Old School Comedians Complain About The Internet
from the when-I-was-your-age-I-performed-to-3-people-in-a-shack-and-I-liked-it dept
Well, it seems bound to happen in just about any profession that has been impacted by the internet in some way. Eventually, the "older generation" is going to whine and complain about "the way things used to be." Apparently that's even true of stand up comedians. A bunch of stand up comedians are apparently worried about the internet's impact on young up-and-coming stand-ups, because (I kid you not), they're worried that the internet lets young standups have too big an audience. The reasoning is basically that it's better for young comics to fail in front of small audiences, learn their lesson and get better. Of course, what none of the complaining comics explain is why those "bad" young comics will have that big an audience in the first place if they're so bad. No one's going to watch them.These same comics seem to ignore the flip side of the coin -- which is that a good young comedian can actually use the internet to amplify his or her comedic talents in order to get noticed and move on to bigger and better things. A great example of this would be Andy Samberg, who basically made a name for himself online, before being snapped up by Saturday Night Live. It certainly doesn't seem like there's any lack of young comedic talent these days compared to in the past, and it seems like the internet often creates a much better feedback loop for those young comics. But, of course, since it's "not the way we did it"(TM) it must be bad.
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Filed Under: comedians, culture, internet, stand up comics
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Potential Downside?
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Re: Potential Downside?
(Actually, he was the example I was surprised the article didn't mention. I had no idea who Andy Samberg was before he was on SNL.)
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Re: Potential Downside?
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Re: Re: Potential Downside?
I was being a bit jokey myself. I am sure Masnick's point is on solid ground.
The only stand up I have ever seen from Cook was decently amusing (and PG rated), but not so stellar that it would have been indicative of a massive comedic talent (given his popularity).
But it is a question whether humor is anything but discrete and personal.
Can one "define" humor in any absolute way?
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Re: Potential Downside?
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What happened to irony?
Too many folk are irony deficient these days, especially Americans.
There's an entire class of satire that becomes inaccessible to those unable to digest irony - having not been fed it when young.
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Re: What happened to irony?
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Re: What happened to irony?
I always get surprised that people I've never met before up here appreciate irony and sarcasm as much as I do.
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Re: Re: What happened to irony?
I'm only concerned about those few that don't, and fascinated that this deficiency seems to be culturally determined, and quite subtly so.
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Ironic for UK
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/07/0337205&from=rss
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Re: Big Brother
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Upsides and downsides
I think it's an intelligent article. It also makes the point that internet fame can be both fast and fleeting, and in that sense, it doesn't necessarily displace any of the other ways that comics build their careers. I.e., it's a new development, providing a whole range of new tools and opportunities, and it will help some and probably will be of less help to some others.
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Dane Cook should go die...
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Its sort of like learning to crawl before you walk. It wasn't "complaining" it was an observation. GEESH!
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Comics on the Net
The real challenge is that the internet is a very scalable, low cost copy machine. And if you are a talented comic, others will quickly and easily pirate your material. You don't have to look beyond the Mind of Mencia to see this in action.
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Interview with MadTV's Chris Kula re: social media
Here's the link to our interview: http://bhc3.wordpress.com/2008/09/22/using-social-media-in-hollywood-an-interview-with-madtvs-chris- kula/
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They shouldn't worry
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There's one
And with all this free content available, his shows sell out. Imagine that.
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Ignoring? No.
That's not what they're ignoring. That's what they're secretly fearing and Dare Not Name.
Competition that uses new media to outmaneuver the old guard.
Same fears driving all other Net-hostile attitudes, from newspapers to the recording industry to Hollywood to Malaysian and Turkish politicians.
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then again...
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Old School Comedy
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