Norm MacDonald had a great point about the difference between an audience applauding and an audience laughing. Getting them to applaud just requires referencing the right shibboleths. Getting them to laugh requires talent and hard work to hone the material.
I think this is why nostalgia can be so powerful and cause such strong reactions in people. I loved In Living Color back in the 90s, but I was a kid then. I can admit that there's a lot of In Living Color that would not hold up. So, I'm not letting my nostalgia for comedy from a different time cloud my moral compass.
@3:30 - the point about the nature of the comedies trying (and failing) to repeat the success of older tasteless comedies because they didn't understand the purpose of those makes sense. Films like Animal House, Stripes, and Caddyshack were a series of crude sketches strung together with the most tenuous of threads. I think the only reason Caddyshack still seems to hold up is because it's on its face a social satire about class and some of those comedic elements still hold true today. We're very much a different society, even in the last 5 years, than we were. Some of the reactionary "you can't make jokes any more!" rhetoric comes across to me as the death knell of the time when abuse was okay and punching down in multiple directions was part of the gag.
I absolutely loved this video, don’t have much to add other than that. Just thought it was really interesting and a good dive into how things have changed.
P. S. I am 60 something and the first time I laughed until I couldn't breathe was at a Charlie Chapin movie my dad took me to in the 60s. Then it was What's Up Doc with Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neil as a teen (I grew up without a television). I remember thinking Woody Allen's Sleeper was hysterically funny as well but tried to rewatch it recently and thought it was awful so our senses of humor evolve.
@@margaretbear it’s a story of two schmucks, the protagonist and his equally incompetent adversary, the Orwellian government. It has the same premise as Idiocracy, but it doesn’t spell it out for the audience.
saw a joke on youtube shorts that went, "How many tickles does it take to make an octopus laugh?" *spoiler* " TEN-TICKLES" (tentacles) ... idk why but funniest thing I had heard in months
Awesome commentary Tawny! Is so great to hear you views and describe how comedy has evolved over the years or rather how comedy is consumed which is what has really changed. As for satire, I think you are correct! I grew up on late 60s early 70s tv and much of what was broadcast was satire then, and of course watching Monty Python from 2nd grade to current date probably helped me identify satire along the way, as did reading Charles Addams comics, again from a very young age, which again was chiefly dark humor satire. It was great and refreshing to hear you. I have enjoyed your work and will continue to “consume” your wonderful comedy. All the best and take care!
Very insightful video. One thing I've observed over time is that comedy is somewhat generational (not in terms of boomer vs GenX vs Millennial etc). The types of comedy you are exposed to growing up, or even the type of comedy you were "forbidden" from seeing when you are younger can definitely influence the type you enjoy later on. For example, as a kid I loved Monty Python and Mel Brooks stuff (still do), but people 10-15 years younger may not "get" the humor. Likewise, I may not enjoy the type of humor that they think is the best. I think it would be very difficult to produce comedic content (stand up, movie, TV, social media) that connects with large swaths of the population these days. Please keep your comedy content along with these types of videos. Very enjoyable! Thank you!
Regarding satire not being understood as satire, Daniel Defoe wrote a pamphlet in 1702 called "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters". Many readers at the time took it at face value even though it was satirical in nature. Defoe realised that "satirical writer" was not part of his skill set and went on to single handedly invent the genre of adventure fiction when he published his novel "Robinson Crusoe" in 1719. He still had to master the art of naming books, though, as the original title read: "The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pyrates. Written by Himself."
Many many good points. Conedy will always be culturally specific with individual sensitivities and experiencing playing a huge role. A big element of humor is surprise, or experiencing the unexpected, but with the pretext of immediate resolution. That polarization you mention takes away either the possibility of surprise or resolution. Shock humor worked... for a little while until it no longer became unexpected. Why do people then stick to some forms of humor? I suspect Neurological processes soft-code processes in the brain which lower the need for surprise to activate humor response. But due to the deprecation of neural plasticity, humor experienced later in life won't build such pathways so easily, meaning that you can teach old humans to laugh at new jokes, but only once.
♫ Is comedy over? Should I leave you alone? Cuz really who's gonna go for, joking at a time like this? Should I be joking at a time like this? ♫ - Bo, 2021
I was listening and agreeing with what was hearing until Aristophanes was mentioned. Suddenly, I felt seen and heard. My minor in college was English focusing on ancient Greek theater. My favorite playwright is Aristophanes, whose plays could now, with minor updates, play to modern audiences very successfully. "Frogs", "Clouds", and "Lysistrata" would be massive hits nowadays. The same could be said for the most famous Greek tragedians, but not a conversation for this comment. Thanks, Tawny, for making me feel smart and appropriate in what I find funny. 😂
Your prose style is so articulate and enunciation so clear and exact, I'm recalled of a time when people took pride in their use of language and were respected for it. Nostalgia tears...
To piggy back on other posts here, i look forward to your content especially "what your favorite means about you" But aside from your content Liz Melle gets me every time. Her newest release on youtube had me the whole time! Well until the end when i literally cried ... damn you Liz, make me laugh, not feel feels!
Self Reliance on hulu, is pretty decent. To find these movies that are oddities of comedy, you kind of have to dig through a lot of trash in the hulu/prime/netflix created movies. So many of them are bad, but some are gems, similar in the awkwardness of movies like Lars and the Real Girl.
Blazing Saddles is the greatest comedy movie of all time because it tilts at the windmill of uncomfortable humor. It's entirely on comedian's willingness to poke fun at the systems that be that will determine their success.
