When did black comedians stop being funny?

by JimmyPage 43 Replies latest jw friends

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  beksbks

  Okayeee, my buzz is gone.
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  VoidEater

  Those that pander to a genre loose steam pretty fast

  A lot of humor is based on stereotype. As a stereotype becomes mainstream, using the stereotype begins to fall flat - it becomes irrelevent, or obviously untrue. When we are no longer surprised by our own unanticipated biases, we no longer laugh.

  Perhaps pandering occurs when someone continues to beat the horse that died long ago. Milking the vestiges of a bygone prejudice produces little more than cynical sarcasm. This has happened not only to comic "industries", but to individuals: Lenny Bruce comes to mind - at some point, at least for me, he lost his humor in favor of bitterness. I experienced a similar effect with Richard Pryor.

  I continue to find some degree of warmth in the Wayan Brothers work. Lewis Black is rather hit and miss for me.
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  M.J.

  Great point, Voideater.
  
  If all a comedian's material is based on "black-ness", "Asian-ness", "Arab-ness" or whatever, it's funny when you first hear it, but it simply gets old after a while.
  
  I really thought Paul Rodriguez's routine was funny back in the day...but by George Lopez, the material IMO had already worn thin.
• 

  JimmyPage

  Lonely sheep if labelling someone with darker skin tones than me as "black" offends you then I apologize a thousand times over. Personally I love black, er, I mean people whose skin tones are darker (and lighter) than mine. As far as why I would rent these movies it's because these comedians have done good work in the past and I remain optimistic that maybe when a bunch of talented comedians get together it will make me laugh.
• 

  White Dove

  I love:

  Chris Rock

  Bill Cosby

  I enjoy watching both stand up and acting.

  I've grown attached to Mind of Mensia, as well.
• 

  White Dove

  Making fun of stereotypes is my kind of comedy for now.

  Hated Archie Bunker, though. I understood him but hated him all the same. His role was to make biggots look really bad. I thought he did such a good job of it that I just couldn't watch it anymore.
• 

  funkyderek

  nvrgnbk:

  Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle are still funny, IMO.

  All their jokes seem to be that (a) black people are different from white people and (b) black people unfairly get treated differently from white people. You can get a couple of laughs from either of those ideas, but I'm baffled as to how they've managed to build careers doing nothing else.
• 

  lonelysheep

  Okayeee, my buzz is gone.

  Well, all replies on a comedy thread asking a serious question won't be funny. Nor would you necessarily relate to all of them. Drink something and a get a new buzz tonight. :)

  Lonely sheep if labelling someone with darker skin tones than me as "black" offends you then I apologize a thousand times over. Personally I love black, er, I mean people whose skin tones are darker (and lighter) than mine.

  I'm not even offended, Jimmy. Others have addressed the label and my comment was not meant to be taken meanly; I was addressing the labeling itself. It's not a big deal to me.

  As far as why I would rent these movies it's because these comedians have done good work in the past and I remain optimistic that maybe when a bunch of talented comedians get together it will make me laugh.

  Thank you. There were no talented writers making those movies.
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  JimmyPage

  I'm glad you're not offended. Really I named the thread the way I did because it draws attention. Black comedians haven't really stopped being funny but man some of these movies just SUCK.
• 

  John Doe

  I haven't watched any comedians in some time. I must say I think Damon Wayans (I think he's the one) in that Major Payne movie seemed to be made for the part. I lmao.