The United States of Comedy: 2035 (2012)

https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/01/conan-obrien-dystopian-comedy-future

by sand33pn • 5 years ago

43 21 5 years ago

I always wondered what stew of genetics and upbringing makes someone extremely funny. Its actually a pretty rare trait for someone to be 'professional quality' funny as evidenced by going to a few open mic nights.

I think a lot of people want to be funny and the hustle is admirable, but I wonder if professional comedy is an inherent talent not something you can just read a book about.

Still you don't know if you don't try.

kritiko• 5 years ago

I'm married to a working comedian and know many. Everybody sucks when they start, and open mics are kind of built for people, even pros, to bomb at as they develop material.

The people who seem "effortlessly funny" often work the hardest - although often that practice is developed in childhood.

brodouevencode2• 5 years ago

Exactly this. Bill Burr spent many, many years as an opener for other people way less funny than him. Dave Chappelle was in several bit parts and pilots before Half Baked. Richard Pryor was a writer for several years before even starting stand up. George Carlin in his early career is not the Carlin you may have seen, in the ~mid-70s after about a decade he completely changed his look and act. It may take a long time to hone in on an act that works.

ethbr0• 5 years ago

+1 I used to go to open mics weekly in undergrad (audience, not performing). And hey, it was BYOB in an un-air conditioned attic, for $5.

It was almost more fascinating watching the same person go up week after week, with slight tweaks to their act.

It convinced me that the "talent" for comedy is probably just "attention to detail."

And that the actions required to be successful in comedy were "practice", "perseverance", and ability to use constructive criticism.

WalterBright3• 5 years ago

I'm not the least bit surprised. I was involved in the dance business long ago, and the top dancers danced in an effortlessly elegant manner. Beginners danced like drunk cows, and there was every level in between.

Some people learned faster than others.

But nobody was born elegant, and dancing smoothly and elegantly required endless hours of practice, and relentless attention to detail. You'll find even ballroom champions still spending hours going over how to take a step forward, again and again.

BTW, it isn't about making it look easy. It is easy when you've practiced it enough.

nickthemagicman4• 5 years ago

What percentage of people do you see becoming professionally funny to pay the bills from comedy?

From the open mic's I went to there was a very minscule percentage of them and most had been trying for ages.

Not sure it boils down 'just work hard'.

jjj123• 5 years ago

I’m reading Tom Sharpling’s memoir right now and he mentions noticing as a teenager that his comedic skillset was better than his peers. One thing that stuck out to me was that he’s able to string one thought to another easier than most.

I found it interesting because I hadn’t thought about comedy being about making connections in a funny way but that’s what a lot of it is, and some people are probably predisposed to make those connections with less effort.

spaetzleesser• 5 years ago

From what I have seen is that all the good comedians are very good observers and think a lot about how society works and why things are the way they are. It seems the funniness comes second after that. Bad comedians try to be funny but have no depth in their jokes.

WalterBright3• 5 years ago

Good comedy seems to stem from connecting one topic to another in an unexpected way. It's why puns are funny.

cortesoft• 5 years ago

I think this can be said about a lot of professional level skills. They are hard, and most people can’t do them.

ericmcer• 5 years ago

Growing up I had a group of 6ish close friends, and the goal was 100% to laugh (it kinda still is). Even when we were 13 we all knew who was funniest and who wasn't. There was no practice or work put into it. Granted standup is a totally different skillset from just riffing with friends, but some of us had the confidence, presence and ability and others were more precocious and less clever.

This new Podcast generation of comics is interesting because some stand-ups can go on a show and just riff really well. Others are not that great once they get outside their comfort areas.

brodouevencode2• 5 years ago

By 2022 the last vestiges of reality dissolve. The Onion becomes the newspaper of record, only to be supplanted by an “Onion” version of The Onion, which makes the original Onion look “totally lame.”

Soothsayer!

anm89• 5 years ago

There's something about this concept that seems so realistically appealing to gen z to me.

I guess to some degree this is what clickhole already is.

dfxm122• 5 years ago

That consumers of news parody understand the what's going on in the world better than people who consume what is ostensibly straight news dates back at least to 2004.

On top of that, "Daily Show" viewers know more about election issues than people who regularly read newspapers or watch television news, according to the National Annenberg Election Survey.

https://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/TV/09/28/comedy.politics/

dfxm122• 5 years ago

New late-night talk shows appear so rapidly that the fight for guests turns violent.

This was written a few years after Conan had his bad experience with the Tonight Show. If you saw his live show around 2010, you'll know how he grew jaded, at least with the business end of things.

geon• 5 years ago

What is the author even trying to say? I just get random rambling. Could as well have been written by a Markov generator.

nsonha• 5 years ago

It seems to me a parody of modern entertainment, not necessary comedy. The way the economy rewards influencers, entertainers etc, basically bullshit jobs, we are sending the future generation into a world where this is all that humans do and no one wants to work on anything real anymore.

The United States of Comedy: 2035 (2012)

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