BS: Worst comedian ever?

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: robomatic
Date: 26 Feb 07 - 03:35 PM

GOONS RULE !!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Blindlemonsteve
Date: 26 Feb 07 - 04:19 PM

Hi Robomatic,,, what is it with the goons, i have tried and tried, but i just dont get it, i was once listening to a radio program about them, the presenter talked about a sketch that they did that subject matter was so obscene they couldnt say what it was, this got me interested, i listened, it made no sense to me what so ever. all i could hear was peter sellers making silly noises, Harry Secombe speaking in a funny voice and Spike Milligan just not being funny....the sad thing is, if i could get the penny to drop i think i might quite like them.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Becca72
Date: 26 Feb 07 - 04:20 PM

My top three most un-funny "comedians" would be Jim Carey, Adam Sandler and Chris Rock. But there are thousands more who just shouldn't be in the business.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 26 Feb 07 - 05:01 PM

I really have a grudge against Adam Sandler, because he had the nerve to be in a movie that also had *Winona Ryder* in it!....and I couldn't bear to watch it because I would have to put up with Adam Sandler for over an hour if I did. I coudn't face that. Not even for Winona. I've never seen the movie.

He's gonna pay for that. Mark my words.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: autolycus
Date: 26 Feb 07 - 05:40 PM

Anyone who thinks The Goons is just silly noises and funny voices just hasn't been listening.

    Don't know how well it works on paper but

    Secombe/Seagoon. I arrived on the beach at Brighton. Suddenly,I saw a ragged figure sitting in a deck-chair.

    Eccles,what are you doing here?


    Eccles...    I'm on holiday.


    Seagoon.      Well what's all this snow doing on the beach?


    Eccles.       Oh,that's on holiday as well.






       or




    Seagoon.      That's a nice tie.

    Eccles.       Yer,I got it at Cambridge.

    Seagoon.      Yoooouuu were at Cambridge?

    Eccles.       Yeeer.

    Seagoon.      What were you doing at Cambridge?

    Eccles,slower,with emphasis.          Buying a tie.





       Those are even funnier in the shows and no stupid noises.







       Ivor

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 26 Feb 07 - 06:20 PM

Heh! Those are rather witty. Classic misdirection of the line of thought.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Blindlemonsteve
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 01:48 AM

I can see that those lines are witty, but theyre not hilariously funny. they are sort of music hall funny. The Goons to me seem that if you can get past all that is going on with them, all you have to look forward to is old music hall humour.... and you dont get many of them to the pound do you missus.
But i am definatley right about Mark Lamar, he is just not funny at all.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: autolycus
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 06:27 AM

One last,and as I say,funnier in situ than on the page.


   The Goons are in a desert.

   Seagoon. Look,a house.

   Bloodnok. No,it's a mirage.

   S. No.no.that's a house.

   S. as narrator. We reached the house

   S. See,here it is.

   B. I'm afraid not lad.

   S. Nonsense. Let's search it. Bluebottle you search downstairs,Eccles upstairs,see what we can find.

      So, you thought it wa.....what,where is it? It's,it's gone.

   B. I told you it was a mirage,lad.

   E. (Getting louder). Aaaaaaaaaaaaah (Sound effect of thud)

   E.    I was upstairs.





    And that was making great use of the fact that it was a steam radio programme






       Ivor

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: GUEST,Bruce Michael Baillie
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 06:58 AM

...ADAM SANDLER, MY GOD HOW I HATE HIM EVEN WORSE THAN WOODY ALLEN!
the guy is a complete twat!

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Scrump
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 08:58 AM

Michael Barrymore, i have never liked him even before his fall from fame

I agree - I never found him funny at all, and I could never understand how he kept winning those BAFTA awards as best comedian, for several years in a row. He'd get my vote as worst comedian ever. Jim Davidson comes a very close second though.

But then a lot of the comics I like (or used to when they were still alive) seem to be hated by others - Spike Milligan, Tommy Cooper, Peter Cook, Laurel & Hardy, to name just a few. Hmmm, those are all dead. Not sure whether that proves anything.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: JeremyC
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 12:07 PM

"Punch-Drunk Love" was good, but I think it was because Sandler was in a movie that didn't suck, with a director who could do more than just make poo-poo jokes.

There are one or two moments in "Happy Gilmore" and "Billy Madison" that are funny, but it's not worth watching the movies to find the funny.

Which reminds me a bit of those old "where's the beef" commercials. I can imagine the same old woman watching, say, "Big Daddy" and saying "Where's the funny?"

