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Lewis Black


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Stillborn

Stillborn

Skilled Investigator
Thought I already had a Lewis Black thread, but nothing came up on a search. Anyway, hope know one minds me sharing some Lewis Black vids as I go through a little Lewis Black Youtube marathon on this Saturday.

"Meltdown" vid. New to me.

 
Lewis is always pure gold... zero tolerance for stupidity, cuts through bullshit like a laser beam through room-temperature butter.
 

I watched the first three clips and the third one raised a smile - the one about bottled water. He forgot to mention the sell-by date BTW. Life is too short to watch the rest in the hope of raising another - one smile in three clips is not a good ratio.

I used to think that there was no such thing as a funny US comedian until I discovered George Carlin.

Then George died. I don't think my laughing caused it - he was just old.

What is it about America that breeds so few humorous people? You have George Carlin, Groucho Marx, Laurel and Hardy (well Hardy anyway) but nobody else that I've ever heard of.

The US has about five times the UK population but where are the Spike Milligan's, the Roy Hudd's, the Ronnie Barker's, the Billy Connolly's, the Jasper Carrott's, the Peter Sellers, the Benny Hills or the Kenny Everett's?

All of the above are very very funny people and I'm sure you can find examples of their work on 'Daily Motion' or other video sites - that is how I found George Carlin.

There is a good chance though that the US has missed out and never heard of some of these names. Just like I in the UK have not heard of the US funny men (or women - I forgot to mention Victoria Wood and the Danish Sandy Toksvig ).

So, how about posting a list of funny US comics, if I've missed George Carlin for the last 137 years then I've probably missed others?

Also, George Bush doesn't count.

Well not more than ten anyway,

or maybe twenty with his shoes off

or twenty one if he takes his trousers off too.

Lemmy
 
Humour is cultural, being an ex-pat Brit I can laugh on both sides of the pond (Goons forever!). Lewis Black is hysterical if you're mired in American "culture".
 
Humor is very important to me. I had a whole show on it which is at my Radio Misterioso page.

A few of my favorites:

Bill Hicks
George Carlin
Lenny Bruce
Monty Python
Peter Cook
Michael O'Donoghue
Patton Oswalt
Joe Rogan
National Lampoon magazine until about 1976 or so.
Marx Brothers
Buster Keaton
Jean Shepherd
Woody Allen


I think a cultural background makes for differences in taste. Benny Hill always struck me as someone with about 20 jokes that were repeated over and over, and a couple of the British names Lemmy mentioned are not familiar to me. I did hear a couple of them interviewed in a documentary about Peter Cook.
 
CapnG said:
Humour is cultural, being an ex-pat Brit I can laugh on both sides of the pond (Goons forever!). Lewis Black is hysterical if you're mired in American "culture".
Click to expand...
Sorry to be so long responding but it's difficult finding replies to my posts. Don't know what I'm doing wrong.

As for the goons being funny; I find a few episodes still have a laugh in them - the best IMO is 'Lurgi strikes Britain' which is still hillarious.

Unfortunately the humor was based on silliness which has been overused and is no longer funny. It was then but not now. But there are always exceptions that will remain funny forever. For example the yingtong song and this:


Much better IMO is the navy lark and Sykes but OTOH they may not have been funny when we were listening to the goons! I have no way of knowing.

Are you old enough to remember 'Take it from here'? I am (because I'm 137 years old). Most of the show is not funny but the Glums still are.

Lemmy
 
Lemmy said:
Are you old enough to remember 'Take it from here'? I am (because I'm 137 years old). Most of the show is not funny but the Glums still are.
Click to expand...

I'm 33, my knowledge of the Goons is passed down. Basically I watched Benny Hill as a lad, evolved into Python as I became a teen and then my Uncle introduced me to Neddie and co. so from my perspective you're dead wrong, the silliness of the Goons is immortal as far as I'm concerend.

It's sad to think they're all dead now...:(
 
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