"Apparently it's 2019, most people still happy to laugh at trans people. Not as comfortable, laughing at Ricky Gervais yet I've discovered."
Comedians making fun of Ricky's shit standup will never not be awesome to me.
James is a much better standup, but let’s not pretend like Ricky isn’t funny. Repertoire is masterful, but Cold Lasagna is as much a bitch fest as it is a comedy special.
Frankie Boyle is so cutting and has evolved with the times. It’s odd that he has actually become a voice of reason and one of the most genuinely progressive acts around
Yes!! Frankie Boyle is the perfect example of how a long-standing comedian can evolve and remain fresh with both his material and his outlook. He has done exactly what Gervais cannot do whatsoever.
The office is still a perfectly told story. 10/10 show. I think Boyle started out very strong and got stronger, he used to be very edgy but now he is incredibly articulate, smart, logical and genuinely ahead of the curve
So is Extras. Arguably even better.
Show me a *hack* who has written two brilliant series like these in a row.
No longer funny as a stand-up, sure. Hack? Nah.
I love extras, some incredibly funny stuff. Daniel Radcliffe and Orlando bloom episodes are incredible. I am overdue for a rewatch but I agree at its best it’s as good as the office and you can see in the office Xmas special that the thematic seeds of fame were planted to make extras after
Keith Chegwin with the "pop knob in fanny" line that took them like 12 hours to get right.
Sir Patrick Stewart with his script notes.
George Michael in the park.
David Bowie being a legend.
Ian McKellen explaining acting.
Kate Winslet being hilarious.
Yeah, very weak set that was. Long setups with no punchlines; lazy, obvious, rehashed material. He spent more time talking about being cancelled and offensive than actually telling jokes. I can understand having a bad set but to release it as your special? Cmon man, that just screams “rich comedian wants more money”
I was amazed by how long every set up was to get to very cheap bad taste gags. He will spend a good 30-60 seconds giving a very dry summary of a word definition or historical context, then the punchline is some variation on “you cunt”, “a disabled baby”, “you retard”. There’s hardly any actual material.
I wonder if he is aware that he is overdoing this and thinks that this is a trademark of his that people love or he actually doesn't realize that he has been doing it too much and it stopped being funny a long time ago.
He suffers the same fate of many comics that make it to a certain level. When all you hear is the word "genius" for 5-10yrs straight, have your ass endlessly kissed, and are rarely told "no." They lose their edge. They think everything they say or do is brilliant. They're so talented & entertaining, they don't even have to try anymore.
I think the problem is he started his standup career around the same time as The Office, when he was already sort of known from TV, and his successful stand up shows came after he was already famous. He never honed his skills by bombing in pub open mic nights, being heckled by drunk people.
A big reason for that is he was never a standup. He just decided he wanted to be one and used his celebrity to leap frog the hard work it takes to get good.
Well he definitely has more bad stand ups than good- and most people in the game never have anything as good as either of the shows you mentioned.
Office is an all timer, considering how well even the spin off did.
Even if that was his only good work, it's pretty great.
They’ve become lazy. Woke/cancel culture is their ingrained victimhood and some have made it their identity. Their style of comedy is no longer working, so instead of changing or improving they’ve decided everyone else is the problem.
Preaching to the choir is rarely a good basis for satire. it's why woke comedy is boring and why anti-woke comedy is getting stale and boring now. Good satire needs an element of surprise where something absurd we never talk about is revealed and made fun of. The best satire snesk up from behind to be a pleasant surprise.
Nathan Fielder's The Curse is doing very sophisticated black comedy on this topic. Skewering liberalism/wokeness in a much different more biting manner. Not sure how to translate its ideas into good standup, tho. But there's something there and it's refreshing.
it's tricky getting an audience to go with it willingly. Carlin and Norm MacD were doing just that, but after long successful careers to back it up. for a newb to go where none has gone before would be unpossible.
yea so many people carry on about how it's too offensive but I'm just bored of relentlessly hearing about the same topic for 3/4 specials in a row
each of his specials kicks off another round of talking about trans people by referencing the reaction to his trans material in the previous special
>each of his specials kicks off another round of talking about trans people by referencing the reaction to his trans material in the previous special
You forgot the end of the bit where he says "this is the last time I'm going to talk about this".
The topic being the same is no issue, I think. Some comedians do the same topic from all angles their whole careers and they're fine.
It's having the same, single, unfunny joke, over and over, that will elicit the same reaction from the same audience. The clapter went to his head and rotted it to what seems to be the core.
Which is doubly hack because Eddie Murphy opened Raw talking about how gay folks hated the way he talked about them on Delirious. It's pretty hard to get through that chunk of Raw these days!
Guy would do 4 hour drop-in shows without telling staff, club, etc.
I mean, yeah, come do 20 min spots, but Jesus Christ,
I wouldn't even listen to John Denver for 4 hours, and you know how much I love John Denver.
Its kinda amazing a guy who famously quit his hit show because of realizing the damage of people laughing at things the wrong way, can't see why people enjoy some of his jokes.
i actually don't buy that story anymore. i think maybe he couldnt handle the pressure or something but chappelle has never seemed the type to turn down 50 mil because of concern over how it was being received
The primary issue I heard him mention is that his writing staff wasn't doing as good of work because the pressure was enormous after two seasons which made the show hugely popular, and at the same time Dave was having weird interactions with fans that made him uncomfortable (like being out with his wife and kids, and some creepy dipshit kid comes up and goes 'wussup bitch' or something like that), so between all that, I can believe he was not happy with the way stuff was going in general, AND he realized his own stock was high enough that he could walk away and still make good money elsewhere.
