Come Again Comedian

What's wrong with our comedy, anymore?

Where are the new Bill Hicks, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, Henny Youngman, Rodney Dangerfield, Mitch Hedburg?

Worse (somehow) where are the old Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, Dennis Leary, Robin Williams?

The answer is: they're there if you look for them; and they'll never come again.

First off, we're a media saturated culture. Thirty years ago there was no Comedy Central, showing stand-up to anyone with a basic cable subscription. Thirty years ago there really wasn't cable, at least nothing like what we have today. There was no TiVO, DVR, and not even VCR or Betamax (for both of you who remember those archaic form of recording); and no internet.

So, we get a lot more of the comedy that we once had to go to a Comedy Club to see. And, let's face it, most comedy sucks. To be honest, it simply doesn't appeal to very many people; but as Penn Jillette pointed out, in a country of 300(+) million you only have to appeal to a very small percentage to have millions of fans.

Second, because we're so saturated with information, we have less of an appetite for anything that isn't perfect. We feel that there are so many options that if it's not 100% perfect it's shit. For instance: back in the day when there were only three different styles of blue-jeans to choose from, and the pair you bought was a bit too short, tight, long, wide, stiff, uncomfortable, you dealt with it and moved along- you didn't have the choice to do otherwise, really; but now there's a million styles, colors, and fits so if your pair suits your tastes more than it did- but not 100%- you feel like maybe you made the wrong choice. The fact is, you made a great choice- especially in comparison to 30, 40, or 50 years ago.

Third, there really are a lot more shitty comedians. This is due to multiple things: the huge explosion of comedy in the late 70s and 80s, increased awareness of how to become a comedian, and more people. Thirty-five years ago, you had to REALLY want to be a comedian if you were from bum-fuck Texas and didn't already know a working comedian. Today, you hop online, hit a few forums, read some wikipedia article, jump to google maps, order some books from Amazon, and you're on your way. Then there's the fact that there's well over 300 million people in our country. If 1% of people (a year) ever tried to become comedians, and 1% of them (a year) get anywhere with it, and 1% of those (a year) make it onto comedy central, that's 300 people a year with 30 minutes to blow donkey nuts out of your television on Friday nights and weekday days. It might not seem like much; but try to name 30 comedians, now try to name 30 that don't include any I've already named in this post...

Shouldn't that mean that we have MORE Carlins, Pryors, and Hicks? Not at all. It's a different machine today than it was back then. There's no way to be certain that someone like Carlin would be nearly as popular if he came along today. Look at Lenny Bruce, he was so influential because he was such a new idea/phenomenon. No one had done or said the things he had; and no one had addressed the issues he addressed. He cussed, for one. Read Carlin on how Bruce changed his act! (Basically, the Carlin you know and love wouldn't have existed without Bruce). It's not that there are not new things to say and ways for it to be said, it's that the ways to be new are smaller, less indistinguishable from other ways. Look at music: find a ban that doesn't (or couldn't) get described by naming six other bands that came before them.

Back in the day it was: (1)Much harder to become a working comedian because there were far fewer venues. Henny Youngman, even at the height of his career, would perform at any Bar Mitzvah in the hotel he was staying at- and would actually go offer to preform at them. That's unimaginable for many people- even many comedians- today. This meant you had to REALLY want to do it, and REALLY be vested in getting better (appealing to more people), if you wanted to do the comedy. (2)More competitive amongst the comics because there were so few venues- no internet celebrities back then.

These two factors meant the people who did make it were seriously the best of the best. Today you can appeal to far less than 1% of people, and if you can get a dollar out of each of them you can be a millionaire. And you're not stuck appealing to one country. You can take advantage of every person who speaks the same language as you. Eddie Izzard has done his routines in many languages- including French, German, and Icelandic.

Add to it that people change, and people with reputations (and who make money off those reps) are cautious, protecting their money-makers, and you'll never see those few titans ever do the risky shit that made them their names. They don't need to, either. Robin Williams has millions of fans who will pay money to see him at his most mediocre because he enraptured them back when he was young, hungry, and doing enough cocaine to kill several peruvian pack animals. They don't need to strive like they did when they were proving themselves, they age and the creative spark fades, they get a family and their priorities change, they get rich and less connected to the people they once spoke for, and they get happier with life and no longer have that driving hate that so many of the best comedians seem to have.

It all adds up. But things aren't bleak.

Instead of waiting 6 years for the next Carlin record to drop, you can now get your favorite comedian's latest and greatest almost as soon as they perform it.

And there are still a number of REALLY great comedians out there. Patton Oswalt, Doug Stanhope, David Cross, Eddie Izzard, The Amazing Johnathan, so on and so on. And the amount of humorous acts and media is astounding: Penn & Teller, The Daily Show, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Diesel Sweeties, XKCD, Fafblog, etc etc etc etc.

Don't forget that yesterday sucked, too. Today isn't any better, per se, it's different- and there's not really anything inherently wrong with that.