his stand-up is generally pretty unfunny - I was into it pretty big at the age of 19, but I went back and listened to some of it, and yikes. the jokes aren't necessarily terrible but he can't help but come off like a total prick. nowadays it sounds like he's trying to do a Louis CK type set but doesn't have the personality.
he's good in other people's stuff though.
― frogbs, Wednesday, 18 October 2017 21:00 (six years ago) link
he's great in Mr. Show. His standup is hard to take.
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 18 October 2017 21:00 (six years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3KX8g00kCQ
― scott seward, Wednesday, 18 October 2017 23:24 (six years ago) link
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-soft-racism-of-apu-from-the-simpsons/amp
― mookieproof, Thursday, 16 November 2017 21:25 (six years ago) link
The Current South-Asian American Comedy Renaissance (Kumail Nanjiani, Aziz Ansari, Hasan Minhaj, Hari Kondabolu, Aperna Nancherl etc.)
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 16 November 2017 21:30 (six years ago) link
Was searching for a GIF of rice in Facebook's Messenger app, because I wanted to send a message to somebody about eating rice, but the first image result was
https://i.imgur.com/26NnBGp.jpg
― how's life, Friday, 5 January 2018 13:14 (six years ago) link
Is that filthy Frank?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 5 January 2018 13:20 (six years ago) link
apparently. whoever that is.
― how's life, Friday, 5 January 2018 13:22 (six years ago) link
Oh, apparently he is part-Japanese.
― how's life, Friday, 5 January 2018 13:25 (six years ago) link
I don't feel that fact makes it any better, in terms of content that Facebook is actively pushing out.
― how's life, Friday, 5 January 2018 13:26 (six years ago) link
Good thread:
The Simpsons, 1989 - 2018 #RIP 😢 https://t.co/FLTsUwFBsQ— Wakanda Kamau Bell (@wkamaubell) April 9, 2018
― ... (Eazy), Monday, 9 April 2018 15:45 (six years ago) link
That sucks so much ass
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Monday, 9 April 2018 15:54 (six years ago) link
Like, especially since the last 10-or-so years of Simpsons has just been "invite every comedian on for a guest spot," imagine what a fully engaged Simpsons writing team could do in collabo with Hari Kondabolu exploring and having fun with the issue instead of being petulant brats.
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Monday, 9 April 2018 15:58 (six years ago) link
a fully engaged Simpsons writing team
well there's your first stumbling block, there's hasn't been one of those for decades
― star wars ep viii: the bay of porgs (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 9 April 2018 15:59 (six years ago) link
i remember when i used the say how the Simpsons was great but "the last few" seasons haven't been up to par, and i realize it's probably been about twenty years since it's been near the peak (and even then it was on the descent a bit.)
― omar little, Monday, 9 April 2018 16:00 (six years ago) link
It really does blow my mind that the Simpsons has basically been on autopilot for nearly 20 years. You have one of the most successful brands in television history and you just squander it year after year. Like there would be any real consequence in just, like, doing a good job
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Monday, 9 April 2018 16:03 (six years ago) link
Wow @ that clip, how is this show still going?
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Monday, 9 April 2018 16:03 (six years ago) link
one of the few new Simpsons episodes I've seen in the last decade actually addressed this issue head-on. before even the documentary came out. it was about Apu's cousin or something. mostly jabs at millennials (ugh) but there was one poignant bit
― frogbs, Monday, 9 April 2018 16:08 (six years ago) link
it's a pretty obvious sentiment but comedy is extremely difficult, and i think even more difficult is trying to maintain a consistent comedic tone w/different creative types being brought in. the peak era staff wasn't just funny but also extremely smart about their humor and knew how to effectively deploy it, you watch old episodes and they're very understated and not wall-to-wall jokes, and they deeply understand the characters. seems like the staff at present tried and failed to get into the writer's room at AFV but sneaked into the Simpsons somehow.
and i think the animation style over the past however many years hasn't done the show any favors, it's a bit uncanny valley so i can't quite explain it but there's not nearly as much personality or humor in the way the characters appear, it's too polished or something.
― omar little, Monday, 9 April 2018 16:13 (six years ago) link
in addition to the poor writing the show's standoffish tone is really irritating these days. I remember one that had a card in the end that said, "okay, you can all now log on to your computers and complain about this episode now", which would have sounded dated in 1999, much less 2006 or whenever it actually aired
― frogbs, Monday, 9 April 2018 16:16 (six years ago) link
Yeah, one of the odder but sorta unsurprising thing is that the writing staff were online pre-web and paying attention to Usenet very early on
― Glower, Disruption & Pies (kingfish), Monday, 9 April 2018 16:39 (six years ago) link
pretending Apu was ever acceptable is bullshit isn't it? I mean here they are getting called out on it 11 years ago https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/jul/16/theaputragedy
― thomasintrouble, Monday, 9 April 2018 18:57 (six years ago) link
― star wars ep viii: the bay of porgs (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 9 April 2018 20:38 (six years ago) link
sigh, that clip...