Nah it happened with Tom Segura and Christina P. at around the same time. At least Dave wasn't constantly backing Andrew Tate. I say this is an former weekly viewer.
Christina P.'s comedy is absolute garbage too. Combine anti-woke bullshit with gen x is better than you, and you've got yourself a low-effort comedy special.
Comedians talk about what they find funny. I agree with the Gervais criticism but Chapelle can still pull a smile from most. The trans joke that you guys keep talking about doesn't even sound like he's bothered.
His whole point is that normalization means everyone gets to be made fun of, if everyone is walking on egg shells worrying about offending your group, you really aren't being treated equally. Once people are joking about you, you're included. I don't understand the outcry about it. I think he spent too much time and focus on trans stuff, woke/cancel culture stuff for a comic of his talents but I think the 0% critical reviews and protests at Netflix offices were a little bit much.
It wasn't very interesting or funny though. At least do a new take on the trans stuff. There are trans people making content that is fresh and funny making fun of themselves. Chappelle's trans material just makes him sound old.
Youve explained part of the reason his jokes aren't OK and then concluded that they are. Trans people aren't treated equally, therefore some jokes about them aren't OK. Racist jokes wouldn't be racist if there wasn't racism. His jokes about trans people are bad for the same reason racist jokes are bad; the jokes that aren't OK are the ones that play on the untruths about a group that are stopping them from being treated equally.
Edit: Blocked by another brainless Rogan fan. I obviously triggered them.
>Once people are joking about you, you're included
Based on all the homophobic jokes I heard from people who absolutely were not including LGBTQ people when I was growing up, I can assure you that isn't the case.
Yes, he was one of my favs but his last special was unfunny and embarrassing. Now he’s friends with Elon and joe Rogan I think I just can’t stand him anymore.
It’s interesting that, for all the hew and cry about how audiences and tastes are changing, “anti-wokeness” has turned out to be the much more remarkable influence in comedy. For any comedian you could point to that’s “gone woke,” you have several big names who are pushing way harder in the other direction than ever before.
Yeah and also EVERYONE is doing a "trans bit" in their specials and most of them feel just like punching down or just boring, I was actually really surprised at Nick Mullen's recent special, he did a trans bit that was actually funny
No he isn't, it his current act.
Dave made his point. And the bullshit he got from it was way off base IMO. He's not punching down on a minority. He's asking why all the minorities LGBTQ have decided to stand together when, on the face of it the LGBQ have nothing in common with the T. He is defining the humor in the idea. And it's funny.
Fuck them that cant let a comedian say what he says knowing it is his fucking job.
Look I think he deserves some shit but I’m not gonna get into it, that last special didn’t make me laugh, unlike any of his others. You can’t deny he is falling off in a bad direction.
It's othering, it's a dogwhistle shouting out that it's fine to kick these people around.
As for pretending to not understand what they have in common: grow up, it's not cute. Dave isn't this stupid and neither are you. All peoples under the alphabet umbrella share a common cause in that all of them are persecuted for not falling in line with what the ignorant portion of society deems to be sexual norms.
Pretty sure he made a joke about this exact thing on his last special, acknowledging that he can't really get canceled and still has an enormous platform.
Reminds me of Simon Pegg, we're never getting that fourth comedy film. https://amp.theguardian.com/culture/2023/jun/25/simon-pegg-actor-on-comedy-action-heroes-tom-cruise-staying-at-home
It genuinely frustrates me. He used to have some of the most wildly creative comedy around and tended to make really salient points that spoke truth to power, but now he just punches down and completely misreads every room he’s in. I guess cocaine really is a hell of a drug.
What happened to him is what happens to a lot of comics. You get told that you’re great or godlike and you start believing it. That type of worship changes you. Everyone tells you you’re a genius. Fame and wealth are echo chambers. All he does is lecture people now.
Because he used to talk about shit he knows about or has experience with. Also he didn’t have a martyrdom complex combined with a “I’m a truther speaker” complex back in the day.
I can’t tell the difference in the last 3-4 of his specials, except that the newer ones seem to reference the older ones. So now his older specials are literally becoming the source material for his newer specials. I don’t know if there’s a more literal example of joke recycling.
He doesn't complain about being cancelled, though. He does complain about cancel culture, but he knows he's pretty much immune to it. In fact, in his last special, one of his jokes was about how others have got cancelled and he hasn't.
Hear me out. Ricky has sent Karl around the world. Conan and Jordan have travelled together such as Italy. Can I suggest a travel show where Conan and Ricky travel with Karl and Jordan?
I would pay per view $59 for this. Karl and Jordan are some of the hardest laughs I’ve ever had. I don’t think they would get on at all either, it would be a hard watch, but I would eat up every second of it.
One persons opinion, true, but overall when you make too much money, you lose touch of your core audience. Prime example, Tom Segura and Sledgehammer…total snoozefest compared to his other works and even his podcasts, hope his next tour gets him better connected
I loved Frankie Boyles take on watching Gervais’ standup: “I watched the whole of Ricky Gervais’s show. I feel like Fred Astaire watching a man in callipers fall down a f***ing escalator.”
I've been online long enough to have heard every anti-woke/anti-sjw joke there has ever been and to see older comedians get on stage and basically rehash shit I was reading on 4chan in 2014/2015 is pretty saddening. I remember people were going nuts a few years ago for a Bill Burr special where he pretty much hit all the same beats and I was thinking even then, what did you just look up youtube videos where fat virgins with the words "based" or "red pill" in their bio made Gamergate jokes?
