Lee Henman
Thursday 21st June 2012 11:27am [Edited]
5,183 posts
Quote: Tony Cowards @ June 15 2012, 12:49 PM BST
Commissioners and the comedy industry in general seem to forget that the 16-30 year old demographic actually make up an ever dwindling percentage of the TV viewing audience, therefore a relatively "safe", older, more family friendly/mainstream act will clean up in terms of popularity (see also "Miranda", "Not Going Out", Jason Manford, Micky Flanagan, Peter Kay, etc).
My mum knows nothing about comedy but she knows of, and likes, Michael McIntyre, because he appeals to a large part of the population that has been ignored, comedically, because every one wants to be "trendy", "boundary pushing" and generally appealing to teenagers and the twenty-somethings.
Michael McIntyre is very funny, IMHO, and he's found a very broad niche which no-one was previously exploiting, he straddles what used to be "alternative comedy" (appealing to the youth and the rebellious) and "mainstream" (telling jokes that grannies and kids can laugh at).
Yep. Comedy snobs and trendies really bore me. It's de rigeur to slag McIntyre off because his stuff's broad. It's the norm to berate Peter Kay for just talking about the past. But these guys are masters of their craft, when they're on top form they can hold an audience in hysterics and milk every last drop of laughter from them. But they're not "cool" like Stewart Lee for instance, hence they must be shit. And what's wrong with appealing to the masses? Surely a performer's raison d'etre is to make as many people as possible love them and laugh at them.