His take on molestation was VERY edgy. I applaud his courage. He was a weeny on race. I know he's a liberal but he skewers PC as much as any comedian out there. Comedians are our Freedom Fighters in fighting for the First Amendment. There is NO right to not be offended. He offended some people, and I understand that completely. So, those people need to blast Louis, w/ words. When I watched his bit live, I knew he was going to get some shit. I watched the first sketch and then turned it off. SNL has the weakest cast ever.
The question is: does edgy translate to funny? Sometimes. But not always, not child molestation edgy. That demands that we turn off every normal response in us in order to participate in stick it to the squares.
After the Mad Men series finale and a brief pause, the 70's will be ripe for a revival. I think Hillary getting the nomination will trigger lots of Nixon/Watergate memories.
I watched all the episodes of his TV show on Netflix recently. I really enjoyed them. He has a strange quirky, slightly unbalanced persona and delivery that often feels very uncomfortable, but almost always delivers the funny and the resolution in the end. I really like most of his stuff, but it is unfortunate that he has some of that pussified unexamined liberal mythology stuff watering down his perspicacity. He can be very insightful and original, and then drop into ideas like Palestinian and Israeli equivalence, or that fear of a specific demographic is racist even if the fact of their threat is overwhelmingly verified in statistics and everyday life to the point of everyone acting on it regardless of race.
It's just unexamined stuff that you expect a smart guy like him to be up to speed on, and you have to wonder if he really believes it, or is it just self preservation to pretend he does. For someone playing his character, that's a disappointing prospect that sneaks into my head and kind of steals away some of his appeal and intelligence.
I imagine that if he didn't do that, he would probably be too edgy and lose a lot of liberal fans. We all have our litmus tests.
As for how edgy it was, it's pretty typical of his stuff, and come on, everybody understands exactly what he's saying and we have all thought about that ourselves. It's just that nobody ever says it, which is a basic ingredient of his humor and many other comedians. We aren't offended by our own thoughts on it, and we really aren't offended by him saying it like this, but we have to pretend, less someone think we are soft on molestation. I don't know how our culture could be any less forgiving of it, so do we really have to assure each other that we are not a molester? Well, if you're a man, yes, you have to almost carry a sign around proclaiming your hatred of it, or you might be suspicious.
The joke was how close can I come to inflamed nerves and still have a career. He stayed comfortably on the liberal side of the fence. It was the appearance of edgy without any real risk......Do you think any comedian will make a joke about the parenting skills of the Michael Brown family in your lifetime?
This is tame stuff. The child molestation stuff is there so he can still claim edginess. The rest of it? Meh. Social justice warriors bravely fight battles that have already been won and social justice comedians bravely tell jokes about issues bygone. An edgy comedian would attack the ruling class but that's clearly never going to happen on GM TV.
9 comments:
His take on molestation was VERY edgy. I applaud his courage. He was a weeny on race. I know he's a liberal but he skewers PC as much as any comedian out there. Comedians are our Freedom Fighters in fighting for the First Amendment. There is NO right to not be offended. He offended some people, and I understand that completely. So, those people need to blast Louis, w/ words. When I watched his bit live, I knew he was going to get some shit. I watched the first sketch and then turned it off. SNL has the weakest cast ever.
The question is: does edgy translate to funny? Sometimes. But not always, not child molestation edgy. That demands that we turn off every normal response in us in order to participate in stick it to the squares.
After the Mad Men series finale and a brief pause, the 70's will be ripe for a revival. I think Hillary getting the nomination will trigger lots of Nixon/Watergate memories.
/crystal ball
ricpic, It was more thought provoking than funny. It was uncomfortable funny. But, I would love to hear other people's take on it.
I watched all the episodes of his TV show on Netflix recently. I really enjoyed them. He has a strange quirky, slightly unbalanced persona and delivery that often feels very uncomfortable, but almost always delivers the funny and the resolution in the end. I really like most of his stuff, but it is unfortunate that he has some of that pussified unexamined liberal mythology stuff watering down his perspicacity. He can be very insightful and original, and then drop into ideas like Palestinian and Israeli equivalence, or that fear of a specific demographic is racist even if the fact of their threat is overwhelmingly verified in statistics and everyday life to the point of everyone acting on it regardless of race.
It's just unexamined stuff that you expect a smart guy like him to be up to speed on, and you have to wonder if he really believes it, or is it just self preservation to pretend he does. For someone playing his character, that's a disappointing prospect that sneaks into my head and kind of steals away some of his appeal and intelligence.
I imagine that if he didn't do that, he would probably be too edgy and lose a lot of liberal fans. We all have our litmus tests.
As for how edgy it was, it's pretty typical of his stuff, and come on, everybody understands exactly what he's saying and we have all thought about that ourselves. It's just that nobody ever says it, which is a basic ingredient of his humor and many other comedians. We aren't offended by our own thoughts on it, and we really aren't offended by him saying it like this, but we have to pretend, less someone think we are soft on molestation. I don't know how our culture could be any less forgiving of it, so do we really have to assure each other that we are not a molester? Well, if you're a man, yes, you have to almost carry a sign around proclaiming your hatred of it, or you might be suspicious.
The Jon-Baptiste-McDonalds portion of the skit was funny. After that it was uncomfortable for him and the audience.
The joke was how close can I come to inflamed nerves and still have a career. He stayed comfortably on the liberal side of the fence. It was the appearance of edgy without any real risk......Do you think any comedian will make a joke about the parenting skills of the Michael Brown family in your lifetime?
This is tame stuff. The child molestation stuff is there so he can still claim edginess. The rest of it? Meh. Social justice warriors bravely fight battles that have already been won and social justice comedians bravely tell jokes about issues bygone. An edgy comedian would attack the ruling class but that's clearly never going to happen on GM TV.
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