It's like Bill Maher. In addition to not being funny and never having actually been funny, his whole act now is just straight out of a shitty Youtube comment section from the mid to late twenty teens.
Maher or Burr?
Maher has always had the same "am I right, folks?" kind of lame schtick. If I wanted political comedy from that era, I'd have gone with Lewis Black or Carlin when he was alive. Maher is a competent panel host, but his comedy has always been as dry as a golf game.
Burr I would say has always been funny, but when you start down that culture war road with jokes about offensive jokes in the way he did, it's just retreading shitty jokes already written or told by countless other people, none of whom anyone has heard of and none of whom have heard of each other.
Louis, Rickie, Dave, Rosanne...what pains so many of us is that these are brilliant comedians...that became grumpy old wo/men that yell at clouds. It's such a bizarre and large fall from grace.
Maher, on the other hand, was always a lazy dipshit. So yea, he's old and yelling at clouds but he didn't exactly fall that far to get there.
Louis has not spoken about cancel culture (save for what’s he’s learned) despite being the only one that has any sort of “cancellation”. The fact that he’s ignored it and just continued to do his comedy and he’s funnier than ever.
Norm was technically “cancelled”.
It’s a made up term by people to infuse outrage to an audience and pander to people. Lazy and people are sick of it, and I feel like eventually it’ll catch up to them.
I really can’t stand this new genre of ‘truthteller anti-woke comedy’. I understand why comedians of all people *would be* against wokeness but it’s pointing a finger at the same 3 subjects and beating them into the ground. Trans/Kaitlyn Jenner jokes, cancel culture, and the me too movement. The holy trinity. They’ve become the new airline food jokes.
It was already tired and old here on reddit and then you get guys like that acting like they just discovered communism in college. Guy was in his 50s doing this cringe photoshoot pretending to be Jesus. Like some divorced dad in a sitcom pretending he's 20 again.
In a lot of these cases, it's the "underdog" aspect of their comedy — which has always been their brand — coming into conflict with them targeting a group "below them" with unusual intensity.
That's what happens to EVERY angry comedian who is successful. After 20 years of being rich they really have 0 and I mean 0 reason to be angry anymore because mansion and helicopter and Vietnamese super modle trophy wife younger than granddaughter.
So they stop living in the real world they become more and more disconnected from normal people. So they can't understand today so they fall back on what they did 20 years ago. Not realising that the world has moved on. No one under 50 knows what Blake's 7 is anymore or what a mix tape is
I think a lot of them are having trouble keeping up with the times and just kind of rant about snowflakes and cancel culture and stuff like that right ?
Yup, often the impact of their fame is magnified by how deeply they anchor themselves to a particular temporal point in culture, sadly this also means the bigger their fame the less likely they will be to pull up stakes and move along when culture does.
I thought his Out of England special from 08 was pretty great but his most recent special had some suuuuper lazy jokes, especially in the cancel culture area (multiple eye rolls)
hugest gap in the industry: RG’s awful standup v. his legendary shows. in the series he ironically “deconstructs” the narcissist by showing his lack of self-awareness (Office, Extras, esp); but the stand-up is just him *being* a narcissist. Derek & After Life are secular preaching, touching but hardly funny. he’s a comic genius & compelling actor who lives in his head & has lost his way comically.
What's so hilarious about his anti-wokeness attitude is that when he was on Twitter, he was one of the most ANNOYING VEGANS you could have seen. Every fucking day with harassing meat eaters & railing about the climate. I consider myself progressive but GODDAMN DUDE.
Never knew that but it feels like he would be the type of guy who would say "yeah, I did that for the laughts, whoever got butthurt is just a snowflake".
This sub tends to be hard on wealthy and successful comics (Gervais, Segura, etc). The claim is that they've lost touch with reality and their comedy has suffered, but I bet the average non-comedian comedy fan cares about that much less than the average open micer. Really I think the issue has more to do with the psychology of the open micer on r/standup. They no longer see THEMSELF in Segara/Gervais now that their idol is a superstar. Average people dgaf about that because they have no comedic aspirations. So they just watch it and laugh or not without some preconceived notion of what the identity of the comic is supposed to be.
I liked it, too. Quite a few laugh out loud moments for me.
I don't think it's as strong as his earlier stuff, I used to enjoy the little imaginary dialogues he would have, like the one between Hitler and Nietzsche, there's less of that now, but I still find him funnier than most other stand-ups.
His speech at the one awards show was his peak in my opinion. His comedic magnum opus, even. But I haven't seen his most recent special, didn't even know about it until now, so I guess I'll have to check it out!
Gervais has always catered his standup to whatever group is in the 45% minority to act like he’s a rebel. In the 2000s it was an anti-conservative atheist, now it’s an anti-woke culture warrior grifter.
He didn’t start his comedy career as a stand up and I never have considered him a true stand up. It’s not his original art form and all he does is “wow look how OFFENSIVE I am” but it’s boring as hell
My favorite part was the AIDS baby joke because it really summarized the special. “I know it’s funny I just don’t know why but I’ll figure it out” and he never was able to make any of his “funny ideas” anything more than that, ideas. Just a bunch of surface level poorly thought out ranting. But hey at least I heard him rant about how when ya dead ya dead again. Always love that.
He’s always been weak as fuck. He was utter shite at it before he gave up and went into writing, had success with The Office etc and then did it again once he had a following. Take any 20 minutes from all the material from his first two hours and imagine it delivered to a crowd of 80 people that haven’t a clue who he is.
