I'm Sick of Comedian Shows! - A Rant

[TheSummoner]

Yep... Sick of them. This is mainly about Comedy Central, but thats just because I haven't seen any shows like this on other networks (though I haven't looked).

To me, it just seems lazy... Pick a comedian, put him in front of a camera with no real direction or concept for a half hour and put it on the air.

Lets start with the first one in the recent splurge of them...

Important things with Demetri Martin

Now, I like Demetri Martin. I think hes funny, I think hes talented. I watch his stand-up when its on and I enjoy it.

The show had its moments... It wasn't terrible, but I still wouldn't call it a good show. Watchable and a good way to kill a half hour if nothing else was on, but thats about it.

Demetri Martin picked a subject... an "important thing," and the following 30 minutes was a bunch of sketches that somehow related to the topic of the episode.

But the whole episodic format doesn't really seem to fit well with his style of comedy... "Low energy comedy" as hes described it...

Tosh.0

This one irritates me the most, probably because it hasn't died yet.

Take a comedian, put him in front of a green screen for a half hour and have him make stupid comments about videos from the internet that were lucky to be good for a chuckle in the first place. Then he inserts himself into the video because that is apparently suppose to make it funnier. Toss in a few gross-out videos, some gay jokes and coat with vomit and you have a show. Once an epside, throw in a "redemption," where the almighty messiah, Daniel Tosh deems something from the internet needing of one and in his endless mercy grants it to the person in the video.

I think what irks me the most about this is that I sorta like Daniel Tosh's stand-up. He isn't my favorite comedian (far from it), but it isn't bad...

Honestly, I think the only reason this show is even still on is because its so cheap to produce. Why make something good when you can get enough people to eat up cheap garbage.

The Jeff Dunham Show

Similar to Demetri Martin, I actually like Jeff Dunham's stand-up. If you've never seen it, you probably wouldn't think a comedy special about puppets would be very funny, but he makes it work... Most of the time anyways.

The weak points in his stand-up really made the show suffer. It seemed like the most annoying of his characters were the ones that got the biggest part of the spotlight.

The show didn't last long and thats probably for the better.

Nick Swardson's Pretend Time

This one actually doesn't bother me that much, but this may be because I've only seen a few episodes. Maybe Nick Swardson found a better way to work with an episodic format than the others or maybe I just haven't seen enough to let the crap overshadow the initial "lets give this a try" attitude I have with this sort of thing.

Time will tell I suppose.

The Benson Interruption

Remember when I said that Tosh.0 irritates me the most? I was wrong.

What do you get when you take the biggest pothead you can find, put him in a chair while another comedian tells jokes and give him free reign to say whatever the hell he wants? You get this steaming pile of a show.

The format can be described as this...

Benson sits in a chair. Other comedians start telling jokes. Benson cuts in before they can finish their story or get to the punchline... You know, the funny part. Repeat.

So essentially you've got a half hour of repeated build up that ends without gratification (crack your dirty jokes now).

Seriously... who thought this was a good idea for a show?

tl;dr, I just wish these shows and the people who keep giving them the goahead would die in a fire. Even if the comedian is funny, the show is rarely any good.

Rant over.

[Starbuck_II]

Tosh.0

This one irritates me the most, probably because it hasn't died yet.

Take a comedian, put him in front of a green screen for a half hour and have him make stupid comments about videos from the internet that were lucky to be good for a chuckle in the first place. Then he inserts himself into the video because that is apparently suppose to make it funnier. Toss in a few gross-out videos, some gay jokes and coat with vomit and you have a show. Once an epside, throw in a "redemption," where the almighty messiah, Daniel Tosh deems something from the internet needing of one and in his endless mercy grants it to the person in the video.

I think what irks me the most about this is that I sorta like Daniel Tosh's stand-up. He isn't my favorite comedian (far from it), but it isn't bad...

Honestly, I think the only reason this show is even still on is because its so cheap to produce. Why make something good when you can get enough people to eat up cheap garbage.

