[EricGladstone]

I find that these days a lot of comedians who are actually incredibly unfunny (I know comedy's subjective, but whatever) try to get laughs and attention by just saying the most controversial thing they can think of. To me there's nothing wrong with a controversial joke, as long as it's actually funny, and just happens to be about a controversial subject. But it seems that for these comedians when they're creating a joke or gag, the process goes the other way. They pick a controversial subject, such as disability, racism or rape, and then hash together a joke about that subject, that not only ends up being contrived and unfunny, but offensive.

If you take Frankie Boyle for example. When he first started out he would make very controversial jokes, but they were funny, because you could tell that he was just making a funny observation or telling a gag that happened to be about a sensitive subject, and may have unfortunately and unintentionally offended some people. However by the end his quality of joke got lower but kept getting more and more controversial. It's as if he realised it was the darker jokes that were making him popular and became a caricature of himself. The jokes stopped being organic to the situation or relevant, and were just forced and purposely vulgar. Even more unfortunately it seems to me it's had an influence on younger comics, who probably idolise him but lack his talent, leaving us with a generation of Frank Boyle light comedians who think they're hilarious when they make a joke about people with down syndrome, incest or the holocaust.

[pedmond]

But Frankie Boyle although in some cases controversial is still a funny comedian in my opinion. Watch him on Have You Been Watching or watch him host Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Hell even read his columns in the paper (The Sun or the Daily Record I forget which)

[EricGladstone]

(Original post by pedmond)
But Frankie Boyle although in some cases controversial is still a funny comedian in my opinion. Watch him on Have You Been Watching or watch him host Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Hell even read his columns in the paper (The Sun or the Daily Record I forget which)

True. But in my opinion, which everyone is entitled to their own, he went down hill a bit at the end of Mock The Week. Maybe he just got bored of having to pretend Hugh Dennis and Russel Howard were funny. It wasn't really targeting him anyway, more his wannabes. The kind of people who put Sickipedia jokes as their statuses and try to pass it off as their original joke.

[Insert_username]

(Original post by EricGladstone)
I find that these days a lot of comedians who are actually incredibly unfunny (I know comedy's subjective, but whatever) try to get laughs and attention by just saying the most controversial thing they can think of. To me there's nothing wrong with a controversial joke, as long as it's actually funny, and just happens to be about a controversial subject. But it seems that for these comedians when they're creating a joke or gag, the process goes the other way. They pick a controversial subject, such as disability, racism or rape, and then hash together a joke about that subject, that not only ends up being contrived and unfunny, but offensive.

If you take Frankie Boyle for example. When he first started out he would make very controversial jokes, but they were funny, because you could tell that he was just making a funny observation or telling a gag that happened to be about a sensitive subject, and may have unfortunately and unintentionally offended some people. However by the end his quality of joke got lower but kept getting more and more controversial. It's as if he realised it was the darker jokes that were making him popular and became a caricature of himself. The jokes stopped being organic to the situation or relevant, and were just forced and purposely vulgar. Even more unfortunately it seems to me it's had an influence on younger comics, who probably idolise him but lack his talent, leaving us with a generation of Frank Boyle light comedians who think they're hilarious when they make a joke about people with down syndrome, incest or the holocaust.

Well if you notice that comedians respond to what the audience prefer hence why frankie Boyle started telling more darker material since his fans enjoy it more so in fact the audience are partly to blame for encouraging this type of comedy although IMO its only a joke so I don't take any of the jokes seriously


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[Steevee]

I really like people like Frankie Boyle and Jimmy Carr, because nothing is off limits, without them having to be a single platform comedian.

Take Chubby Brown, he found an offensive niche, and stayed there, and I really don't find him funny. He's the example of how people get offensive wrong. Frankie and Jimmy are people getting it right.

[B-Man.]

I agree. It's really irritating when comedians put more emphasis on trying to be offensive than funny.

(Original post by Steevee)
I really like people like Frankie Boyle and Jimmy Carr, because nothing is off limits, without them having to be a single platform comedian.

That's not true. Jimmy Carr apologised for his joke about amputated soldiers and didn't do it again, thus making it 'off limits.'

Spoiler:

Show

'Say what you like about these servicemen amputees from Iraq and Afghanistan, but we are going to have a f****** good Paralympic team in 2012.'

[EricGladstone]

(Original post by Insert_username)
Well if you notice that comedians respond to what the audience prefer hence why frankie Boyle started telling more darker material since his fans enjoy it more so in fact the audience are partly to blame for encouraging this type of comedy although IMO its only a joke so I don't take any of the jokes seriously


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

I get what you mean, and personally I don't find anything offensive, even if it's a subject close to home. But it's the humour and satire of a controversial joke that makes it funny, not the controversial subject itself. It's like a joke about aids can be funny, if it's well constructed. But a lot of comics these days will just put together a poor attempt at something like an aids or rape joke just so they can get some attention for being controversial and edgy.