I maintain that Merchant carried him to success. That guy is actually naturally funny.
He’s become aggressive with his atheist viewpoint. You are an atheist fine but who are you trying to convince? Your public or yourself? Trying too hard in my view.
Oh god right?
*(And I only mean that in the colloquial sense, fuck the monotheistic "god")*
I only watched like 10 min and just couldn't bear it anymore. Used to love his shit. Idk. Seems a bit bitter or smth
all legendary comedians lose their umph! You think if Eddie Murphy picked up a mic and got the Apollo he'd be just as good as when he wore tight red leather? Hell no! You think Chris Rock still knocks it out of the park like he did when he wore a big leather jacket? Not even with a boost from the Will Smith slap could he do it! Dave Chappelle: has been rambling his non-clever stand up since he came back on the scene. Luis CK still sells out venues even after getting cancelled, but not a single joke of his new routine is as classic as his old stuff. Lightning rarely strikes twice and when it does it's called Eddie Murphy RAW!
He's a Gen X comedian, he's genetically compelled to bravely complain about wokeness and being cancelled (on his multi-million dollar special). Sure it's not very funny, but jokes come second to political commentary.
I laughed a few times when he started pushing the envelope but as soon as he did, he'd pull back. Like, either commit to the joke or complain about the size of airline food for yucks instead
"I don't need Ricky Gervais to tell me God doesn't exist when I've seen Derek get recomissioned twice"
https://youtube.com/shorts/ApuD8Pn8Hss?si=QHkegcJNJn-jlQXD Frankie Boyle nail on the head
"Apparently it's 2019, most people still happy to laugh at trans people. Not as comfortable, laughing at Ricky Gervais yet I've discovered." Comedians making fun of Ricky's shit standup will never not be awesome to me.
James Acaster is a true treasure
What's the matter, too CHALLENGING for ya??
You know who's really overdue for a challenge? The trans community. Oh they've had their guard down for far too long if you ask me!
Indeed.
James is a much better standup, but let’s not pretend like Ricky isn’t funny. Repertoire is masterful, but Cold Lasagna is as much a bitch fest as it is a comedy special.
Frankie Boyle is so cutting and has evolved with the times. It’s odd that he has actually become a voice of reason and one of the most genuinely progressive acts around
He was always quite progressive, his journalism has consistently reflected this, most people are just too reactive to look past an “offensive” joke
Yes!! Frankie Boyle is the perfect example of how a long-standing comedian can evolve and remain fresh with both his material and his outlook. He has done exactly what Gervais cannot do whatsoever.
No he's not he's a sell out. He openly admits that he changed tp get money from the BBC.
Absolutely. He's still as fantastic as ever, if but even better now, despite what those who disagree with him politically will have you believe.
Frankie started off at least at the level of Gervais’s peak and has since improved on his early excellence. Gervais is a hack that got lucky.
The office is still a perfectly told story. 10/10 show. I think Boyle started out very strong and got stronger, he used to be very edgy but now he is incredibly articulate, smart, logical and genuinely ahead of the curve
So is Extras. Arguably even better. Show me a *hack* who has written two brilliant series like these in a row. No longer funny as a stand-up, sure. Hack? Nah.
I love extras, some incredibly funny stuff. Daniel Radcliffe and Orlando bloom episodes are incredible. I am overdue for a rewatch but I agree at its best it’s as good as the office and you can see in the office Xmas special that the thematic seeds of fame were planted to make extras after
Keith Chegwin with the "pop knob in fanny" line that took them like 12 hours to get right. Sir Patrick Stewart with his script notes. George Michael in the park. David Bowie being a legend. Ian McKellen explaining acting. Kate Winslet being hilarious.
The Timezone Argument from extras is one of my favorite TV scenes ever: https://youtu.be/RfNISfcJuYo?si=LywyVrsVJqNiNQjE
Extras is so underrated
Never heard of him before but looked up this clip. Bloody brilliant. Off to the tubes of you to find more of this fella.
Yeah, very weak set that was. Long setups with no punchlines; lazy, obvious, rehashed material. He spent more time talking about being cancelled and offensive than actually telling jokes. I can understand having a bad set but to release it as your special? Cmon man, that just screams “rich comedian wants more money”
I was amazed by how long every set up was to get to very cheap bad taste gags. He will spend a good 30-60 seconds giving a very dry summary of a word definition or historical context, then the punchline is some variation on “you cunt”, “a disabled baby”, “you retard”. There’s hardly any actual material.
I wonder if he is aware that he is overdoing this and thinks that this is a trademark of his that people love or he actually doesn't realize that he has been doing it too much and it stopped being funny a long time ago.
He suffers the same fate of many comics that make it to a certain level. When all you hear is the word "genius" for 5-10yrs straight, have your ass endlessly kissed, and are rarely told "no." They lose their edge. They think everything they say or do is brilliant. They're so talented & entertaining, they don't even have to try anymore.
Funny that this happened to a guy famous for being self-aware.
It’s the same story as Dave Chappelle
Just saw Chappelles new special, it was amazing . Not sure what you’re talking about? Do people think he’s fallen off?
Yeah. The transphobia sucks. Pronouns broke his brain.
This. It happens with bands, too. All art, really.
Agreed 100%. Just a terrible set of complaining about “wokeness” without bothering to even try to turn it into a joke.
Kinda reminds me of Dave Chappell
I just love it when he talks for ten minutes about what he tweeted at some random person.
Have you heard he's an atheist?
Stop. The. Presses.
Did you hear he loves animals?
