What happened to the days when people laughed at an intelligent joke or something so unexpected you HAD to laugh? George Carlin and Steven Wright were/are the saving graces of comedy in my mind, but now Carlin's dead and I've totally lost track of Wright.

So where has all the funny gone?

The funny is different and you don't like the different.

It's evolved to fit what the general populace enjoys. Either you don't like it, or you're hanging onto nostalgic gasps of older forms of comedy. It's not necessarily worse or better.

Well the funny is still there but just harder to find because the main "comedy" today isn't jokes that make you think as much as Jackass and reality shows. If you listen to your Gerry Dee's and Mike Berbiglia's you will be entertained though they are more of story tellers that don't have much more than a shallow meaning for a funny story. I don't know how we can save what we have left of this one time great art besides listening to as much as we can and supporting the true artists and trying to reject that hacks.

Comedy is tricky, because it's a matter of opinion. But one thing's for sure: things that shock people make them laugh. That's what Monty Python did. That's what Carlin did. But now, since this generation's become desensitized to the things that shocked people in before their time, they're "shocked" into laughter by Jackass and Pineapple Express and that sort of thing.

What I say might not be true, but it's what I observe. Take it as you will.

Comedy relies on novelty more than other performing arts, so when the novelty of a certain style or type of comedy is lost, we need new ones to be made in order to fill the void, and many times the exageration goes so overboard it ceases to be funny in any aspect at all, which is what's happened to The Simpsons over the years, they need to come up with new things, and since they don't have all the time in the world to come up with something truly good, they're forced to make a half-baked attempt at being funny.

funny's still there, you're just not seeing it

I enjoy many comedians. Eddie Izzard, Dane Cook, Robin Williams, Steven Wright, George Carlin, and any others. I don't think comedy is dead, it's just on a little hiatus.

Man, this is almost as bad as the Bill Hicks fanaticism you see out there.

Keep in mind that I say the following as a huge fan of George Carlin's work, especially his stuff in Kevin Smith movies because he always played it exactly far enough. They weren't that funny. They were probably some of the first you came across. They're holding a special place in your heart that ignores the flaws. It's the place that the first three Star Wars live in.

Take Monty Python. Often considered masters of surreal comedy and the unexpected, certainly deeply influential on the shape of comedy that followed. Go and watch Erik the Viking or even a whole season of Flying Circus. Most of their stuff wasn't very good. The idea or the execution would be off, they'd miss their mark. None of that matters, of course, because when they got it right they got it perfectly. Life of Brian is one of my favourite movies on a number of levels.

Going back to Carlin, he was extremely predictable. He had an unconventional perspective but once you got his perspective, you knew what the punchline was going to be even if you couldn't peg the wording exactly. When he was on, though, it didn't really matter that you knew what was going to happen. We aren't "shocked" into laughter because that only works occasionally and you rarely remember it as a good joke. You don't laugh at Jackass because it's shocking, you laugh because idiots are hurting themselves and each other for no reason. It's simple physical comedy.

Comedy is hard to define but it comes and goes even in a successful career.


The cynicism is strong in this one.

I honestly think comedy is what you make it. If you want to laugh at something, you'll find something funny in it.

Situational slapstick comedy is just easier to laugh at as most of the people CBA to think for a second.

It's sad, really.

Give me Blackadder, Eddie Izzard and Bill Hicks over American Pie, really.

Comedy is all a matterof timing. You may not agree but... god do I love Lewis Black.

lewis black is one of my all time favorites

i just like to watch friday night stand up on comedy central

most of the time, the comedians are really good

It's an error in judgment to think that people only laugh at slapstick because they're too lazy to think for their jokes. I laugh at slapstick because it's funny. Tell me you didn't smile the first time you saw a cat tackle a baby.

Intellectual doesn't mean better. It simply allows for a broader selection of approach styles.

You're thread is invalid due to posting it on a web comic forum.

I never said that.

I think therse still 'Funnies' in the world like Steven Lynch (if u find pee and poop humour funny), Allen Carr (if you just want to unexpectedly laugh and possibly feel guilty about it)

Therse some real funny innapropriate people out there!

I prefer his work with hermaphrodite humour.

Thats what i meant, i just thought it fit in under that 'pee and poop' umm percieved as 'immature and outrageous' humour made to shock laughter out of you lol

I enjoy Bill Cosby.