Anonymous comic to Rolling Stone: Most of the comics you celebrated are whores, and you are a pimp

[BurtWorm]

In reference to Rolling Stone's What's So Funny issue, the magazine received this anonymous lambasting from one of its subjects. Someone is a grouchypants!

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2008/09/16/comedy-issue-smackdown-whos-the-unnamed-comic-criticizing-rolling-stone/


Dear Editors,

I am one of the comedian featured in this year’s Comedy Issue. I won’t say which one, for reasons that will soon become apparent.

The issue made me sick. The majority of the people in it are, for the most part, the worst sort of comedy whores, and you, as a magazine, are a pimp. I don’t know a more polite or politic way to put it. They soulleslly perform what should be sacred rituals in return for sums of money. Whores.

Here is what comedy should do, what it needs to do: challenge assumptions about the society, about the planet, about the species, symbolically threaten those in power so that they always remember the powerless, refocus attention on human weakness as a way of restoring human strength. Great comedy is political by its very nature. These people are corporate. They work for NBC or CBS or HBO and so, it seems, do you. I don’t want to take a shot at anyone in particular, because the problem isn’t in the particulars. It’s in the general idea: a gutless world with gutless media chronically it gutlessly.

As I say, this isn’t sour grapes. I was in the issue. But it hurts me at my heart to see a bunch of effing stupid clowns carrying the torch for American comedy, which has the potential to be (and has been) one of the most powerful cultural, psychological, and (even) artistic forces on the planet. Albert Brooks (I’m not him — that should be a clue) says that the Internet is cripplign comedy because it doesn’t give performers time to develop their acts. I spread the blame to you, to them, to networks, to suits, to boardrooms, to peacocks, to pinheads. Comedy used to rock and roll, at least. It was about getting into everyone’s face, not showing your own.

Shame on you. I hope you rot. I mean that with all the love in the world. I doubt you’ll have the guts to print this. Remember? Gutless.

Sincerely,

Me

[Romulox]

1. Dane Cook proves that comedy ain't funny no more. nt

[YOY]

2. Wonder who it was...

David Cross? Sarah Silverman? One of the Odekirks? Who did the issue have in it?

One of the alternacomics I am sure.

[-..__...]

10. This guy?...

The Unknown Comic

[bryant69]

3. Great Comedy is political? What Tripe

Great Comedy is what makes people laugh. Great Comedy can be political, as in the work of Carlin or Hicks, but it certainly doesn't have to be. The Three Stooges for example. Very funny, largely not political.

And at any rate, why should comedy confine itself to one facet of the human experience?

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[BurtWorm]

Nonsense. The Stooges are funny precisely because of their trenchant analysis

of the contradictions inherent in late capitalism, particularly as it institutionalizes a master-slave relationship between the bourgeoisie and the working class.

:patriot:

[okieinpain]

8. hot damn, man. give me some of what you've been taking. n/t

[bryant69]

11. Ok - how about the Marx Brothers?

Yeah it is a problem because you an put in a political narrative to any comedian. The Marx Brothers underline the inherent chaotic nature of existence and mock those who try to impose some sort of order on society; and Duck Soup was an anti-war picture.

I just resist the suggestion that there is one way to do "Great Comedy." Because there are too many varied types of comedians.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[YOY]

13. Groucho was a finger in the eye of high society...his one liners are classic still.

Disgusted Woman: "Well I NEVER!!!"

Groucho: "And you never will either!"

and a fave: "All people are born alike - except Republicans and Democrats."

[RaleighNCDUer]

14. LOL

[Starbucks Anarchist]

4. I'm guessing it's Richard Belzer.

[uberblonde]

5. Was Belzer included?

Sounds like him.

[driver8]

6. This guy quotes Albert Brooks, who just made one of the most

"unfunny" comedies, ever! "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World" is one of the biggest pieces of shit I have ever seen.

Not only that, but Albert Brooks starred in a re-make of "The In-Laws." The original was absolutely hilarious and great comedy -- the version Albert Brooks was in sucked the big one. Talk about a sell-out.

This guy needs to lighten the fuck up. I don't need to sit and brood about the sorry state of the world all the time and I certainly don't need "comedy" to remind me of it. What's wrong with laughing once in a while?

[codjh9]

7. Excellent. Maher? (I didn't see who was in the issue)

[aikoaiko]

9. I don't know why, but comedians are often some of the angriest people I've ever met.

:shrug:

[aikoaiko]

12. Jimmy Fallon, Sarah Silverman, Don Rickels, Tracy Morgan, Billy Crystal. Chris Rock, Letteman ....

...Tina Fey, Robin Williams....