Top Five Comedians that are Currently Unfunny

Top Five Comedians that are Currently Unfunny

While listening to some podcasts, this very list popped in my head after a discussion I had a few months ago on a fellow blogger’s blog.  This list formed out of that discussion.  

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5.  Janeane Garofalo:  She was never fully my type of comedian to watch, but I found her pop culture filled standup routines from the 90s very entertaining.  She was laid back and very funny with her ironic humor.  If you don’t believe me, take a look at this clip of her standup.  At some point in the 2000s, she grew bitter and unfunny.  Everything became a political statement with her followed by a frown.  She became a female version of Sean Penn.  I’m all for people standing up for their political views, but all credibility is thrown out when you side with a Scientology front group on your on radio show. 

Garofalo kept mentioning the Detoxification Project on the show and her co-host took her to task about it. You can't complain about losing our freedoms to the US government when you side with an organization that uses “fair game” tactics to shut up its critics. Garofalo needs to get back to doing those quirky standup routines from the 90s in order to be funny again.

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 4.  Margaret Cho:  I like Cho because she touched upon race issues through her standup routines and made it entertaining.  I kind of gave her a pass when she spouted some political views, but MC brought up an interesting point about her bitterness over being screwed over while filming All American Girl. As MC mentioned in his post, 16 years is enough time to get over getting f’ed over by the network and we don't need to hear the same damn story over and over again, Margaret.

Then, there's the whole showing up on Dancing with the Stars show. When you share the stage with talentless and tired hacks like David Hasselhoff and Bristol Palin, you have to look yourself in the mirror consider a course correct in your career...or the fact Bristol beat you out of the show. 

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3.  Jim Carrey:  Jim (James) Carrey starred in some interesting and funny roles after leaving In Living Color early in his movie career.  Ace Ventura: Pet Detective still kind of holds up and The Mask is strangely funny even today.  The Cable Guy I contend is still some of his best work to date, and The Cable Guy an underrated movie.  It was around 2000s when things started to come off the rails so to speak.  Bruce Almighty was unfunny and The Majestic was boring.  The Number 23 was confusing and just plain dumb.  Fun with Dick and Jane was just horrid to watch.  Yes Man was a poor carbon copy of Liar Liar.  I not sure what Carrey needs to do to get back to doing interesting and funny roles again, but his career has taken a nosedive of late. 

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 2.  Adam Sandler:  Nearly every movie he’s produced has had the same formula since The Waterboy, and I liked Waterboy.  After watching the last 30 minutes of You Don't Mess with the Zohan, I realized he just phoning it in now and playing to his hardcore audience.  Zohan has to have one of the worst endings I’ve ever seen.  Two of the main characters scream and sing loudly to defeat the bad guys.  I almost thought I dreamed up that ending.  Zohan just made me angry.  There are some good movies in his list, but Zohan and Little Nicky take the cake for me. 

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 1.  Dennis Miller:  Talk about going from 100 to 0.   I grew up watching Miller do the news on SNL.  Every Monday at school, my friends and I would quote Miller’s best lines from the Saturday episode.  (Which is probably why we didn’t have much luck with the girls…moving on)  I moved onto his wonderfully sharp HBO show The Dennis Miller Show.  His comedic timing and writing was even better on HBO and I loved it.  Part of Miller’s charm was he was a moderate and picked on everyone.   Being a strong moderate myself, I identified with his humor. 

Sometime after 9/11, he took a sharp turn to the right and pretty much dropped all the humor from his act.  The Dennis Miller of today is boring and bland.  He became the very thing his younger self hated…a talking mouthpiece for one side of the aisle.  I’d love to go back in time and tell the bright-eyed SNL young Miller how he changed to a bearded fat head that’s not funny anymore.