Plato Shrimp

You are not logged in. Would you like to login or register?



2/03/2023 10:24 pm  #61


Re: Heh - A Thread For Comedy




Luckily, the subject matter, including numerous clips, is sufficiently fascinating to overcome what is otherwise a hacky, by-the-numbers documentary.  You know the template, poorly edited interview segments mixed with rapid-fire archival material covered in "fun" faceless music straight out of the public domain.  But whatever.  If you're a fan of the ill-fated Dana Carvey Show, or better yet if you're a fan of any of the participants or sketch comedy generally and the show flew under your radar, then this is a real treat.  I missed out on the show's broadcast at the time, but it quickly spread via videotape among fans of similar classic (and frequently scorned by the mainstream) 90s skecth shows like Ben Stiller, The State, Mr. Show.  The participants are an impressive incubator of future talent - Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell, Robert Smigel, Louie CK, Charles Kauffman and of course the unsung Dana Carvey himself.  The show was a notorious flop, cancelled after seven shows, and had one of the biggest ratings drop during the first sketch that showed Bill Clinton breast-feeding puppies.  The archival material flows by pretty fast, but there are great glimpses of Carell and Colbert at Second City, various audition tapes and an inappropriate TV promo with its Home Improvement lead-in that inadvertently proves to be possibly funnier than anything on the show itself.  But this will only whet the whistle, and most of the shows are on Youtube, and you'll probably want to check them all out.  To get you started:




 


 

2/04/2023 7:12 am  #62


Re: Heh - A Thread For Comedy

That's an incredible list of talent. And the only clip I've ever seen of that show was the breast feeding Clinton gag

I have such a low tolerance for the kind of documentaries you described though. I get it having good raw material, I've watched them for similar reasons, but the stink of laziness by the filmmakers haunts every second I watch them.

 

2/04/2023 4:44 pm  #63


Re: Heh - A Thread For Comedy

Here's a couple more clips then.









 


     Thread Starter
 

2/04/2023 5:47 pm  #64


Re: Heh - A Thread For Comedy

I'll watch this when I get home and am not eavesdropping on Steve O looking motherfucker who just got released from prison and is lecturing some black guy he came across on Miles Davis.

Spoiler: he doesn't know anything about Miles Davis

 

2/04/2023 6:08 pm  #65


Re: Heh - A Thread For Comedy

"Blacker Than Thou" is one of the more tedious hipster games.


     Thread Starter
 

2/16/2023 4:50 pm  #66


Re: Heh - A Thread For Comedy

South Park does Meghan and Harry.


[img]https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/c_fit,f_auto,g_center,pg_1,q_60,w_965/397864126c99512f179b3f2899a1afc0.png[/img]


     Thread Starter
 

3/04/2023 4:35 pm  #67


Re: Heh - A Thread For Comedy

On the day that Chris Rock will be dropping his new Netflix special, TheRoot has once again decided to get clicks by publishing yet another "talk shit, get hit" defense of Will Smith's public assault.  As I've said elsewhere, "talk shit, get hit" is an inherently fascist sentiment, and it isn't any less repugnant (maybe more so) when couched in the pretense of wokeness to try to justify it. 

"It’s not about condoning violence, but words—especially ones that make Black women the punchline—should have consequences."

Well, if those consequences are violent, then in fact you are condoning violence, just as you're also tacitly condoning the violent restriction of speech - humorous speech which punches up at two of the wealthiest and most powerful entertainers in Hollywood who might just need to learn how to have a sense of humor about their self-important selves.  But then again, I've seen precious little evidence that anyone at TheRoot has much of a sense of humor about anything.  I'm just still slightly amazed at this unironic nexus between hyperwokeness and fascism, cancel culture by any fist necessary.  Candace McDuffie is exhibit A that black women can be Karens too. 
 


     Thread Starter
 

3/04/2023 5:19 pm  #68


Re: Heh - A Thread For Comedy

Has there been any question, at least for those paying attention, that extreme 'wokeness' has always been likened to a kind of fascistic thought? When it stopped becoming a dialogue, when it stopped being willing to explain itself beyond its own hysterical outrage that everyone must agree with what they think is appropriate or inappropriate, it became an insidious force. Of course it would eventually get to the point where it says violence is an acceptable solution to words one doesn't like. It's what happens when you believe others don't even have the right to voice their opposition. When you pretend dissent and independent thought is a physical attack.


So anyone who is still on that particular train at this point is basically my enemy.

