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News & ArtsFriday, August 21, 2009
TV That's NOT Funny!
Posted by Dan Savage on Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 4:29 PM
Billboards for the new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm went up in LA today. They reminded me of the Stranger cover image, on the right, that we ran the week George W. Bush was sworn in. We were told then—loudly and longly—that joking about suicide is not okay. Someone needs to let Larry David know.
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This is the second time you've posted something today for the sole purpose of sticking it to your detractors.
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People that only take issue when you incorporate a concept that specifically effected their lives for comedic effect are the worst kind of people. Worse than that sentence I just wrote.
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I have yet to laugh at anything on Curb Your Enthusiasm which, I admit, makes me feel like some sort of mutant because so many people dig it. I think it helps to be Jewish, and it definitely helps to be straight.
But generally, CYE makes me feel like the psychiatrist pictured.
But generally, CYE makes me feel like the psychiatrist pictured.
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...and I remember that cover. It was the beginning of eight long years in which I aged about twenty.
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The ability to find things funny relies on the ability to see multiple points of view. Dogmatic people tend to only have one point of view, and as such, are quite boring.
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@8: I can't say that being Jewish or straight is a key to finding CYE to be funny. Cause it doesn't
Maybe some people just have a "Larry David is Funny" gene - and folks like you and I don't have it, thus we are immune to his "humor".
Maybe some people just have a "Larry David is Funny" gene - and folks like you and I don't have it, thus we are immune to his "humor".
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Airplane (1980).
Ted Striker repeats his tail of woe about Macho Grande.
Passengers seen hanging from ceiling of fuselage.
Ted Striker repeats his tail of woe about Macho Grande.
Passengers seen hanging from ceiling of fuselage.
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That ad fits Curb to a T. I look forward to Michael Richards meeting the Blacks this year. (Boy, that makes no sense if you didn't see last season.)
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I agree, suicide is NOT funny.
The billboard and Stranger cover are Airplane (1980) funny.
A marquee saying "Better Than The Holocaust" is, for the lack of a better word, funny.
The billboard and Stranger cover are Airplane (1980) funny.
A marquee saying "Better Than The Holocaust" is, for the lack of a better word, funny.
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@8 and @20, I'm really sorry to break it to you guys.. but your brains are totally fucked. It totally sucks, but that's just the way it is.
I don't watch TV ever (have actually never had a TV with functioning antenna or cable in my own home anywhere I've lived since high school), but I watched Curb Your Enthusiasm all the way through on library DVDs.
Did you just watch a few of the Season 1 episodes and give up? In that case, it would be understandable, because at the beginning the improv is a little rough around the edges (to say the least). I almost didn't stick with it. Get a couple seasons in, though, and it reaches heights of brilliance that are simply, and absolutely, unheard of for fucking American television. Whatever your favorite U.S. TV show is, this soars above it and spits down on that pathetic little show. [strikethrough] Just kidding! :) [/strikethrough]
I don't watch TV ever (have actually never had a TV with functioning antenna or cable in my own home anywhere I've lived since high school), but I watched Curb Your Enthusiasm all the way through on library DVDs.
Did you just watch a few of the Season 1 episodes and give up? In that case, it would be understandable, because at the beginning the improv is a little rough around the edges (to say the least). I almost didn't stick with it. Get a couple seasons in, though, and it reaches heights of brilliance that are simply, and absolutely, unheard of for fucking American television. Whatever your favorite U.S. TV show is, this soars above it and spits down on that pathetic little show. [strikethrough] Just kidding! :) [/strikethrough]
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Jw36 is right. If you don't think it's funny, you don't understand the world. It's not THE funniest show that's ever been on American TV (that's The Larry Sanders Show) but it's awfully close.
Or maybe you just don't like pain. Pain is funny. It's the only thing that's funny.
Or maybe you just don't like pain. Pain is funny. It's the only thing that's funny.
