A question to the old timers here.

Hi there. I'm gen Y. For me the 90s comedy was hilarious, then everything gradually became less original and less funny. I found around the years 2007 to 2015 I found that most comedy became more and more politically correct and stale, and then the years 2016 to 2018 the pendulum suddenly reversed, and we had what seemed to be the funniest time to be alive in history.

I'm wondering about equivalent times in history when the pendulum changed direction and everything got really funny? I'd be very interested in hearing a story of how society was changing, and how it effected the comedy.

How did comedy play out around the coming of age for you baby boomers? it seems like you had a massive societal shift around JFK/Vietnam/summer of love. Did you notice a change in comedy at the time?

And Gen Xers, I suppose you guys were coming of age around Thatcher/Regan, lots of political turmoil. Did that affect comedy?

For me the comedy that really captured 2016 best, was:

-The 2016 season of South Park. it ran alongside the Trump election campaign. It had me on the ground in stitches the whole season. I'd never seen anything like it.

- Milo Yianopolis - He's a bit hit and miss, not the funniest comedian in the world, but the ultimate symbol of the time. A gay jew with a black husband, attracted huge protests, violence, and general hysteria because the protesters believed him to be a white supremacist, Nazi, homophobe. Extremely ironic.

-Rebel media - Lauren Southern, and Gavin McGuiness videos from 2016 and 2017.

A lot of what made these guys so funny, and gave them so much energy was the reaction. The protests around them, the anger, and the riots, just didn't seem to line up with what they were actually saying. In Australia where I live, Milo, Gavin McGuiness, and Lauren Southern have all been banned from entering the country because of the protests. Milo and Southern were both given massive bills for the police protection they received from the insane protesters. They have each stopped doing what they were doing back then because they've had so many death threats. It's all going to seem very quaint to explain in the future. Maybe it'll be like explaining how controversial Life of Brian was back then, to my generation.

Quote: Chop In A Toaster @ 17th April 2021, 6:15 AM

And Gen Xers, I suppose you guys were coming of age around Thatcher/Regan, lots of political turmoil. Did that affect comedy?

View original

Hugely. It got far more political, NTNON, Spitting Image, Alexei Elton et al. And generally the lefties took it over from the old guard.

Ah, I'm watching Thatcher on spitting image throwing a stick and playing fetch with her husband. Nice. :-D

The Comedy Store opening in 1979 was the biggest shift of the period. It democratised comedy. Anybody, regardless of class and experience, could get up onstage. Out of that came Alexei, French and Saunders, Rik and Ade, Ben Elton and the Comic Strip.