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Who is the best current stand-up?

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Who is the best current stand-up?

Harry Hill
4
5%
Jack Dee
1
1%
Jimmy Carr
3
4%
Andy Parsons
2
3%
Michael McIntyre
42
55%
Sean Lock
3
4%
Ricky Gervais
5
7%
Mark Watson
2
3%
Bill Bailey
14
18%
 
Total votes : 76

Who is the best current stand-up?

Postby Wonderboy on Fri Aug 07, 2009 11:15 pm

There are a lot of stand-ups on tv at the moment and I think a poll is in order. I accept that the choice in the poll is not comprehensive.

Also general comments on various commedians appreciated.

Possible topics for discussion:
i)why are there no funny women?
ii)how often do you watch stand-up - do you see it live?
iii)favourite stand-up shows
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with mind bullets!
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Re: Who is the best current stand-up?

Postby Spike on Fri Aug 07, 2009 11:52 pm

Ed Byrne
From Rock to Opera
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Re: Who is the best current stand-up?

Postby GuyIncognito on Sat Aug 08, 2009 11:07 am

Dara O'Briain
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Re: Who is the best current stand-up?

Postby Delts on Sat Aug 08, 2009 11:50 am

There are a couple of funny women, but most degrade themselves with a ton of sex jokes that aren't funny in an attempt to imitate some of the older male comedians and in the process make themselves look like whores.
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Re: Who is the best current stand-up?

Postby aj on Sat Aug 08, 2009 12:23 pm

Tommy Tiernan?
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Re: Who is the best current stand-up?

Postby RandomMusings on Sat Aug 08, 2009 2:21 pm

I think I would vote for Rhod Gilbert if he had been on the list. Also, what's happened to Peter Kay?
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Re: Who is the best current stand-up?

Postby jollytiddlywink on Sat Aug 08, 2009 3:12 pm

No funny women? Oh come off it, have you seen them try to parallel park?

I kid, I kid. But seriously, I do think that the problem is that women comedians are just that: *women* comedians, not simply comedians who happen to be women. It's a bit like *gay* comedians, or *black* comedians, or anyone else who is a *something* comedian. Because so many stand-ups bring their life into their comedy, whatever group they are part of inevitably colours their comedy, and sometimes leads to it being pigeon-holed as such.

But then I've seen men do the same thing: I remember Dylan Moran saying something along the lines of "I am a man... no really, I am. I'm not just a woman who's really let herself go!" (There we are, a sexist joke about men!). Billy Connelly did something a bit similar, insisting that "It's hard being a man. It is! It is!

My personal theory is that comedy is so often about being the outsider, about humour as a defensive mechanism, and I wonder if men appear more often on the comedy circuit because its men's way of coping with problems which women might handle more seriously. Then again, maybe men's reputed lack of empathy helps. I believe it was Oscar Wilde who said that comedy requires a temporary anaesthesia of the heart... in other words, if somebody else whacks their elbow, its funny, but it damn well isn't if its your own elbow! Maybe men have an easier time turning off the 'I care' response to something and instead pointing and laughing.
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Re: Who is the best current stand-up?

Postby ct3012 on Sat Aug 08, 2009 4:33 pm

Harry Hill's TV Burp is one of the best shows on telly (when it's on), but in the absence of Dara O'Briain, Rhod Gilbert, Kevin Bridges and Ed Byrne (who's presence would have made it a lot more difficult, I voted for Michael McIntyre.
But then again, I could just be saying that to annoy people...
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Re: Who is the best current stand-up?

Postby ct3012 on Sat Aug 08, 2009 4:36 pm

jollytiddlywink wrote:No funny women? Oh come off it, have you seen them try to parallel park?


I lol'd :laugh:

There are a couple of funny women, but some of them do have a tendency to come off as being either bitches, slappers, or moaning, dried up hags.

(I'm a girl, I'm allowed to say the above :P)
But then again, I could just be saying that to annoy people...
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Re: Who is the best current stand-up?

Postby Haunted on Sat Aug 08, 2009 9:01 pm

Why women aren't funny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7izJggqCoA


Also, Frankie Boyle.
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Re: Who is the best current stand-up?

Postby Power Metal Dom on Sun Aug 09, 2009 12:23 pm

I'm a massive stand up fan. Many frequently watched dvds and seen a few live (Bill Bailey twice, Dylan Moran, Dave Gorman, Ross Noble, Jimmy Car). I like all of those listed above in their own way (maybe excluding Jack Dee) but I'd definitely say Michael MacIntyre is the current best. Would throw in Ross Noble, Billy Connolly (my all time fave), Dara Ó Briain, Frankie Boyle, Lee Mack, Peter Kay, Russell Howard and Jason Manford among others.
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Re: Who is the best current stand-up?