I liked this show. I, however, am not into his gay or fat jokes. They are usually bad taste.
If he stopped doing them: the show would be infinitly better.


The Jeff Dunham Show

Similar to Demetri Martin, I actually like Jeff Dunham's stand-up. If you've never seen it, you probably wouldn't think a comedy special about puppets would be very funny, but he makes it work... Most of the time anyways.

The weak points in his stand-up really made the show suffer. It seemed like the most annoying of his characters were the ones that got the biggest part of the spotlight.

The show didn't last long and thats probably for the better.


It was pretty funny. I never thought any were annoying. I kept missing it (ether I had to sleep due to school or just forgot when it was on)

[Dr.Epic]

Important things with Demetri Martin

Meh. I don't mind the show that much. It's not the best, but it still has that unique Demetri Martin feel and I do find parts of it entertaining.


Tosh.0

I loath this guy. His stand-up. His show. His personality. Just everything about him. He's annoying and kind of creepy looking. Look at him when he smiles. It's the type of smile that suggests he's getting pleasure from something wrong. As for the idea of the show, internet on TV. If I want that, there's G4, and they don't have annoying stand-up.


The Jeff Dunham Show

Never saw too much of the show, but it didn't look too good.


Nick Swardson's Pretend Time

It's a bad show, yeah, but it's one of the better bad comedian shows on Comedy Central.


The Benson Interruption

Never saw it.

Some others:

Route of All Evil

Again, complete unoriginal idea: a stand-up comedian doing jokes in front of a studio and cutting to clips/sketches. The idea is two comedians argue about which is a worse evil to Lewis Black. There's no real subtly in it: comedians just saying why it's bad, no real cleverness and the jokes about why it's bad we've heard a dozen times before.

Mind of Mencia

I can sum up this show thusly:

"Tee-hee! I'm Mexican! I rely on nothing but tired stereotypes and unoriginal jokes. Tee-hee! I'm funny!"

Sarah Silverman Program

Not a big fan of her stand-up or the show, but there where some moments that made me laugh and I do have to give it credit that the show has a half-hour plot unlike every other show a comedian has on Comedy Central.

[TheSummoner]

I loath this guy. His stand-up. His show. His personality. Just everything about him. He's annoying and kind of creepy looking. Look at him when he smiles. It's the type of smile that suggests he's getting pleasure from something wrong.

Euughh... I know... Hes always just standing there with that creepy grin...


Never saw it.

Do yourself a favor and keep it that way.


Route of All Evil

Again, complete unoriginal idea: a stand-up comedian doing jokes in front of a studio and cutting to clips/sketches. The idea is two comedians argue about which is a worse evil to Lewis Black. There's no real subtly in it: comedians just saying why it's bad, no real cleverness and the jokes about why it's bad we've heard a dozen times before.

I completly forgot about this one. Yeah... I like Lewis Black, but the show was aweful.


Mind of Mencia

I can sum up this show thusly:

"Tee-hee! I'm Mexican! I rely on nothing but tired stereotypes and unoriginal jokes. Tee-hee! I'm funny!"

While the show was terrible (as is Mencia's comedy), I don't really count it in with the surge of these shows since it predates them by a fair bit. Hell, it died before any of the ones I brought up started.


Sarah Silverman Program

Not a big fan of her stand-up or the show, but there where some moments that made me laugh and I do have to give it credit that the show has a half-hour plot unlike every other show a comedian has on Comedy Central.

Oh, I'll give her credit that the show actually tried to give its episodes a plot, but that doesn't make a show about an idiotic woman-child funny.

To be fair though, her comedy is also about an idiotic woman-child, so atleast shes consistant.

[Dr.Epic]

I completly forgot about this one.

You and the rest of the world.:smallwink: Yeah, Lewis Black is a great stand-up comedian, but in anything else he kind of sucks.

[Cristo Meyers]

You and the rest of the world.:smallwink: Yeah, Lewis Black is a great stand-up comedian, but in anything else he kind of sucks.

