Fifth Avenue Forum

Yes. Both pools of material have ranged from okay to sub-par. The 8:46 thing was compelling, but hardly something you'd want to call standup comedy.

I agree with mikey. I couldn't even make it through Chappelles recent stand up. I still like them both.

Are you saying Chappelle has slipped based on his SNL monologue, or are you taking about his last few Netflix specials?

I thought the last monologue was decent actually...his last specials were more PSAs and not super intriguing stories...plus, what tif said...

Look like Mike Birbiglia (currently my No. 1 personal favorite comedian) will have a bunch of live stand-up comedy performances next week:
https://www.birbigs.com/
I can't go (too much work) - but if somebody goes for it - drop a few lines about whether he is still good.

I've been up watching/listening to Bibiglia a lot as well. Definitely different than most. He's got a unique style. He's a fantastic story teller.

There seems to be a growing trend in comedy where contrarianism has taken the place of actually being funny. It seems to have started after 9/11 (which absolutely broke Dennis Miller's ability to tell jokes), and has expanded in the era of campus cancel culture. It's like just railing on that is now what passes as 'funny' for some comedians, who in the past I regarded as being at the pinnacle of the craft. It's depressing.

Yes.

I point to things like Crank Yankers and Borat and such as the problem. Things with zero humor value being pushed as comedy.

A second level reason would be that those darn kids today don't do any actual thinking. They either take things for face or assume other people's opinions are correct and don't think about it. Therefore the "joke" have to be obvious, spot lighted. You show a 15-20 year old old George Carlin stuff and they will not laugh once, because it will be all completely over their head. Today it is spoon feed or go home.

What era Carlin? They'd probably laugh at a lot of his 70s stuff. The last 20 years of his career were definitely different.

Are you saying Chappelle has slipped based on his SNL monologue, or are you taking about his last few Netflix specials?

I thought the last monologue was decent actually...his last specials were more PSAs and not super intriguing stories...plus, what tif said...

Gotcha. I enjoyed his last few standup specials, personally. Definitely was a change of pace for him, but I try not to compare it to his early stuff because I think you can wind up saying that everything dropped off for basically any comedian.

I've been up watching/listening to Bibiglia a lot as well. Definitely different than most. He's got a unique style. He's a fantastic story teller.

I think he hit the nail on the head when he said in his one stand up something along the lines of: "I'm not a person that does thing. I'm a person that things happen to..."

I know a lot of people like that. My best friend is that dude. You hear some of the stuff he's experienced in his life and you think "Wait... that all can't happen to the same person." If you listen to Fake Doctors Real Friends at all (I only listened to a few before quitting) Sarah Chalke is apparently the same way. Some people just have stuff happen to them all the time. To have that plus the ability to tell a good story, you have Mike Birbiglia.

Source of the post If you listen to Fake Doctors Real Friends at all (I only listened to a few before quitting)

Have to ask....why did you quit? I'm about 6 episodes into the first season, but if it gets lame as it goes on, I won't bother pushing through.

There seems to be a growing trend in comedy where contrarianism has taken the place of actually being funny. It seems to have started after 9/11 (which absolutely broke Dennis Miller's ability to tell jokes), and has expanded in the era of campus cancel culture. It's like just railing on that is now what passes as 'funny' for some comedians, who in the past I regarded as being at the pinnacle of the craft. It's depressing.

Yes.

I point to things like Crank Yankers and Borat and such as the problem. Things with zero humor value being pushed as comedy.

They might not be everybody's cup of tea, but Crank Yankers, and Borat in particular, hardly qualify as "contrarianism."

I think Tif's point is, many comedians now, even veterans who used to have legitimate A-material, are now just going the "I'll just say something that isn't widely accepted, purely to get a reaction, and pass it off as comedy/jokes since I'm a comedian," route, which isn't very entertaining to say the least.

I hate saying this since I'm a huge fan of Burr, but yeah he's been like that for the last year or so. Even when he came here with the DVE comedy thing, his set was either mostly piloting new material or just going against what's popular. I thought it was kinda cool that some of the stuff he did at the DVE show later showed up in Paper Tiger (not actual footage, but I mean jokes he was trying out here.) That said, I didn't think Paper Tiger was this amazing thing that was put out. It had that old guy yells at cloud vibe to it, and damn I really hate saying that but...

Lately I've found him to be at his funniest when he's not doing a special and he's just shooting the sht with other people.

Also, am I the only one who didn't think Borat was that funny? I haven't bothered with the second one yet because the first one didn't do much for me.

The second was less funny than the first, but I wasn't a fan of either. The daughter carried the movie pretty well.

