I like George Carlin His bit on Language is very eye opening for me How we went from soldiers being SHELL SHOCK to having Battle Fatique to whatever they call it today of course the Famous "If Crime Fighters fight Crime Fire Fight fire What do Freedom fighters Fight?" [this was in the 80s i think when we talked about the South American Freedom Fighters] I think Lewis Black has several bits that are good [Dunno if he is more Rants as much as political] Rocket River . . . I am looking to expand my political comic/satirist list
Oh an while not really "political" per se, Chris Rock has some great bits that fit into the whole moral spectrum.
Chris Rock's Marion Barry bit in Bring the Pain has me rolling every time I watch it.... "Don't vote for crack, vote for smack!"
Cause it'd be realistic for him to remember every line of every show when they do a unique one 4 days a week/48 days a year. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are hilarious, teleprompter or no.
The teleprompter is a prop of the show, and for the format as much as anything else. It isn't a poor reflection on Stewart that his show's format is one where a teleprompter is a prop. In fact he is a better comic actor/comedian because of it. How good would a news show spoof without a teleprompter?
Well, when I think of "comic", somebody reading stuff off a teleprompter that was written for that person really doesn't come to mind. Don't get me wrong, Stewart and Colbert both do a great job on their shows, but calling them comics or comedians just doesn't seem correct. I guess I'm just mixing words. "political satirist" maybe??
You're really splitting hairs. It's not like comics don't write their material ahead of time and rehearse on delivering it. Just like Stewart and Colbert do on their shows. Only difference is, a comedian performing does the same show a hundred times in a row, whereas a show host has new material every night.. Stewart started in stand-up.. and I'm sure Colbert did too. Can't leave them out of the discussion, just can't.
Wow. No Lenny Bruce mentions? A lot of people say to me, "Why did you kill Christ?" "I dunno... it was one of those parties, got out of hand, you know." "We killed him because he didn't want to become a doctor, that's why we killed him." Lenny Bruce All my humor is based upon destruction and despair. If the whole world were tranquil, without disease and violence, I'd be standing on the breadline right in back of J. Edgar Hoover. Lenny Bruce Communism is like one big phone company. Lenny Bruce Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God. Lenny Bruce I hate small towns because once you've seen the cannon in the park there's nothing else to do. Lenny Bruce I won't say ours was a tough school, but we had our own coroner. We used to write essays like: What I'm going to be if I grow up. If Jesus had been killed twenty years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses. In the Halls of Justice the only justice is in the halls. Miami Beach is where neon goes to die. Satire is tragedy plus time. You give it enough time, the public, the reviewers will allow you to satirize it. Which is rather ridiculous, when you think about it. The "what should be" never did exist, but people keep trying to live up to it. There is no "what should be," there is only what is. The liberals can understand everything but people who don't understand them. The only honest art form is laughter, comedy. You can't fake it... try to fake three laughs in an hour - ha ha ha ha ha - they'll take you away, man. You can't. The role of a comedian is to make the audience laugh, at a minimum of once every fifteen seconds. There are never enough I Love You's. Today's comedian has a cross to bear that he built himself. A comedian of the older generation did an "act" and he told the audience, "This is my act." Today's comic is not doing an act. The audience assumes he's telling the truth. What is truth today may be a damn lie next week. When you're eight years old nothing is your business.
It's sorta funny that a mention of Stewart/Colbert has suddenly turned this into the beginnings of a D&D thread. Actually...that's not funny at all.
Stephen Colbert started at Second City, I think. Then he formed Exit 57 with Paul Dinello and Amy Sedaris, which I guess turned into Strangers with Candy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNEkJbU7gyA