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: The Walrus
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 12:18 PM

"...The Goons to me seem that if you can get past all that is going on with them, all you have to look forward to is old music hall humour.... and you dont get many of them to the pound do you missus.."

One point to note is that we are looking at the Goons from the point of view of the early 21st Century.
In their time the Goons were quite radical compared to their contemporaries. Bear in mind that at the time, the BBC audiences were being 'treated' to the likes of ITMA [ENTER woman with 'comic working class' voice: "Can I do you now Sir?" - Audience collapses in howls of laughter]; Arthur Askey going manic with the 'Busy Bee' song and bad copies of indifferent American radio comedy as sections of other shows.
By comparison the Goons were a breath of fresh air with a degree of risk (the trouble raised at Broadcasting House, when they introduced the character 'Hugh Jampton' is an example).

While they may seem dated now, in their day they were cutting edge.

Just my two penn'orth.

W

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: dwditty
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 12:19 PM

You know what is funny? A bunch of folkies sitting around discussing what is funny and what is not.....



(sorry, I couldn't resist. I love you all)

dw

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 12:56 PM

'The Walrus's' point about the Goons being 'cutting edge' for their day is spot on. Remember that they were appearing regularly on radio over 50 years ago now - things have moved on - of course they have!!
Monty Python were big nearly four decades ago now - and they begin to appear a bit dated (except, of course, to those tiresome tw..s who have learned all their sketches by heart).

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: GUEST,Non-American
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 01:01 PM

Those god-awful English bitches, French, Saunders.... Jeez!

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Bill Hahn//\\
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 06:42 PM

I only looked at the first note---Jerry Lewis.   Oh so true---ah, if only I were French---then I could love him.   I am not--so---agreed.

Probably the worst comedians are people who think they are clever and are not---any nominations there?   


Bill Hahn

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: GUEST,Nick
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 07:08 PM

Pulled this quote from above
"I find the 'Bean' character about as amusing as Bubonic Plague"
So now I await the inevitable most amusing plauge thread.
Nick

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: GUEST,unut ur'gjerpg
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 07:52 PM

Bill Hicks was the best. Don't know who was the worst.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 08:07 PM

Worst comedian? Some of my favorites have been named here as worst. No point in arguing…de gustibus, etc.

Of those I've seen, I'd vote for Tom Green. He played some really nasty pranks on people in public and videotaped them. For instance, going out in public in a wheelchair, falling out of the wheelchair, tricking some unsuspecting bystander into trying to help him get back into his wheelchair, falling out again, etc. Real disgusting.

Jay Leno has also offended me with tasteless jokes about JonBenét Ramsey and her family. When he's at his best, he's pretty dull. I guess I resent him more because so many other people like him.

It's not that I'm easily offended. Quite the contrary. I like people who push the envelope of what's socially acceptable—but they've got to be funny, and they can't pick on people unfairly.

My current favorite is Dave Chappelle. (Click to play 'The Niggar Family.')

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 10:37 PM

Number1 with a bullet is Woody Allen. I used to get nervous and itchy listening to his stand-up routines. Still do. I do like some of his movies...if he isn't in them.
Currently, my choices include Chris Rock, Kathy Something-or-other, and Sara Silverman. Potty mouths all.

J'accuse all here who dissed Danny Kaye as having no comedic taste.. He was brilliant; and having his wife, Sylvia Fine, writing his special material was more brilliant, yet. His early Goldwyn movies were terrrific, Walter Mitty, Kid From Brooklyn etc. The apex was The Court Jester; everybody knows where the Pellet with the Poison was.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Scrump
Date: 28 Feb 07 - 07:23 AM

'The Walrus's' point about the Goons being 'cutting edge' for their day is spot on. Remember that they were appearing regularly on radio over 50 years ago now - things have moved on - of course they have!!

True, Shimrod. But even today, the BBC's Goon Show CDs are selling well. They seem to bring out a new CD every year, with 4 of the shows remastered.

And their humour still appeals to younger people too. A few years ago, I was working with some fellow Goons fans and we used to trade Goonish remarks during our conversation, and some of the younger ones at first would take the mickey out of us old f*rts for liking that stuff. I lent some Goon tapes to them and they became converts themselves, even though they weren't born when the Goons were first on the radio (even I was too young to appreciate them in their time, and discovered them later, from radio repeats).

Monty Python were big nearly four decades ago now - and they begin to appear a bit dated (except, of course, to those tiresome tw..s who have learned all their sketches by heart).

Python used to say that the Goons were one of their biggest influences - one of them once described the Python show as a sort of visual version of the Goons. Perhaps not quite true, but Python probably influenced TV comedy in a similar way that the Goons influenced radio comedy.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: autolycus
Date: 28 Feb 07 - 07:58 AM

Another contender - Count Arthur Strong - oh dear.






