Poll: Dennis Miller, stand-up comedy

[temporal1]

Dennis Miller has been around for years.
i don’t know much about him. i don’t see or hear anything often.
i first saw him before he had grey hair.

He has talent. i’m sad that entertainers feel so obligated to vulgar language. It bugs me.
i no longer have cable, i don’t listen to radio.

Last week, i viewed Dennis Miller: Fake News / Real Jokes.
It must be from circa 2017-ish.

Trailer / 1:18 min. (ok language)


He’s a hep old guy.
Quick, he moves from point to point - for about an hour! That’s a lot of topics.
Keeping interest in spite of language.

My elders used to complain when comedians would become “suggestive.”
i recall the word, because i had no idea what it meant. They wanted to keep it that way.

i’m hoping, one day, “vulgar” will wear itself out, comedy can return to being funny.
i chose 4.

Thoughts?

[temporal1]

First vote, “Dennis, Who?” ..
as expected.

My hunch is, DM leans conservative, does not get much notice in hollywood’s A-List.

Without the (evidently, requisite) colorful language, about every topic he pinpoints in Fake News / Real Jokes has been discussed on this forum. Even Dr Dao/United Airlines. i’m sad i just can’t freely suggest DM be viewed.

2017 / United Airlines - Costly mistake
http://forum.mennonet.com/viewtopic.php ... &hilit=dao

[barnhart]

Voted "other". I have heard of him but never heard him speak.

[temporal1]

Voted "other". I have heard of him but never heard him speak.

Thanks. It’s not an easy topic for me. Not sure i’ve ever heard anyone i know refer to him, sports and entertainment are not central in my life, never have been. But, they were part of my life.

Norm MacDonald is another, i see/hear even more rarely than Dennis Miller.
Norm was born in Quebec City, 1959. He was on SNL, i thot good with comedy (SNL was typically a mix of very good comedy alternating with repugnant and/or vulgar) - i thot he was consistently entertaining. Then, he was gone! i heard he did something and was fired. i never heard what.
i just searched his name, no mention of SNL. i still have no idea what happened.

i guess SNL continues. i don’t follow it at all.

i do not understand why “entertainment” has to be so bad/tasteless.
i don’t watch any of it anymore, not for years. occasional visits. nothing current.

This recent one struck me because so many of the topics he hit on have been discussed on this forum. Some at length. He hit one after another - for an hour. It was like a 3 year review of MN!

As a comparison, Bob Hope was funny, and entertaining, but did not use profanity. Same with Red Skelton, Jack Benny, and others. They weren’t angels, but nothing compared to post-60’s. They were before my time, but their work was still airing when i was young.

Profanity is boring. i don’t get it. Decades of it does not make it less boring.

[Ken]

I thought he was funny back in the 1980s when he was on SNL and I was young and actually watched it. And maybe in the 1990s when he was on HBO with his own show but I didn't really watch that much if ever. Since then I just find him to be tiresomely partisan. But then I rarely ever see him unless he pops up on an interview somewhere on another show because I don't see his stuff out. He's kind of gone from irreverently criticizing power and authority in every form to speaking to the conservative choir. Shrug.

I'm honestly not really that much into stand up comedy anyway. The only current comic who I actually like that my kids turned me onto is John Mulaney. Who has a far lighter and more irreverent touch than Dennis Miller. I guess stand-up is just not my thing. When on rare occasions I actually watch TV it is mostly dramas and documentaries.

Honestly, I think the best comedy is the 1930s classic comedies like Bringing up Baby, My Man Godfrey, and It Happened One Night. Maybe I'm just old, but that was the golden age of comedy. When they had to live or die by great writing as special effects hardly existed.

[temporal1]

Ken:
I thought he was funny back in the 1980s when he was on SNL and I was young and actually watched it. And maybe in the 1990s when he was on HBO with his own show but I didn't really watch that much if ever. Since then I just find him to be tiresomely partisan. But then I rarely ever see him unless he pops up on an interview somewhere on another show because I don't see his stuff out. He's kind of gone from irreverently criticizing power and authority in every form to speaking to the conservative choir. Shrug.

Possibly i first saw him on SNL, rarely noticed him elsewhere, never followed HBO.
He always had his own style. i wasn’t political at all, he probably took jabs at politicians.
comedians do, and maybe always have, directly or indirectly, Mark Twain was a general genius, Will Rogers, and others .. possibly this came down from court jesters .. probably so.

All cultures have entertainers of some description, the dregs of society, only in contemporary times have they been allowed to become so wealthy, socially accepted, and, alas, now respected for political leadership. i recall Jon Stewart addressing this, first to warn about it, then to capitalize on it.

If you happened to view the hour in the OP routine, you might be surprised at his jabs at Ted Cruz, and some other politically divisive points. He is not lib PC, comedians aren’t supposed to be PC.
i cancelled cable/satellite in 2016 because the vast majority of airtime went to lib partisan politics, both news+entertainment, it left both news+entertainment, morphed into lib propaganda.