Honestly, tying this in with my complaints about hack film criticism, I honestly believe if people were more articulate about what they thought, about what they hoped for in society, they wouldn't be so fucking threatened by opposition. Their intellectual impotence is showing when they act like a fist is the way you get people in line

Last edited by crumbsroom (3/04/2023 5:25 pm)

 

3/04/2023 10:29 pm  #69


Re: Heh - A Thread For Comedy



 


     Thread Starter
 

3/04/2023 10:55 pm  #70


Re: Heh - A Thread For Comedy

crumbsroom wrote:

Has there been any question, at least for those paying attention, that extreme 'wokeness' has always been likened to a kind of fascistic thought? When it stopped becoming a dialogue, when it stopped being willing to explain itself beyond its own hysterical outrage that everyone must agree with what they think is appropriate or inappropriate, it became an insidious force. Of course it would eventually get to the point where it says violence is an acceptable solution to words one doesn't like. It's what happens when you believe others don't even have the right to voice their opposition. When you pretend dissent and independent thought is a physical attack.

There is a podcast I sometimes listen to called Blocked and Reported that looks at this kind of thing. It's run by two journalists who were both subject to social media pile-ons for their reporting on trans issues, and I think one of the hosts can be sometimes pretty glib about that subject, but they do a good job of unpacking some of these controversies and some of the more psychotic behaviour from the militant woke types.

My views largely line up with what would be considered woke or at least progressive, but I think it's unfortunate that the loudest voices for those positions choose to push them in such noxious ways. It's almost as if they treat this more as a team sport than actually caring about the issues at hand.


I am not above abusing mod powers for my own amusement.
 

3/06/2023 7:30 am  #71


Re: Heh - A Thread For Comedy

I thought the special was pretty funny.


I am not above abusing mod powers for my own amusement.
 

3/08/2023 8:34 am  #72


Re: Heh - A Thread For Comedy

Finally available.

Our emergency rooms are full of people with paper cuts = Twitter

The outrage has been selected.
 


     Thread Starter
 

3/09/2023 6:50 pm  #73


Re: Heh - A Thread For Comedy

People are losing their minds over this Chris Rock special, especially this nebulous consortium known as "Black Twitter".  As we've seen with social media culture, and its effects on our post-literacy inability to understand things like nuance and context, it has resulted in a kind of overactive literalism that makes it difficult for humor, especially humor of any depth or cleverness, to thrive.  There are a number of examples of Rock's humor being perversely misinterpreted.  Some have mentioned his "anti-abortion" jokes.  I don't understand how anyone can see his stance as anti-abortion, unless they're either dishonest or have selective hearing.  "If you have to pay for your own abortion, then you need to have an abortion."  Anyone who can see this as a "pro-life" sentiment is ignorant, willing or otherwise.

Another egregious example of possibly motivated misunderstanding is this (urgh, another TheRoot article) example that the final joke of the evening was evidence of "pandering" to the white audience.  The final joke was Rock's explanation for why he didn't fight back against Will Smith at the Oscars (which Rock had already answered, btw, because Smith is considerably larger and more fit than Rock): "'Cause I was raised....my parents taught me, 'don't fight in front of white people'".  The writer continues: "This is quite literally what pandering is. According to Merriam-Webster, pander means, 'to provide gratification for others’ desires.' Essentially, what Chris is saying is that if White people don’t think he should do something in front of them, he will gladly oblige, no questions asked, even if it’s slapping someone when they deserve to get slapped."  Well, first off, it's a bold presumption that Rock deserved to be slapped.  But most importantly, this isn't relevant to the point of what "don't fight in front of white people" means.  In Fact, the whole point of not fighting in front of white people is entirely because white people looove watching black men fight.  It exactly provides their gratification, and this desire to watch black men denigrate (no pun) themselves for white peoples' entertainment is quite well documented.  The point of not fighting in front of white people is not because white people don't want to see it.  So it is quite cute to spin Rock's refusal to fight as gratifying the white audiences' desires, and not Will Smith in providing the white audience more ammunition to reinforce the prejudice of black men's propensity towards violence.  (This prejudice is right on time in the news, as writer Nicholas Wade was criticized at the House Committee on China and Covid yesterday due to his prior book, A Troublesome Inheritance, said concerning black men that their - quote - "propensity to violence have some bearing on the economic decisions they make".)  The entire point of "don't fight in front of white people" is to not degrade yourself in order for white people to justify your degradation.  A misinterpretation like this really taxes my ability to give this writer the benefit of the doubt for having a sincerely mistaken understanding of language and history.

TheRoot has been posting daily screeds against Chris Rock since the special aired.  Even days before the special aired, they were reporting jokes from a "practice" gig at an NYC comedy club.  (Worse than that, they even buried the one positive review of the special so that it never appeared on its front page.)  Using the ugliest pictures of Chris Rock that they can find, they've been harping on every single shred of controversy, each of which appears to have been entirely sourced from Twitter, that they can get their hands on.  Including an article which shames Chris Rock for making a joke about Michael Jackson.  (Why is it suddenly "stale" to joke about MJ's alleged child molestation?  Maybe because there's a new multimillion dollar bio-flick in the works?)