    Ivor

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: GUEST,Neovo
Date: 28 Feb 07 - 08:19 AM

I agree - Norman Wisdon - never could understand why he's supposed to be funny. And any of the comedy club circuit standups that appear on Loose Ends (they play some strange music on that programme as well).

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 28 Feb 07 - 09:35 AM

I watched that Dave Chappelle bit on the "Niggar Family". Quite funny.

I also think Danny Kaye was very good.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 28 Feb 07 - 10:46 AM

From east of the Atlantic the afore mentioned Davidson has to be amongst the least funny. Manning is not too bad live oddly enough but in general I would agree. Chubby Brown - May as well just go and slit my wrists. Real name? Roysten Vasey oddly enough! Don't find League of Gentlemen that funny either

West of the pond? Cosby and Murphy do nothing for me at all. I often wondered if it was something I was missing with black comedians but I do find Lenny Henry very amusing - either stand up or in his sitcoms. Nor is it American humour - I like Robin Williamson and I like the humour in, for instance, Scrubs and Friends.

Just shows - It's a funny old world. Thank heavens we are not all the same:-)

Dave

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Don Firth
Date: 28 Feb 07 - 09:53 PM

Good grief! How could I have forgotten Gilbert Gottfried!??

Well, very easily, actually. . . .

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: pdq
Date: 28 Feb 07 - 10:06 PM

Yep, that guy was as bad as Stanley Myron Handelman.

I think both are in the same retirement shelter, The Los Angeles Home For Unfunny Hebrews, which was founded by Pinky Lee.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: GUEST,unut ur'gjerpg
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 12:03 AM

Did none you ever watch Hee Haw or listen to Stringbean on the Grand Ol' Opry? Don't know if they were bad, because they were just dusting off jokes that were corny a hundred years before, but they could be agonizing.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: heric
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 12:16 AM

Mary Tyler Moore had a variety show that lasted two, maybe three, episodes before they yanked it. That may have been the worst ever.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 12:34 AM

It wasn't the worst ever, if it's the one I recall...it was just not nearly as good as the original MTM show. But I may be thinking of a different show than the one you mean.

pdq, you said: "I think both are in the same retirement shelter, The Los Angeles Home For Unfunny Hebrews, which was founded by Pinky Lee."

LOL! That is damn funny. Gave me a good laugh, and I needed one. I bet you are a better comedian than half the professionals who've been named in this thread so far.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 03:57 AM

Jimmy Carr. I could cheerfully gouge the eyes out of his creepy waxwork face with a spoon.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: GUEST,ib48
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 07:50 AM

geordie comedian ross turnbull is a great comedian,lenny henry has never been funny in his life

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Charmain
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 08:27 AM

It has to be Jerry Seinfeld - how can someone be the highest paid comedian in the world for several years running when they are absolutely totally and completely unfunny? I've seen his stand-up and his TV show (quite a few episodes in the case of the latter) and I haven't laughed once.

At the British end of the comic spectrum I do despise Jimmy Carr - he hosted the "Big Fat End of the Year Show" in 2005 and the whole of his humour for the night consisted of learing remarks towards Denise Van Outen - Rob Brydon was one of the panellists and he totally destroyed Carr in a matter of moments - Rob Brydon theres one for the Comic Star list.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: koprokephalos
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 02:24 PM

Does England have, per capita, the greatest proportion of really poor (in the sense of weak, boring, humourless, dull, unfunny) "comedians"? I mean, look at them - French/Saunders, the Little Britain crew, League of Genitals, that c--t with Fanny the Wonder Dog Julie Clary, Chubby Arse Brown, most of the Monty Python public-school wankers, Morecombe and Wise; I could go on but my blood pressure is rising.

"I've fallen in the water!"

FLUSH.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: autolycus
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 02:31 PM

No,Tibet has that honour. None of them are funny.






       Ivor

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: An Buachaill Caol Dubh
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 02:32 PM

It's well known that the English would laugh at anything. Just as bad as M&W were Mike & Bernie Winter; it's said that they once appeared at the Glasgow "Empire", and after about five minutes of one of them making an arse of himself without drawing the slightest response from the audience, the other stuck his head around the curtain and made a stupid face. For the first time, a sound came from the darkness: "Aw Chrrist; thurr's TWO o' them!"

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 02:36 PM

Mort Sahl. It used to be "hip" to listen to him, but I never found him funny. A bad standup comic in my book with no sense of timing.

I had no use for Milton Berle. What's the gag?

