Nick Offerman takes the stage in a one-man showcase of his abilites as a humourist. Watch it for yourself and comment if you agree or disagree with my review!
Kurt Braunohler is a comedian I love and he did something hilarious and meaningful this last year. He jetskiied 200 miles of the Mississippi in seven days to raise $35,000 for Heifer International. He recorded the whole thing an it's up for free on Comedy Central's website and YouTube. Here's the first of nine episodes, the whole thing is about an hour and you should definitely watch it.
Bo Burnham's first hour-long special what has been on Netflix for around two years now and I can not think of a more fitting name for it. I started watching it when it first came out and was immediately turned off. If you're not familiar with Burnham, he first rose to popularity on YouTube as a teenager with some wholly original, if strange, comedy. I really didn't like his YouTube stuff so I was not coming into this with high hopes. I really didn't like what the first time I watched it, but I couldn't quite put my finger on why. I went back to watch it and it has become one of my favourite stand-up specials to listen to whenever. To be fair, it's closer to a one-man show or performance art than conventional stand-up, but it is safe to say you won't find anything quite like this on Netflix. He does weird joke songs like "Hashtag Deep", weird tongue-in-cheek parody poems like "I F**k Sluts", and his opening and finale bits are quasi-pantomime bits set to strangely specific music. If you like comedy that's not traditional brick-wall stand-up, and think you have a brain that can process the difference between a stage persona and someone's real personality, i would highly, HIGHLY recommend watching Bo Burnham: what.
It goes without saying (he says hopefully) that this is a stupid, asinine question. "Women" are no less funny than "men" are and to believe so is not only ignorant, but misogynistic. I watched a "documentary" called Women Aren't Funny recently which is the brain-child of Bonnie McFarlane a comedian who I don't think is funny at all (having nothing to do with her lack of Y chromosome.) It sought to ask a number of professional comedians—both male and female—if women are "as funny as men." It was not meant to be hard-hitting investigative journalism and it wasn't really all that well done. But it did show me how many comedians I once respected are misogynist ass-hats.
An artist's rendering of the illusive "Ass-hat"
I don't have the energy to properly articulate exactly how upset it makes me when someone says "Women just aren't as funny as men." There are a number of comedians who I will not support anymore after hearing them say something like that. Todd Glass (a great comedian) made a great point when asked to list "5 funny woman comics". Would anyone let you get away with saying "Ok, name 5 funny black comedians. They're just not as funny as white ones!" It's bullshit, frankly. There are certainly far fewer female professional comedians, this much is true. For the few ladies who make it their career choice, its a tough unbalanced group. Often, women won't be picked to headline because promoters know (or believe) that a male comedian simply brings more people into a club. I'm not going to demean anyone by listing 5 "female comedians who ARE funny" because that simply perpetuates a garbage cycle. But I am going to link to a few comedians who rank highly on my personal comedy scale. I hope you enjoy them! Tina Fey is awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor
Hello comedy lovers, this week I want to take it down for a second. As you may have seen on the internet last week, the Bell Let's Talk campaign was going strong. The campaign is raising awareness and funds to support mental illness and the stigma too often attached to it. Many of my CreComm friends have written amazing and honest accounts of their struggles in different areas. Check out posts on Bailey, Danielle, Raegan, Scott, and Rachel's blogs as a few of the great posts in the vein of personal mental health. I have not had any notable or specific struggle with mental illness, and I'm incredibly thankful for that. What I want to write about today is my struggle with being funny — or more specifically — wanting people to think I'm funny. Comedy has always been an escape for me. I wasn't a popular kid through most of school but I was mostly good with it. I had friends and we got along just fine. I've always been a "funny" person. Both my grandfathers loved telling me jokes and hearing mine. The first joke I remember from my grandpa Braun is, "How do you catch a squirrel? Climb up a tree and act like a nut!". Not exactly Chris Rock at the Apollo but it made 4-year-old me laugh. When he passed away I shared the story and the joke at this funeral and made everyone laugh. Which brings me to the next point. Laughter is "the best medicine" and can be therapeutic for many people. I think it's deeper even than that. There is nothing that makes me like someone more than if they laugh with me or make me laugh. Likewise, observing what makes someone laugh tells me enough about that person to make an informed decision about them. Making a joke or trying to be "funny" is putting yourself out there, you're basically saying "do you like this?" every time. I don't expect everything I say to make anyone laugh, when someone is "funny" a 75% average for landing a joke is phenomenal. Robin Williams' suicide earlier this year brought a lot of media attention to the confusing relationship between comedy and depression. Many notable comedians have said they got into comedy because they learned to be funny to avoid abuse. More comedians still have come out in support of Williams and discussed their own struggles. It seems like comedians who get into the business to fill some void in their life realize (sometimes too late) that making people laugh feels great, but it doesn't inherently mean you've formed a new relationship. Louis C.K. has made millions of people laugh and feel like they know him. But he's a real person who a fraction of a fraction of those people would actually like and get along with in real life. Comedy is important to me. My blogs name isn't just a cute play on words — I really do take comedy seriously. It's the lens through which I observe the world. Keeping laughing.
