BS: Worst comedian ever?

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: guitar
Date: 02 Mar 07 - 12:28 PM

I'm sorry if I have upest anyone but please these are my views and you don't need to agree with them.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Blindlemonsteve
Date: 03 Mar 07 - 08:27 AM

Bernard Manning has been mentioned here, but i think unfairly, as a comedian, he is very good, his comedy timing is perfect, he can say the most mundane thing and make you laugh. that is what a good comedian can do,,,, what i would call into question about Bernard Manning is his material. its from a time passed and thankfully not mainstream anymore. but if you can get passed the ignorant connotations, and listen to him as a judge on comical talent, he is actually very good, shame hes not a couple of generations younger, he would have been great.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: GUEST,Boab
Date: 04 Mar 07 - 02:22 AM

Seinfeld by miles!

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: The Walrus
Date: 04 Mar 07 - 06:40 AM

BBC7 is playing a history of radio comedy in a series called "Laughter in the Air".
This week it's the late 1930s & early WW2, (mainly Arthur Askey & Tommy Handley etc.).
I know it's taken out of its social context, but all I can say is, they were so funny I never stopped yawning.

W

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 04 Mar 07 - 11:26 PM

No one's mentioned Carrott Top?

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: alison
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 12:50 AM

who was the one who hosted "Bullseye"? Jim bowden / bowen or something? he was just awful..........

never liked any of the english ones off "The comedians"

hated "the young ones" and "french & saunders", although most of the same comedians in "the comic strip" did some fantastic stuff - the send ups of Enid Blytons "famous five" books were excellent

give me Dave Allen any day of the week

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Charmain
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 03:54 AM

I hear what you are all saying - but it's still Seinfeld

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: lennice
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 06:21 AM

so, john from sunset coast, the implication is clearly that you think JFK was funny after he died... (sorry, couldn't resist)

I think that just about everybody mentioned ties - including some that folks say they like, like Red Skelton -
Bobcat Goldthwait, Seinfeld, benny hill, bean, jerry lewis, joan rivers, pauly shore, milton berle, don rickles, the list goes on and on - more truly lousy ones than not - but the really good ones are so funny they make up for all the rest - the red green show, george and gracie, richard pryor, bob newhart's telephone conversations...

And although it is verfiable scientific fact that the English have no sense of humor, somehow they managed to produce the funniest man who ever walked the face of the earth - John Cleese.

I didn't know Andrew Dice Clay was supposed to be a comedian.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 07:08 AM

"And although it is verfiable scientific fact that the English have no sense of humor,..."

That's rich, coming from a representative of a Nation which produced Robin Williams!!

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 07:17 AM

The Goodies - embarassingly awful even in the 70s.
Also: Canon & Ball, Little & Large, the Chuckle Brothers and that whole generation of clapped-out WMC humour.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: cetmst
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 08:29 AM

Growing up in the thirties and forties with radio, not to be missed were:
Jack Benny
Easy Aces
Fred Allen
Shows to do homework to:
Not much done to Red Skelton, Bob Hope, Jimmy Durante
More to Fibber McGee and Molly, Amos and Andy
Easily tuned out and more accomplished to The Great Gildersleeve,
    Eddie Cantor
There must have been bad comedians then but either forgotten or never listened to.
Agree with many of the above mentioned bad ones but would further categorize them as dull, narrow, insipid or offensive and would happily turn off Milton Berle, Henny Youngman, Rodney Dangerfield, the Three Stooges, Jerry Lewis, Seinfeld, Mr. Bean, Bennie Hill the Goon Show, Jay Leno (but not Johnny Carson), Woody Allen or Steve Allen for one or the other of the above reasons. I would brook little criticism of Danny Kaye, the Marx Brothers, the Smothers Brothers, Red Skelton, Bob Hope most of the time, Bob Newhart, the cast of Beyond the Fringe, Peter Sellers, Gilda Radnor, Paula Poundstone, Pat Paulsen and probably a few others on a best comedians list.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Scrump
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 09:16 AM

give me Dave Allen any day of the week

Agreed :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 10:58 AM

Sorry, The new wanna be comedians really out stink everybody!