Man, the last movie that I saw that was side- splitting funny was “game night”. it came out in 2018. So, I haven’t had side-splitting funny for six years now😢
I find some of these comedians today that claim to get canceled do better to the point others want to be canceled in hopes of staying relevant, and then you have the few that truly are canceled Like Kathy Griffin who literally could not get any work for a decade for taking a political stand to far, who is just now starting to be able to work again. To Roseanne Barr who has destroyed her own carrier and can't make a come back because she has developed a victim mentality to the point she sounds crazy AF no matter what she says or does but gets drug along by the few politicians she will back in the hopes of riding any fame she may have left. George Carlin was right one day they will figure out how to silence comics and that's when you will know for sure Freedom is nothing but a concept they sell you for votes
About how it’s hard to convey sarcasm online: People have tried using tone indicators like /s to get that across but it never really caught on because most people just don’t know what it means, and in some cases, the tone indicator just sucks the humour out of jokes. I don’t think there’s ever going to be a way to convey sarcasm via text, which is frustrating, but also I think that sometimes it can work to the joke-maker’s advantage because sometimes not knowing whether it’s sarcasm or not makes it funnier. At least to me anyway.
Jesters roles in the court during g medieval time was basically a sarcastic "saying it as it is" advisor. So yeah, comedians on political topics have always been a thing, and I think it's important to look at difficult topics and situations with a side of humor. We aren't built to carry the weight of the world, comedy helps that
Im 64. Folks are more brittle it seems now. Some Rodney,some Johnny carson self depreciating humor Some silly mel Brooks Im typing as i listen to this..i agree with your take on social media. My career was based on sales and banking.like you, my brain and my voice was my career. I agreed also with the curated point. We can pick and choose our entire universe now. A curse on those who dissagree with us....lol Folks do need to get out more...voices and faces are powerful things in person. This was very thoughtful and interesting. I like the way you put forward your thoughts...i think i subscribed at first vid. Entertainment used to come at us through a narrow funnel...now it's a firehose
I tried making a list of my favorite comedic influences from mainstream media over the years but it's ridiculpusly long as it stretches back to The Carol Burnett Show and the original SNL run up to Fleabag and Ghosts. These days I do find much of my humor on RUclips and if anything there seems to have been an explosion of comedy from all directions as the list is growing all the time and I'd include your channel among them.
This is an awesome piece. I have a lot to think about after watching. I think you’re really right. But as I learn your perspective, I feel like it’s a loose thread pulling on mine. There’s some stuff that needs to unravel. I really appreciate you starting it.
I find Dr. Strangelove relevant and has me laughing at how absurd we, as humans, are. 100% agree. Success breeds failure in Comedians. Comedy is supposed to be about our mutual experience as people not about celebrity.
I'm not particularly into comedy movies, and the ones I enjoy are almost all as old or older than I am, but there are still standup comedians that always deliver for me. Christopher Titus is one who never lets me down. All of his comedy is based on his life and the world that he/we are living in and isn't full of trendy jokes or pushing to have sold out stadiums with mass appeal and being lighthearted and safe.
Alexa and Katie was that show for me which is about Alexa who has cancer and Katie who shaves her head to go through it with her and practically episode had me laughing because of the appropriate humour and bright side they created with Alexa’s condition.
Satire/sarcasm and a serious statement can be hard to figure out. Your example "air should be a taxable resource"...depends on if Nestle said it or not. Also, Jimmy Carr is probably who makes me laugh the most.
Comedy went corporate, true comedy exists in podcasts, clubs, and youtube. There are some good modern comedies being put out. You just need to know where to look. I agree social media lacks a lot of the human touch. Hyperbolic feeds are societies downfall. Love the video.
I'm actually more into stand up than ever, because RUclips means I've got to see comedians I'd never have been able to before. Liz Miele, Ashley Gavin, David Nihill, Katie Boyle, Gianmarco Soresi, Jessica Kirson, Matteo Lane. All of them have given me "my lungs hurt" moments. But there's also a bunch of people who aren't stand up comedians but who have still made my lungs hurt with RUclips shorts or videos on topics that wouldn't normally come to mind when you think "comedy". Refashioned Hippie is always funny doing fashion commentary and nearly killed me from laughing at one of her shorts recently, I couldn't breathe. Most I've laughed in years, maybe ever. Micarah Tewers makes videos about sewing that leave me in stitches (yes, pun intended; no, I'm not sorry!). Elle Cordova might be the most creative person in the world, and her humour is perfect for me. Jill Bearup's Just Stab Me Now shorts series had me in fits of laughter. Ólafur Waage leaves me LMAO with shorts on Nordic linguistics, which, not something I would have particularly considered. And I love your "here's what x says about you" shorts, I'm still laughing about your D&D classes one (there's really no need to personally attack me every time, though 😂). I don't remember the last comedy movie to make me really laugh though, it's been a long time. Interesting thought about the cycles. I don't know what I think about that. Definitely things are changing, I think a lot of change is being driven by how people can make money from doing comedy and have a career while being funny, and while in some ways that's got more difficult because of the "risk" and bottom line you talked about. But social media also makes it possible for some to bypass that, and it has made it possible for some people to do comedy who never would have been able to before. Change, yes, but from where I sit it's not all bad change.
Excellent speaking. Entertaining on multiple levels. I made sure to subscribe. I want to thank you and your writers for generating such thought provoking material.
