I will say that like @Tradegood I consider Stella formative to my sense of humor, and I really enjoy everything that crew puts together for the most part. Wet Hot American Summer is an inner circle hall of famer for me.
Regarding @Sun_Crypt enjoying a storyline to comedies, I would recommend the following shows:
Review - guy on TV reviews whatever people ask him to review. Might be as simple as a new hobby, or it might be as difficult as becoming addicted to drugs. No spoilers but eventually the process begins to take a toll on the main character. Virtuoso performance from Andy Daly and just a brilliantly conceived and hilarious show.
The Other Two - a new Justin Bieber level child singer emerges, and his much older brother and sister grab his coattails to reclaim their lost showbiz dreams. Very funny and extremely incisive. It’s from 30 Rock alums so it has that sort of joke cadence which I really enjoy
This inspired me to go back and watch some of the Stella shorts for the first time since like 2005-2006, and there’s definitely language and shock stuff that makes it feel super sophomoric but it is still kinda prescient for what like “internet humor” would turn into.
If you’re into Stella you’ll love the Ben Stiller Show and The State–all of the core Stella folks and folks in the Showalter/Wain-iverse were all around in both of those shows and there’s a direct throughline.
Wet Hot American Summer was more or less a The State reunion movie
what you describe is exactly what i imagine the LA comedy scene to be (or have been). and again, i am jealous. there wasn’t much of a comedy scene in detroit (and if there was, i wasn’t aware of it) outside of your standard open mics. i’ve been to a few and considered getting in front of one, but idk. the thought of “writing a joke” sends shivers down my spine. i would probably be better suited in an improv environment but there is also a side of me that hates joy and enthusiasm.
this was really funny
straight classics. i’ve always really liked Zazie dans le Métro too, though maybe “whimsical” is a better word over funny. also, this is a much less sophisticated answer, but i think rowan atkinson as mr. bean is such a wonderful heir to this style of comedy, especially the tv show from the 90’s. (however, like alan partridge i think it would be much better without a laugh track).
danny mcbride is so funny. i kinda shy away from any attempts to “elevate” comedy beyond what it is (in the words of norm macdonald: if comedians are the modern day philosophers, then what about the…modern day philosophers?), but i think mcbride really taps into a certain kind of american white male in a psychological way lol. i highly recommend vice principals for anyone who hasn’t seen it, cc @Garrett.exe
me too, tho a quick google search reveals that he admitted to hanging out with those guys at first because he moved to austin and i guess he hates them all now or something.
i assume you’re talking about the podcast industrial complex with guys like shane gillis or stav or something? if not, might i suggest turning on your monitor…?
this is funny–there are definitely two strands but i feel like i followed both. i guess i’m pretty catholic when it comes to comedy in that i like almost everything.
on that note, two things i haven’t seen mentioned here are the simpsons and the office. the simpsons was pretty formative to my sense of humor and is something i’m constantly re-watching. one of the best examples i can provide is the b-sharps episode where barney says they found him on a men’s room floor and the whole room bursts out in laughter and the scene ends with a close-up of a tear falling from barney’s eye. or the critic cameo episode where he says “camus can do but satre is smart-re” then homer says “well scooby doo can doo-doo…” then a tumble weed rolls by.
the office is much less formative but still very funny. when i was teaching in grad school i was surprised to see how popular it still was with the undergrads. i guess it has a reputation as a bit of a “basic” show now. i rewatched it a few years ago and laughed quite a bit. it has an acid to it, too, which has helped it both age well in parts and not so well in others.
one of my favorite anecdotes about kafka is he would burst out laughing whenever reading a story he wrote to a group of friends, sometimes to the point where he couldn’t finish the story.
one of my favorite bits is when david waine is running to the airport to catch michael and michael but he stops for a souffle, telling the server that he’s in a rush but still doesn’t want the chef to sacrifice on the quality.
i actually read michael ian black’s book a long time ago when it came out (not the one with megan mcaine, but a memoir). the thing i remember most is he said his favorite thing to do when traveling internationally is to watch tv at the hotel. as a kid who grew up on the “i love the 80s” type shows on vh1, i always thought he was really funny. i think he is a bit of a jerk now? idk.
oh also i watched a few chris fleming videos today and yes, very funny. thank you for posting.
I like all the comedy nerd stuff, but Eddie Murphy is the funniest human being ever for me. His segment in Prose and Cons is one of my favorite things ever:
even like pro comedy people will say that the only true answer to “who is the funniest person/what is the funniest thing” is something very personal and could never be. a friend at school who you haven’t heard from in decades or a confluence of circumstances at a family gathering that had everyone howling. i think in particular the weird and funny old friend thing is why podcasts/twitch streams are so popular because these people kind of become as familiar as a friend and then you’re in on the stupid jokes they make. or they’re someone like Harris Wittels or James Acaster and can seemingly pluck bizarre and hilarious ideas from thin air.
if someone’s being really honest then their Funniest Thing is a random throwaway simpsons joke that caught them off guard last time they saw a given episode for the tenth time.
yeah this is true, the stuff that makes me laugh so hard i get light headed always comes from life and not from a performer. case in point: recently i told my dog “no” because they were giving the cat a hard time. they stopped, looked at me, then used their nose to tip over a potted plant next to them. i’m laughing now typing it back out.
will ferrell is incredibly gifted imo and just has a “presence” that makes people laugh almost immediately. a good example is this recent skit from snl when he guest hosted:
also he did a road trip documentary with former snl writer harper steele that i have been meaning to watch, seems like a good dude irl:
One time when we were like 9 or 10 as we were leaving my grandparents’ house my twin brother fell down outside and somehow slid on his back underneath the car. He got scuffed up and cried but my sister and I laughed so hard that we were both like gonna throw up. Of course our mom getting mad and our brother continuing to cry made it harder to stop laughing. If I bring this up to my sister at any point it is guaranteed to make us both start laughing uncontrollably. I am truly laughing about it as I type this
recently my dad commented on some Christmas decorations like “look at the snowman!” but said it like snowmin and my brother and I laughed at it for about 4 days straight, and added our own ie “oh there go the firemin!”
This should not be funny to anyone else. It’s only funny because it’s my dad who said it and that we all picked up that it was a weird pronunciation at the same time