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Fnarf, I've never seen the Larry Sanders Show, but I'll try it out. I probably shouldn't be making big claims about the best show on American TV, considering how little of it I've seen in the last 10 years...
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I sat through a couple episodes of CYE because a friend had a set of DVD's (don't know which season, sorry, but this was about 3 years ago). Found it embarrassing, with rare glimmers of funniness.
Never found "Seinfeld" funny either.
Tried to watch an episode of the British "The Office" and never once even felt like smiling.
And yet -- found that CYE poster (maybe 'cause I identified with the shrink), the Stranger cover, the messed-up light rail ad, and "The Happening" all funny.
Never found "Seinfeld" funny either.
Tried to watch an episode of the British "The Office" and never once even felt like smiling.
And yet -- found that CYE poster (maybe 'cause I identified with the shrink), the Stranger cover, the messed-up light rail ad, and "The Happening" all funny.
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I don't know what to think about the covers/billboards, but CYE is so hilarious! OMG I laugh out loud throughout the whole show!!! But, I also love Seinfeld. I'm not Jewish btw. Or male. Just thinking about the show makes me laugh actually! But, I am a big nerd.
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The smallest things will make a difference in whether or not you get away with what is, ostensibly, the same joke.
The fact that the suicide in The Stranger cover shows more of the body, shows it in a more central location, and has the guy dressed in less impersonal clothes, is going to make it actually hit home in a more significant and disturbing way.
We're also dealing with a very different setting for this joke: The "is it me?" joke with a psychiatric patient causing his doc to kill himself to avoid the rest of the session is funny because it's absurd; it will never happen. A joke about someone killing themselves because of the Bush administration and the very big, very real, and very lasting effects on our world? Like 16 says, not so funny because it actually would happen.
People who just say "suicide isn't funny!" may not really understand why the joke is bothering them, but that doesn't mean they don't have a significant complaint. I'm not offended by the Stranger cover, but I cant say as I can see it as a funny joke, either. To me, it looks more like a stark reminder of reality.
The fact that the suicide in The Stranger cover shows more of the body, shows it in a more central location, and has the guy dressed in less impersonal clothes, is going to make it actually hit home in a more significant and disturbing way.
We're also dealing with a very different setting for this joke: The "is it me?" joke with a psychiatric patient causing his doc to kill himself to avoid the rest of the session is funny because it's absurd; it will never happen. A joke about someone killing themselves because of the Bush administration and the very big, very real, and very lasting effects on our world? Like 16 says, not so funny because it actually would happen.
People who just say "suicide isn't funny!" may not really understand why the joke is bothering them, but that doesn't mean they don't have a significant complaint. I'm not offended by the Stranger cover, but I cant say as I can see it as a funny joke, either. To me, it looks more like a stark reminder of reality.
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I'm a mean humor junkie. AbFab, Seinfeld, Curb, Peep Show, League of Gentlemen, etc. I'm a glutton for punishment. The meaner the better.
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I have to go with @8 and @20. I find Larry David's humor dry and not entertaining. Some of the Seinfeld eposides were fun (mostly from Michaels Richards physical humor), but the few episodes of CYE I watched left me scratching my head on wondering if Larry David also writes Dave Letterman jokes, because 80+% of those fall flat and are not funny either.
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People who are or who have been, suicidal themselves, tend to be the ones who laugh at this kind of mordant humor. Those who have seen the aftermath of friends' or family members' suicides tend to find it less amusing.
I find both amusing, although the day after the 2004 election, I would have burst into tears if I'd seen that Stranger cover. I wasn't ready to laugh about it for weeks. Luckily, the cover the Stranger ran right after the election was very different; the only Stranger cover I've ever kept.
I find both amusing, although the day after the 2004 election, I would have burst into tears if I'd seen that Stranger cover. I wasn't ready to laugh about it for weeks. Luckily, the cover the Stranger ran right after the election was very different; the only Stranger cover I've ever kept.
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