Daily Show Michiganders toss around Michigan references
Michael Kosta and Jordan Klepper are both from Michigan and they square up, east vs west, while talking about the Michigan primary.
The linked article embeds the video so that its cued up to the Michigan stuff, skipping the rest.
It ends with them reaching common ground:
"You're as useless as Ohio State's defensive line!"
"You're not wrong about that, f___ the Buckeyes!"
"Absolutely f___ the Buckeyes"
Well my position is f____ the Buckeyes, too.
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This was funny. As have been the last three Mondays with Stewart back. Stewart has a very acute sense of the irony and he has revived comedy a little bit in the last few weeks. With a bit of age he is far less preachy and no longer posits himself "above it all" like almost all current variety show hosts now do.
He will absolutely be stopped from doing so pretty soon but for these three weeks it has reminded me of when comedians were allowed to try funny.
He will absolutely be stopped from doing so pretty soon but for these three weeks it has reminded me of when comedians were allowed to try funny.
I don't understand this. Who is stopping comedians from trying to be funny?
People who are offended about everything and believe that only one point of view is allowable as to pretty much any topic. Personally I don't think Stewart is going to last long nor do I think he is trying to. But perhaps we are turning a corner.
I think most comedians haven't gotten this memo and are still actively saying what they want to say
That very well could be. Perhaps they just are not funny to me.
Like, the late night guys. I am not even sure they are supposed to be funny anymore. It is hard to tell.
Anyway, Stewart has made me laugh a couple of times so that has been fun.
Late night (network, I'm assuming) guy ≠ Comedy Central late night guy
I’m not a fan of Jon Stewart or his ilk (Colbert, Oliver, Noah). Too pompous for me. It’s like, their opinion is the only correct one and if you disagree you’re an idiot. It’s possible for intelligent people to disagree with TV comedy boys.
That is the thing. Stewart very distinctly isn’t like that anymore. I was very pleasantly surprised. He seems quite capable of laughing at his own expense now.
Isn't that their job, no matter what side they're on? Comics have opinions and they put them out there in the form of jokes, some controversial. Whether they're funny is another matter but a namby pamby comedian definitely won't be funny. I lean left but I'm happy to listen to comedians that challenge things I believe, like Shane Gillis. He's so un-PC in his podcast, it's not funny. But it is funny (except for his making jokes about school shootings, which is never funny).
I think literally a joke about anything can be funny. Humor is valuable in processing trauma.
But I also agree that when a comedian’s only goal becomes being un-PC it starts to not be funny anymore. Like, now Chapelle is so “un-PC” that he is actually very serious about it. That isn’t funny.
He used to be hilarious but I find him to be quite a depressing person now. If you really just listen to a Chapelle show it is now actually just anger that people laugh at out of habit. It doesn’t “offend” me, it just makes me sad.
I think a comedian like Chappelle should be "allowed" to perform but he has to face a changing audience. Them's are the breaks. Generations change and if you're a comedian who wants to stay relevant, you have to take that into account. As an older person, I'm way more accepting of un-PC humor than my 21 year old daughter is. But who am I to tell her and her friends what is funny and what isn't? That's on them. Chappelle isn't young anymore. Maybe he needs to read the room better. The market determines everything and comedy is no different.
Yeah I absolutely think Chapelle should be able to say what he wants. Wouldn’t have it any other way. It just doesn’t come across much as comedy to me any longer. It has all the “bells and whistles” of comedy, it looks like it should be funny. But it is really just mean spirited and angry. Once again, he is absolutely free to make that his show, I just think it is more “stand up anger” than “stand up comedy.”
On the other side of the coin, the late night guys are frankly more propagandist than comedy. Their job is very specifically to tell people that watch what they should think, and mock those that think differently. If I wanted to watch what now passes for American “news” I would watch Fox or MSNBC. Those guys don’t seem meaningfully different anymore.
It was actually best displayed when Jon Stewart went on Colbert a couple of years back. Stewart was actually being funny at the expense of powerful people and Colbert was absolutely dumbfounded that it was happening.
I respectfully disagree. Comedy is an art form, not that different from poetry or painting. Imagine telling a famous painter that he/she can’t paint something because someone somewhere is offended.
So for Chappelle, he doesn’t need to change his ways or read the room. He consistently sells out venues regardless of how many people get offended, because he’s true to his art form and won’t let anyone change that. And most comedians know that while people have the right to be offended, those that are offended don’t get any special rights or privileges.
Just to clarify, Chapelle does not offend me. He just does not make me laugh anymore. I don’t want him to or think he should change his ways. I am just no longer a consumer of his services.
A painter can paint whatever he or she wants. If no one is buying they'll have to hang it in their garage. Chapelle can obviously sell out. He's not immune from criticism.
I have the feeling though that the same people who lost their mind over Andres Serrano's Immersion or Mapplethorpe's work would be the same ones upset over cancel culture.
Paint what you want. Tell the jokes you want to tell. Just don't whine if no one buys or books you.
I think there is a big difference between:
1. not getting booked at all because you are not funny, vs
2. getting booked, then people complain, then the booking agent or club owner has to cancel the booking due to the pressure from said complaints.
IMO, #2 is complete bullshit. If they are getting booked in the first place, they are obviously funny enough. Its just the club owners are catering to the weak whiny narcissist who complain about offensive jokes.
Comic Stephen Hughes said it best (paraphrasing): you can get offended all you want, but nothing happens. Absolutely nothing happens when you are offended. It's not like you went to the comedy show and the comedian said something offensive, then you go home and wake up the next day with leprosy. So get offended all you want, because nothing will happen and no one gives a shit.
