Quote: Lazzard @ 14th February 2022, 9:38 AMFleabag
Toast of London
Derry Girls
What we do in the Shadows
The Thick of It
Car Share
Detectorists
Rev
Still Game
Black BooksWatch these and report back.
Good list although is What We Do In The Shadows British comedy?
I'd also add Motherland, People Just Do Nothing and This Country.
Quote: beaky @ 14th February 2022, 9:26 AMTry Sarah Millican, to my mind the funniest comedian in the UK. You might find her a little vulgar - well, very vulgar - but she's brilliant.
Alan Carr is much better on chat shows than stand up, in my opinion.
Sarah Millican.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGWLQCQ2axQ
"At the age of 12 I invited my maths teacher to my birthday party. It wasn't my birthday party it was my sisters bitrhday party and my mam said I could bring who I chose. And she came and she was an absolute delight. She made sure the cake was evenly divided." (Huge laughter and clapping).
Yes I get it, the maths teacher divided the cake evenly as in a maths problem.
ZZZzzzzz
Now compare it with this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtK7Hg7PnnQ
This is why the new breed of PC comedians fall far behind. They're simply not funny anymore except to a conditioned audience brought up on speech censorship and the modern comedians are tuning into that. You give the audience what they want, right? It's not the scarcity of comedy, it's the quality.
A comedian in Les's time was considered part of 'Variety' - playing to an audience who wanted to see singers, jugglers, dancers and, comedians.
Stand-ups today play to a completely different audience - more interested in pop, social media etc.
Different audience, different material.
Thee's nothing in Les's act that couldn't be done to today - and no shadowy 'consensus' that would try to stifle it.
The reason you don't get comedy like this anymore is because Les Dawson died.
He was a unique genius.
Quote: Lazzard @ 12th February 2022, 1:42 PMTime for those of us of a civilised nature to move on...
Best thing is to freeze him out - ignore the hell out of him.
It used to be called sending to Coventry...
Quote: Lazzard @ 13th February 2022, 10:43 PMWhy are you still humouring this nitwit?
Says the person who's posted in the region of 28 posts (I may have miscalculated in my continuing ennui) and counting on this thread
Quote: Billy Bunter @ 14th February 2022, 10:45 AMSays the person who's posted in the region of 28 posts (I may have miscalculated in my continuing ennui) and counting on this thread
?
To be the fair, the first half-dozen were me trying to have a discussion about his views on comedy, and many others were in response to long-time posters.
Plus a few pictures of Coventry.
Fair comment, though.
I have now, like him, resolved to stick to the comedy discussion he seems keen to have.
Unless he strays into politics again, in which case I'll leave him to it.
Quote: Rupert Bear @ 14th February 2022, 9:14 AMSo I thought Ok, I'll have another go. Back to Allan Carr live at the Apollo. Emerges through a cloud of smoke and I thought it was a game show, but everyone cheered and clapped polietly.
Started off with a joke about a fat woman slipping and falling which was a bit risky, but he got away with it. Followed by an inheritence 'joke' in which he said many on the property ladder hoped their parents would die so they could inherit. He then continued and described his estate agent as looking as if someone had sown her head onto a beanbag. (Oh how I laughed - rolls eyes). Then came the 'joke'. His estate agent showed him a property with wait for it, the jokes coming ... It was no bigger than this (shows a small space with his arm) It was like a panic room with a kettle! The audience cheered and clapped at that, but that's when I stopped. I'd just had enough.
Alright, we're getting somewhere. I don't find Carr, A. particularly funny either, and I find much of the LATA style a bit uninteresting. But, I don't believe that this isn't funny (not seen the routine in question, but we'll assume for the nonce I agree with you) because of censorship. Do you think Carr is actually desperate to say "my house is small because they give all the houses to those thieving gyppoes from overseas?!", but isn't allowed to? Is it the Apollo producers, the BBC management, or just society at large that is making him talk about small flats instead of edgy stuff, do you think?
And, would it actually be funnier if, instead of talking about small flats he was talking about how poofters walk in that weird way? A joke is as good as its construction and delivery far more than its referent.
What you're doing is the equivalent of saying that Coldplay are more polite and less exciting than Black Sabbath, which is true. But a) it doesn't mean that there wasn't plenty of safe inoffensive music around at the time, that you've naturally forgotten, and b) it would be an illogical leap to conclude that Coldplay don't sound like Sabbath in case it upsets a Pakistani (this is a tweak on a Stewart Lee line, incidentally).