I'm new to your channel and unfortunately there's not enough room here to make my own 20-minute commentary on this video. I tend to prefer examining a channel fully from the business sign to all of the analytics to better understand what I am consuming. With my limited knowledge it appears your channel growth is doing great. It's refreshing to see a description box that is clean and isn't slam packed with nothing but affiliate links to Amazon or trying to sell me a masterclass course or some webinar. It's nice to see that you didn't destroy this video with embedded ads every 5 minutes as people are usually accustomed to with other channels. It's sad that 80s 90s comedies are dead and are not PC enough for current times. The art of comedy will be replaced by comedy AI just like voice AI has destroyed real voices. AI is already writing bad jokes and more comedians will demand using it so they can always blame it if the joke fails. And many of them are lazy just like everybody else and won't want to write. We have monologues being written by Chatgpt or some 12 year old fivver entrepreneur that hasn't gone through puberty. Every political RUclipsr grifter uses kids to write their 30 minute homework video so they can read it off their teleprompter. You're too young to really appreciate the younger comics of yesteryear. Jokes are like time capsules attached to Dynamite of cream pie. They're only funny to those people who lived in that time period. When the next generation digs up those old jokes, it will certainly blow up in their face and they will not be happy.
I grew up with Mel Brooks comedies - loved by so many people perhaps because it was a clever mix of culture commentary and toilet humor?!? I wonder if Tawny has an opinion of Mel Brooks!?!?
5:54-6:20 is very insightful and a spot on observation of our current culture! I wish more people realized the echo chambers they have created for themselves.
Good point about sarcasm. Sounds like we don't need anything to help in text format /s. Oh wait. Edit: wow I had missed the whole 2nd part of the video about the history of comedy, that was the best part of the video! Ah yes we all know the name of the guy Chaplin was depicting, as much as some clown love idolizing such knobhead. The best comedy is still in the unsaid parts.
My 2 favorite comedians of all time are George Carlin ( I grew up with him and agreed with a lot of his views, especially when it came to religion and society as a whole and he expressed it in a funny way) and Gabriel Iglesias because he tells real stories about his life in a funny way. Rodney Dangerfield was another favorite. He had perfect comedic timing and his one liners left me in tears. Sam Kinison was the angry comedian before Lewis Black was cool. And the sound effects of Michael Winslow? I can't. That dude was funny as hell. The original Police Academy wouldn't exist without Winslow. Honorable mention to Ed O'Neill as Al Bundy, because you can hate me if you want, but fat jokes are still funny.
You mentioned Charlie and immediately felt the urge to listen to the great dictator speech. As soon as I came back to this video you mentioned that movie. I think his piece on “machine men” also apply to this topic, we are not machines we evolve, and our humor evolves frequently.
There's a little podcast called Life's A Pitch hosted by two English guys who make up movie plots based on titles given to them by listeners and in one episode they made a song about King Kong that made me absolutely fall apart laughing. The episode was "Cabbies in a Parsec" and it was like the second title for that episode.
I recently watched Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves... and the "Speak with Dead" sequence had me gut laughing the entire time, because that's been an inside joke among players for decades so to see it so well written on "the big screen" was something I honestly never thought would happen. Also... I completely agree with your conclusion
Last thing that made me not-breathe with laughter was something you showed here - the delightful Fleabag! But I've been asking myself a similar question lately Tawny - "what recent Britcoms have people actually heard of?" And when I say 'recent', I mean within the last decade. I think the Britcom is certainly over.
I laugh at dry humor and the stupid things my cats do. I often cackle at facial expressions and suggestive pauses. Dave Chapelle is one of my favorites.
I was going to say that it's been a long time since I'd bothered to see a comedy with a mainstream release at all - Almost a decade now for both TV and Film (Though that's partially due to how little film I've seen in the past decade generally) - The last one I'd rate as something I particularly like rather than 'yeah I enjoyed that' was probably Mongrels back in 2010-2011 - A British puppet led sitcom which was... Dark... At times and I'm... Not entirely sure how well some of the jokes (and especially the songs) aged? But then I remembered the Total Drama reboot was last year (Not bad - I liked it. I'm a bit weirded out on reflection by how wholesome the Bowie/Raj arc across the two seasons was, particularly given that franchise's... History... with relationships and just generally how it treats its characters, but... Not bad. Also S1 of the reboot is the first time the show has nearly made me hurl when doing a grossout comedy bit which... OK, I don't particularly care for gross-out comedy, but if you're going to do gross-out comedy I feel like it needs to go hard enough for some of the audience to have that reaction, so... Success? I guess? Very specifically for the tapeworm scene.) I have had some luck with encountering comedy on RUclips, including your own shorts, as the transition to the second half of your video suggests. Particularly in animation - Natural Habitat Shorts and Chris Hallbeck never fail to put a smile on my face - The former being absurdist comedy based on random animal facts, the latter being gently animated sketches mostly based around wordplay. But its generally conversations that leave me in stitches or unable to breathe from laughter more than comedy these days - Though sometimes a TTRPG session will leave the entire table in stitches which... I honestly have no clue where someone winding up playing an angry box of gherkins in a way that left the entire table struggling to resolve the scene because we were laughing too much during a game of Microscope falls on the 'independent media vs conversation' side of things. And I was pointed to a reboot of a microgenre I wasn't only reading but _writing_ back the very early 00s, which was nice. Need to catch up on that. For sarcasm specifically, I still end with faux-hypertext . As I've been doing since I was hanging out with other people writing that microgenre on IRC. But since like 85% of my sense of humour is pun-based - at least for when I'm joking - and also a lot of what isn't is often deadpan, I find text actually pretty reasonable. The puns just change a bit because what works as a written pun and what works as an oral pun aren't 100% the same. And while it's a difficult question to answer, IIRC there is documentation of people mistaking Swift's A Modest Proposal for a genuine suggestion. And anecdotally speaking, when studying it in class in preparation of doing a compare/contrast essay of it with Slesar's Examination Day - Which would have been around 2000-2001 so when people were absolutely exposed to satire and sarcasm in mainstream media - there were a couple of classmates who entirely missed that it was satirical in nature.
