As I mature, I find myself thinking very lowly of standup in general despite watching a lot of it when I was an edgy 18/19 year old. When I try to get back into it now I just see the various ethical problems with their jokes and that makes it not funny for me.
White standup comics get free reign to drop racist dog whistles and if you criticize them on it they get all snippy with you. The most popular “genre” of white stand up comedy still seems to be “I went to a [insert culture here] restaurant and here are my disrespectful and stereotype enforcing hijinks” or even “I went to [insert COUNTRY here] and will now proceed to joke about how their culture is different from us.” I can only hope the whole thing is made up and they’re not that atrocious in real life, though the vast majority of service staff seem to have stories about famous comics treating them like shit so I wouldn’t be surprised.
Even a lot of ethnic standup comics portray themselves as the victims of racism in one joke but then have no problems using stereotypes of another ethnicity in the very next joke.
Also standup definitely seems to have an air of being attended by older generations who find insulting the younger generations funny. Things like participation trophies (which was a boomer idea by the way, the kids aren’t planning school competitions or buying the prizes) or terms like “snowflake” seems to have gotten into boomer rethoric partly because of standup. Reactionary takes about progressive social movements like veganism or car-free living are also the norm because I assume they know most of the people who watch them are the type to get mad at how other people choose to live their lives. Standup in general seems to have a “let’s make fun of anything people are doing that’s different from how it was before because we don’t want to do it that way and need validation that we’re not assholes on the wrong side of history” attitude. Or they’ll just make fun of random people living their lives, I remember watching a comic on YouTube doing a whole segment making fun of people who swim laps in hotel pools because it annoys him, like bro mind your own damn business.
Occasionally a comic will try to earn brownie points by saying the most superficial shit about a major societal problem and then act like they singlehandedly solved it. Bonus points if they’re talking about another country’s problems which the West fucking caused.
I’m not saying all standup is like this or all standup comics are racist or reactionary, but I am saying there are very few long running standup shows/podcasts with none of these problems.
I haven’t paid attention to stand up in a while. The best I can think of are still at the end of the day libs. Fat chance of finding a good historical materialist comedian eking out a living. Anyway, David Cross, Doug Stanhope, and Marc Maron come to mind. But I haven’t seen them in quite a while. For all I know they could have gone kancel kulture krazy, but I doubt it.
Now that I think about it, I’m scared to find out how they’ve navigated the genocide. Definitely stay the fuck away from Sarah Silverman; I know that much.
I have felt the same for a while. I have had to heavily rethink my relationship with standup comedy, because I think it can be such a powerful medium, but as I’ve gotten older, I recognize that comedy can reflect much of the bigotry and hatreds of their time.
It’s obviously more nuanced than that, as comedy can also reflect joys, insights, and the general societal consciousness of the time.
With that said there are still a few stand up comedy that I can say I don’t feel bad laughing at these days. So here’s a short list that if you’re so inclined, I’d take a look at:
Tig Notaro
Benny Feldman
Noam Shuster
Hannah Gadsby
Maria Bamford
I’d elaborate on each of them a bit, but I’d rather simply let their comedy speak for themselves.
As I mature, I find myself thinking very lowly of standup in general despite watching a lot of it when I was an edgy 18/19 year old. When I try to get back into it now I just see the various ethical problems with their jokes and that makes it not funny for me.
White standup comics get free reign to drop racist dog whistles and if you criticize them on it they get all snippy with you. The most popular “genre” of white stand up comedy still seems to be “I went to a [insert culture here] restaurant and here are my disrespectful and stereotype enforcing hijinks” or even “I went to [insert COUNTRY here] and will now proceed to joke about how their culture is different from us.” I can only hope the whole thing is made up and they’re not that atrocious in real life, though the vast majority of service staff seem to have stories about famous comics treating them like shit so I wouldn’t be surprised.
Even a lot of ethnic standup comics portray themselves as the victims of racism in one joke but then have no problems using stereotypes of another ethnicity in the very next joke.
Also standup definitely seems to have an air of being attended by older generations who find insulting the younger generations funny. Things like participation trophies (which was a boomer idea by the way, the kids aren’t planning school competitions or buying the prizes) or terms like “snowflake” seems to have gotten into boomer rethoric partly because of standup. Reactionary takes about progressive social movements like veganism or car-free living are also the norm because I assume they know most of the people who watch them are the type to get mad at how other people choose to live their lives. Standup in general seems to have a “let’s make fun of anything people are doing that’s different from how it was before because we don’t want to do it that way and need validation that we’re not assholes on the wrong side of history” attitude. Or they’ll just make fun of random people living their lives, I remember watching a comic on YouTube doing a whole segment making fun of people who swim laps in hotel pools because it annoys him, like bro mind your own damn business.
Occasionally a comic will try to earn brownie points by saying the most superficial shit about a major societal problem and then act like they singlehandedly solved it. Bonus points if they’re talking about another country’s problems which the West fucking caused.
I’m not saying all standup is like this or all standup comics are racist or reactionary, but I am saying there are very few long running standup shows/podcasts with none of these problems.
What is an ethical stand up?
I haven’t paid attention to stand up in a while. The best I can think of are still at the end of the day libs. Fat chance of finding a good historical materialist comedian eking out a living. Anyway, David Cross, Doug Stanhope, and Marc Maron come to mind. But I haven’t seen them in quite a while. For all I know they could have gone kancel kulture krazy, but I doubt it.
Now that I think about it, I’m scared to find out how they’ve navigated the genocide. Definitely stay the fuck away from Sarah Silverman; I know that much.
I have felt the same for a while. I have had to heavily rethink my relationship with standup comedy, because I think it can be such a powerful medium, but as I’ve gotten older, I recognize that comedy can reflect much of the bigotry and hatreds of their time.
It’s obviously more nuanced than that, as comedy can also reflect joys, insights, and the general societal consciousness of the time.
With that said there are still a few stand up comedy that I can say I don’t feel bad laughing at these days. So here’s a short list that if you’re so inclined, I’d take a look at:
I’d elaborate on each of them a bit, but I’d rather simply let their comedy speak for themselves.
EDIT: typo, wording
That list definitely tracks for a lemmy user.
Two of my all time favorites.
Agree. Most of it is rancid and only funny if you’re a teenager, or think like one.