Untrue.

He appears for about a minute at the end of Jacob's Ladder, even he couldn't screw that up. :smalltongue:

Regarding everything else, yeah, I've long thought that Comedy Central's process for creating new shows must revolve around putting a bunch of comedians on a dart board and giving a show to whomever they hit. I'm still trying to figure out who thought giving Nick Swardson a show was a good idea...but then I'm still trying to figure out how I thought most of these people were funny when I first saw them.

[AtlanteanTroll]

Not a big fan of her stand-up or the show, but there where some moments that made me laugh and I do have to give it credit that the show has a half-hour plot unlike every other show a comedian has on Comedy Central.

Does Stephen Colbert count as a Comedian? I say he does, and thus disagree.

[Cristo Meyers]

Does Stephen Colbert count as a Comedian? I say he does, and thus disagree.

Would The Colbert Report really fit in the same category as these other shows though? It's more of a spin-off of The Daily Show rather than "let's give that Colbert guy his own show..."

[TheSummoner]

Colbert doesn't count as a comedian for this... Hes really more of a satirist anyways. Besides, his show is actually GOOD, so why would anyone complain?

And before anyone brings it up, the same applies to Jon Stewart.

[An Enemy Spy]

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are political satirists, not stand-up comedians, so they're shows aren't in the same catagory. I'm going to be shot for this, but I have a problem with Chris Rock. He is very very very funny comedian, but he has basically been telling the same joke for his entire career. I get it Chris. You're black. Is that the only thing you can do? Why is it that so many non-white comedians can base their entire career on "I'm black/latino/indian/blueskinnedreptilefromtheplanetRigelia, get it? I hope you did, because that's going to be the punchline of every single joke I will ever tell!"

[RabbitHoleLost]

Sarah Silverman Program

Not a big fan of her stand-up or the show, but there where some moments that made me laugh and I do have to give it credit that the show has a half-hour plot unlike every other show a comedian has on Comedy Central.

I love Sarah Silverman. Absolutely adore her. Then again, I'm a huge fan of cutesy, vulgar women, so I guess I'm really quite biased.

In general, I find most shows on Comedy Central to be a complete waste of my time. It just always seems to shout "LOOK. I'M FUNNY."
But I guess that's the point :smalltongue:

[Don Julio Anejo]

Agreed on most points, although I don't like TV comedy shows mainly because a lot of jokes are either in bad taste (Tosh.0 comes to mind), or are often too censored for political correctness so they can be allowed on TV.

That said, Jeff Dunham isn't bad. Not something I'd watch every night or religiously DVR (if I had one, or a TV for that matter), but good enough to watch any time you're watching TV when he's on.

IMO comedy works much better live, plus when you're in an actual venue, you usually expect to laugh, which makes all the jokes seem that much funnier.

[Avilan the Grey]

I find that 99% of comedy shows blows. However I can understand why they are produced. It is very tempting to assume that a guy that is 100% funny on standup shows where he has been polishing the material for for 11 months before going on tour also can be funny for 20-45 minutes every week with a writing staff. Not always the case, at all.

As for Sara Silverman: I love her, she is great. Providing she doesn't try to joke. She has no sense of humor whatsoever and has never been funny in her entire life. As a political guest on shows like Real Time With Bill Maher though, as I said, she's great.
And I know that is a case of personal taste, of course.

[Dr.Epic]

Does Stephen Colbert count as a Comedian? I say he does, and thus disagree.

The Colbert Report has a plot? It's a news show. It's just reporting. There's no half-hour, linear story.

[smellie_hippie]

I will admit that I actually enjoyed Tosh.0 and Dmitri Martin.

I liked both of their stand-up routines better, but these shows were not completely worthless IMO.

The rest of your statements (everyone) seem pretty spot on as far as I'm concerned.

[John Cribati]

I Like Demitri Martin's Important Things, if only for the more stand-up like parts.