2019 I saw Jojo Rabbit with my mom and I felt like that was my kind of comedy movie. Randomly back and forth between satire and the real deal. Haven’t seen anything like that since.
Tawny, that said, have you watched Bottoms (2023)? I loved the Hell out of that movie, and it had a lot of the Superbad vibes with that acknowledgement of growth where the two protagonists got out of their own way. It was hilarious to me!
I do think it's possible (and in my opinion probable) that at least part of how humanity acts on the internet is just an intensified version of how humanity acts in the real world. That said, this is coming from someone who grew up alongside the rise of youtube and got bullied throughout school, so take that with however much salt you think is appropriate. Anyways i get a lot of laughs from Gianmarco Soresi and Blake Jennings
I was raised between comedic era's. I grew up watching 80's and 90's comedies on VHS and when I was in my teens, raunchy comedies were all the rage. Heck, I joined the US Army the same year The Interview was announced and remember regretting my decision because I was afraid I'd be stuck in Korea. Even when I joined the Army, I wanted to do stand up. I still like telling jokes, but stand up just isn't for me. The couple times I tried at open mic nights, my set got some decent laughs, but looking back I was a 19 YO telling edgey cringelord comedy. With my dark Veteran sense of humor, I would love to try standup again, but Comedy just seems to sterile these days for that humor
The last movies I found side-splittingly funny were "The Death of Stalin" (2018) and "Thank you for Smoking." Yes, I am very fond of satire. As to Comedians running for office, remember Al Frankin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy? Also, if Jon Stewart ran for president, I'd probably vote for him.
The TV show Who's line is it anyway always makes my laugh so hard 😂. I just saw a clip that reminded me of why I used to binge watch that show, before that was even a thing!
IMO, what the old College Humor folks are doing with Dropout now is nothing short of amazing. There's been plenty of media recently that's gotten some laughs out of me, but they're the only production company out there at the moment that has me consistently crying and gasping for air out of laughter. There's just something so honest and endearing about it, a breath of fresh air from the dark, cynical, and overly self deprecating, or derogatory humor that's been popular. Writing, production, improv, and creativity are all top notch, and not over the top, and it's obvious that the cast and crew genuinely care about the content that they're putting out.
For me as a consumer, my ability to laugh greatly hinges on my ability to relax. And that's become harder to do over time. Looking around me, I reckon this also plays no small role for people at large. In that sense, it looks like the comedians are less responsible for this than our ability to create a culture that allows us to relax well. These days everything has become "High stakes", socially it's a very uncertain time.
On the point of leaving no room for differing opinions, then theres me who actually somehow created a feed where even if its not every day, i encounter a differing opinion. Even if its just adding a bit of nuance to my existing opinion.
I miss George Carlin. I'd love to hear his take on current events. I could be just a grumpy old man, but I feel like comedians in the 70s and 80s were just more groundbreaking. Of course, this could be because I was watching them as a kid and a teenager.
Taylor Tomlinson makes my lungs hurt.
Oh she’s fantastic
Me too!! I love her.
Sounds like you NEED "Unfrosted." .... Please be good
She’s so funny
@@CatBarefield Agreed. I think she is the funniest comic out there at the moment.
Norm MacDonald had a great point about the difference between an audience applauding and an audience laughing. Getting them to applaud just requires referencing the right shibboleths. Getting them to laugh requires talent and hard work to hone the material.
I think this is why nostalgia can be so powerful and cause such strong reactions in people. I loved In Living Color back in the 90s, but I was a kid then. I can admit that there's a lot of In Living Color that would not hold up. So, I'm not letting my nostalgia for comedy from a different time cloud my moral compass.
So true about nostalgia being incredibly powerful!
Answer; You. You are funny.
Thank you!
@@tawnyplatis7866 You're most welcome Ms Platis
@@tawnyplatis7866you’re my best friend Tawny I really like you ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
@@tawnyplatis7866you’re very pretty
@3:30 - the point about the nature of the comedies trying (and failing) to repeat the success of older tasteless comedies because they didn't understand the purpose of those makes sense. Films like Animal House, Stripes, and Caddyshack were a series of crude sketches strung together with the most tenuous of threads. I think the only reason Caddyshack still seems to hold up is because it's on its face a social satire about class and some of those comedic elements still hold true today.
We're very much a different society, even in the last 5 years, than we were. Some of the reactionary "you can't make jokes any more!" rhetoric comes across to me as the death knell of the time when abuse was okay and punching down in multiple directions was part of the gag.
I totally agree!
You have an extremely eloquent way of putting to words the current zeighgeist we live in. To say what we all feel without thinking about it
Thank you! 💜
I absolutely loved this video, don’t have much to add other than that. Just thought it was really interesting and a good dive into how things have changed.
Thank you so much!
P. S. I am 60 something and the first time I laughed until I couldn't breathe was at a Charlie Chapin movie my dad took me to in the 60s. Then it was What's Up Doc with Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neil as a teen (I grew up without a television). I remember thinking Woody Allen's Sleeper was hysterically funny as well but tried to rewatch it recently and thought it was awful so our senses of humor evolve.
Sleeper is still hilarious
@@boboloko 🙂 I should try again 😂
@@margaretbear it’s a story of two schmucks, the protagonist and his equally incompetent adversary, the Orwellian government.
