Richard Pryor on the mafia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnNT9fsuFEQ

Mike finding old Pryor stuff reminds my of what Robin Williams said the other night on Leno. He is doing stand up again an trying material out in small clubs unannounced before his big show in LV. A significant portion of the audience either doesn't know who he is or says... You are that guy in that movie, right...

The 70s-80s were the golden age of comedy. Today we have Dat Fan (Phan?) one liners about his ethnicity winning him last comic standing. :rolleyes:

Well complaining about Last Comic Standing representing the state of current standup comedy is like complaining that Pop Music sucks due to American Idol.... wait, you might be on to something... :p

But, regardless, there is still a lot of good standup out there today. I just watched a live performance of the Comedians of Comedy at the Troubadour in LA, and it was outstanding. Unfortunately, you lose a lot when you try to pack so many comedians into a 2 hour special, whereas the greats from the 70s and 80s could fill a 2 hour special all by themselves, but at least it shows that there is still good standup out there.

There are decent modern comics, but I'm not sure even the Dane Cooks of today hold a candle to the classics, but I am old and thus biased. :P

Oh Dane Cook.

I didn't realize we were talking about unoriginal comics here. I was mainly talking about ones that write their own material and are ... actually funny. :p

If your example of the 70's and 80's being standup's "golden age" is Robin Williams... well, then you're right. The 70's and 80's were the golden age of standup for people with no sense of humor.

Face it, Robin Williams is funny the same way watching crackheads fight over a cheeseburger is funny, or the way watching a schizo argue with themselves is funny. Richard Pryor was pretty decent, but he's not all that removed from whoever that guy doing ethnic one-liners is that you mentioned. George Carlin was also decent, but not any funnier than say Jerry Seinfeld plus swearing.

And don't forget... Gallagher. Fucking Gallagher defined standup in that era. Gallagher makes Larry the Cable Guy look like a comedy god.

My point: the 70's and 80's weren't any better than today. Today is just different. Back then, you *had* to sell out big shows to make money... and you could because there wasn't the competition, there weren't so many acts. But today, we've got Comedy Central, and every other comedian gets a shot at their own show. I bet most of today's decent comedians could have been just as huge in the 70's and 80's if they went back in time. Hell, several are: Chris Rock, Lewis Black, Dave Chappelle just to name a few off the top of my head. They're as big in standup as Richard Pryor and Robin Williams were, *and* they did it in the modern climate of comedians being a dime a dozen.

Dane Cook's original 30 minutes on Comedy Central Presents is still one of the funniest routines I've ever seen.

I dunno what happened... it's like he got all Carlos Mencia.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=N8ZeGPXxd24

Hope this isn't a repost, but I thought it was pretty cool! Air Jelly.

Dime a dozen today? I would bet the number of Comedy clubs in the 80s was astronomical compared to today. There was an Improv on every corner and any bar with a microphone was a "comedy club".

I think you are right that there are more media opportunities today, but that doesn't mean more comedians or places to perform.

There are big stars in both eras and we are not going to agree on who is better than who so I won't try.

Given the larger media opportunities, where are the enduring acts of today? Do you honestly believe we will be talking about any of your list 20-30 years from now, much less have them making movies and appearing on the then equivalent of Leno/Letterman???

Oh, I hate to tell you, but Seinfeld is an 80s comedian who has endured and thrived in more modern times as are Williams and Murphy whether you like them or not.

There are a few good comics out there today. But hey what do I know, I didnt experience the 70's or 80's lol..

Brain Regan is hilarious...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=A194vDpXzyA

http://youtube.com/watch?v=89frRi8GgGA

I'm with Dean on this one. Nobody out there currently is that great IMO. There's some funny stuff, but no one who cracks me, regularly, up.

SACRILIGE!!!!! If you haven't heard more than what was popular in his work, you're missing out man! The thing about Richard was that the shit he told was the truth, about his own life. Things that would likely emotionally cripple the average person, he made light of, and was able to make other people laugh about it as well. He was on the leading edge of the people you see nowadays, who make jest at life's daily interactions, (Seinfeld) and have ludicrously foul mouths, (everybody else). Even he himself grew out of the "how obscene can I be" mindset in his later stuff, and continued KILLING. I've never laughed so hard I thought I was literally gonna piss myself, except listening to Pryor.

No doubt, Pryor was good. But he's not all that removed from the stuff you see today. My point has been that today's comedians aren't less funny... it's just that the scene has changed. "The golden days" that Dean's referring to had nothing to do with people being funnier back then, it had to do with less exposure, so the people that "made it" made it a whole lot bigger because the market wasn't so saturated then as it is now.

I think you can see the difference between the Pryor and Regan pieces, not that either is perfectly typical of either age. The Regan piece is probably one of the longer bits at over 3.5 minutes and has an incredibly small focus. The Pryor bit is is almost 8 minutes and is all over the place.

I'm not sure how much truth there is in each story, but one is an engaging story and the other is just an amusing anecdote.

And Cory agrees with me so Back Off MFer! :)

You've surely got a point as far as exposure and popularity goes, I just had to defend the funniest comedian EVAR (in my opinion...) !!!!! :D

Now that I think about it... my real point was that Robin Williams isn't funny. I'll take any of his serious performances over any of his comedic performances any day of the week.

Also. Dean is old.

Wow, this thread turned into a who is who of comedians discussion.

Bill O'Reilly flipping out - Dance Remix (NSFW language):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j2YDq6FkVE

Cut from this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tJjNVVwRCY

When I think about the comedy routines that seem to have lasting power (and are not too ragged) I think of Bill Cosby. Dentists and the one about the kid eating the cake come to mind immediately.

Careful Debbie, showing your age. ;) I was afraid to invoke Cosby for fear of further rebuke by the youngins related to Jello and Pudding cups.

I like Cosby too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VVL2...eature=related

movie trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI8UdlAw8VA

This would be funny if it wasn't so close to reality!

Zack Galifianakis is one of my favorite comedians.

He is pretty awesome.

It's mostly droning(as the cute little youtube comments say) electronica but damn it's pretty good. kinda, GYBE meets Sigur Ros with less lyrics.

Fuck Buttons


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMRhTMLHBLU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ph8z...eature=related