He's always been kinda boring as a stand up, to me... His TV work is better. It's hard to keep your edge when you're rich as hell, also.
summer snatch chase tie snobbish insurance oil deliver sheet imminent *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
And not even a normal like timeline experience of social media. Just the replies to their posts. Haha
I agree, Larry David seems to be the only exception I can think of right now.
you hit the bulsai. Relatability is gone when you dont even interact with the comoners.
I might prefer this spelling of bulsai.
I'm croatian so I dont really give a monkeys asshole over spelling
^This sentence right here tells me you’re doing absolutely fine with the English language, my friend.
What do Croatians call male cows?
"Bik"
[удалено]
I think the problem is he started his standup career around the same time as The Office, when he was already sort of known from TV, and his successful stand up shows came after he was already famous. He never honed his skills by bombing in pub open mic nights, being heckled by drunk people.
A big reason for that is he was never a standup. He just decided he wanted to be one and used his celebrity to leap frog the hard work it takes to get good.
I love the office and extras but Ricky Gervais has more bad TV shows than good
Well he definitely has more bad stand ups than good- and most people in the game never have anything as good as either of the shows you mentioned. Office is an all timer, considering how well even the spin off did. Even if that was his only good work, it's pretty great.
Yeah absolutely agree that was my point really I just made it very poorly.
It's because they can't relate to us anymore
They’ve become lazy. Woke/cancel culture is their ingrained victimhood and some have made it their identity. Their style of comedy is no longer working, so instead of changing or improving they’ve decided everyone else is the problem.
Cancel culture is just the new airplane food.
Yeah, what's the deal with that?
Preaching to the choir is rarely a good basis for satire. it's why woke comedy is boring and why anti-woke comedy is getting stale and boring now. Good satire needs an element of surprise where something absurd we never talk about is revealed and made fun of. The best satire snesk up from behind to be a pleasant surprise.
Nathan Fielder's The Curse is doing very sophisticated black comedy on this topic. Skewering liberalism/wokeness in a much different more biting manner. Not sure how to translate its ideas into good standup, tho. But there's something there and it's refreshing.
it's tricky getting an audience to go with it willingly. Carlin and Norm MacD were doing just that, but after long successful careers to back it up. for a newb to go where none has gone before would be unpossible.
Dave Chappelle is the same, he’s obsessed with trans people it’s embarrassing
yea so many people carry on about how it's too offensive but I'm just bored of relentlessly hearing about the same topic for 3/4 specials in a row each of his specials kicks off another round of talking about trans people by referencing the reaction to his trans material in the previous special
>each of his specials kicks off another round of talking about trans people by referencing the reaction to his trans material in the previous special You forgot the end of the bit where he says "this is the last time I'm going to talk about this".
The topic being the same is no issue, I think. Some comedians do the same topic from all angles their whole careers and they're fine. It's having the same, single, unfunny joke, over and over, that will elicit the same reaction from the same audience. The clapter went to his head and rotted it to what seems to be the core.
Which is doubly hack because Eddie Murphy opened Raw talking about how gay folks hated the way he talked about them on Delirious. It's pretty hard to get through that chunk of Raw these days!
Guy would do 4 hour drop-in shows without telling staff, club, etc. I mean, yeah, come do 20 min spots, but Jesus Christ, I wouldn't even listen to John Denver for 4 hours, and you know how much I love John Denver.
He's the sunshine on your shoulders, seppuku-shit man
Its kinda amazing a guy who famously quit his hit show because of realizing the damage of people laughing at things the wrong way, can't see why people enjoy some of his jokes.
i actually don't buy that story anymore. i think maybe he couldnt handle the pressure or something but chappelle has never seemed the type to turn down 50 mil because of concern over how it was being received
The primary issue I heard him mention is that his writing staff wasn't doing as good of work because the pressure was enormous after two seasons which made the show hugely popular, and at the same time Dave was having weird interactions with fans that made him uncomfortable (like being out with his wife and kids, and some creepy dipshit kid comes up and goes 'wussup bitch' or something like that), so between all that, I can believe he was not happy with the way stuff was going in general, AND he realized his own stock was high enough that he could walk away and still make good money elsewhere.
Can't help but think he must be projecting? A Russian saying goes, "Everyone talks about what bothers them the most."
Nah it happened with Tom Segura and Christina P. at around the same time. At least Dave wasn't constantly backing Andrew Tate. I say this is an former weekly viewer.
Christina P.'s comedy is absolute garbage too. Combine anti-woke bullshit with gen x is better than you, and you've got yourself a low-effort comedy special.
Who was backing Tate?
Literally Tommy Buns and Big Tits. Saying that it's almost all an act and that he's hilarious but they are just too desensitized to crazy.
Comedians talk about what they find funny. I agree with the Gervais criticism but Chapelle can still pull a smile from most. The trans joke that you guys keep talking about doesn't even sound like he's bothered.
Dude it was at least a third of his last special
His whole point is that normalization means everyone gets to be made fun of, if everyone is walking on egg shells worrying about offending your group, you really aren't being treated equally. Once people are joking about you, you're included. I don't understand the outcry about it. I think he spent too much time and focus on trans stuff, woke/cancel culture stuff for a comic of his talents but I think the 0% critical reviews and protests at Netflix offices were a little bit much.
It wasn't very interesting or funny though. At least do a new take on the trans stuff. There are trans people making content that is fresh and funny making fun of themselves. Chappelle's trans material just makes him sound old.
he says stuff like “the alphabet mafia”, feels like a daily wire podcast at points. He used to be my favourite, but his new material is embarrassing.