It has the same premise as Idiocracy, but it doesn’t spell it out for the audience.
saw a joke on youtube shorts that went, "How many tickles does it take to make an octopus laugh?" *spoiler* " TEN-TICKLES" (tentacles) ... idk why but funniest thing I had heard in months
Awesome commentary Tawny! Is so great to hear you views and describe how comedy has evolved over the years or rather how comedy is consumed which is what has really changed. As for satire, I think you are correct! I grew up on late 60s early 70s tv and much of what was broadcast was satire then, and of course watching Monty Python from 2nd grade to current date probably helped me identify satire along the way, as did reading Charles Addams comics, again from a very young age, which again was chiefly dark humor satire. It was great and refreshing to hear you. I have enjoyed your work and will continue to “consume” your wonderful comedy. All the best and take care!
Very insightful video. One thing I've observed over time is that comedy is somewhat generational (not in terms of boomer vs GenX vs Millennial etc). The types of comedy you are exposed to growing up, or even the type of comedy you were "forbidden" from seeing when you are younger can definitely influence the type you enjoy later on. For example, as a kid I loved Monty Python and Mel Brooks stuff (still do), but people 10-15 years younger may not "get" the humor. Likewise, I may not enjoy the type of humor that they think is the best.
I think it would be very difficult to produce comedic content (stand up, movie, TV, social media) that connects with large swaths of the population these days.
Please keep your comedy content along with these types of videos. Very enjoyable! Thank you!
You found your niche in the entertainment industry! Now you can focus on perfecting your craft :)
Regarding satire not being understood as satire, Daniel Defoe wrote a pamphlet in 1702 called "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters". Many readers at the time took it at face value even though it was satirical in nature. Defoe realised that "satirical writer" was not part of his skill set and went on to single handedly invent the genre of adventure fiction when he published his novel "Robinson Crusoe" in 1719.
He still had to master the art of naming books, though, as the original title read: "The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pyrates. Written by Himself."
Many many good points. Conedy will always be culturally specific with individual sensitivities and experiencing playing a huge role. A big element of humor is surprise, or experiencing the unexpected, but with the pretext of immediate resolution. That polarization you mention takes away either the possibility of surprise or resolution. Shock humor worked... for a little while until it no longer became unexpected. Why do people then stick to some forms of humor? I suspect Neurological processes soft-code processes in the brain which lower the need for surprise to activate humor response. But due to the deprecation of neural plasticity, humor experienced later in life won't build such pathways so easily, meaning that you can teach old humans to laugh at new jokes, but only once.
I have never had such an enjoyable history lesson. Thank you. This, but expanded would make a great series.
This is a fantastically well produced and professionally presented on all levels. Mastery at work. Thank you for your efforts.
♫ Is comedy over? Should I leave you alone? Cuz really who's gonna go for, joking at a time like this? Should I be joking at a time like this? ♫
- Bo, 2021
I was listening and agreeing with what was hearing until Aristophanes was mentioned. Suddenly, I felt seen and heard. My minor in college was English focusing on ancient Greek theater. My favorite playwright is Aristophanes, whose plays could now, with minor updates, play to modern audiences very successfully. "Frogs", "Clouds", and "Lysistrata" would be massive hits nowadays. The same could be said for the most famous Greek tragedians, but not a conversation for this comment.
Thanks, Tawny, for making me feel smart and appropriate in what I find funny. 😂
Your prose style is so articulate and enunciation so clear and exact, I'm recalled of a time when people took pride in their use of language and were respected for it. Nostalgia tears...
This is peak ASMR
To piggy back on other posts here, i look forward to your content especially "what your favorite means about you"
But aside from your content Liz Melle gets me every time. Her newest release on youtube had me the whole time! Well until the end when i literally cried ... damn you Liz, make me laugh, not feel feels!
Your Voice Over Shorts where the last thing I really laughed out loud about so: Danke!
I’m so glad to hear that! 💜 thank you!
I was watching tropic thunder last night. I feel like they cant make this movie in 2024 lol
Self Reliance on hulu, is pretty decent. To find these movies that are oddities of comedy, you kind of have to dig through a lot of trash in the hulu/prime/netflix created movies. So many of them are bad, but some are gems, similar in the awkwardness of movies like Lars and the Real Girl.
Yeah I think awkward comedy has had its moment many times and now we’re very cringe averse so we aren’t seeing it quite as much!
We must have been separated at birth. You juxtaposed Fleabag and Starship Troopers 😂😂😂
Blazing Saddles is the greatest comedy movie of all time because it tilts at the windmill of uncomfortable humor.
It's entirely on comedian's willingness to poke fun at the systems that be that will determine their success.
Man, the last movie that I saw that was side- splitting funny was “game night”. it came out in 2018. So, I haven’t had side-splitting funny for six years now😢
A lot of people consider that to be the last comedy movie! That being said Joy Ride with Ashley Park was excellent
gamechangers is holding the entire world together lol
There's still a few TV gems out there...'What We Do in The Shadows' has made me lol plenty.
I love that show and the movie! Resident Alien is pretty good, too. Not as consistently funny, but still fun.
Your video with the phrase "...de-ice the driveway" 😂😂
I find some of these comedians today that claim to get canceled do better to the point others want to be canceled in hopes of staying relevant, and then you have the few that truly are canceled Like Kathy Griffin who literally could not get any work for a decade for taking a political stand to far, who is just now starting to be able to work again. To Roseanne Barr who has destroyed her own carrier and can't make a come back because she has developed a victim mentality to the point she sounds crazy AF no matter what she says or does but gets drug along by the few politicians she will back in the hopes of riding any fame she may have left. George Carlin was right one day they will figure out how to silence comics and that's when you will know for sure Freedom is nothing but a concept they sell you for votes
Also, cancel doesn't really exist. It would be a FULL deplatforming, so no social media at all and no way to get your voice heard.
