
 
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