Will Ferrell? Has he done anything that's funny? I mean I haven't even got a clue why he was on SNL.

As far as bad because of his actual shtick it would have to be Andrew Dice Clay *The Diceman*. Archy Bunker was funny with his act twenty years before him. He does the same racist act but just uses profanity.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Folkiedave
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 01:04 PM

Of the modern ones there was a guy recently who had a series on the Radio 4 6.30 pm spot. A poor version of Vin Garbutt with no musical talent whatsoever.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: GUEST,Dáithí
Date: 06 Mar 07 - 05:02 AM

Reeves and Mortimer, anyone? zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Hrothgar
Date: 06 Mar 07 - 05:28 AM

I thought the worst comedian ever was Maggie Thatcher.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Scrump
Date: 06 Mar 07 - 07:38 AM

The best comedians are those currently going under the collective name of the New Labour Cabinet. They're absolutely hilarious - catch them while you still can.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: GUEST,Glasgow Green
Date: 06 Mar 07 - 02:51 PM

Censorship? Where's the tread i sent earlier?

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Mar 07 - 02:52 PM

Worst sense of humour - Ivan the Terible.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: GUEST,Glasgow Green
Date: 06 Mar 07 - 02:55 PM

Ooops,"Thread" instead of "tread".

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Songster Bob
Date: 06 Mar 07 - 04:22 PM

It seems to me that there are kinds of comedy, such as physical or stand-up, and eras of comedy, such as radio comedians or TV ones. And then you have the question of ensembles vs. single comedians, story-telling (set jokes) vs. spontaneous, and even good vs. bad presentations.

Jerry Lewis, Adam Sandler, Robin Williams = physical, usually spontaneous, not in a cast.

Red Skelton, Jack Benny, Bob Hope, many others = situational, not often spontaneous, usually with a cast.

Goons, Three Stooges, Marx Bros. = Cast only (interaction more important than one person as "comedian"), very situational (though some members of the group could be brilliant spontaneously).

The era of the comedy show (often combined with variety acts, but not always) was radio and then TV from 1945 to 1975 or so, with everyone from Jack Benny to Burns and Allen to Sid Caesar to Ozzie and Harriet, ending with skit comedians like Carol Burnette and Laugh-in.

Nowadays you get TV shows like "Everybody Loves Raymond" (no, they don't) or "Seinfeld" which must be the least funny "comedy" to ever have more than one season's run.

Off of TV, in clubs, you get stand-up comics and alternative comics and anything-goes comics and who-knows-what comics, and it's really hard to judge these folks unless they appear on TV in "Last Comic Standing" or "Night at the Improv" or some other (usually cable-only) show. Few of these folks have ever impressed me enough to learn their names, though a few have got through my defenses -- some because they have some part of their schtick that makes me itch (Bobcat Goldthwaite and Paul Poundstone, for example, though, once past the weird personal style they can both be funny).

So choosing the least funny among the various kinds of comics is hard work. Hard work, I tell you. Really hard.

So I won't choose one. Or even many. There are some I don't want to see or hear, like Jerry Seinfeld or Woody Allen, some I can take or leave, like Whoopi Goldberg (her early stuff was good, of late she's coasting), and some I seek out, though no name comes to mind.

I do remember one comedian, a stand-up comic, whose act was incredibly funny; unfortunately, I didn't get his name (on one of those cable shows I mentioned). His act consisted of saying, "I don't have enough time to tell the jokes, so I'll just give you the punch lines," followed by the punchlines of meany of the best classic jokes you've ever heard, delivered so fast you can't catch your breath. Your memory supplies the setup and straight-lines, and, despite their age, the jokes work. Now that is pure genius.

Songbob

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 07 Mar 07 - 08:02 AM

cetmst

peter Sellars was the most visible member of The Goon SHow, doing most of the (major) funny voices - accompanied by Milligan who did most of the rest....



btw,


Have you ever seen a comic strip?

it's not a pretty sight....