About how it’s hard to convey sarcasm online: People have tried using tone indicators like
/s to get that across but it never really caught on because most people just don’t know what it means, and in some cases, the tone indicator just sucks the humour out of jokes. I don’t think there’s ever going to be a way to convey sarcasm via text, which is frustrating, but also I think that sometimes it can work to the joke-maker’s advantage because sometimes not knowing whether it’s sarcasm or not makes it funnier. At least to me anyway.
Jesters roles in the court during g medieval time was basically a sarcastic "saying it as it is" advisor. So yeah, comedians on political topics have always been a thing, and I think it's important to look at difficult topics and situations with a side of humor. We aren't built to carry the weight of the world, comedy helps that
Im 64. Folks are more brittle it seems now. Some Rodney,some Johnny carson self depreciating humor
Some silly mel Brooks
Im typing as i listen to this..i agree with your take on social media. My career was based on sales and banking.like you, my brain and my voice was my career.
I agreed also with the curated point. We can pick and choose our entire universe now. A curse on those who dissagree with us....lol
Folks do need to get out more...voices and faces are powerful things in person.
This was very thoughtful and interesting.
I like the way you put forward your thoughts...i think i subscribed at first vid.
Entertainment used to come at us through a narrow funnel...now it's a firehose
I tried making a list of my favorite comedic influences from mainstream media over the years but it's ridiculpusly long as it stretches back to The Carol Burnett Show and the original SNL run up to Fleabag and Ghosts.
These days I do find much of my humor on RUclips and if anything there seems to have been an explosion of comedy from all directions as the list is growing all the time and I'd include your channel among them.
You are incredible. I love your insight.
I appreciate you!
Me too!!!
Chad Thornsberry, Shayne Smith, some of the Dry Bar comics.
This is an awesome piece. I have a lot to think about after watching. I think you’re really right. But as I learn your perspective, I feel like it’s a loose thread pulling on mine. There’s some stuff that needs to unravel. I really appreciate you starting it.
I love that and I’m glad you enjoyed the video!
Brad Williams! I had to pause just to catch my breath many times.
More of these, please and thanks
Wow! 😳 A very deep and informative discussion on the evolution of comedic entertainment.
As they say Comedy is no joke 😂
Well done!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
I find Dr. Strangelove relevant and has me laughing at how absurd we, as humans, are.
100% agree. Success breeds failure in Comedians. Comedy is supposed to be about our mutual experience as people not about celebrity.
Taylor Tomlinson and Josh Johnson.
I'm not particularly into comedy movies, and the ones I enjoy are almost all as old or older than I am, but there are still standup comedians that always deliver for me. Christopher Titus is one who never lets me down. All of his comedy is based on his life and the world that he/we are living in and isn't full of trendy jokes or pushing to have sold out stadiums with mass appeal and being lighthearted and safe.
Literally, cat videos. Also, podcasts. Shoutout to Mickey Atkins’ husband for his food poisoning story 😂😂😂
Yes! Cat videos are THE best!
In appreciation.of this video and your other tour de force content--understandable, enjoyable, insightful perspective.
Thank you so much! 🫶🏻
Your voice is so great. You need to host a podcast on anything. I would fall asleep listening to it.
Alexa and Katie was that show for me which is about Alexa who has cancer and Katie who shaves her head to go through it with her and practically episode had me laughing because of the appropriate humour and bright side they created with Alexa’s condition.
you just made me realize how much i miss satire.
Satire/sarcasm and a serious statement can be hard to figure out. Your example "air should be a taxable resource"...depends on if Nestle said it or not. Also, Jimmy Carr is probably who makes me laugh the most.
Very informative and entertaining video. You deserve a reward, I’m going to catch you a delicious bass
Comedy went corporate, true comedy exists in podcasts, clubs, and youtube. There are some good modern comedies being put out. You just need to know where to look.
I agree social media lacks a lot of the human touch. Hyperbolic feeds are societies downfall.
Love the video.
I'm actually more into stand up than ever, because RUclips means I've got to see comedians I'd never have been able to before. Liz Miele, Ashley Gavin, David Nihill, Katie Boyle, Gianmarco Soresi, Jessica Kirson, Matteo Lane. All of them have given me "my lungs hurt" moments. But there's also a bunch of people who aren't stand up comedians but who have still made my lungs hurt with RUclips shorts or videos on topics that wouldn't normally come to mind when you think "comedy". Refashioned Hippie is always funny doing fashion commentary and nearly killed me from laughing at one of her shorts recently, I couldn't breathe. Most I've laughed in years, maybe ever. Micarah Tewers makes videos about sewing that leave me in stitches (yes, pun intended; no, I'm not sorry!). Elle Cordova might be the most creative person in the world, and her humour is perfect for me. Jill Bearup's Just Stab Me Now shorts series had me in fits of laughter. Ólafur Waage leaves me LMAO with shorts on Nordic linguistics, which, not something I would have particularly considered. And I love your "here's what x says about you" shorts, I'm still laughing about your D&D classes one (there's really no need to personally attack me every time, though 😂). I don't remember the last comedy movie to make me really laugh though, it's been a long time.
Interesting thought about the cycles. I don't know what I think about that. Definitely things are changing, I think a lot of change is being driven by how people can make money from doing comedy and have a career while being funny, and while in some ways that's got more difficult because of the "risk" and bottom line you talked about. But social media also makes it possible for some to bypass that, and it has made it possible for some people to do comedy who never would have been able to before. Change, yes, but from where I sit it's not all bad change.
