The problem with political humor is that the people who made a living for 8 years while Bush was in the White House immediately had nothing to talk about as soon as Obama took over. I can't name a single comedian who successfully bashes both sides. It makes something like the Daily Show or Bill Maher unwatchable when "their guy" is in office. In the end the comedians take themselves too seriously and forget that they are there to entertain.

Huh? Jon Stewart takes shots at the democrats/Obama all the time.

I guess this explains why we haven't heard Lewis Black's name in several years.

Try listening to actual political comics, not that hack Mahar, or the Daily Show. Go look up Will Durst - he's made money as a political comic, leaning mostly left, during the administrations of Reagan, Bush Sr, Clinton, Bush Jr., and Obama, bashing all of them.

True political comics are rare. Some of them are REALLY good. Go find them.

O&A was great because they brought the best comedians to our attention. Not everyone has the time to constantly seek out new comedians. I'll look the guy up anyway.

Ah, it's "I'm so special and unique and intellectually superior to everyone around me because -I- don't subscribe to the modern political paradigm in America, man! Both sides are wrong but -I'M- right (even though I probably lean to the left anyways but am aware that I'll be taken more seriously if I say I'm not a liberal or a conservative)" guy

You're -VERY- under represented on the internet, especially reddit.

Well I am probably a bit more conservative than liberal. My problem is TV sucks now, I am not here to talk politics. This really isn't me trying to be political but saying I want things the way they were under clinton. TV seemed funnier.

Probably because you weren't alive before Clinton.

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Everything from your past seems funnier because you were younger back then. Try watching some programmes from that era that you didn't watch as a child. It's all the same dross, decade after decade.

Seinfeld was wonderful, but that had nothing to do with social trends, the political climate or Bill Clinton. Great works of comedic art just happen; they happen in any and every era.

Holy shit that was a colin-esque break down of someones whole personality

The conservatives are more arrogant than smug. It's the libs who have the smug game locked down.

Greg Gutfeld's sneer is the most smug thing on TV now or ever.

This isn't anything new. What about George Carlin?

He got a lot more political near the end of his career and his specials got worse with it.

I personally liked when he got political. I think he was his most profound then. All subjective of course.

Liked that he realized that its a fucking rigged show and spread the word.

Yeah he shoulda stuck to the wacky differenes between baseball and football hashtag genius

Hey, I like that bit.. But his later specials are the best. Grumpy old fuck

His worst bit to me is the food poisoning one, he said only few thousands die from it every year and its a non threat, so we should stop washing hands and cooking our burgers, but it's like only few thousands die from it because we been washing hands

Carlin actually wasn't really political. He didn't have an agenda that pushed liberal Democratic policies. The guy didn't vote and just wanted to see a lot of people die. Nuthin' wrong with that!

The example you used are all old. Like old men and simpsons & South Park have been on for decades. That's just what happens to old comedians.

We have had 14 years of Bush and Obama. What is the funniest show on TV nowadays? The funniest people probably want to work on family guy, jon stewart or colbert than actually just write a funny show.

The Heart, She Holler. It's Always Sunny. Trailer Park Boys.

I don't think they are anywhere near as funny as The Simpsons, Seinfeld and South Park at it's peak. They are also no where near mainstream popularity like the shows I mentioned. The most popular mainstream comedies these days are modern family and big bang theory.

Everything was better back in my day, maaaaahn!

I don't necessarily believe that. Adventure Time is better than any of the kid shows I grew up watching.

With every comment you make in your own defense the case against you grows stronger.

Have you even seen The Heart, She Holler? PFFR are genius

No I haven't tbf. I will give it ago. It has a rubbish imdb rating though and of all the adultswim shows it has very little hype. Rick and Morty was an instant success.

Maybe check out Wonder Showzen first.

Will do.

i don't know, comedy was really shitty in the Reagan era. I was thinking about this, in the pre-Seinfeld era, like the late 80s, what was the funniest show? Right before Seinfeld, Simpsons & Larry Sanders? It would probably have to be Cheers, far & away. But I could probably name 100 shows in the W Bush/Obama era that's funnier than Cheers

Comedy was shitty in the Reagan era? SNL had one of it's classic eras during that time, with Eddie Murphy, Piscapo, Billy Crystal, Martin short, then in 86 the Dana Carvey, Nora Dunn, Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Victoria Jackson, Jon Lovitz, Dennis Miller era started. Cheers? Really? In stand up, you had Kinison, Murphy, Hicks, all of the greats of stand up working steadily - Reagan was a rich source of material for them. For movies it was a golden era of comedy - The Blues brothers, Caddyshack, Stripes, 48 Hours, Ghostbusters, National Lampoon's Vacation.