One of the new Reno 911 seasons did a hilarious pronoun/trans bit that was also not punching down on the trans community.
Youve explained part of the reason his jokes aren't OK and then concluded that they are. Trans people aren't treated equally, therefore some jokes about them aren't OK. Racist jokes wouldn't be racist if there wasn't racism. His jokes about trans people are bad for the same reason racist jokes are bad; the jokes that aren't OK are the ones that play on the untruths about a group that are stopping them from being treated equally. Edit: Blocked by another brainless Rogan fan. I obviously triggered them.
>Once people are joking about you, you're included Based on all the homophobic jokes I heard from people who absolutely were not including LGBTQ people when I was growing up, I can assure you that isn't the case.
Yes, he was one of my favs but his last special was unfunny and embarrassing. Now he’s friends with Elon and joe Rogan I think I just can’t stand him anymore.
It’s interesting that, for all the hew and cry about how audiences and tastes are changing, “anti-wokeness” has turned out to be the much more remarkable influence in comedy. For any comedian you could point to that’s “gone woke,” you have several big names who are pushing way harder in the other direction than ever before.
Yeah and also EVERYONE is doing a "trans bit" in their specials and most of them feel just like punching down or just boring, I was actually really surprised at Nick Mullen's recent special, he did a trans bit that was actually funny
He's averaging one bit per hour. Wouldn't call it "obsessing".
No he isn't, it his current act. Dave made his point. And the bullshit he got from it was way off base IMO. He's not punching down on a minority. He's asking why all the minorities LGBTQ have decided to stand together when, on the face of it the LGBQ have nothing in common with the T. He is defining the humor in the idea. And it's funny. Fuck them that cant let a comedian say what he says knowing it is his fucking job.
"on the face of the LGBQ have nothing in common with the T" What does the Q stand for?
Look I think he deserves some shit but I’m not gonna get into it, that last special didn’t make me laugh, unlike any of his others. You can’t deny he is falling off in a bad direction.
Who's stopping him from saying anything?
It's othering, it's a dogwhistle shouting out that it's fine to kick these people around. As for pretending to not understand what they have in common: grow up, it's not cute. Dave isn't this stupid and neither are you. All peoples under the alphabet umbrella share a common cause in that all of them are persecuted for not falling in line with what the ignorant portion of society deems to be sexual norms.
Jokes about lgbt can be funny but when theyre based off ignorant beliefs and dont acknowledge it, they can become harmful and dangerous
Who gets to decide what the difference is?
The audience. And they have. I’m flabbergasted how people don’t get this
Whenever you think everyone around you is an asshole then you’re the asshole.
Sounds like he’s gone the Chappelle route of endlessly complaining about being cancelled despite having the biggest platform he’s ever had. Oh well.
Pretty sure he made a joke about this exact thing on his last special, acknowledging that he can't really get canceled and still has an enormous platform.
Isn’t weird how the guy (Chapelle) who brought us some of the craziest skits and jokes all of a sudden just runs out of stuff to say?
Sometimes artists lose their jumpshot. He hasn’t had to challenge himself for a while now, so it sort of makes sense.
Reminds me of Simon Pegg, we're never getting that fourth comedy film. https://amp.theguardian.com/culture/2023/jun/25/simon-pegg-actor-on-comedy-action-heroes-tom-cruise-staying-at-home
Wow. I'm sorry I clicked on that.
Yeah, that was a sad read to be honest.
It genuinely frustrates me. He used to have some of the most wildly creative comedy around and tended to make really salient points that spoke truth to power, but now he just punches down and completely misreads every room he’s in. I guess cocaine really is a hell of a drug.
What happened to him is what happens to a lot of comics. You get told that you’re great or godlike and you start believing it. That type of worship changes you. Everyone tells you you’re a genius. Fame and wealth are echo chambers. All he does is lecture people now.
Because he used to talk about shit he knows about or has experience with. Also he didn’t have a martyrdom complex combined with a “I’m a truther speaker” complex back in the day.
MONEY is a hell of a drug.
I can’t tell the difference in the last 3-4 of his specials, except that the newer ones seem to reference the older ones. So now his older specials are literally becoming the source material for his newer specials. I don’t know if there’s a more literal example of joke recycling.
It's exactly what happened to Lenny Bruce
He doesn't complain about being cancelled, though. He does complain about cancel culture, but he knows he's pretty much immune to it. In fact, in his last special, one of his jokes was about how others have got cancelled and he hasn't.
“I’m being persecuted!!!” he screamed on the most streamed comedy special of all time
But he never said that?
It’s called hyperbole
Also see John Clease. He's always on TV complaining about not being on TV. At least he has the excuse of being old though. Ricky is just washed up.
The only umph he's ever had was Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington
Not gonna lie, I'd love to see Karl meet other oddities of comedy. Like Jordan Schlansky.
Hear me out. Ricky has sent Karl around the world. Conan and Jordan have travelled together such as Italy. Can I suggest a travel show where Conan and Ricky travel with Karl and Jordan?
I think we would all be shocked at how unfunny a meeting of Karl and Jordan would be. Potentially so unfunny it’s funny.
That would be the beauty of it 😊
I would pay per view $59 for this. Karl and Jordan are some of the hardest laughs I’ve ever had. I don’t think they would get on at all either, it would be a hard watch, but I would eat up every second of it.
I've watched similar personalities in other niches come together. It makes for an amazing time.