[ninja_pidgeon]

I think Tim Minchins material is rather controversial but he puts across his points in a very intellectual and talent way so I think it's more the manner in how it's presented than the material itself, plus he's hilarious!!!!


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[aroy45]

When you watch comedians like Frankie Boyle, Jimmy Carr etc then you know what you're getting into. If you feel offended then dog be stupid enough to watch in the first place


This was posted from The Student Room's iP

[Steevee]

(Original post by B-Man.)
I agree. It's really irritating when comedians put more emphasis on trying to be offensive than funny.



That's not true. Jimmy Carr apologised for his joke about amputated soldiers and didn't do it again, thus making it 'off limits.'

Spoiler:

Show

'Say what you like about these servicemen amputees from Iraq and Afghanistan, but we are going to have a f****** good Paralympic team in 2012.'

Ok, very few things are off limits.

[B-Man.]

(Original post by Steevee)
Ok, very few things are off limits.

You mean the things that offend his audience There is nothing special about Jimmy Carr in terms of the offensive jokes he makes. It's Frankie Boyle who is completely unapologetic about his humour.

[Steevee]

(Original post by B-Man.)
You mean the things that offend his audience lol

I guess, he's selling himself after all, and it doesn't make sense to lose his audience, I'll not begrudge him that.

[EricGladstone]

(Original post by aroy45)
When you watch comedians like Frankie Boyle, Jimmy Carr etc then you know what you're getting into. If you feel offended then dog be stupid enough to watch in the first place


This was posted from The Student Room's iP

Not what the thread's about. I stated that I don't get offended by controversial subjects. My point is that a lot of talentless comedians think they're funny simple by being controversial. Also 'dog be stupid enough'?

[Dirac Delta Function]

controversy is what people do to make up for lack of talent.

Take singers for example, being overly sexual or whatever. It's a money-making game, and if you don't have the goods, you find some other way of getting attention.

[EricGladstone]

(Original post by Dirac Delta Function)
controversy is what people do to make up for lack of talent.

Take singers for example, being overly sexual or whatever. It's a money-making game, and if you don't have the goods, you find some other way of getting attention.

Too true. I'm not saying controversial things can't be funny, and not all overly sexual singers are talentless, but they're good distractions to compensate for lack of true talent. For example, Beyonce= amazing voice, just happens to be amazingly fit. On the other hand Rihanna= average voice so dresses like a slut.

At the end of the day I find something funny because it's funny, not because it's controversial. I like controversial shows like Brass Eye, which talks about dark issues, but I find One Foot in the Grave equally as hilarious. If however One Foot in the Grave had decided to try and slip pedo or rape jokes in it would have just been unfunny and forced.

[Bellissima]

jimmy carr is the best, he is controversial but also the funniest. i used to find frankie boyle funny but now he is just controversial... not funny with it..

[Jack93o]

Don't really find frankie boyle that interesting, but jimmy carr is pretty good IMO

[A7d8i6l]

It seems to me that in order to be a comedian you must be able to be controversial and say things that others may not necessarily say. That's one way in which they stick out from the other commedians.Truly it is usually the topic on which the comedians want to discus which makes it controversial e.g. 9/11, 7/11,immigrants, Asians etc. Personally I think the best comedians are the ones that are funny and are intelligent enough to know what is aloud in today's society.


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[jumpingjesusholycow]

I felt exactly this about the massive disappointment that was Doug Stanhope.

After seeing is stuff on Charlie Brooker's shows, and thinking 'yes, yes, this is a man I can (comically) agree with', I decided to download his DVD.

About half way in, I decided to stop watching and delete it. It was absolute rubbish. Aside from his rather tired brand of political 'preach comedy', he spent most of his time chortling into his beer at his own jokes that centred majoritively around saying something completely irrelevent although somewhat unorthodox. I swear, he genuinely went on an incomprehensible rant about 'black cock' for five minutes or so. No context, no punch line. He just went on some massive ramble about black cock to try and gauge a 'shocked' reaction to his provocative words. What an ape

[sammynorton90]

Yeah. And then if it doesn't go down well and people accuse them of being racist/ homophobic etc they instantly backtrack and say it was just ironic and they were mocking people with those views. For example Sarah Silverman made a joke which contained a racial slur for chinese people years back. And then when she was accused of being racist by an Asian Organisation she said she tells those jokes to help eradicate racism. Bull****