This week has been a long one and next week I intend to do something a little more introspective, but I really don't have the time to do it justice this week.
So instead, I leave you with my two all-time favourite bits. If these don't make you laugh, then I don't know what to do. Enjoy!
The events of the horrific attack in Paris have gone through the 24-hour news cycle enough times that its probably lost a sock. There have been a lot of great discussions about the freedom of speech, and freedom of press as a result. French illustrator Lucille Clerc published my favourite comic in solidarity.
Charlie Hebdo was a magazine that I likely would not have enjoyed. From what I understand, it was akin to a francophone MAD Magazine. But it was satire, and if we decide we want to defend free speech, that means the kind of speech that offends some people.
Being offensive does not make you funny. I can not say this enough. Sadly, like so many of our rights, when we enforce the freedom to speak, some people speak like idiots.
Bad satire – which seems to make up the majority of it these days – has given good, amazing, thought-provoking satire a bad name.
The Onion is the New York Times of satire. Seriously, you know those people who believe fake articles they see on Facebook? They come from The Onion.
Good satire, real satire is difficult to do. Stephen Colbert did it for eight years masterfully, and Fox News hasn't realized they've been doing it all along.
Key and Peele are another source of spectacular social commentary today. My generation's Chappelle's Show, these two comedians are masters at poking the tropes and stereotypes of race culture in America. The duo's writing ability is only heightened by their ability to believably inhabit the outrageous characters they create, leading to grounded performances from decidedly ungrounded people. The Auction Block
Soul Food
Alien Imposters
But if you really want to find the Abbott and Costello, the Moses and Aaron, the Matt Damon and Ben Affleck of satire, look no further than:
Oh yeah, we're talking about South Park. Matt Stone and Trey Parker have carved out a piece of real estate in which they have an unprecedented amount of creative freedom.
From the Sexual Harassment Panda to Man-Bear-Pig, Matt and Trey have never found a line they didn't want to cross. And they do so with an insane amount of intellect and intention – these are the same guys who wrote The Book of Mormon, the Broadway play that won 9 Tonys and were nominated for an Oscar (I'll repeat that) an OSCAR for the song "Blame Canada."
Note: I totally understand the style of comedy in South Park is NOT for everyone. But people who dismiss it entirely do not understand the level on which the show operates.
When South Park mercilessly mocked Family Guy for their lazy writing on a special two-parter that showed the people of the US shoving their heads into sand to avoid watching the show, the writers of King of the Hill and The Simpsons sent flowers.
When, earlier this season, Randy Marsh revealed that he is actually Lorde and he records all his music on the toilet and auto-tunes it, Lorde said she loved the joke.
The list of episodes with original, current references that say what so many comedians fail to is endless, but something interesting happened on episode 200, which aired early in 2015.
– Some back story first, South Park has aired images of Muhammad the prophet in early episodes. During the controversy over a Swedish cartoonist drawing him in 2007, Comedy Central censored any images of Muhammad in South Park's reruns.
Matt and Trey do not like being told what to do, and aired a number of episodes that were not subtle about the danger of censorship.
Back to 200, the plot of the episode is that every single celebrity made fun of in South Park's history decides to file a class-action lawsuit against the town of South Park. Everyone is there, Tom Cruise, Bill Cosby, Hillary Clinton, the whole gang.
Even Muhammad.
Comedy Central demanded any depiction of Muhammad be censored from the episode and Matt and Trey didn't really have a choice, but they handled it in true South Park fashion. Watch the video below to see what good satire looks like.
THAT is what satire is supposed to do.
Fun fact for you all, Comedy Central is even censoring the episode on the DVD release, so that episode will never run uncensored again.
My name is Jason Dueck.
I am a Creative Communications student at Red River College.
This is where I talk about comedy. Sitcoms, stand-up, improv, movies, whatever. I love comedy and I love breaking it down.
All opinions expressed are my own and are informed by my experience and love for the performers and their ability.
To me, comedy is no laughing matter.
