Tag: comedy

One rung above

Comedy is ass. And I don’t think I’m alone in saying that. The last great innovation in the medium, Cumtown, said it best: Donald Trump ruined it. It’s not because of his politics or his antiquated views on women and social issues. It’s because he treats the office of POTUS as one big standup routine. And the sad part is that it’s funnier and more daring and transgressive than almost all of comedy.

Comedians have struggled to keep up ever since.

But because the Trump era has created an unholy union between lowbrow entertainment and politics, certain performers, chief among them Joe Rogan, have mythologized comedians as modern day philosophers, or, to paraphrase Rogan himself, as the last line of defense for free speech. Hahaha! Isn’t that so funny? It’s getting high off your own supply. It’s aggrandizing your own self importance at the cost of comedy itself.

This explains why Stavros Halkias is having his moment in the sun. He’s offering a counter argument if you will; a return to tradition. His assertion is simple: comedy is good if it makes people laugh. Full stop. It’s not serious and the moment when you make it serious, it stops being funny. For Halkias, comedy is the lowest form of art. It doesn’t matter if that sentiment is valid though. What matters is that Stavvy doesn’t take himself seriously because seriousness is the polar opposite of comedy, which is his stock in trade.

It sounds pretty fuckin simple when you put it that way, eh?

But I suppose this gets at the heart of what it means to be a comedian. Who would subject themselves to being, as Stav said, one rung above a clown? Think about it. There is an ocean sized contradiction in the psyche of a comedian; to conceal their deep seated pain, they entice others to laugh at them. Or, in other words, the path towards standup comedy begins with a crippling superiority/inferiority complex. I’m sure even Rogan would agree with this. The best comedians can live with this gaping, unfilled hole in the hearts. They thrive on it. This is fuel for Nick Mullen and the legendary Cumtown podcast. Others give in to the anger and resentment and begin to smell their own farts. That’s the Rogansphere.

And others can successfully tread both worlds without fully reconciling them. Worse still, the gravitational pull of this calamitous spectacle can drag the entire universe into it. This is the mind of Donald Trump.

I’m old as shit

As I always tell my grandkids: “if I ever turn into an old cantankerous bastard that can’t accept change, shoot me and dump my body into the river.” And that’s why I’m still alive. Those kids will kill me at the first sign of senility.

Yet even my grandkids (who are 80 years old) will agree: comedy is dead.

Which is why jackass forever is such an anomaly; no social commentary, no pretensions of being something profound. It’s just a bunch of dudes smashing their dicks and shoving things up their ass for a laugh. In fact, kudos to Johnny Knoxville and the gang for not slowing down at their advanced age. The world needs comedy like this.

Sure, eventually I’ll get cancelled for my praise of Nick Mullen and Cumtown, but the man knows how to craft a joke on the fly. Of course everyone knows that Mullen (who is president of the DSA) and his sidekick Adam Friedland are NOTORIOUS leftists (however, The Adam Friedland Show is officially center-left), don’t let that fool you. Mullen is fully committed to the bit; he’s always playing a deranged version of his already deranged self. Forget “punching up or down”. The joke is supposed to be on him AND especially Friedland.

That level of commitment is gone in today’s comedy. So never let the mask slip. But mostly, I wish they’d bring back the gross-out comedies of the late 90/early 00s.

That was the one thing that era got right.

long live kenny Everett

https://youtu.be/rQXksQ_uCSs

I have no idea what’s going on in the video above because I don’t speak British, but goddamn is it hilarious.

I came across Kenny Everette while watching Bloodbath at the House of Death. His first scene is just him in a car explaining the plot in an absurdly British way. I probably found it funnier than what was intended because I forgot that they drive on the other side of the road. But it occurred to me: this might be the greatest comedic performance of all time.

I know, I know… “but James, don’t you notoriously hate the British?” you might be wondering.

And that’s not true at all (it’s probably the Swedes you’re thinking of). Sure I said, “Winston Churchill would have gone down as another drunken Brit if the Americans and FDR didn’t bail him out.” But that doesn’t mean I hate ALL British people. Hell, I love Marmite!

Now clearly not all of Everette’s jokes land. But even when a joke appears to be DOA, he takes it in a complete opposite direction. Pure genius.

So it’s unfortunate that he isn’t more famous in the States. It’s sad, actually. So I did more research.

Kenny Everette died of AIDS in 95.

RIP 😔

god bless texas

There are four things that I love: 1) corporate intrigue 2) religious charlatans 3) the State of Texas 4) NFL football. Which is why I’ve been blessed with the Jack Easterby story regarding the Houston Texans.

For those who don’t know, Easterby is essentially a chaplain that plotted and schemed his way to the top of an NFL franchise. It’s an odd story, but things like this happen. Anyone recall Rasputin and the fall of the Russian Empire? And yes, I’d say that Easterby’s involvement with the Texans is every bit as significant and tragic as the fall of the Romanovs.

I’m just always surprised at how rich people, like Texans CEO Cal McNair, are so gullible. If the average person came across someone like Easterby on the street, we’d think “this dude’s full of shit.” But I guess game recognizes game.

Listen to this shit:

A bit of advice Evangelicals: if you want people to take your religion seriously, maybe drop the used car salesman schtick.

The theory is that Easterby and McNair are trying to turn the Texans into a “Christian football camp”. So this will give us the opportunity to test Aaron Rodgers’ theory that “God doesn’t care about football games.” And if we come to find out that God DOES care about football while millions of children continue to starve to death, then you should ask yourself why you worship this god.

So I’m pretty excited to watch this experiment go up in flames. In the meantime, enjoy some of Easterby’s standup:

😐

What happened to the days on TV when a man could walk into a grocery store Benny Hill-style, hand in pocket, and he’s just YANKING his crank furiously underneath his sweatpants? Meanwhile he thinks he’s being so cool about it but everyone refuses to make eye contact with him.

Why can’t we make TV like that anymore?

That’s the worst thing about politics becoming serious entertainment: nothing’s funny anymore.

Every joke is the same tired crap: shitting on transgenderism, “cancel culture” ruining everything, conservatives are brainwashed, blah blah blah….

Remember that terrible painting of Jesus guiding the pen of Donald Trump? Chuckle all you want, but that painting best represents the absurdity of our times and it will almost certainly be in a prestigious museum 500 years from now where smart people will dispassionately evaluate its historical significance.

Nothing can be stupid and pointless for the sake of being stupid and pointless anymore.

Thanks anyway jackass forever, but too little too late.

100 Girls: was that—a movie?

Kids forget, but there was a time before 9/11.

No one’s proud of it. But it happened.

Evidence for such a decade is the 2000 film 100 Girls. It’s hard to believe they used to make movies like that.

The plot’s pretty simple: some dude in college loses his virginity in an elevator like it’s some big deal. Then he spends the rest of the movie looking for this mystery girl in a dormitory.

His roommate also has a fucked up penis.

If this was a typical boner comedy, it probably would have been standard background noise.

You see, discussions on the differences between men and women used to be “interesting” to people. Not to me though. I thought girls were just boys with vaginas and left it at that. I would know because I’ve definitely seen a vagina. But 20 years ago, people didn’t know that.

So there were things like The Man Show, Kevin Smith films, American Pie, etc. The difference is though, occasionally those things would be funny.

100 Girls attempts to elevate the formula. And the moral of the story is this:

“Girls have boobs. But did you they also have personality? What a revelation!”

*Cue Bowling For Soup.

So be thankful that you live in a time of terrorism, pandemics, catastrophic climate change, massive wealth inequality, and dying democracies.

At least it isn’t the 90’s.