Oldie but goodie!

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 07 Mar 07 - 08:22 AM

Love the Goons, but find Seagoon v tedious...

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 07 Mar 07 - 09:06 AM

Seagoon - Harry Secombe - was the essential 'point of sanity' around which the whole madness revolved - and even he had difficulty not breaking up at times. While 'Greenslade' is most often remembered as the 'straight announcer', Valentine Dyall - the deep 'horror voice' was IMO, a far better straight (and funnier - like Cleese in his 'straight man' roles) man...
~~~~~~~
If you don't get this one - you must be American...

Bluebottle: What time is it Eccles?
Eccles: Err, just a minute. I've got it written down here on a piece of paper. A nice man wrote the time down for me this morning.
Bluebottle: Then why do you carry it around with you, Eccles?
Eccles: Well, if anybody asks me the time, I can show it to them.
Bluebottle: Wait a minute Eccles, my good man...
Eccles: What is it fellow?
Bluebottle: It's writted on this bit of paper, what is eight o'clock, is writted.
Eccles: I know that my good fellow. That's right. When I asked the fella to write it down, it was eight o'clock.
Bluebottle: Well then, supposing when somebody asks you the time, it isn't eight o'clock?
Eccles: Then I don't show it to them.
Bluebottle: Well how do you know when it's eight o'clock?
Eccles: I've got it written down on a piece of paper!

(the full routine continues, but I don't want to do a complete spoiler...)

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Scrump
Date: 07 Mar 07 - 09:31 AM

I think Secombe is often underrated in the Goons. As Foolestroupe says, he was the 'straight man' that all the other characters revolved around. If you hear the few episodes made without Secombe present, where he was replaced by other comics, you notice the difference (these were usually because Secombe was ill, or maybe had other commitments).

When Sellers or Milligan was absent and replaced, the difference was not so noticeable, because other actors/comedians would put on the characters' voices and do a reasonable impression of them. 'Neddie Seagoon' was not so easy to imitate, so instead they replaced the character, to the show's detriment.

In one episode, Sellers was absent, and replaced by a few others - none of them individually was able to do all his characters' voices. But in another episode where Milligan was absent at short notice (probably through ill health), Sellers read all Milligan's lines as well as his own, and few people (apart from those present in the studio audience) noticed the difference!

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 07 Mar 07 - 09:46 AM

"I think Secombe is often underrated in the Goons"

'Comics' are ten a penny - now a good 'straight man' is worth his weight in gold... he needs to control himself so as not to 'blow' the punch lines...

btw, a mention above of a comic who just quotes punch lines from jokes, both The Goons (who mainly used 'Service' (Military) Jokes) and Monty Python did that too, but MP also often just ran together several routines which HAD no punchlines....

If you don't know the jokes, then isolated punch lines like 'your turn in the barrel' pass right over your head... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 02:33 AM

Benny Hill.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 03:25 AM

Foolestroupe - I'm American, though I live in the UK (everybody gotta be somewhwere!) and ANY exchange between Bluebottle and Eccles reduces me to tears of laughter in seconds...

I also do a fairly credible Bluebottle impression.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Scrump
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 05:55 AM

If you don't know the jokes, then isolated punch lines like 'your turn in the barrel' pass right over your head... :-)

One of the many amusing things about listening to the Goons is to spot these apparently innocuous remarks in the script. The BBC's censorship was pretty draconian in those days, and Milligan enjoyed the game of trying to slip things past them, such as the above punchline quoted by Foolestroupe.

The character Hugh Jampton was introduced for the same reason. He got away with that too. It would be interesting to know what was edited out of the scripts that the censors did spot.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 06:44 AM

For the non-British:

Hugh Jampton -> Hampton Wick,

which is rhyming slang for Big D...

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Ella who is Sooze
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 07:47 AM

ricky gervais for me... just don't get it AT all

or Catherine Tate

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Scrump
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 09:44 AM

Am I bovvered? Do I look bovvered? Look at my face, do I look bovvered? Am I bovvered, though?

Hmm, I see what you mean.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 09:49 PM

"ricky gervais"