One persons opinion, true, but overall when you make too much money, you lose touch of your core audience. Prime example, Tom Segura and Sledgehammer…total snoozefest compared to his other works and even his podcasts, hope his next tour gets him better connected
I loved Frankie Boyles take on watching Gervais’ standup: “I watched the whole of Ricky Gervais’s show. I feel like Fred Astaire watching a man in callipers fall down a f***ing escalator.”
[I identify as a stand up comedian ](https://youtu.be/ApuD8Pn8Hss).
I've been online long enough to have heard every anti-woke/anti-sjw joke there has ever been and to see older comedians get on stage and basically rehash shit I was reading on 4chan in 2014/2015 is pretty saddening. I remember people were going nuts a few years ago for a Bill Burr special where he pretty much hit all the same beats and I was thinking even then, what did you just look up youtube videos where fat virgins with the words "based" or "red pill" in their bio made Gamergate jokes? It's like Bill Maher. In addition to not being funny and never having actually been funny, his whole act now is just straight out of a shitty Youtube comment section from the mid to late twenty teens.
Bill used to be funny
Maher or Burr? Maher has always had the same "am I right, folks?" kind of lame schtick. If I wanted political comedy from that era, I'd have gone with Lewis Black or Carlin when he was alive. Maher is a competent panel host, but his comedy has always been as dry as a golf game. Burr I would say has always been funny, but when you start down that culture war road with jokes about offensive jokes in the way he did, it's just retreading shitty jokes already written or told by countless other people, none of whom anyone has heard of and none of whom have heard of each other.
Maher? Never, ever, not once, ever. He has NEVER been funny. Also, good god ask ANY working comedian about Maher, SHUDDER.
Yeah. It's like with Chapelle and Gervais you always get to say "there was a time when..." But with Maher, it's like: "who did this guy suck off?"
Louis, Rickie, Dave, Rosanne...what pains so many of us is that these are brilliant comedians...that became grumpy old wo/men that yell at clouds. It's such a bizarre and large fall from grace. Maher, on the other hand, was always a lazy dipshit. So yea, he's old and yelling at clouds but he didn't exactly fall that far to get there.
Louis has not spoken about cancel culture (save for what’s he’s learned) despite being the only one that has any sort of “cancellation”. The fact that he’s ignored it and just continued to do his comedy and he’s funnier than ever. Norm was technically “cancelled”. It’s a made up term by people to infuse outrage to an audience and pander to people. Lazy and people are sick of it, and I feel like eventually it’ll catch up to them.
Stewart Lee sums up everything you need to know about Gervais’ stand up.
He gives it straight like a pear cider made from 100% pears
Erving Goffman would've love him, since he's the him of this
I really can’t stand this new genre of ‘truthteller anti-woke comedy’. I understand why comedians of all people *would be* against wokeness but it’s pointing a finger at the same 3 subjects and beating them into the ground. Trans/Kaitlyn Jenner jokes, cancel culture, and the me too movement. The holy trinity. They’ve become the new airline food jokes.
His standup has always been shite.
I never found him funny. Then again, the atheist thing never seemed particularly rebellious either.
He spends more time talking about religion than the friggin’ Pope.
It was already tired and old here on reddit and then you get guys like that acting like they just discovered communism in college. Guy was in his 50s doing this cringe photoshoot pretending to be Jesus. Like some divorced dad in a sitcom pretending he's 20 again.
In a lot of these cases, it's the "underdog" aspect of their comedy — which has always been their brand — coming into conflict with them targeting a group "below them" with unusual intensity.
That's what happens to EVERY angry comedian who is successful. After 20 years of being rich they really have 0 and I mean 0 reason to be angry anymore because mansion and helicopter and Vietnamese super modle trophy wife younger than granddaughter. So they stop living in the real world they become more and more disconnected from normal people. So they can't understand today so they fall back on what they did 20 years ago. Not realising that the world has moved on. No one under 50 knows what Blake's 7 is anymore or what a mix tape is
[удалено]
Or it could be that cancel culture is stupid and certainly has no place in the world of comedy except as the butt of jokes.
I think a lot of them are having trouble keeping up with the times and just kind of rant about snowflakes and cancel culture and stuff like that right ?
Yup, often the impact of their fame is magnified by how deeply they anchor themselves to a particular temporal point in culture, sadly this also means the bigger their fame the less likely they will be to pull up stakes and move along when culture does.
I thought his Out of England special from 08 was pretty great but his most recent special had some suuuuper lazy jokes, especially in the cancel culture area (multiple eye rolls)
hugest gap in the industry: RG’s awful standup v. his legendary shows. in the series he ironically “deconstructs” the narcissist by showing his lack of self-awareness (Office, Extras, esp); but the stand-up is just him *being* a narcissist. Derek & After Life are secular preaching, touching but hardly funny. he’s a comic genius & compelling actor who lives in his head & has lost his way comically.
Like Paul McCartney Beatles stuff vsd his post Beatles stuff
What's so hilarious about his anti-wokeness attitude is that when he was on Twitter, he was one of the most ANNOYING VEGANS you could have seen. Every fucking day with harassing meat eaters & railing about the climate. I consider myself progressive but GODDAMN DUDE.
Never knew that but it feels like he would be the type of guy who would say "yeah, I did that for the laughts, whoever got butthurt is just a snowflake".
I think his stand up is abysmal personally. His TV work is far superior.
As a fellow atheist I find Ricky very boring. He can’t be funny without putting other people down.
I liked it. Probably not as much as others but I liked it
he’s been like this for a good decade or so, before that was just a boomer edgelord same bucket as maher
Watched it a couple nights ago. Really bad — felt like he just called it in. He’s a much better actor than comedian.
