[OT] Most modern comedy is crap.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Sorry about the slip. ;-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

;-)

It claimed to be made on location in various theatres, but didn't sound like it - and sounded like the audience reaction was dubbed too. Very odd for R4. Even odder it winning awards.

Must be just me that's odd.

[ARW]

You missed Porridge and Dad's Army (although that was sometimes not funny).

The only thing unfunnier than Benny Hill was Last of the Summer Wine.

As for later comedies I rated Gavin and Stacey and the Royale Family quite highly.

The truth is that some men will always find knob gags funny - they are the ones that never grow up (like you and me).

[alan_m]

It's guaranteed that if a TV program or film is billed as a hilarious comedy the one ting it won't be is funny.

I get annoyed these days by the (rare) event that when I find something funny on TV they then spoil the joke by explaining at length it to the thick (usually USA) part of the audience.

While I do/did find parts of Bottom, Monty Python, Two Ronnies, Morecome and Wise etc. etc. funny much of their content was tediously unfunny. Don't we all remember the best bits and forget the rest.

[alan_m]

A lot better on the radio - crap on TV (even with the same script)

[RJH]

Not sure about 'rip roaring', but Veep makes me laugh. This week's episode is hilarious.

[RJH]

+1 on Peter Kay - really like the 'Car Share' thing he's doing right now.

I do like some stand-up though - off to see Stewart Lee on Friday, should be good.

[John Chance]

Just tried Car Share S01E01, not funny at all IMO.

[Tim Watts]

Men? SWMBO too :)

[Nightjar]

First time I saw him, he was a minor support act, so I may be getting a little bit old.

[Jonno]

Dave Plowman (News) scribbled

You must be joking. R4 are playing Harry Worth and The Navy Lark in the early mornings. Jeez, they are painful.

[Jim Newman]

Wouldn't spend a minute on Eight Out Of Ten Cats ... yet Eight Out Of Ten Cats Does Countdown is real laugh out loud.

Going further back, all of these are properly funny

W1A Twenty Twelve The Trip Gavin and Stacey Marion and Keith The IT Crowd

Naa, you're just old

[jkn]

I suspect Stewart Lee is a good example of what might cause many here to say 'Modern Comedy is rubbish'.

Personally I have seen him several times and think he is excellent, but I can't deny that he's not for everyone, double-negatively-speaking.

Funniest person *I've* ever seen on stage was Johnny Vegas.

J^n

[S Viemeister]

The first time I saw him, he was a folksinger.

[Nightjar]

The only thing I recall of his performance was him playing the Celtic Drum, which I had never seen before, so that is probably what he was doing when I saw him.

[Huge]

Ditto.

[thescullster]

Not modern by any means, but I used to enjoy MASH. For American humour this was remarkably subtle and understated in parts. It also used the setting to mix comedy and tragedy to swing the viewer between emotions - again a sign of good writing.

Most comedy from the USA seems to need pointers and pauses to indicate to the audience when to laugh (suggesting that you need to be shown the funny bits).

About half way through the filming of the many MASH series, canned laughter was introduced which all but killed it.

For the modern stuff there's some good stand up and some dross - very taste dependent of course. I enjoyed Rich Hall's contribution on Live at the Apollo recently.

Phil

[Dave W]

I'm not offended, just not amused.

[Nightjar]

On 11/06/2015 10:27, thescullster wrote: ...

It is a while since I had the DVDs out, but ISTR they have an option to play with or without the laughter track.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Don't edit my posts to make them say something totally different.

And read carefully before replying.

I was referring to Benny Hill - not Savile.