This makes me think about Bill Maher, who complains constantly about cancel culture. I think he's had his own experience with it. He just doesn't like younger people because they think he's irrelevant. They think he's old and and out of touch with their generation. And at almost 70, he is out of touch with what younger audiences want. But instead of understanding that, he criticizes them for not valuing him. He's the quintessential "get off my lawn" guy. For any kind of artist, I think it's an arrogant cop out to blame the audience. You put your work out there, and people like it or they don't. That's the nature of putting your work out there. The artist doesn't get special privileges either.
I haven’t watched a full episode of Real Time in years so perhaps you are right about his “get off my lawn” ways. However, I do know he’s been “cancelled” before. As an example, he was booked to do the commencement speech at Berkeley (or Cornell? I can’t remember) and his gig got cancelled because some students were offended by something he said on his show. I believe this is the literal definition of “cancel culture”.
Some do. But some don't
Comedians will still continue to express their art form, but they are constantly "cancelled" for offensive jokes. Comedians like Dave Chappelle and Ricky Gervais can weather the push back because they are the GOAT. But other, less famous comedians, are getting punished for what some people consider offensive. See Shane Gillis. Also, a Capitol Hill (Seattle) comedy club just cancelled 4 comedians from performing for being too offensive.
Is losing a gig now considered being "canceled"? Shane Gillis lost a job years ago, and then went on to have a wildly successful career. I wasn't aware that is the new definition of canceled. That just sounds like a company choosing not to hire someone.
I thought "canceled" is when your career gets destroyed.
They didn't cancel the shows for being too offensive. The owner decided not to give them a platform, as is his prerogative. And those comedians aren't being punished in any meaningful sense, they are doing shows at other venues.
Crying about cancel culture is so lame.
They were all booked to perform, but people in that area of Seattle didn’t like the fact that had jokes that offended them. The people complained to the owner of the club so much so the owner cancelled their shows. I’m not a big fan of using the word “cancel” which is why I used quotation marks in the my previous post. But this is pretty much the literal definition of being cancelled since, you know, their gigs got cancelled.
Lastly, I find crying about offensive language, especially from comedians, to be super lame. Like we both used the word “lame” which is super ableist. Big whoop!
If people aren't going to come to the show, then the business owner has to make a business decision. Lots of people hate Joe Rogan -- but by the same token, lots of people love him -- so he's staying on Spotify because he has like 11 million listeners. I think it's less a political calculation than a financial one. In the case of Shane Gillis, SNL's humor has never pushed the envelope in the way that Shane Gillis does. It makes fun of politicians of both parties, but in such a benign way. SNL doesn't really love controversy (I'm remembering back to when Sinead O'Connor tore up a photo of the Pope and it was a huge controversy and I think she had a period of being "cancelled").
I think “cancellation” happens for both financial and political/worldview reason. People can literally have their product cancelled or significantly impacted in terms of the bottom line, but there are also metaphorical “cancellations” in terms of popular culture kind of rendering somebody a “non-person” even if they are still around doing or saying something.
I feel like the first typically happens when somebody has said or done something that truly runs against the fabric of a culture, consumers speak with their wallets. I think the second happens more so when somebody genuinely pushes the right buttons and finds blind spots in people’s worldview. They would just rather that person be “gone” than wrestle with why they make them uncomfortable.
I am acutely aware that this could used as a sword in terms of my feelings toward Chapelle, but I think the difference is awareness and acceptance. The world is a better place with Chapelle and I don’t want him to go anywhere, even if he has gone outside of my comfort zone.
I really miss George Carlin.
“Political correctness is fascism pretending to be good manners”
- George Carlin
I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. You think Jon Stewart is going to be pulled off the air because he's only allowed one viewpoint and can't try to be funny or he's going to offend people?
You're getting pre-offended that other people might get offended and take him off the air for doing the same things that he's always done. Weird point of view to have.
People who complain about "cancel culture," especially when it doesn't even exist in this instance, are so lame.
What? I am not offended about anything. You are correct as to my opinion about Stewart though. I think he will say something that offends somebody that will get him yanked. That is what I think will happen. That is quite literally all that I am saying.
Given his history with the Daily Show, and his show on HBO, and literally everything else he's done, there is zero reason for you to think or predict this. You're just tossing a stupid baseless prediction into the void based on absolutely nothing.
This seems entirely too angry for this discussion. Almost like you think that only one opinion is allowed.
I think the folks at Comedy Central will pass on Jon Stewart after a few more weeks. That is my opinion based on the political environment in which he is trying to operate. I genuinely don’t know why that opinion is pissing you off so much. We can just agree to disagree. It will either happen or not. I hope not.
Yeah, that was pretty funny.
Here's a little nugget I found out: Michael Kosta was an assistant tennis coach here in the early 2000s. Dude's got game.
Simple Stupid Thumb Folk is my next band name.
The first EP is absolutely going to have a song titled "cutting class to snort car grease in that abandoned Pontiac factory".
That was hilarious. Was it scripted or was that all spontaneous, which would be amazingly impressive and the reason you should never heckle a comedian.
Craig Kilbourn was better.
Or maybe I just miss the 90's, desperately.
Don’t get me wrong, I liked the Daily Show when Kilborn was there, but if he was better, he would have at least had a steady job in the last 20 years.
"When news breaks we fix it"
I feel this way at times, but tend to settle on believing that Kilbourn had just the most badass team of correspondents in that first generation of the show.
That ending was beautiful. Really tied the room together, did it not?
Hahahah this is incredible