Comedians are supposed to be funny, I think the clue is in the name. Comic, comedy, comedian. A comedy is something that is humorous, a comedian is somebody who is humorous and makes people laugh. People like Lee Mack and Peter Kay today are fine examples of people who make other people laugh. They are comedians.
Then you get other people such as Simon Amstell and Marcus Brigstocke. Both smarty arsed people who are tediously smug, self-satisfied and mind numbingly not funny. But for some bizarre reason they are called 'comedians'. In the clip below Simon Amstell sat cross legged on the sofa, obviously assuming it made him look avant garde and cutting edge. I thought it just made him look like a curly haired anorexic Buddha in dodgy glasses.
I'm not in the least bit socialist, and am certainly no class warrior, at least I don't think I am. But whenever I see Amstell or Brigstocke I imagine them cutting their 'comedy teeth' in a minor public school where their peers found cruelty to fags highly amusing, and those two must have been extremely cruel to fags. The problem is they have arrested devlopment and still have that mentality, hence the clip below. The particularly tasteless line comes near the end. If you don't know, the guest they are about to introduce is the singer Russell Watson, who has had two years of treatment for a brain tumour.
I saw this clip which was on live TV yesterday morning. What isn't shown sadly, is Watson's response when the interviewer asked him about Amstel's remark. He replied along the lines of: "Well I just passed him as I came on, but he's too small to punch". A rather sharper put down than anything Amstel could muster I suspect.
Admittedly comedy is a matter of personal taste, and there are obviously people who find Amstel, and even Brigstocke faintly amusing, otherwise they wouldn't sell their DVDs or tickets to their shows. To those people I say stop wasting your time. Watch the following interview, with a really funny fella, and find out what a real comedian does. And he doesn't sit cross legged either!
4 comments:
Yeah, Mr "I don't think Simon Amstell is funny", apparently you have no taste at all. Amstell is funny, he's witty and he plays on his insecurities to create a truly relatable and humorous show. He's funny because every single one of his jokes are true, they're based on his life. Comedy isn't just making up funny stuff, it's about the truth, so stop tearing down the true comedians and learn to appreciate them instead.
It's actually very simple, comedy is meant to be funny, it makes you laugh. If I'd wanted to listen to pricks working through their mental illness I'd have become a psychiatrist.
Get a life.
Simon Amstell is one of the best comedians around precisely because he doesnt go for cheap laughs - hes DIFFERENT. If you think for one second that he is smug, it just shows how little you understand about what hes going for.
You're right. Amstell isn't funny. I'm trying to work out who finds him appealing. He's talentless and humourless, like Russell Brand, but Brand's fame is more understandable. He baffles his illiterate audience with long words meant for books not conversation, but he uses them in such a faltering unsure way as to suggest he's really just 'one of them' who happens to read a thesaurus on the bog. Who likes Amstell though?
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