Comedians?

[Noelle]

Does anyone else out there hate them? I think they look and sound so ridiculous standing up on a stage in front of an audience and making fun of everybody and their monkey's uncle. Even when they do manage a "smirk worthy" joke or remark, they lose me with the litany of idiocy that follows.

I like to think I have a sense of humour. I just really despise comedians. From any country. Accent does nothing for me if the guy is just standing up there running his mouth, denigrating other people (even if they deserve it) and generally saying nothing productive or helpful at all. I was taught not to speak until I could improve the silence. For the life of me I cannot figure out why this is an actual career for some people.

Rowan Atkinson, I'll admit, is funny... more for what he doesn't say than what he does say.

Don't even get me started on female comedians...

 

[MrSpock]

I don't care to watch the majority of stand-up comedians, or the vast majority of comedy television or movies either, for that matter.

I do like Seinfeld, and I'm guessing that you probably wouldn't, he doesn't have much to say about anything important.

But there are definitely comedians and people working in comedy who have a great deal to say. Stephen Fry, George Carlin, Seth MacFarlane, Jon Stewart, John Oliver, Tim Minchin... literally tons of them.

People have careers in advertising, war, homeopathy... bad stand-up comedy isn't so very strange in comparison. However misguided you may think they are, they're trying to make people happy.

 

[Chance]

I don't hate them at all... I just don't get the humor a lot of the times.
People are all laughing, and I'm sitting there looking like a fool trying to make a logical reason for what I just heard.

I am so sadly serious minded that I irritate myself sometimes, but every now and then I can do funny.
Sadly its usually when I screw something up. : )

 

[Pats]

I enjoy clean comedy. I enjoy anything that makes me laugh. And I like sit coms - 1. because they are funny, and 2 because you don't have to pay close attention to keep up with it, and 3 I now stick to the same things because I can't hear mumbling over all the ringing in my ears so no matter how loud the volume is I have no idea what's being said. lol

 

[Icequeen]

For the most part I enjoy them. Depends on the comedian though.

Stephen Wright was always on of my favorites.

"For my birthday I got a humidifier and a de-humidifier...I put them in the same room and let them fight it out..."

 

[BraidedPony]

I love comedians! And comedies. There are some movies i will watch again and again, like Step Brothers, Bridesmaids, Bad Teacher and Jaws. But they are best if uncensored.
Jon Stewart, John Oliver, Wanda Sykes and Kevin Hart are so funny I can’t stop laughing.
If a stand up comedian isn’t funny, it still makes me laugh because he or she is trying so hard and failing, and that is funny.

 

[Bolletje]

I like clever comedy, I like absurd comedy. There are many comedians I don’t like, but there’s a few great ones in my opinion. Dylan Moran, Bill Bailey and Stephen Fry for instance.

 

[Progster]

I like comedy in shows and movies, I like classic British comedy such as Monty Python or The Goodies, but I don't like stand up comedy. Some guy or woman standing and talking, trying to be funny when half the time they are not, trying to cram as many jokes into their act as possible to the point of over-saturation, and I don't get the humour half the time anyway. Humour overdose. If you tell one joke, it's funny. If you tell 10 jokes in quick succession, I reach the point of saturation and get 'joked out' and it stops being funny. Also, I'm not good at keeping my attention of people who are just talking and not doing anything else, the same happens with talking heads YouTube videos, I switch off or my attention wanders, I never last until the end of them.

 

[Streetwise]

I like Dave Chappelle,sometimes Robin Williams mostly it's when people speak and don't realise they are being funny .

 

[Noelle]

I like comedy in shows and movies, I like classic British comedy such as Monty Python or The Goodies, but I don't like stand up comedy. Some guy or woman standing and talking, trying to be funny when half the time they are not, trying to cram as many jokes into their act as possible to the point of over-saturation, and I don't get the humour half the time anyway. Humour overdose. If you tell one joke, it's funny. If you tell 10 jokes in quick succession, I reach the point of saturation and get 'joked out' and it stops being funny. Also, I'm not good at keeping my attention of people who are just talking and not doing anything else, the same happens with talking heads YouTube videos, I switch off or my attention wanders, I never last until the end of them.

Thank you, Progster. I think this is more or less where I am with comedians. I love impressions, improvisation and action/comedy films. Although I'm not British, I find them to be far superior to Americans and Australians in this area. Their dry humour works for me in improv, film or in interviews. I think it's just the idea of a "standup comedian" that baffles me. Context is obviously a factor too. Trevor Noah was clever and entertaining years ago when he was still in his native country and poking fun at his own gov't as well as different cultures. Now that he's the new Jon Stewart, I find him tedious and banal. All of these comedians are just obnoxious to me. Desperate for attention and incapable of finding that benign violation, so they oversell it. That's when I can't figure out who annoys me more, the comedian or their audience. I have a theory that these people are deeply insecure, and to me, choosing that job makes them appear even more pathetic.

I will also acknowledge that I find very random (unfunny) things to be hilarious. Now I realize this is part of the spectrum for me. My brother and I are the only two people on earth who will laugh at certain things, and we are both high-functioning autistics who camouflage in neuro-typical circles... until we start dying laughing at something that really isn't that funny.

 

[Tom]

I only like sophisticated comedy

 

[Sid Delicious]

I have an extremely varied and usually inappropriate sense of humour. I tend to laugh at things I shouldn't, at times I shouldn't, and if I know I'm supposed to be acting serious then it makes it even worse. Board meetings are another level of hell on some days! My family tend to laugh when things are bad and I was brought up the same way. My sister was in hospital as a child with a stroke and my brother and I were almost thrown out multiple times for making her laugh too much. But I'm pretty certain it helped to get her through a very rough ordeal while everyone else was panicking and depressed and I would want the same treatment if roles were reversed. I remember my grandmother's funeral very well. My brother and I spent the whole hour in church trying very hard not to even look at one another, as we would immediately crack up. But I think laughter can help when everything else seems to have failed. And I know my grandmother would have encouraged it!

I don't have favourite comedians per se. I tend to prefer the sort that give 'lectures' or ramble on about things - Stephen Fry, Jack Dee in his early (very dry sarcasm) days, Bill Bailey, Ricky Gervais (not everything, but his lectures are funny), Dylan Moran, etc. I saw Bill Bailey live a few years ago and he was brilliant. I also like ridiculous, random character-based comedy that doesn't really make sense. I grew up watching old school Monty Python (and all the films), Red Dwarf, Comic Strip, Young Ones and a bunch of 70s comedy shows that my parents loved and I'll still watch those today and laugh. It needs to be witty and/or bizarre though.

 

[Mr Allen]

There's only 1 I don't like, Roy "Chubby" Brown, don't get me wrong I'm easily offended or bothered by gratuitous bad words/swearing, but he just does it for effect and it just ain't funny.

However, there's that Irish bloke, Brendan O'Carroll, aka Mrs Brown, and he's one of THE funniest ever even though he swears a lot.