Bad Chappelle Bits

what about her taint, though

I don't mean to single you out NV, but the frequency with which ilx puts imaginary not-dead Bill Hicks on trial for contemporary political crimes is kind of weird? Dude's been dead for over 28 years but he gets brought up here remarkably often and most of those times it's this fantasy projection into a future he never lived in thing. I genuinely don't get it, aren't there enough bigoted cunts around now?

agreed.

It was a response to the post at the time but I guess without imagining a Hicks that doesn't exist it's easier to say there was stuff in his actual routines that was misanthropic and misogynist and leave it there

There was stuff in his routines that was misanthropic and misogynist, and also homophobic. It wasn't the entirety of it, and he'd already dropped the homophobic material before he died, so I guess there's a possibility he might have evolved past that.

Frank Zappa probably a better analogy, I knew a lot of people who liked Kevin Smith growing up but we didn't think he was some transcendental talent or anything like that

xpost Good we have Howard Stern around to show that it’s at least possible.

Single most offensive thing Hicks did was popularize the use of holding the mic cupped real close to his mouth and going DOOT-DOOT-DOOT-DOOT-DOOT-DOOT like a machine gun.

not sure Hicks deserves the blame there
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/BitesizedEnchantedAnkolewatusi-size_restricted.gif

Like, idk, if you're on the internet it def seems like political comedy in all its forms has basically outstayed its welcome.

I maintain the cultural window was open for Michelle Wolf far too briefly

― ex-McKinsey wonk who looks like a human version of a rat (Eric H.), Monday, November 14, 2022 2:12 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Feel like some of her sentiments on "outrage culture" and metoo and feminism would not go over well as posts on ilx (acknowledging the inherent differences between stand up bits and ilx posts)

I think the comedy world's rallying around to try to place itself above criticism just made people want to criticize harder. I do notice a lot of people on twitter not seeming to understand how comedy works however which is usually eyeroll inducing.

these people genuinely seem to think that audiences can't tell the difference between a comedian making a joke and a comedian trying to do satire or social commentary. like there's a reason Norm MacDonald never caught this kind of flack for his LGBTQ material

It's a worthwhile question whether political comedy is necessary. I used to think so, I guess? The Washington Post Drawing Board was one of my main ways of understanding the world when I was a child. Plus Doonesbury and Bloom County. Then Weekend Update and the Daily Show, etc.

When the news got to be too much, "what can we make fun of?" was a useful filter. There was no way for me, at nine years old, to get a comprehensive grasp of the economy or the Middle East, but I could certainly get the gist of a joke about Ronald Reagan; humor helped me understand the world.

I am not sure that's so anymore. Some things have achieved a level of absurdity that satire can't match - and the pace of events sometimes exceeds the typing speed of every humorist in L.A.

Just think about the bits with pillow guy and the landscaping business press conference and Giuliani's hair dye. Comedians and late-night gag writers could be forgiven for simply shrugging and saying, "Uh, okay, reality is too fucking stupid to even parody anymore." They could all quit en masse and go do goat farming or something.

a few years ago I thought the Conan O'Brien style of late night comedy was outdated because politics was becoming so absurd and was integrating itself so closely into our daily lives that it felt like you couldn't just ignore it. but I really yearn for that sort of thing again. I cannot fucking stand another "person man woman camera TV" joke. since I brought up Norm I'll mention something he said about Trump-era humor, which is that it fundamentally doesn't work because the people writing it hate the man so goddamn much. when SNL was doing stuff about Clinton there was at least some level of affection behind it. imo the MyPillow stuff was at least funny for a while because the dude at least had this oblivious Midwestern pitchman charm to him, same reason why it was more fun to mock Alex Jones before it became clear that the dude was actually just a total lunatic.

I don't think that lack of affection is what makes Trump-era political humour bad, it's more that irreverent humour about Trump is redundant because Trump is already irreverent. I remember seeing this quote from Chappelle about Trump calling covid "the kung-flu" where Chappelle said something like (paraphrasing) 'ok, that's pretty funny, but you shouldn't be saying it when you're the president. *I* should be the one making jokes about the kung-flu, *you* should be the one being serious and dull and responsible'.

The traditional dynamic is that politicians present an image of seriousness and respectability and responsibility and the comedians that mocked them had licence to be flip and offensive, but then Trump ate comedians lunch by being more irreverent and offensive that they were, so comedians were reduced to taking on the serious/responsible role - all that 'have you no decency, sir' Colbert type stuff

Agreed. At present I find both styles dire, and I am way past ready for the planet to be consumed by an exploding star

When I have laughed in the last eight years, it has not been because a comedian said something

YMMV

the comedians who mocked Nixon in the 70s hated him, but it still worked because he was someone who believed in respectability and keeping up appearances, Trump is like if instead of Nixon saying "I'm not a crook" he said, "yeah, I'm a crook, so what" and then took the piss out of his opponents for caring about the fact he was a crook

The traditional dynamic is that politicians present an image of seriousness and respectability and responsibility and the comedians that mocked them had licence to be flip and offensive, but then Trump ate comedians lunch by being more irreverent and offensive that they were, so comedians were reduced to taking on the serious/responsible role - all that 'have you no decency, sir' Colbert type stuff

In a nutshell, this ... Again, Andrew Potter's On Decline is the (brief) text that has realigned my thoughts the most clearly over the last couple years in positing that everything we once hailed as counterculture has become culture, and vice versa, and it's especially difficult for liberals to wrestle with that reality.

