I wonder if there's gonna be another comedian that injects back some meanness with a weird gimmick somewhere down the line.
It seems standup is almost cyclical:
- society gets panicky and pant-twisted in a moral outrage mostly due to war, recession, etc. but blame comedy
- comedians either keep complaining about said outrage instead being funny (Chapelle et al.) OR
- they neuter their act (Bob Kelly) and become prop comics (Jim Norton) or just do boilerplate crowd work and observational comedy
- Comedy dies for a few years, comedy anything becomes horrific and unberable to even consume
- some disruptive degenerate guy somehow pulls it off, revives comedy completely for a few years
- comedians jump (back) on the bandwagon of shock and outrage comedy but most of them stink at it
- society comes to their senses, people rib each other more
- rinse and repeat
Lenny Bruce - George Carlin - Rodney Dangerfield - Richard Pryor - Sam Kinison - Andrew Dice Clay - Louis CK
I see a lineage there and I think we're right now in step 4, due for step 5 any time.
I should look up some of those zoomer comedians that are coming up.
I thought in the early 2000s surely standup comedy will die because of the internet, but then the post-Rogan/CK boom happened.
I also admit I thought Shane would be IT but then the did the faggy podcast thing everywhere and I quickly lost any hope for him.