So, i find DM refreshing, that, while he is not pro-Trump, he is not a Trump hater.
As opposed to the great majority. i suspect this is why no one’s heard of him. The requirement is to hate Trump.

I'm honestly not really that much into stand up comedy anyway. The only current comic who I actually like that my kids turned me onto is John Mulaney. Who has a far lighter and more irreverent touch than Dennis Miller. I guess stand-up is just not my thing. When on rare occasions I actually watch TV it is mostly dramas and documentaries.

i recall you mentioned J Mulaney before. i viewed the short clip you presented.
i empathize with small people. i don’t believe it’s constructive to suggest one person’s, or group’s pain is in competition with another’s. There is no good ending for that. But his point of industry control over material is important. Industries want reliable, profitable formulas.

Page 4
http://forum.mennonet.com/viewtopic.php ... ney#p92826

i suspect, profanity is required, or it would have faded long ago.
most material today is beyond the pale with profanity, darker skin color does not make it funnier or more acceptable (as found in music, musical videos). i recall Sinbad, and others, from earlier times. if+when they went to profanity, vulgarity, etc., they lose my interest. Chris Rock has a genius, ruined with profanity.

https://blackexcellence.com/93-black-co ... d-a-laugh/

Honestly, I think the best comedy is the 1930s classic comedies like Bringing up Baby, My Man Godfrey, and It Happened One Night. Maybe I'm just old, but that was the golden age of comedy.
When they had to live or die by great writing as special effects hardly existed.

For me, good stand-up can be an occasional relief from real life. Good comedy is almost non existent, i do without. hollywood pursues others.

Overall, i have most enjoyed documentaries, historical reenactments, possibly because when i was young, the quality of these “was so bad” in public classroom history classes via old projectors, in hot rooms that were not dark enough to view, no A/C, so window shades had to be held down by student volunteers due to breezes/wind, etc. It was awful, but, state of the art at that time.

With that experience, i can be amazed at the quality of today’s documentaries, that can be viewed in anyone’s home. There is so much quality available, it’s crazy that so many choose vulgar, at all.

i enjoy mysteries and some dramas, some comedies. we used to trust and watch mostly PBS.
It’s gone with the rest of TV; no problem, PBS cannot be viewed with the same respect of earlier years.

[steve-in-kville]

I'm honestly not really that much into stand up comedy anyway. The only current comic who I actually like that my kids turned me onto is John Mulaney.

That is one name I thought would never grace this forum. Unlike you, comedy is a staple for me. I struggle with some mental health issues and comedy helps me cope many days. Not just watching it, but someday I hope to help others that struggle. I've been writing a book of memoirs of my experiences of 25 years in the plain churches and I am re-writing it to be more funny and less of a expose.

John Mulaney grew up a devout catholic. I think he still is a writer on SNL but he has a bunch of side projects as well.

[steve-in-kville]

This will make some heads explode, but Tim Hawkins has some real talent:

[temporal1]

I'm honestly not really that much into stand up comedy anyway. The only current comic who I actually like that my kids turned me onto is John Mulaney.

That is one name I thought would never grace this forum. Unlike you, comedy is a staple for me.
I struggle with some mental health issues and comedy helps me cope many days.
Not just watching it, but someday I hope to help others that struggle. I've been writing a book of memoirs of my experiences of 25 years in the plain churches and I am re-writing it to be more funny and less of a expose.

John Mulaney grew up a devout catholic. I think he still is a writer on SNL but he has a bunch of side projects as well.

Interesting. Maybe “coping” is the key attraction for comedy. “Comic relief” did not come from nowhere. Comedy, entertainment, are ancient functions.

i can’t tell. are you saying you like John M’s work?

i’ve only seen the brief clip, i no longer view SNL. even when i enjoyed SNL, there were always parts that were not funny, vulgar, etc.
i told myself, it would be hard to fill 1 weekly hour with comedy, so, “filler.”
some parts would have to be turned off. i would have no idea which parts John M would write.

[steve-in-kville]

i can’t tell. are you saying you like John M’s work?

i’ve only seen the brief clip, i no longer view SNL. even when i enjoyed SNL, there were always parts that were not funny, vulgar, etc.
i told myself, it would be hard to fill 1 weekly hour with comedy, so, “filler.”
i would have no idea which parts John M would write.

This really should be a thread all in its own, but I am still laying the groundwork for the new-and-improved headcovering thread... so this may have to wait.

I like to see people laugh. I like to make them laugh. I also like to see other comedian's work. John is a genius when it comes to improv comedy. I know of several sketches he wrote for SNL and they were pure genius. Go ahead and judge. I'm not saying I want to be the next Tim Hawkins but the old saying that "laughter is the best medicine" holds true sometimes and I firmly believe it can be done in a way that glorifies God. If humor can dig a person out of depression, drug addiction or some other chaos in their life, I'm all for it.