Postby Delts on Sun Aug 09, 2009 12:33 pm

I've not enjoyed Frankie Boyle in stand up since it's basically just his best jokes from Mock The Week. He's fantastic on MTW and the stand up section on it, but proper stand up he relies on his MTW jokes.
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Re: Who is the best current stand-up?

Postby asdf on Sun Aug 09, 2009 4:16 pm

Tommy Tiernan!
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Re: Who is the best current stand-up?

Postby osigiarak on Sun Aug 09, 2009 5:00 pm

easily Ross Noble
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Re: Who is the best current stand-up?

Postby the Empress on Sun Aug 09, 2009 5:03 pm

Can we have a list of 'bitches, slappers and dried up old hags'? Instead of mass generalisations. Actually Delts comment struck me - women who make sex jokes look like whores?? Maybe it's less that women aren't funny, but the expectations of women are different.

I like Jo Brand, I've seen her stand up. Chelsea Handler is also really good. Also, Loni Love and Heather McDonald, I've been checking them out on youtube.

I also like Dylan Moran, Bill Bailey, Michael McIintyre and Mark Watson . . . but I've seen Bill Bailey a few times, and between that and quiz shows, I tend to recognise alot of his material. TV and youtube are generally damaging to comedians live stand-up though - they raise the profile but it means that material has a short life-span . . .

Some comedians don't make great stand-ups though. Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais' podcasts crack me up but their stand-up's not so great.

[edit] on a side note, I've been thinking about JTW's suggestion that men use humour as a defensive mechanism. I think men (I have no proof of this though:) are more likely to be extroverts when it comes to defensive humour, y'know, play it up. But I know me and a female friend who's had similiar experiences . . . we're more likely to be reserved but deliver deadpan one-liners or a sly joke.
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Re: Who is the best current stand-up?

Postby Gubbins on Mon Aug 10, 2009 8:11 am

Try as they might, I've seen no-one in recent years to match the genius of Billy Connolly. The problem I have with most modern comedians is that many tend to scream "look at me, I need attention" as soon as they get on stage. The same couldn't be said of, e.g., Jo Brand, but many others seem to set out to intentionally disgust or ridicule their audience. Billy Connolly is the only comedian I can think of where you could be listening to him live, or having a drink down the pub with him and your mates, and there wouldn't be much difference - and therein lies the difference: despite the trappings of wealth and fame, he can still actively, naturally engage with the common man.
...then again, that is only my opinion.
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Re: Who is the best current stand-up?

Postby Jono on Mon Aug 10, 2009 2:52 pm

Michael Macintyre. He's like a young, dark-haired Boris Johnston. Best thing going at the moment! Ed Bryne's a close second.

jollytiddlywink wrote:I kid, I kid. But seriously, I do think that the problem is that women comedians are just that: *women* comedians, not simply comedians who happen to be women. It's a bit like *gay* comedians, or *black* comedians, or anyone else who is a *something* comedian.


*Shit* comedians?

Wonderboy wrote:i)why are there no funny women?


Come now! That's not true! We've got Shappi Khorsandi. We've got Jo Brand. We've got.... Harriet Harman (she's got the Conservatives are laughing all the way to the bank).
Now some people weren't happy about the content of that last post. And we can't have someone not happy. Not on the internet.
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Re: Who is the best current stand-up?

Postby the Empress on Mon Aug 10, 2009 6:53 pm

In what possible way is Michael McIntyre anything like Boris Johnson? In fact, the only context they both fit in is Have I Got News for You, and they were both very different. Johnson - funny due to his dazed and confused performance as host, and McIntyre on his game, delivering a sharp impression of Jeremy Clarkson.
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Re: Who is the best current stand-up?

Postby jollytiddlywink on Mon Aug 10, 2009 9:52 pm

the Empress wrote:In what possible way is Michael McIntyre anything like Boris Johnson? In fact, the only context they both fit in is Have I Got News for You, and they were both very different. Johnson - funny due to his dazed and confused performance as host, and McIntyre on his game, delivering a sharp impression of Jeremy Clarkson.


Very true. You're only a comedian if you are consciously making jokes to amuse people, like MM does. If you're not consciously aiming to make people laugh, and they still do, you're not a comedian. You're not telling jokes--you are the joke. Boris Johnson is the joke, in much the same way as George Bush was the joke (thank god that I can put that last clause in past tense!).
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Re: Who is the best current stand-up?

Postby wild_quinine on Wed Aug 12, 2009 9:13 pm

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