― Nhex, Monday, 9 April 2018 21:14 (six years ago) link
tbh what's on tv now isn't really the simpsons. this is a disappointing response but modern-day simpsons was never going to be capable of the smart + nuanced response this deserved.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Monday, 9 April 2018 21:28 (six years ago) link
we're all praying for an end to the depression at this point
― Number None, Monday, 9 April 2018 21:29 (six years ago) link
that response is some bullshit you'd see in a libertarian meme cartoon
― omar little, Monday, 9 April 2018 21:29 (six years ago) link
This is similar to recent Seinfeld bullshit in that the sheer witlessness is more shocking than the defiant commitment to bigotry if you stopped paying attention a long time ago. Like, ppl becoming more shitty when their shittiness is pointed out is not uncommon, and obv everyone knows they've lost it but how do you lose it this much?
― scotti pruitti (wins), Monday, 9 April 2018 21:34 (six years ago) link
what recent Seinfeld bullshit? as much as I love the show he's always had a huge blind spot when it comes to race
― Nhex, Monday, 9 April 2018 21:37 (six years ago) link
my original answer ITT was way wrong and I'm sorry for it
― fuck the NRA (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 00:25 (six years ago) link
Simpsons used to be subversive (like 25 years ago) and most of the targets were the super rich, the media, idiot cops, etc. and now this, it feels like punching down in such a mean spirited cynical way, fuck this show & that smartass response
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:18 (six years ago) link
Let’s not invent some “always punching up” narrative about the show that gave us Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:23 (six years ago) link
And said they wanted to blast Al Sharpton and Spike Lee into space
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:24 (six years ago) link
yea I think the Simpsons has always been fairly right-wing as a whole
― frogbs, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:25 (six years ago) link
television has always been fairly right-wing as a whole tbf
― star wars ep viii: the bay of porgs (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:31 (six years ago) link
pretty sure guys in the 40s and 50s used to punch up tho
― vermicious kid (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:43 (six years ago) link
Twelve Tolerant Men
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:46 (six years ago) link
i was thinking of those gangster movie uppercuts
― vermicious kid (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:46 (six years ago) link
TV movie of 12 Angry Men where the racist guy is a 5 percenter still one of the most hilarious movies ever
― vermicious kid (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:47 (six years ago) link
feel free to invent the "someone said always punching up even though they just said 'mostly'" narrative
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:51 (six years ago) link
also wow they made fun of a white trash person totally the same as making fun of Indian American immigrants
http://12-geschworenen-die-hume-cronyn-mykelti-williamson-4-rcm0x1920u.jpg
― vermicious kid (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:52 (six years ago) link
L-R: this thread, Adam B
"white trash person"
― vermicious kid (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:53 (six years ago) link
I don't think it's fair to categorize the show as "fairly right-wing" or as liberal so much as always shooting at targets of opportunity. The three-eyed-fish episode where Mr. Burns ran for office took a dim-view of right-wing faux-populism, but there's also
https://frinkiac.com/meme/S03E21/1277580.jpg?b64lines=SSdMTCBCRSBCQUNLLiBZT1UgQ0FOJ1QgS0VFUAogVEhFIERFTU9DUkFUUyBPVVQgT0YgVEhFCiBXSElURSBIT1VTRSBGT1JFVkVS
― Millennial Whoop, wanna fight about it? (Phil D.), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:54 (six years ago) link
hahahahahaha
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:55 (six years ago) link
xp-to-adam no one's making that false equivalence
they definitely had the very light version of the toxic "everyone's a target" crap animation shows jumped wholeheartedly into in the late 90s, but it was a little less obvious because the core of the writing was really that 90s middlebrow white dude view that we've mostly solved racism, sexism, and inequality and anyone still affected by those is probably just not working past it
― alvin noto (mh), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:55 (six years ago) link
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-djhW_W-QwQ4/VXKKXd9CX3I/AAAAAAAADSc/YdtVltmjH7M/s1600/belief-as-truth-1.jpg
― vermicious kid (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:55 (six years ago) link
totally thought this thread bump was about the molly ringwald piece. are we talking about that somewhere else?
― 龜, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:56 (six years ago) link
NV, you're gonna give me nightmares
― alvin noto (mh), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:56 (six years ago) link