I actually like some of Jerry Lewis's movies but he just did not know when to stop. The latter comedy films were torture.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 06:02 PM

Who was the comic who did the "Jacob was a smooth man and Esau was a hairy man skit" that almost got the Smothers Brothers kicked off TV.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Amergin
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 08:51 PM

Bobcat Goldthwaite.....and that gilbert fellow...they both annoy the hell out of me.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 10:28 PM

Ah, Mort Sahl, a casualty of the JFK assassination. Listening to Mort was like meandering thru the woods, turning down this path, and again at the next clearing. Eventually you get back where you started, having seen a lot of scenery during the journey. Of course he knew where he was going.
It is unfortunate that Sahl took up the Jim Garrison conspiracy crusade after Pres. Kennedy was killed...he was decidedly unfunny after that (Sahl that is, not JFK).

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Folk Form # 1
Date: 02 Mar 07 - 05:47 AM

"Mike & Bernie Winter... once appeared at the Glasgow "Empire", and after about five minutes of one of them making an arse of himself without drawing the slightest response from the audience"

I saw them in Bournmouth in the early 70s. I thought they were very funny, as did the rest of the audiance, including my Scottish father. Maybe its Au Bacahaill Caol Dubh who lacks a sense of humour?

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Scrump
Date: 02 Mar 07 - 06:15 AM

In most cases a comic is only as good as his scripts. Although some comedians write their own material, and are good at ad libbing, many well known ones rely totally on their scriptwriters to provide them with good gags.

Morecambe & Wise, Tony Hancock, Frankie Howerd all spring to mind as examples of comedians who needed good scriptwriters to be "funny".

Hancock was arrogant and short-sighted enough to sack his best scriptwriters Galton & Simpson (to whom he owed his success), and he went rapidly downhill in the public's estimation afterwards because he was unable to keep up the standard they had set.

Morecambe & Wise could be funny at their best, but again they were often let down by poor scripts at various stages of their career (notably their ITV series in the early 1960s, which I found pretty mediocre, on the whole). They were probably at their peak in the 1970s when they had better scripts for their BBC TV series.

To me, the funniest comedians are those who are able to be funny without the need for scripts - Peter Cook is an example that springs to mind. He had a natural ability to ad lib and come up with amusing remarks.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 02 Mar 07 - 07:20 AM

I remember the time Sike Milligan saw that an 'artist' was going to 'electrocute goldfish for art'...

It was on the TV news - he was outside saying that he would put a stop to it - he raced inside and there was the sound of smashing glass - he raced out and said - "NOW! That will stop a stop to that!"

An announcer then said that there was broken glass and goldfish all over the floor....

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 02 Mar 07 - 09:10 AM

Spike ...

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Mar 07 - 10:01 AM

Sid Little

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: heric
Date: 02 Mar 07 - 10:08 AM

Speaking of scripted: I saw Jay Leno in a smallish club when he was a new rising star. I was sitting off to the side, with a fairly close view. He was so robotic it was creepy. Especially when he pretended to be interacting with hecklers who were very clearly not there.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: autolycus
Date: 02 Mar 07 - 11:11 AM

The hairy man/smooth man - wasn't that Alan bennett.


   Not true that Brits will laugh at anything. Most British comedians would fall off their chairs laughing at that idea. Lots Of Brits listen to comedians with arms folded across their chests.

   Can't remember where I heard about some Northern lass saying,about some comedian,"It was all I could do not to laugh."


   The funniest comedy is usually the improvised type - Does the Team Think?;I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue (tho' some of that is prob. now scripted);Whose Line is it Anyway;Mock the Week;My Word;the Welles Sweeney Mixture (new on radio 4 some 11p.m. or other.

   Does the Team Think? [late 60s,early 70s] had panellists who were not very funny comedians - Tommy Trinder,Ted Ray,Jimmy Edwards - and sounded like they were funny people.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: GUEST,Greycap
Date: 02 Mar 07 - 11:34 AM

There was a Northern British guy called Frank Randall, he was supposed to be a comedian. I found him as funny as root canal work. However, Mike & Bernie Winters (already mentioned) come close.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Scrump
Date: 02 Mar 07 - 11:53 AM

Some of the people mentioned in this thread are not really what I ]would call comedians. For example, those in the League of Gentlemen are just acting in a comedy drama. I found that funny, but I don't know if any of the cast would be able to do a good stand-up routine.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: guitar
Date: 02 Mar 07 - 12:26 PM

any Alternive Comic the reason that they are alternive is because they aren't funny. and I just can't Amercan 'humour' or mordern humour either, but then I'm just a grumpy old fart.