Ah - very BLACK (nothing to do with racism!) humour - think Joe Orton (Loot! - although that is not considered as 'black' nowadays as it was when it first appeared, we have accepted it) and many others - in his latest 'Extras' - he manages to turn most of it against himself - and he is showing maturity - acceptance that his life is mostly shit and that most of the people in his life are utter selfish dickheads. In the Office HE was the biggest selfish dickhead.

I also just love how he manages to con people like Ronnie Corbett, David Bowie, Diana Rigg, 'Harry Potter' et. al. into clever cameo roles... :-)


Black humour can be described as the sort of thing that you are unable to stop watching (like a slow motion train wreck), even though you are almost throwing up with disgust, while at the same time almost unable to breathe from laughing too hard.... not for everybody's taste, l know - but also has very clever satire and parody ...

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Gurney
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 05:10 AM

Growing up, I thought that the Marx Bros were about as funny as a dose of the clap.
However, I knew people who would laugh at a dose of the clap.

Jim Carrey makes me cringe.

For my money, Dave Allen was the best.

Humour is subjective, and I don't like slapstick. Nor clowns.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 08:14 PM

I really can't stand the Marx Brothers either. Not funny, just very annoying. I keep hoping that someone will punch Groucho. What a jerk.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Bill Hahn//\\
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 04:39 PM

Captain Spaulding will never forgive you---here he has hunted Elephant in Alabama because the Tuscaloosa.   

Groucho must be the cornerstone for most of the comics that evolved since==So to this thread I must now quote the good Captain---or possibly Rufus T Firefly---"...hello, hello, I must be going".

Bill Hahn

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Irish sergeant
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 09:24 PM

i only laugh at doses of the clap when they happen to the creepy people. Worst comedian George W. bush. Neil

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: The Walrus
Date: 11 Mar 07 - 07:16 AM

Jeremy Hardy can kill any comedy stone dead as far as I'm concerned

I never rated Ben Elton as a comic either *he was slightly better as a writer).

W

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: guitar
Date: 11 Mar 07 - 11:00 AM

i agree Cathrine Tate, bloody crap

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 11 Mar 07 - 11:33 AM

Only in England will you ever see anything quite as bad as the world's two worst comics teaming up to form the world's worst double act.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you......... "CANNON & BALL". Please take 'em as far away as possible.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Mar 07 - 12:57 PM

"How many times must the cannonballs fly, before they're forever banned?"

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Mar 07 - 10:29 PM

Gabe Kaplan

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 09:30 PM

A Muslim asked Groucho Marx if he would pray for him. Groucho looked at the audience and said, "In a minaret...if not sooner," and waggled his enormous cigar.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 10:35 PM

The Marx Brothers were brilliant. The early films such as Animal Crackers and Horsefeathers are among my favorites of all time. Groucho could adlib better than anyone I ever heard. There is no comparison when they were at the top of their game. Unfortunately, they did keep the act going well past its prime. Avoid Room Service like the plague.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Scrump
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 10:03 AM

Avoid Room Service like the plague.

Yes, that's true of many hotels I've stayed in, too :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Stringsinger
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 11:30 AM

Sharon Silverman. Gross and not funny but kind of cruel.

South Park should be renamed South Fart. Infantile humor.

Seinfeld is bland but better at stand-up.

Milton Berle never got to my funnybone but he was a great showman.

I never really got Abbott and Costello but I admit their show-biz skill.

Don't care for that Andrew Clay Dice guy either.

Don't like the racist humor on some of the so-called country comics today.

Frank Hamilton

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: GUEST,ib48
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 11:34 AM

michael barrymore,never been funny,embarrasing but never funny

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: GUEST,sally
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 04:43 AM

How come no one said dane cook? Listening to him relationship jokes and sex jokes, with dane, you kind feel like ou heard the jokes before.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Scrump
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 11:49 AM

Yeah, Barrymore is crap...

Subject: RE: BS: Worst comedian ever?
From: Scrump
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 11:49 AM

...200!