Yes, comedy was totally shitty in the 80's. Are you fucking serious?

Things probably were a little worse. Any era where who's the boss, cheers and the cosby show are among the best shows on TV probably is worse. Yuck! Let us not forget tbbt is the most popular show out right now by a mile, so this is a shitty era.

Yes, but the 90's had Full House, Family matters and all that tgif bullshit.

The bad shows outweigh the funny shows in every decade.

90s had great sketch comedy. SNL, The Kids in the Hall, In Living Color, The State and a few others were good.

Id like to think Seinfeld and simpsons were the biggest shows of the 90s.

Lewis black and David cross are good at it. Stanhope too. But their acts aren't all about politics like Maher who is just boring and predictable at this point.

I saw Stanhope last year and his act has become way less political and more storytelling and logic based.

David cross's whole act is southern humor it's like alright I know you are better than them

Lewis Black can be a bit insufferable with his holier than though political stance.

Political comedy and satire has literally been around for thousands of years. Also, isn't Russell Brand's act all political now? He always seems to be ranting about society and revolution.

It's nauseating to listen to that fucking dimwit Muppet Baby talk about revolution.

I love Ricky Gervais but he is an unbelievably terrible standup comic.

fuck politics

I completely agree with this post. If anyone disagrees, try watching some smug dickbag like Bill Maher's special and compare it to a Mitch Hedberg special. Make sure you catch the Bill Maher special as soon as it comes out, seeing that the material will be dated in a week.

I think the worst thing about political comics is that they need to be "right." My favorite comics aren't always right, they're just honest. Anybody who gets more applause than laughs as a comedian should shoot themselves in the face. People don't pay to just hear shit they agree with repeated to them.

I think the worst thing about political comics is that they need to be "right." My favorite comics aren't always right, they're just honest.

This. That's why Tough Crowd was so great. Someone like Patrice or Keith Robinson would have some incredibly stupid opinion on the War in Iraq and it would still be hilarious.

or really edgy stuff like Daily Show, Colbert, Bill Mahr, Last Week Tonight that take on Conservatives, you know stuff that most comedians wouldn't touch.

I think since bush became president most

Stopped right here. Most Reddit posters are between 14 and 30. How old are you 20-25? Younger? Either way the post reeks of inexperience. You were what 8-12 when Bush was elected? You had no idea what people were talking about then. Were you even into comedy? Were you into OnA at that age? How would you have detected a major comedy shift since OnA were elected before your balls were dropped?

I am not attacking OnA in that instance, Obama probably what started to hurt OnA. Bush just started the mess on other platforms.

David Smith

The 2 worst things that ever happened to O&A were Twitter and Obama getting elected, that's when Fat Tits' desperate need for attention and Ant's paranoia really started to the overtake things.

Twitter more than anything.

That is exactly why I hate Twitter, and refuse to use it. I just got sick of hearing about it when it first came out. Does anyone remember when Twitter first came out, and Opie Never shut the fuck up about it, and Claimed that He was the first celebrity to discover and use Twitter? I'm sure nobody knew about it before Opie's life changing discovery!

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Politics can be a singular noun

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You make it sound like this a new thing. Carlin had been doing this since the first gulf war (and probably before that too). It's the comedians who can't continue to thrive outside their shtick not the topic of politics. On the other hand, I fucking hate political humor because it's mostly not funny.

As long I agree with the message I love political humor.

While politics certainly has a place in comedy, it gets exhausting pretty quickly if over done.

Ricky Gervais is a bore. Everything ends up being about how shit religion is. Okay, we get it, you don't like the Church.

Russell Brand is just an annoying cunt.

We have had 14 years of Bush and Obama. What is the funniest show on TV nowadays? The funniest people probably want to work on family guy, jon stewart or colbert than actually just write a funny show.

Id like to think Seinfeld and simpsons were the biggest shows of the 90s.

90s had great sketch comedy. SNL, The Kids in the Hall, In Living Color, The State and a few others were good.

Twitter more than anything.

That is exactly why I hate Twitter, and refuse to use it. I just got sick of hearing about it when it first came out. Does anyone remember when Twitter first came out, and Opie Never shut the fuck up about it, and Claimed that He was the first celebrity to discover and use Twitter? I'm sure nobody knew about it before Opie's life changing discovery!

With every comment you make in your own defense the case against you grows stronger.