[Cristo Meyers]

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are political satirists, not stand-up comedians, so they're shows aren't in the same catagory.

Well, Stewart was a stand-up comic earlier in his career. Halfway decent one too. But that's neither here nor there.


I'm going to be shot for this, but I have a problem with Chris Rock. He is very very very funny comedian, but he has basically been telling the same joke for his entire career. I get it Chris. You're black. Is that the only thing you can do? Why is it that so many non-white comedians can base their entire career on "I'm black/latino/indian/blueskinnedreptilefromtheplanetRigelia, get it? I hope you did, because that's going to be the punchline of every single joke I will ever tell!"

I'm a bit more forgiving, but otherwise, yeah, I agree. LadyMeyers and I watched one of this more recent specials and while we caught some of the other political jokes and such, it all seemed to get drowned in his usual racial humor. Hell, the last 15 minutes or so pretty much was a "keeping brown people down" tirade.

[Eldonauran]

:
First Post.

I have an intense dislike for the whole comedy central channel, period. It seems like its only about pleasing the lowest common denominator in today's society, which I admit, is profitable. I just don't like their humor :smallmad: ... save for a few rare gems in the mix. Jeff Dunham is by far my favorite comedian on that channel (Walter is HILARIOUS!) though I only like his specials.

I must be getting jaded in my 25 years of life :smallsigh: Young people... :smallamused:

[AshDesert]

I'm gonna go way against the crowd here, but I have to say that I find Daniel Tosh to be hilarious a good bit of the time and Jeff Dunham to be stupid every time I see one of his specials. Most of the other recent comedian show has been painfully average.

Mind of Mencia was terrible, mostly because Carlos Mencia is even less original than Dane Cook. Chapelle's Show (the first one of these as far as I know) was awesome, but started to drop off in quality near the end, and the unreleased sketches definitely show that he was running out of ideas.

I think the Benson Interruption is hit and miss. Sometimes the interaction between him and the comedian is genuinely funny (him and Eugene Mirman was just as funny as Eugene's jokes, and he's one of my favorite comedians). Also, I think the OP is a bit misleading about this show. Most of the time the comedians go off onto a random tangent with Benson and then get back to the joke they were on (at least the one's I've seen).

[Zeta Kai]

For the record, Louis C.K. is a brilliant comedian, & his show, Louie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louie_(TV_series)), is some of the funniest, edgiest, most poignant stuff ever seen on TV. Sublime stuff, really. The guy is a genius, & not just because he brought an extra cup so we'd have another cup in case we needed it.

[Demons_eye]

I'm gonna go way against the crowd here, but I have to say that I find Daniel Tosh to be hilarious a good bit of the time and Jeff Dunham to be stupid every time I see one of his specials. Most of the other recent comedian show has been painfully average.

Mind of Mencia was terrible, mostly because Carlos Mencia is even less original than Dane Cook. Chapelle's Show (the first one of these as far as I know) was awesome, but started to drop off in quality near the end, and the unreleased sketches definitely show that he was running out of ideas.

I think the Benson Interruption is hit and miss. Sometimes the interaction between him and the comedian is genuinely funny (him and Eugene Mirman was just as funny as Eugene's jokes, and he's one of my favorite comedians). Also, I think the OP is a bit misleading about this show. Most of the time the comedians go off onto a random tangent with Benson and then get back to the joke they were on (at least the one's I've seen).

This. Also I find comedy central presents to be very good and an easy way to find new comedians to look up.

[AtlanteanTroll]

People who hate Chris Rock. Watch Everybody Hates Chris. I know it isn't his standup, but Chris Rock is in there every episode as a writer or SOMETHING. So yeah.

Also, Google, "Chris Rock Cuses Out Ex Over Phone" do it. Do it now.