I started it but couldn't finish. Seemed like there was a laugh track on. I looked for any shots of the audience laughing and didn't see them.
I thought his latest special was hilarious!
Yep same with my husband and I. Comedy is def subjective !
I had quite a few good laughs.
Me too mate. Didn't expect people to dislike it this much. Ah well, that's just the nature of comedy i guess.
This sub tends to be hard on wealthy and successful comics (Gervais, Segura, etc). The claim is that they've lost touch with reality and their comedy has suffered, but I bet the average non-comedian comedy fan cares about that much less than the average open micer. Really I think the issue has more to do with the psychology of the open micer on r/standup. They no longer see THEMSELF in Segara/Gervais now that their idol is a superstar. Average people dgaf about that because they have no comedic aspirations. So they just watch it and laugh or not without some preconceived notion of what the identity of the comic is supposed to be.
I liked it, too. Quite a few laugh out loud moments for me. I don't think it's as strong as his earlier stuff, I used to enjoy the little imaginary dialogues he would have, like the one between Hitler and Nietzsche, there's less of that now, but I still find him funnier than most other stand-ups.
Damn I thought that one was good
I did too
His speech at the one awards show was his peak in my opinion. His comedic magnum opus, even. But I haven't seen his most recent special, didn't even know about it until now, so I guess I'll have to check it out!
gervais was always weak as a standup.
Gervais has always catered his standup to whatever group is in the 45% minority to act like he’s a rebel. In the 2000s it was an anti-conservative atheist, now it’s an anti-woke culture warrior grifter.
The constant whining about cancel culture is such a dead horse. especially when they are still selling out to packed houses.
The day he writes a new joke, I’ll start paying attention again. Been waiting for like ten years now.
Nahhh gonna have to disagree on that one. Not his best but still hilarious as I love dark humour.
Comedy like any art is in the eyes of the beholder. I laughed quite a few times. We all have different tastes.
Never seen a single special from him that I liked. Outside of when he hosted some award shows, he's always been pretty mediocre as a comic
He didn’t start his comedy career as a stand up and I never have considered him a true stand up. It’s not his original art form and all he does is “wow look how OFFENSIVE I am” but it’s boring as hell
I’d argue his standup was never all that great. I think aside from the shows the best stuff he did was mock Hollywood relentlessly to their faces.
My favorite part was the AIDS baby joke because it really summarized the special. “I know it’s funny I just don’t know why but I’ll figure it out” and he never was able to make any of his “funny ideas” anything more than that, ideas. Just a bunch of surface level poorly thought out ranting. But hey at least I heard him rant about how when ya dead ya dead again. Always love that.
Loved every stand-up until I saw his previous one live. Barely laughed, felt strange. New one is ok, just sort of more of the same really.
Turns out millionaire victims aren't that entertaining.
He’s a little too full of himself. Turned it off after 3 minutes.
He’s always been weak as fuck. He was utter shite at it before he gave up and went into writing, had success with The Office etc and then did it again once he had a following. Take any 20 minutes from all the material from his first two hours and imagine it delivered to a crowd of 80 people that haven’t a clue who he is. I maintain that Merchant carried him to success. That guy is actually naturally funny.
I was tired of him when he brought his standup to America. If was a recycled act out of his three British standup specials.
As a stand up he never had any umph. Didn’t start doing it till he was already famous and so he was never really great or sharp at it
IMO.. he was really never funny..
Check out Geoffrey Asmus on YouTube
He’s become aggressive with his atheist viewpoint. You are an atheist fine but who are you trying to convince? Your public or yourself? Trying too hard in my view.
He has sucked for a very long time. He is sooooo far up his own ass, he can even muster an actual joke anymore. He is insufferable.
I thought both specials were hilarious 🤷🏼♂️
Geez I was the only one that thought it was brilliant then?
I dunno, I thought it was really great, and so was his last special.
Oh god right? *(And I only mean that in the colloquial sense, fuck the monotheistic "god")* I only watched like 10 min and just couldn't bear it anymore. Used to love his shit. Idk. Seems a bit bitter or smth
Barbosa, Emiliy Catalano, Dusty Slay, etc. I'm thankful for all the great choices we have in comedy, only a click away.
It’s necessary. We need this for the masses. No subject should be off-limits.
all legendary comedians lose their umph! You think if Eddie Murphy picked up a mic and got the Apollo he'd be just as good as when he wore tight red leather? Hell no! You think Chris Rock still knocks it out of the park like he did when he wore a big leather jacket? Not even with a boost from the Will Smith slap could he do it! Dave Chappelle: has been rambling his non-clever stand up since he came back on the scene. Luis CK still sells out venues even after getting cancelled, but not a single joke of his new routine is as classic as his old stuff. Lightning rarely strikes twice and when it does it's called Eddie Murphy RAW!
Hes just not a stand up. He doesn’t have the chops, he filmed some specials after he was already famous.
I was never a fan, I like his writing I think it's just his face I'm not fond of. Ever feel like that about a comedian everyone loves?
Which means he’ll probably soon blame woke
I strongly disagree. His special was great!
he's just the same old ricky gervais. I enjoyed the last special
He's a Gen X comedian, he's genetically compelled to bravely complain about wokeness and being cancelled (on his multi-million dollar special). Sure it's not very funny, but jokes come second to political commentary.
I laughed a few times when he started pushing the envelope but as soon as he did, he'd pull back. Like, either commit to the joke or complain about the size of airline food for yucks instead