The TV Thread redux

Liked season 1, 2 not so much. Good to read that you liked 3, I will start on it next week.

This season is good in part because its mature enough now that the characters are well enough developed that they can build plot points (and punchlines) around the things we know about them.

2 Likes

Was a weird watch, imo.

He obviously had some things he felt he needed to say. Couldn’t help himself with the trans digs either.

Only watched the first episode of the series so far, and can already tell it’s going to be a banger

I’ve never seen a Chappelle stand-up show but I’m watching the new one now. I’m someone who thinks with the right set up and tone you can make anything funny, doesn’t really matter how tabboo the subject it can work. Jimmy Carr, Shane Gillis, Stewart Lee etc have shown this many times.

What I would say about Chappelle so for is that he spent the first 6 minutes telling a story about meeting Jim Carrey pretending to be Andy Kaufman as a big set up for the first punch line of the whole show and it was, of course, a trans joke. The problem was it wasn’t funny! Felt like he just wasted my time for 6 minutes.

Trying to be open minded but not overly impressed so far. Is this always what his stand up is like? I’m struggling to see why he is considered one of, if not the, greatest stand ups of all time. It seems like more ā€œAn Evening With Dave Chappelleā€ while he airs some grievances.

In the late 90s he was one of the best there was. Cutting, clever, brave. He got old and rich though and that isnt a great place for his sort of comedy.

2 Likes

What @Limiescouse said.

I loved the Chappelle show when I was younger, and I thought a lot of his first Netflix specials were great.

The last two I barely laughed. The airing of grievances description is spot on. All very symbolic for him, returning to the venue in his home city where he’d done his famous stand-up show. Just not very funny for anyone else.

1 Like

I gave up around 35 mins in - just boring.

Yeah i think he scaled back a bit from last few specials, a slightly lighter tone while still getting his trans jokes in. He just wasn’t that funny. I laughed a few times, but agree with above. Old, rich and need to be edgy not a great combination.

Absolutely love his early work. I was perfect age for Chappelle Show. So funny.

Jimmy Carr?

1 Like

Like many things, humour is subjective. I rarely find him funny, but plenty of people think he’s hilarious.

2 Likes

Yeah, I just don’t he’s someone who is regarded for putting the time and work into making sure his material is set in a context that makes its intention clear.

If anything I think he overly explains his context. Since the tax thing he has told the same jokes but he almost has an apologetic air to him like ā€œI know you like it when I tell offensive jokes but I don’t really want toā€.

I saw him in Liverpool a few months after that tax scandal thing and he wasn’t funny at all because he spent the whole time explaining why the joke he just told was offensive and why he shouldn’t be saying it.

We know dude, just tell the joke. Most people will understand its not a mantra for life.

1 Like
4 Likes

Acknowledging a joke is offensive and feigning a sense of disgust at it, before then delivering it anyway, isn’t the same as actually thinking about it and contextualising it.

I’ve seen Jimmy Carr a few times and always come away with the impression he is a great writer of jokes, but doesn’t give a shit about the impact of the joke. It’s all about getting the laugh and then getting the next laugh as quickly as possible.

People always focus on how the Nazi’s killed Jews. But we forget they also killed loads of gypsies as well - so they weren’t all bad…

That’s the joke that got him into trouble recently, and it’s easy to see why. It’s not one of his best jokes, and it’s pretty unpleasant. I don’t think anyone really thinks Jimmy Carr approves of killing gypsies, but that’s not the reason for the offence. It’s a lazy, generic bait and switch, which makes one of the most oppressed, voiceless, minorities (and I’d argue the last group of people that there is no real taboo about expressing racism towards) the clear butt of the joke, and delivered in such a way that it reinforces the notion that gypsies are lesser people and it OK to be cruel to them.

Jimmy Carr’s usual response to this sort of thing is to wrinkle his nose, shrug his shoulders, do that pretend wince/teeth sucking thing that acknowledges he has crossed a line, then laugh like a wounded hyena, and suggest it’s nothing really to do with him. It’s your fault for egging him on. Then, when the shit hits the fan, go on the defensive saying it’s just a joke and people need to lighten up.

If you want to do a joke like that, you have got to do the graft of creating a structure for it that makes clear what the intention is, and who the target of the joke is. Jimmy Carr, just doesn’t seem willing to do that hard work.

If you want to see this done properly YouTube Stewart Lee’s Imaginary Black Wife. The idea that Stewart Lee has an imaginary black wife who confirms to all the cliches and stereotypes of what white people think black people are like while lamenting that his real Irish Wife is a drunk, violent waste of space, is on the surface of it potentially massively racist and offensive. The reason why it works is because Stewart Lee has gone to great lengths to make it clear he is the butt of the joke. He is the idiot, acting out what he acknowledges to be a ā€˜patronising liberal delusion’.

Jimmy Carr is a humourless dick. He reminds me of that kid in school who would suck up to the teachers but then ridicule them behind their backs.
Everyone laughed, but it was smarmy and unpleasant.
See him, hit remote.

2 Likes

Season 1 was probably the first TV show I ever binged. Could not stop watching it.

1 Like

That wasn’t his full quote, though. He immediately made the point of why it is considered acceptable to wish for the genocide of one group rather than another.

Obviously, it was engineered that only the offensive part came out because when it comes to ā€œedgy comediansā€ bad publicity is excellent publicity.

It isn’t acceptable to wish genocide on anyone.

Is it really necessary to point this out?

1 Like

Well people laughed at Carr’s initial comment so, yes, you do need to point it out. I think that was his point.

1 Like