“So you’re saying there’s a chance??” - Mimes
i cant believe those years were the golden years. went by so so so fast!!!
I think it’s cyclical!
Chad The Bird, every 10 minute set is a gold mine that makes me gigglesnort in public.
Excellent speaking. Entertaining on multiple levels. I made sure to subscribe. I want to thank you and your writers for generating such thought provoking material.
11:09 - Oh my god, I had to stop the video because I couldn't breathe. It gets funnier on every rewatch.🤣
your humor=my humor. crazy, awkward, weaponized..beautiful. so good.
Thank you - well said and yes, I did learn a couple of things.
🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻
I'm new to your channel and unfortunately there's not enough room here to make my own 20-minute commentary on this video. I tend to prefer examining a channel fully from the business sign to all of the analytics to better understand what I am consuming. With my limited knowledge it appears your channel growth is doing great. It's refreshing to see a description box that is clean and isn't slam packed with nothing but affiliate links to Amazon or trying to sell me a masterclass course or some webinar. It's nice to see that you didn't destroy this video with embedded ads every 5 minutes as people are usually accustomed to with other channels. It's sad that 80s 90s comedies are dead and are not PC enough for current times. The art of comedy will be replaced by comedy AI just like voice AI has destroyed real voices. AI is already writing bad jokes and more comedians will demand using it so they can always blame it if the joke fails. And many of them are lazy just like everybody else and won't want to write. We have monologues being written by Chatgpt or some 12 year old fivver entrepreneur that hasn't gone through puberty. Every political RUclipsr grifter uses kids to write their 30 minute homework video so they can read it off their teleprompter. You're too young to really appreciate the younger comics of yesteryear. Jokes are like time capsules attached to Dynamite of cream pie. They're only funny to those people who lived in that time period. When the next generation digs up those old jokes, it will certainly blow up in their face and they will not be happy.
Loved your perspective, thank you for talking us through it!
Come for the amazing elocution, stay for the insights!
I grew up with Mel Brooks comedies - loved by so many people perhaps because it was a clever mix of culture commentary and toilet humor?!? I wonder if Tawny has an opinion of Mel Brooks!?!?
Amen sister!
Well now I have to watch Napoleon Dynamite.
5:54-6:20 is very insightful and a spot on observation of our current culture! I wish more people realized the echo chambers they have created for themselves.
Good point about sarcasm. Sounds like we don't need anything to help in text format /s. Oh wait.
Edit: wow I had missed the whole 2nd part of the video about the history of comedy, that was the best part of the video! Ah yes we all know the name of the guy Chaplin was depicting, as much as some clown love idolizing such knobhead. The best comedy is still in the unsaid parts.
My 2 favorite comedians of all time are George Carlin ( I grew up with him and agreed with a lot of his views, especially when it came to religion and society as a whole and he expressed it in a funny way) and Gabriel Iglesias because he tells real stories about his life in a funny way. Rodney Dangerfield was another favorite. He had perfect comedic timing and his one liners left me in tears. Sam Kinison was the angry comedian before Lewis Black was cool. And the sound effects of Michael Winslow? I can't. That dude was funny as hell. The original Police Academy wouldn't exist without Winslow. Honorable mention to Ed O'Neill as Al Bundy, because you can hate me if you want, but fat jokes are still funny.
Liking this video exclusively for never forgiving Italy for paving the way for Jeff Dunham.
Paul Rudd’s running Mac and Me gag on Conan. Every time it kills me….
I also have a very dark sense of humor…I’m talking pitch black…
You mentioned Charlie and immediately felt the urge to listen to the great dictator speech. As soon as I came back to this video you mentioned that movie. I think his piece on “machine men” also apply to this topic, we are not machines we evolve, and our humor evolves frequently.
I can't imagine Sanford and Son being released today
There's a little podcast called Life's A Pitch hosted by two English guys who make up movie plots based on titles given to them by listeners and in one episode they made a song about King Kong that made me absolutely fall apart laughing. The episode was "Cabbies in a Parsec" and it was like the second title for that episode.
I recently watched Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves... and the "Speak with Dead" sequence had me gut laughing the entire time, because that's been an inside joke among players for decades so to see it so well written on "the big screen" was something I honestly never thought would happen.
Also... I completely agree with your conclusion
Last thing that made me not-breathe with laughter was something you showed here - the delightful Fleabag! But I've been asking myself a similar question lately Tawny - "what recent Britcoms have people actually heard of?" And when I say 'recent', I mean within the last decade. I think the Britcom is certainly over.
Funniest thing I"ve seen in years is the movie Hundres Of Beavers. Just pure silliness.
I laugh at dry humor and the stupid things my cats do. I often cackle at facial expressions and suggestive pauses.
Dave Chapelle is one of my favorites.
Very cool overview. Two comedy greats I would recommend, Jacques Tati, and Ernie Kovacs.
I was going to say that it's been a long time since I'd bothered to see a comedy with a mainstream release at all - Almost a decade now for both TV and Film (Though that's partially due to how little film I've seen in the past decade generally) - The last one I'd rate as something I particularly like rather than 'yeah I enjoyed that' was probably Mongrels back in 2010-2011 - A British puppet led sitcom which was... Dark... At times and I'm... Not entirely sure how well some of the jokes (and especially the songs) aged? But then I remembered the Total Drama reboot was last year (Not bad - I liked it. I'm a bit weirded out on reflection by how wholesome the Bowie/Raj arc across the two seasons was, particularly given that franchise's... History... with relationships and just generally how it treats its characters, but... Not bad. Also S1 of the reboot is the first time the show has nearly made me hurl when doing a grossout comedy bit which... OK, I don't particularly care for gross-out comedy, but if you're going to do gross-out comedy I feel like it needs to go hard enough for some of the audience to have that reaction, so... Success? I guess? Very specifically for the tapeworm scene.)