And I'd be remiss if I didn't call out Candace McDuffie - who I won't call dumb, but I will say who probably deserves to pay back all of that wasted student loan debt that failed to provide her with an education - who's been on the fore-front of TheRoot's anti-Chris Rock hate-train.  Her latest throws the gauntlet: "Celebrities are embroiled over differing opinions over whether words are just 'jokes' or if comedians should be held accountable for what they say."  This article has a tell-tale way of putting both "jokes" and "humor" in quotations.  But it is true, jokes require words.  My question here is what, exactly, are the consequences that McDuffie proposes?  How does she propose to hold him, and other comedians, accountable?  Well, she has a 1st Amendment right to cancel her Netflix account, I suppose.  In fact, all of the critics of Dave Chappelle's specials have had that right for years.  The problem that McDuffie is having is that perhaps she understands that there simply is no popular momentum among Netflix's audience to have the kind of accountability that she's hoping for.  Since McDuffie actively supports Rock being physically assaulted on stage, perhaps she would choose an alternate, extra-1st Amendment avenue for accountability?  Indeed, McDuffie seems to be far more forgiving of Will Smith's actual violence than Rock's words ("jokes").

Now that some of these folks are also actively questioning Chris Rock's Blackness, I thought it was highly appropriate for Chris Rock to don the ambiguous signature symbol of Prince as a necklace, which he's shown adorning in a very deliberate manner.  Speaking of these G/O Media scum, there was another piece last year, in the AV this time, which counted down all of the greatest Black entertainers from the Super Bowl halftime shows.  They left Prince off the list, with one writer (not a black guy) saying that Prince doesn't count because he makes music for white people.  I wish vampire Prince would materialize from the shadows of this writer's bedroom one night and send him on the funkiest nightmare of his imagination.  *chinga-chinga-chinga-chink*
 


     Thread Starter
 

3/09/2023 7:46 pm  #74


Re: Heh - A Thread For Comedy

It's almost getting to the point I want to stick a sharp stick into my temporal lobe so I can just start agreeing with these people and be done with the aggravation.

It's just layer after layer of total bullshit. And it's fucking annoying because they think they've got both the moral and intellectual high ground, but in reality, they are clearly sociopathic nitwits.

Sometimes it makes me sad that there has to be Trumpism and other modern horrors to pay attention to, because I'd personally like to devote every ounce from my mountain of hate towards these phony, disingenuous, fuck-dumb fucks.

 

3/09/2023 9:31 pm  #75


Re: Heh - A Thread For Comedy

I'm a glutton for punishment.  How many times have I recently sworn off these G/O sites, only to get sucked back in.  I had to go back this week, because I knew they'd be talking shit about that special.

Imo, it's Rock's best since Never Scared.  Which was.....20 years ago.  *old man emoji*
 


     Thread Starter
 

3/09/2023 9:40 pm  #76


Re: Heh - A Thread For Comedy

The Michael Jackson R. Kelly bit nearly killed me.

"Same crime... but one of them had better songs."

It's funny, as far as targeting phony woke outrage goes, he probably went a lot softer than his contemporaries (his bit about trans people is a lot less self-immolating than Chapelle's bits), but these types at the Root and the like have no self awareness and can't stand any criticism.
 


I am not above abusing mod powers for my own amusement.
 

3/09/2023 9:55 pm  #77


Re: Heh - A Thread For Comedy

I think there's also very well a generational gap in the black audience.  "Black Twitter" does not reflect Black attitudes that I'm familiar with, but I don't really fuck with a lot of Black people under 30 anymore.  I think it's disingenuous to say that Rock or Chappelle have "fallen off", or other variations of "what happened?"  I think that there's a lot of their past specials that would create similar criticisms today, but maybe they're protected today by their already established legendary status.  But I have seen some attempts at revisiting Rock's past specials in particular to highlight his "problematic" history.  It's dishonest to suggest that Black women, for example, have never been into Chris Rock.  I saw Nikole Hannah-Jones (1619 Project) say something like she never liked him since his 1996 "black people vs. ni**ers" bit.  OK, so she was never a fan, but she was clearly an outlier at that time.  Now she's trying to suggest that his popularity from that was solely from his white audience.  It reminds me of after Bill Cosby's crimes came out, and people tried to act like they never found him funny.


     Thread Starter
 

3/17/2023 5:22 pm  #78


Re: Heh - A Thread For Comedy

Finally saw this...

This one getting people's knickers in a twist is next level misreading of comedy. 

I'm embarrassed for anyone who wrote some think peace on what a shame this special was.

Just more dumb. Obvious dumb.

 

3/24/2023 3:27 pm  #79


Re: Heh - A Thread For Comedy

The Onion ran a headline yesterday that simply stated Trump Executed

It made me laugh harder than anything I can think of recently and I'm still trying to unpack why I found it so funny.

For only two words, it seems to work on lots of levels. I thinks it's a perfect example of brilliance in simplicity.

 

3/24/2023 7:18 pm  #80


Re: Heh - A Thread For Comedy

That headline would go well with those fake AI-generated pictures that Bellingcat posted this week.







     Thread Starter
 

Board footera

 

Powered by Boardhost. Create a Free Forum