(4 hours ago)Yazata Wrote: I'm willing to give it a watch, at least once.
Given Byron Allen's statement, I was surprised by the political items mentioned in that 20-year-old episode of the video: Rumsfeld, a wall along the Mexican border, Schwarzenegger as governor, etc. But I suppose it was in that kind of lingering
Will Rogers context of the old days, prior to the so-called "meanspirited vein" emerging from the militancy of late '60s and '70s.
Quote:America might finally be ready for the return of a late-night "comedy" show that emphasizes actually being funny (like Johnny Carson or Monty Python... or even Saturday Night Live back in its prime). We've had enough political conformity and hatred.
Rob Schneider: "
Much late night comedy is less about being funny and more about indoctrination by comedic imposition. People aren't really laughing at it as much as cheering on the rhetoric. It no longer resembles a comedy show, it's more like some kind of liberal Klan meeting."
Years ago P. J. O'Rourke appeared in a segment of "60 Minutes", and when they browsed through an old 1970s issue of
National Lampoon, he commented that they mocked everyone (balance). And maybe you could catch glimpses of them even going after the future (if not already then) sacred totems and safeguarded vassals of the Lord Protectors, that no neo-establishment comedian of today would risk defiling or ridiculing (at least in that kind of blatant manner).
#Overview: P. J. O'Rourke, editor-in-chief of the magazine in 1978, went even further in his characterization of the magazine's humor:
What we do is oppressor comedy.... "Woody Allen says, 'I'm just a regular shmuck like you." Our kind of comedy says, "I'm O.K.; you're an asshole." We are ruling class [WASP]. We are the insiders who have chosen to stand in the doorway and criticize the organization. Our comic pose is superior. It says, "I'm better than you, and I'm going to destroy you." It's an offensive, very aggressive form of humor.
[...] Various alumni went on to create and write for Saturday Night Live, The David Letterman Show, SCTV ... The characteristic humor of ... Jon Stewart, and Stephen Colbert were all influenced by National Lampoon.
And the SNL marathons of episodes from the 1970s also seemed to occasionally feature a NYC culture willing to eat its own babies (not just conservatives). Similar with
Monty Python, where they had a skit parodying classic philosophers, which today would be as close as you could get to spoofing the literary intellectuals who invent and prescribe the intricate do-gooder and anti-Western torture chambers inflicted on current society.
Despite criticism about him avoiding controversial issues, I guess Johnny Carson actually did indulge in political jokes. But maybe he kept them abstract by not plugging anybody specific into them: “
Democracy means that anyone can grow up to be president—and anyone who doesn’t grow up can be vice president.”
And Steve Martin was another one back then who survived without the aggressive ridicule mode of that era's fledgling counterculture comedy.
And '90s
Seinfeld was a return to exploiting everyday situational comedy in new ways -- that old Jewish turf revitalized. After returning solely to his standup routine, though, Seinfeld started avoiding Woke colleges -- so I guess there was something sacrilegious in that seemingly "mundane world" based humor. He once got criticized by the back-home establishment for just remarking that the inhabitants of Iceland were "good looking" when doing a performing tour of the island.