I have had some luck with encountering comedy on RUclips, including your own shorts, as the transition to the second half of your video suggests. Particularly in animation - Natural Habitat Shorts and Chris Hallbeck never fail to put a smile on my face - The former being absurdist comedy based on random animal facts, the latter being gently animated sketches mostly based around wordplay. But its generally conversations that leave me in stitches or unable to breathe from laughter more than comedy these days - Though sometimes a TTRPG session will leave the entire table in stitches which... I honestly have no clue where someone winding up playing an angry box of gherkins in a way that left the entire table struggling to resolve the scene because we were laughing too much during a game of Microscope falls on the 'independent media vs conversation' side of things. And I was pointed to a reboot of a microgenre I wasn't only reading but _writing_ back the very early 00s, which was nice. Need to catch up on that.
For sarcasm specifically, I still end with faux-hypertext . As I've been doing since I was hanging out with other people writing that microgenre on IRC. But since like 85% of my sense of humour is pun-based - at least for when I'm joking - and also a lot of what isn't is often deadpan, I find text actually pretty reasonable. The puns just change a bit because what works as a written pun and what works as an oral pun aren't 100% the same. And while it's a difficult question to answer, IIRC there is documentation of people mistaking Swift's A Modest Proposal for a genuine suggestion. And anecdotally speaking, when studying it in class in preparation of doing a compare/contrast essay of it with Slesar's Examination Day - Which would have been around 2000-2001 so when people were absolutely exposed to satire and sarcasm in mainstream media - there were a couple of classmates who entirely missed that it was satirical in nature.
2019 I saw Jojo Rabbit with my mom and I felt like that was my kind of comedy movie. Randomly back and forth between satire and the real deal. Haven’t seen anything like that since.
100% Tawny, this was insightful
14:32 Damn, 1985 was a long time ago. I'm getting SO OLD.
I bet you would make a fantastic D&D, or any rpg player! Watching rpg's online is my bright spot these days for cry laughs.
Tawny, that said, have you watched Bottoms (2023)? I loved the Hell out of that movie, and it had a lot of the Superbad vibes with that acknowledgement of growth where the two protagonists got out of their own way. It was hilarious to me!
I do think it's possible (and in my opinion probable) that at least part of how humanity acts on the internet is just an intensified version of how humanity acts in the real world. That said, this is coming from someone who grew up alongside the rise of youtube and got bullied throughout school, so take that with however much salt you think is appropriate.
Anyways i get a lot of laughs from Gianmarco Soresi and Blake Jennings
I was raised between comedic era's. I grew up watching 80's and 90's comedies on VHS and when I was in my teens, raunchy comedies were all the rage. Heck, I joined the US Army the same year The Interview was announced and remember regretting my decision because I was afraid I'd be stuck in Korea. Even when I joined the Army, I wanted to do stand up. I still like telling jokes, but stand up just isn't for me. The couple times I tried at open mic nights, my set got some decent laughs, but looking back I was a 19 YO telling edgey cringelord comedy. With my dark Veteran sense of humor, I would love to try standup again, but Comedy just seems to sterile these days for that humor
I freakin love Napolean Dynamite, I eevn watched the cartoon but was disapointed. Id love a sequel if done right.
The last movies I found side-splittingly funny were "The Death of Stalin" (2018) and "Thank you for Smoking." Yes, I am very fond of satire. As to Comedians running for office, remember Al Frankin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy? Also, if Jon Stewart ran for president, I'd probably vote for him.
The TV show Who's line is it anyway always makes my laugh so hard 😂. I just saw a clip that reminded me of why I used to binge watch that show, before that was even a thing!
It's memes now
That is why I enjoy David Chapelle so much.
IMO, what the old College Humor folks are doing with Dropout now is nothing short of amazing. There's been plenty of media recently that's gotten some laughs out of me, but they're the only production company out there at the moment that has me consistently crying and gasping for air out of laughter.
There's just something so honest and endearing about it, a breath of fresh air from the dark, cynical, and overly self deprecating, or derogatory humor that's been popular. Writing, production, improv, and creativity are all top notch, and not over the top, and it's obvious that the cast and crew genuinely care about the content that they're putting out.
My all time favorite 2 comedians are both in the great stage in the sky. George Carlin and Richard Pryor.
Most of the funny I am enjoying these days comes from the UK. James Acaster and Sarah Millican are great stand-ups and Staged is a hilarious show.
For me as a consumer, my ability to laugh greatly hinges on my ability to relax. And that's become harder to do over time. Looking around me, I reckon this also plays no small role for people at large. In that sense, it looks like the comedians are less responsible for this than our ability to create a culture that allows us to relax well. These days everything has become "High stakes", socially it's a very uncertain time.
I saw Jeff Dunham perform at my private school when I was very young. For a bunch pf grade schoolers Jalapeño on a Stick KILLED
Yes
As for newness it would be Matt Rife, then Chappelle and Carlin for nostalgia. I like being offended.
On the point of leaving no room for differing opinions, then theres me who actually somehow created a feed where even if its not every day, i encounter a differing opinion. Even if its just adding a bit of nuance to my existing opinion.
I miss George Carlin. I'd love to hear his take on current events. I could be just a grumpy old man, but I feel like comedians in the 70s and 80s were just more groundbreaking. Of course, this could be because I was watching them as a kid and a teenager.