Especially Gen X liberals

I mean, yeah

I feel like Obama actually being pretty good at a kind of stand-up comedy is also part of the new dynamic though I don't have a solid theory about it. Maybe something about how in terms of comedic performances that actually got under Trump's skin, Obama can never be topped (much to all our regret, possibly)

i think that's right even tho on the good-at-stand-up scale trump > obama

(maybe that's why it rankled)

Trump hosted SNL before becoming president

You should listen to the preezy of the united steezy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziwYbVx_-qg

God, Jimmy Fallon. The most cringe.

i asked my kid and now know that in fact the world is made of cringe. it is the fundamental building block of matter.

I cannot watch Fallon, it's physically painful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qjmpqgkde0s

Tim Heidecker's stuff is kind of "about" Trump often and works by emulating the world of grifters around him instead of directly going orange man bad.

I'm skeptical if the political reality ever wasn't totally absurd once you got down to it. Certainly the Third Reich was plenty absurd and there's tons of good comedy mocking it.

I think most anti-bush comedy was about as bad and toothless as the orange man stuff - have you tried rewatching any of it recently? somehow we came to expect more as an audience

maybe it felt more transgressive back then in the US context when the rest of the media had to support bush by default (and comedy and punditry hadn't entirely merged yet) but the actual jokes were as hacky and surface as any of the trump stuff

comparing the two eras, my memory is that the Bush-era stuff often felt a lot more pompous & self-congratulatory. people would compare Jon Stewart to Edward R Murrow and say things like "he's not a Bush he's just a SHRUB LOL!" and get a big standing ovation as if that was a really brave heroic thing to say. with Trump people seem to just laugh at him like any other celebrity.

most Bush era comedy was bad, but I don't think it had the same thing where all the people doing impressions of Trump come across like tribute acts rather than mockery, it's like someone doing an impression of Pee Wee Herman or something, Trump is already an entertainer doing a bit.

I think this was a funny Trump spoof, though I suppose it's more a spoof of the way the media covers him, but the idea of the tortured psyche underneath the schtick - 'Big Talk: Trump Just Announced He’s The Only Person Who Can Stop The Vines That Strangle Him In His Reflection'

https://clickhole.com/big-talk-trump-just-announced-he-s-the-only-person-who-1825122779/

colbert's correspondents dinner shit was pretty amazing at the time given the environment. i should re-watch to re-eval but fuck that i'ma just clap for ppl who are hardcore now

yeah I think Tim Heidecker does a really good job of it, imo what makes his current standup routine work is that like 90% of it is just what people like Jim Breuer are doing now

Anthony Atamanuik is the only Trump impersonator who got to that vile, lizard core of the man

Aside from Tim Heidecker channeling the aura of Trump into unique character work, the only entertaining Trump impression was that guy James Austin Johnson who was able to emulate his voice but more importantly his stream of consciousness in an actually funny and fresh way.

JAJ is good but was better when he was just riffing on his phone and wandering around town; putting makeup on him and putting him on SNL really blunts the surreal impact.

I remember reading that Will Ferrell's one-man show about Dubya was pretty searing, but I haven't seen it and I don't want to.

I actually only just learned that he was on SNL after googling to find out his name. I was referring to those wandering phone vids.

xp

putting makeup on him and putting him on SNL really blunts the surreal impact

Honestly, having an actually expert impersonation of Trump on SNL is in itself pretty surreal

I remember reading that Will Ferrell's one-man show about Dubya was pretty searing, but I haven't seen it and I don't want to.

This reminds me of the profoundly cursed Tribute To New York City concert, where Will Ferrel came out as Bush to uproarious, non-ironic applause and delivered great satire such as "we were going to bomb Afghanistan back to the stone age, but turns out they're already there!". Kind of a precedent for current era SNL's shtick of "the joke is that this person is pretending to be a politician you admire and you get to clap for them".

yeah, the fact that comedians thought you couldn't do political comedy after 9/11 was a pretty big tell about political comedy in general

Chappelle's brilliant comeback here (best comedian alive even still, some people insist) should be put into the context that the cheapest seats for his show tonight in Sacramento (section 216 pictured below) are $176 dollars, the only ones remaining under $200. pic.twitter.com/4ejpI4DwSa

— Matt Lech (@MattLech) December 12, 2022

Wow, Dave wtf pic.twitter.com/9zNm5Bm05S

— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) November 30, 2023

(that's rep Anna Paulina Luna of Florida who's just as gross as Boebert and I guess Chappelle too)

I thought I saw video that indicated he was, more or less, surprise ambushed by them and the photo op was over in a flash

Weird that he logged into Lauren Boebert's Twitter and wrote that caption!

Here's the video. Does he not know who Boebert is (and how she'll politicize *everything*)

Wow. Someone released a video of the moment Lauren Boebert approached Dave Chapelle.

Do you think it confirms his story?

pic.twitter.com/kdS1QFYZen

— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) December 1, 2023

Maybe he was hoping she'd jerk him off at a play

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/16/boebert-video-apologizes-beetlejuice-show-00116390

We know what we know about Chappelle and his take on trans people. We kinda don't need more proof, especially if it's specious

He needs a new bit; this is just tiresome.