Quote: chipolata @ 14th February 2022, 10:09 AMGood list although is What We Do In The Shadows British comedy?
I'd also add Motherland, People Just Do Nothing and This Country.
Probably not, technically. Lots of Brits in it, though!
Agree with the rest of your suggestions - Motherland in particular.
Quote: Lazzard @ 14th February 2022, 10:23 AMA comedian in Les's time was considered part of 'Variety' - playing to an audience who wanted to see singers, jugglers, dancers and, comedians.
Stand-ups today play to a completely different audience - more interested in pop, social media etc.
Different audience, different material.
Thee's nothing in Les's act that couldn't be done to today - and no shadowy 'consensus' that would try to stifle it.
The reason you don't get comedy like this anymore is because Les Dawson died.
He was a unique genius.
I agree with this wholeheartedly. I would take the genius of Les over Millican any day, but I watched the first 3 minutes of the link, and there's nothing there that people wouldn't say now - does Rupert think comical atonality is outlawed by the Twitterati or something? Millican says rude things Dawson would never have dreamt of saying (on TV anyway).
Quote: gappy @ 14th February 2022, 11:11 AM...things Dawson would never have dreamt of saying (on TV anyway).
Wouldn't be allowed to - the rules were far stricter.
Quote: Lazzard @ 14th February 2022, 11:12 AMWouldn't be allowed to - the rules were far stricter.
No they weren't, censorship didn't exist then, keep up, Laz.
Quote: gappy @ 14th February 2022, 11:15 AMNo they weren't, censorship didn't exist then, keep up, Laz.
But you could make jokes about Pakistanis, though.
Swings and roundabouts.
Quote: Lazzard @ 14th February 2022, 10:23 AMA comedian in Les's time was considered part of 'Variety' - playing to an audience who wanted to see singers, jugglers, dancers and, comedians.
Stand-ups today play to a completely different audience - more interested in pop, social media etc.
Different audience, different material.
Thee's nothing in Les's act that couldn't be done to today - and no shadowy 'consensus' that would try to stifle it.
The reason you don't get comedy like this anymore is because Les Dawson died.
He was a unique genius.
I should really be ignoring you as you're trouble, but I'll make an exception because of your on-topic post.
People previously wanted to be entertained. The old comedians catered to that, just as the new breed of entertainers cater to a new breed of audience. These want 'safe' comedy delivered by effeinate characters, or 'butch looking' women, with a few swear words thrown in for effect. It's their content I don't find funny.
If Dawson is now dead but his act was so good and could be copied today, why aren't the new comedians doing that? Why the bland sameness? Do you think Carr and Millican will still be popular in 40 years time? They're throw-a-way comedians, backstage there's another crowd waiting to come on and do the same script because they're not funny people, they're script line readers, not comedians.
In my opinion, comedy and humour are skills which only a few possess. Anyone can stand-up and recite the lines, but there's something about people like Dawson, Manning, Cleese, Idle, Atkinson and the rest of them which set them apart from the rest of us.
I write my own stuff for my website which I think is above average funny, although some might disagree. Yet I'll never be anywhere as good as the old script writers and I don't fool myself that I will be. Yet I could churn out pages of new comedian stuff as on the critique thread in a quarter of the time it takes me to put together one post of mine because I would be just reciting a safe story with a feeble punch line at the end.
I strayed into politics because of the baiting.
Quote: Rupert Bear @ 14th February 2022, 11:24 AMI strayed into politics because of the baiting.
Your first post on the thread had "Remove our national character, our tribal identity, and the global melting pot killed our sense of humour." which seems political to me.
Quote: Rupert Bear @ 14th February 2022, 11:24 AMPeople previously wanted to be entertained. The old comedians catered to that, just as the new breed of entertainers cater to a new breed of audience. These want 'safe' comedy delivered by effeinate characters, or 'butch looking' women, with a few swear words thrown in for effect. It's their content I don't find funny.
I think you have to draw a distinction between scripted comedy and stand-up.
But, that aside, I agree, lots of todays stand-ups are bland and repetitive, circling around the same old memes.
(Part of the reason is that there's SO much more of it on the box - what talent there is, is spread thin)
But it was always thus - watch a few old episodes of The Comedians" - the gems shine out, but the dross is pretty thick on the ground.
But there are some really innovative people about.
Dylan Moran, Stewart Lee, Frankie Boyle, Tommy Tiernan, to name a few.
Their comedy might not be to everyone's taste - but they're definitely not ploughing the same furrow as the 'panel show' stand-ups.