I get it Nero, I really do. But in terms of the art form, guys like Lenny Bruce, Dick Gregory, Carlin and Hicks made it ok for stand up to distance itself from the simple 'set-up-punch' that was the common formula. "Funny" oddly enough is a different thing entirely. Mike Epps is the person who makes me laugh hardest, but Christopher Titus is my favorite comedian currently. I love them both for 2 entirely different reasons.
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Wow, thanks! Forgive my ignorance... but that was staged right? and basically neither got what they wanted.
bill hicks was funny b/c he was funny. my reverence for him has nothing to do w/ that. you just described dennis leary to a "T". how can you criticize bill hicks for the exact same style that leary has?
If by staged you mean pre-arranged and filmed, but I don't think it was otherwise manipulated, scripted, or engineered. I think that's about as authentic a scene as television gets. They both mean what they say, the awkwardness permeates their chemistry and Dane seems almost uncontrollably upset at times. I don't think either is that good of an actor.
billy squier is 100 times better than led zeppelin! <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/tKlu3A3BBgE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
FWIW, Louis CK did an interview with the Onion AV Club where he discussed each episode of the past season of his tv show. He's on record that he extended the invitation to Cook, but CK wrote the entire dialogue, trying to be fair to both sides' stated perspectives, and refused Cook's attempts to rewrite, make his part lighter/funnier. At one point, CK claimed he gave Cook the ultimatum to take his script or leave it, and Cook took it. (The only thing CK allowed Cook to get his way on, was that originally Cook was supposed to be playing Caroline's Comedy Club in NYC, but Cook wanted to play Madison Freakin' Square Garden instead. "I don't play clubs. I play stadiums." Someone else on CK's staff had to convince CK that MSG was funnier, which, given that Louis had to walk three hundred yards backstage to Cook's inner sanctum, it totally is.)
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So I guess both sides does have a point? Like maybe they just so happen to think up of the same jokes (out of thousands) at almost the same time. Personally I like Louis' delivery much better. A bit less tense and much more laid back. But I do understand how some people can like Cook.
Thanks for the info. That's really interesting, and I gotta give Dane Cook mad props for stepping up, and clearly he is a much better actor than I would like to give him credit for.
Making fun of others is a form of anger. And of course that anger can have bad results. But....... <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/eTX5dTCCOj4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Screw that. Some people say the same thing in a funnier way. People will always copy others by mistake, and you'll never be able to tell if it's a mistake or intentional. For those who really care about it, let them do the research and figure out for themselves who's a thief and who's not.
I'd venture to guess you've never written anything, then, that is your own. That you're truly proud of. Or, in a similar vein, I'd venture to guess that you've never heard one of your jokes told back to you, days later, passed off by someone else as their own creation. "Relationships are tough," is a common theme. Ripping off, verbatim, the exact cadences of another cannot be so easily forgiven. I can't just cut out the last twenty minutes of Casablanca, and slap it on the end of my movie, because I liked it in the original. I can't steal twenty chapters out of The Stand because I know Stephen King sold a lot of books with it, so why don't I? A joke thief in comedy is still a plagiarist. There is nothing worse than being unoriginal.
A little off track.. but wouldn't this apply to those rappers who steal music from the 80's, 90's and even some recent songs and conveniently "remix" them by adding beats and lyrics? I think that's lazy, despite them getting permission or not.
