what the hell was so funny about steve martin's stand up career

[datasuspect]

in the late 70s?

banjo music?

i don't get it, so "excuuuuuuse me."

[HughBeaumont]

1. I thought it was hilarious back in the day. Then I turned 12.

Admittedly, his stand-up doesn't have much of a shelf life. Much like his post-All of Me career.

[graywarrior]

2. You had to be there.

[datasuspect]

4. i was

all the kids in first grade thought it was hilarious shit.

it's not like you could have avoided it back then, there was a steve martin saturation marketing campaign for quite a few years.

[graywarrior]

7. Didn't like the baloon bit, huh?

[datasuspect]

9. the bunny ears were pretty lame too

[graywarrior]

10. We all loved the white hair and white suit.

[datasuspect]

12. which kinda reminds me

when he would play off SNL cast members, he could be kinda funny.

[graywarrior]

13. Wild and Crazy guys was funny.

[leftofthedial]

3. it wasn't Sienfeld's "comedy" career,

which automatically made it pretty damned funny.

[datasuspect]

11. seinfeld

as a stand up, cannot stand him.

his show (which i think was more larry david than anything) i never watched in prime time, but came to enjoy in syndication.

[Oeditpus Rex]

5. His early stuff was... fresh

When a guy does riffs like "Well, here's something you don't see every day," then sticks his fingers in his mouth and jumps up and down going "AHHHHHRRRRRR!" you laugh at the sheer outrageousness.

But then he became a "star" and rode his own wave. On the third album, he did some bit about "I hope you don't get sick of Steve." Which was exactly what happened.

Pity. He's really talented, but his stand-up career went downhill when he started relying on the standards, like "King Tut" and "A Wild and Crazy Guy," instead of doing the kind of stuff that got him there.

Ever read "Cruel Shoes"? It was as if he just wrote whatever popped into his mind. Most of it was crap.

[datasuspect]

8. i think he was a philosophy major at a community college

somewhere in california, he had that "i took a few lower division philosophy courses, so now i am profound" brand of dilletantism.

[Oeditpus Rex]

14. Meh

Lenny Bruce was profound. George Carlin was profound. Stephen Wright is profound, in his own bizarre way.

Steve Martin was just... goofy. But it was a flavor of goofy we hadn't heard before, so we ate it up for awhile.

We ate up Gallagher for awhile, too. :eyes:

[datasuspect]

15. gallagher is the only person that could move me to cannibalism

if only to save the world from his banality.

[Oeditpus Rex]

17. I saw him twice

The first time — I think it was 1982 — was when the watermelon bit was still pretty fresh. He killed. (If you ever saw his Showtime special "Melon Crazy," it was that show. If you saw the empty seat between the bearded guy and the curly-headed woman, that was my seat; I was roaming around making photos. The woman was my gf and the guy was an old friend.)

Second time was... dunno — several years later. The comedian during Gallagher's break was funnier. I forget his name — long last name, starts with 'K' — but he wound up on some sitcom not long after.

Gallagher actually got mad at some guy who got up to go to the bathroom or something. And he wasn't very funny.

[Poll_Blind]

16. She had the Jugs

She Had The Jugs

Yes, she was witty; she was intelligent. She was born of high station. She spoke and walked proudly. She was the kind who displayed nobility, who showed style and class. But above all, she had the jugs.

Many people called her by her last name; some closer friends had a confidence with her and shared the intimacy of her first name. But to me, she was always "Lady jugs a-plenty."

It is true. She was clever and she was charming, but above all, she had the jugs.

  I guess you had to be there. Every comedian from the past is viewed through today's lense. People like Lenny Bruce, Andy Kaufman and, though I don't think his work is as socially-relevant as theirs, Steve Martin broke ground in his own way. Sure, we can make fun of his act. But that's more than a fair bit of armchair quarterbacking. Look at the great performers of vaudeville. Has anyone here seen acts like those? Those are extremely easy to criticize from today's perspective- if one bothers to make the attempt. And yet those performers were some of the most popular of their time.

  Why? Because different eras have different tastes and comedians, especially, cater to those tastes.

  Tastes then are not tastes now. It is fairly straightforward a point to understand, it would seem.

  And so some in the future may and likely will pontificate on how we could find (cutting edge comedian) funny.

  And, of course, they are missing the point entirely. And that they would take such a thing seriously enough to pursue is, I find, more than a little amusing.

  Comedy is where you find it. :P

PB

[datasuspect]

18. i was not even a thought in the 1930s

but the three stooges are enormously funny.

if you had a teevee in the 70s, you were "there." that's how "well, excuuuuse me" and "two wild and crazy guys" became national catch phrases.

and vaudeville (or the traces of it you can find in early movies) is also very entertaining.

steve martin, not so much.

[Generic Brad]

6. He was the anti-comedian

The joke was that what we were supposed to think was funny was not actually funny. Appreciating his humor was facilitated by smoking massive quantities of pot.