[Fjolnir]

I do have one exeption to the rule, it predates the others by a pretty large distance: Insomniac, With Dave Attel. It's essentially every episode of no reservations with a more humorous person helming it, a lot more night life and copious amounts of alcohol

[Cristo Meyers]

People who hate Chris Rock. Watch Everybody Hates Chris. I know it isn't his standup, but Chris Rock is in there every episode as a writer or SOMETHING. So yeah.


Tried, wasn't that entertained. But then, save for about 4 TV shows, I don't get a whole lot out of TV these days anyway.


I do have one exeption to the rule, it predates the others by a pretty large distance: Insomniac, With Dave Attel. It's essentially every episode of no reservations with a more humorous person helming it, a lot more night life and copious amounts of alcohol

Insomniac was one of the better ones, if you like Dave Attel. But that's a pretty important distinction there, you've got to like Dave Attel's comedy.

[Xyk]

I really really liked Important Things with Demetri Martin. It was clever and funny and just weird enough to appeal to me. I also really like Louie. That barely even seems in the same category because it's on FX, not Comedy Central, but still, it's amazingly done. The rest were kinda meh/not my style.

[AtopTheMountain]

Does anyone remember Michael And Michael Have Issues? The channel was flooded with ads for it for about 6 months, then it happened (I watched an episode, and it was pretty terrible), then nobody ever heard anything about it again. I didn't even know who the two comedians were...

[Cristo Meyers]

Does anyone remember Michael And Michael Have Issues? The channel was flooded with ads for it for about 6 months, then it happened (I watched an episode, and it was pretty terrible), then nobody ever heard anything about it again. I didn't even know who the two comedians were...

Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter.

Michael Ian Black was most famous for Ed, apparently. For the longest time I thought he was most famous for being one of the D-listers VH1 got to comment on I Love the 80s...

Michael Showalter is apparently most famous for...being Michael Ian Black's friend. He's primarily a writer.

Their Comedy Central show was probably one of the shortest lived ones.

[Winter_Wolf]

I don't think comedians should have shows. None of 'em. Take enough time to polish their bits, so they're good. Not just memorize them so you have a show for the night. The number of great comedians who can consistently do good improv is really,really small, and significantly less than the number of comedians who appear regularly on television.

I do enjoy comedy, and I find a number of really funny comedians regularly when flipping channels, but they don't have daily or even weekly shows. In fact the fastest pace I've seen for new material that is actually funny from any one particular comic is about once a year.

Clearly, a lot of people do like the weekly or daily comedy that they get on television, which is why we still have it. I don't even particularly have "high-brow" humor tendencies. BUT, I absolutely have a standard for proper timing and pacing, and material that has been constructed well. Anyone can be funny sometimes, hell I can even be funny on a regular basis; but I am NOT a comedian. I'd argue that the label of comedian has been misapplied to a number of people that we call by that title.

So we end up with stupid shows with low production values and the humor and comedic value is missing. I might have veered wildly away from whatever point I thought I was trying to make.

[John Cribati]

Also, Google, "Chris Rock Cuses Out Ex Over Phone" do it. Do it now.

... That...

That was ART.

[Marillion]

SO!

Does anyone remember... Titus? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzA_9Lg5R1U)

[Da Beast]

I genuinely like Tosh.0. It's not my favorite show and certainly not something I set time aside to watch on a weekly basis, but if I'm cleaning the kitchen and looking for something to watch I could certainly do worse than Tosh.0. Before the show aired I thought it was the worst idea for a show ever. After a few episodes my opinion changed to stupid show, but Tosh makes it work. The other day however, I had something of a revelation regarding this show and now see it as kind of brilliant. The internet is full of dumb fodder for a comedian to riff off of, the only problem is that with so much on the internet not much of it will be common point of reference for the audience the way Star Wars or Batman is. By putting the internet up on screen with the comedian that problem is easily sidestepped. Is it an extremely lazy idea for a show? Most definitely. Is it a stupid and poorly thought out idea for a show? Surprisingly not, and if I'd had the idea and talent to pull it off I wouldn't be shamed in the slightest.