Source of the post If you listen to Fake Doctors Real Friends at all (I only listened to a few before quitting)

Have to ask....why did you quit? I'm about 6 episodes into the first season, but if it gets lame as it goes on, I won't bother pushing through.

Just time. Didn’t have the time to listen and it gets a bit repetitive.

Source of the post If you listen to Fake Doctors Real Friends at all (I only listened to a few before quitting)

Have to ask....why did you quit? I'm about 6 episodes into the first season, but if it gets lame as it goes on, I won't bother pushing through.

Just time. Didn’t have the time to listen and it gets a bit repetitive.

I only listen on days I go into work, which is 25% of the time now. So far it's good, but I can see it getting stale. That said, I made it all the way through The Darkest Timeline podcast mainly because Ken Jeong gave good medical info regarding the virus, in addition to it being funny.

Also, am I the only one who didn't think Borat was that funny? I haven't bothered with the second one yet because the first one didn't do much for me.

The bit was good for 90 minutes of material 15 years ago, and this is now his like 4th movie playing the trope. We started watching the new one and didn't even make it through the cell phone store thing, which is like what 8 minutes in?

I always thought Ali G was a funnier character. I thought the first Borat movie was just ok and the second one was worse. I still laughed at times, but it's a character I never found hilarious and hasn't aged well.

Do you know what a farm is?

Well, it's like a rubbish zoo, obviously.

Will always be funny.

I always thought Ali G was a funnier character. I thought the first Borat movie was just ok and the second one was worse. I still laughed at times, but it's a character I never found hilarious and hasn't aged well.

Ali G with Borat and Bruno sprinkled in was funny at the time. Can't say I'd be able to rewatch those shows now. I still remember when he interviewed Trump. He may have been the only guest not to buy into the schtick, which is somewhat surprising.

Also, am I the only one who didn't think Borat was that funny? I haven't bothered with the second one yet because the first one didn't do much for me.

The bit was good for 90 minutes of material 15 years ago, and this is now his like 4th movie playing the trope. We started watching the new one and didn't even make it through the cell phone store thing, which is like what 8 minutes in?

I usually like weird dadaist humor (I liked Freddy got fingered, Orgazmo, etc.), and so I liked the first Borat. The second Borat was substantially worse. Not just one-sided in terms of jokes, but the jokes themselves were not that funny.
The only funny thing for me was that while Borat spoke some jibberish (Czechs like to think that his "How are you" and "Thank you" are in Czech - but it's actually Polish), the "daughter" always replied in picture-perfect "millennial Bulgarian" (I don't speak the language, but my wife is from that country).

Ha, knew jagshemash was Polish, but not the thank you one.

Ha, knew jagshemash was Polish, but not the thank you one.

The first one (how are you) can be considered both Czech and Polish (though he apparently said somewhere he mimicked Polish), but Dziękuji (because of the sound "z") is 100% Polish.

You know, following this discussion I was just talking with Mrs Tif about this. Stuff like that - the Kazakh is speaking Polish! - pleases me from a sort of meta writing level nearly as much as some of the actual bits and jokes. Like how the character in Galaxy Quest who plays the 'redshirt' crewmber played by Sam Rockwell is named 'Guy'. That's brilliant and it makes me happily chuckle.

You know, following this discussion I was just talking with Mrs Tif about this. Stuff like that - the Kazakh is speaking Polish! - pleases me from a sort of meta writing level nearly as much as some of the actual bits and jokes. Like how the character in Galaxy Quest who plays the 'redshirt' crewmber played by Sam Rockwell is named 'Guy'. That's brilliant and it makes me happily chuckle.

I know this strictly because I laughed at the dispute on Czech websites regarding "which language does Borat speak?" but:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poles_in_Kazakhstan

Somewhat tangential and not fit for this thread...but, the two German soldiers that try to surrender and beg for their lives at the beginning of Saving Private were conscripted Czech soldiers pleading in Czech. That got by me for over 20 years. The Americans quickly wasted them.

Somewhat tangential and not fit for this thread...but, the two German soldiers that try to surrender and beg for their lives at the beginning of Saving Private were conscripted Czech soldiers pleading in Czech. That got by me for over 20 years. The Americans quickly wasted them.

Never noticed that in the movie. Reading D-Day last month, I had no idea that so many of the troops on the Eastern Front were part of those "Ost" battalions and were basically being forced to man the Atlantic Wall

Old man Ryan is also wearing a 101st ABN pin in the opening cemetery scene. So the 'reveal' at the end of the movie when Miller dies isn't that big of a surprise if you're paying attention.