I also liked Important things and think the Benson Interruption ranges from pretty bad to pretty good depending on how well Doug and his guests play off one another.

[Psyren]

I actually love Demitri Martin, Sarah Silverman and Tosh.0. The latter two do a lot of gay jokes, but neither I nor my friends (we are gay, of course) find them offensive in the slightest.

Reasons:
Tosh took the tired "Web Soup" format and breathed new life into it; he understands the primary boon of internet culture is interactivity, whether it's from his Web Redemptions/Remixes, to featuring Twitter posts on the program, to even simple things like filming mass "reaction videos" using his studio audience. The point is, he gets it (and by "it" I mean "us") in a way that E!, G4 and countless other failures before him have not.

Sarah is an insult comic. It's a very polarizing style; people that know of her show tend to fall into either love it or hate it, with not much middle ground. If you decide it's not for you then fine; you probably won't like Lisa Lampanelli or Jeffrey Ross either. For myself, I enjoy insult comedy - not because I have a low opinion of myself and need to be "talked dirty to," just primarily for the un-sugar-coated shock value of it. Her show reflects that.

Demitri Martin is brilliant. It's not often you see a sketch show with literal sketches. :smallbiggrin: He has a very lateral approach to comedy, e.g. his forehead texter invention. (http://tv.gawker.com/5465087/get-out-of-awkward-situations-with-the-forehead-texter)

Now, the other three in the OP (and others), I do strongly dislike.

Jeff Dunham - 90% of his charm comes from the ventriloquism. Putting the puppets in any other setting removed all the artistry. I mean, you see him on stage animating Peanut, you think "how can he do that with his voice with his mouth shut?" But see Peanut by himself sitting in a chair and you think "camera trick" or "pre-recorded vocals." It just lacks the same performance value as his stand-up. (His stand-up is pretty average too, without the novelty of the puppets.)

Ben Swardson - he has one character, i.e. the roller-skating man-ho on Reno 911. That's not enough to carry a show. He'd like to think he has more, but they are all variations on that theme.

Doug Benson - I love Doug Benson, but he's one of those comedians that works best in an ensemble (e.g. Best Week Ever, World's Dumbest etc.) rather than trying to carry a show on his own. Michael Ian Black and that other Michael tried the same thing and it failed for the same reason.

Chocolate News - Ugh. This was a bald-faced attempt to fill the void left by Dave Chappelle, which thankfully failed miserably. I can't stand David Alan Grier.

[Gamer Girl]

Your Ranting because Comedy Central has too many Comedian Shows? Comedy Central? LoL


Sure the basic idea is: If someone is funny enough to sell tickets and fill a room and make people laugh, why not give them a show.

The problem comes with how it's done. You get lots of Executive Meddling, after all 50+ year old boring white guys are comedy experts. And you get the fact that not every comedian can make a good TV show. Some people are just better at stand up, and when you ask them to fill a whole show...they fail.

Though plenty of comedians have had great success with TV shows. Bill Cosby, Tim Allen, and Jerry Sinfeild come to mind. And oddly everyone things they can just 'toss together some stuff' and make a good show like that.

[Psyren]

Though plenty of comedians have had great success with TV shows. Bill Cosby, Tim Allen, and Jerry Sinfeild come to mind. And oddly everyone things they can just 'toss together some stuff' and make a good show like that.

Let's not forget Kevin James, Ray Romano, Steve Harvey, Bernie Mac...

The concept is not a bad one. The execution may have been hit or miss, but not everyone's standup can do well with a 30-minute spot as a framing device, even if they eschew continuity in favor of random sketches or vice-versa. But it CAN be done well.

[Moff Chumley]

Can I throw out there that Tosh.0 is a work of art, and Jeff Dunham is a hack?

Kay. Just gettin' that off my chest. :smallsmile:

[Psyren]

Can I throw out there that Tosh.0 is a work of art, and Jeff Dunham is a hack?

Kay. Just gettin' that off my chest. :smallsmile:

Of course you may!