Bill Cosby is a big old rapist (on the loose)

[Zephyr_Nova]

i don't find any of it creepy on reflection, just boring as all hell. I've never known one of his standup things to ellicit a chukle from me. This concerned me over the years, why don't i find him funny, he's very famous and is so due to the fact that he's in comedy, surely there must have been some point whereupon our senses of humour collided. nope.

 

I was always baffled by how well respected he was by comedians I admire. Sitting through one of his standup specials is painful. I always appreciated the unique character of his speaking voice though, and until I heard other comedians giving him high praise I thought that was what most people liked about Cosby.

[LimpyLoo]

 

i don't find any of it creepy on reflection, just boring as all hell. I've never known one of his standup things to ellicit a chukle from me. This concerned me over the years, why don't i find him funny, he's very famous and is so due to the fact that he's in comedy, surely there must have been some point whereupon our senses of humour collided. nope.

 

I was always baffled by how well respected he was by comedians I admire. Sitting through one of his standup specials is painful. I always appreciated the unique character of his speaking voice though, and until I heard other comedians giving him high praise I thought that was what most people liked about Cosby.

 

 

he's one of the 'greats' that i always scratched my head about

(i also feel that way about Richard Pryor and George Carlin and a handful of other "must-like" comics)

[Zephyr_Nova]

I adore Carlin, and Pryor was at his best when he at his most unsettling. There was one set of his in a small bar where it was more like dramatic theatre than a standup performace; very powerful and affecting. I haven't seen anything else like it, and that gave me an instant appreciation for it. Plus both of them were integral in the evolution of comedy. Breaking bounderies of what is appropriate etc. ... sort of like what Cosby tried to do with rape!

[Adieu]

 

 

i don't find any of it creepy on reflection, just boring as all hell. I've never known one of his standup things to ellicit a chukle from me. This concerned me over the years, why don't i find him funny, he's very famous and is so due to the fact that he's in comedy, surely there must have been some point whereupon our senses of humour collided. nope.

 

I was always baffled by how well respected he was by comedians I admire. Sitting through one of his standup specials is painful. I always appreciated the unique character of his speaking voice though, and until I heard other comedians giving him high praise I thought that was what most people liked about Cosby.

 

 

he's one of the 'greats' that i always scratched my head about

(i also feel that way about Richard Pryor and George Carlin and a handful of other "must-like" comics)

 

 

If you don't like George Carlin you might have aspergers

[delet...]

 

i don't find any of it creepy on reflection, just boring as all hell. I've never known one of his standup things to ellicit a chukle from me. This concerned me over the years, why don't i find him funny, he's very famous and is so due to the fact that he's in comedy, surely there must have been some point whereupon our senses of humour collided. nope.

 

I was always baffled by how well respected he was by comedians I admire. Sitting through one of his standup specials is painful. I always appreciated the unique character of his speaking voice though, and until I heard other comedians giving him high praise I thought that was what most people liked about Cosby.

 

 

 

yeah, that's what i thought too, people just liked him cause of his odd bizzimmabizzamabazoom and his generally affable manner.

[caze]

I think for a lot of people under 35-40 Carlin just comes across as pretty tame (especially for people who had already grown up in a liberal environment), but I guess for others growing up listening to someone like him it was somewhat shocking and inspiring. It's the same with Lenny Bruce, hugely important at the time, but listen back to him now and the material hasn't aged well at all. Comedy is hugely contextual.

[Schlitze]

Carlin and Pryor are two guys who made their mark on the stand up circuit back in the day, i'm less familiar with Carlin but have friends who think he's a god (they have collections of Hicks and Pryor DVD's so who am I to argue) i just haven't seen enough of Carlin to judge. Cosby is not known as a stand up in Britain, he was on Channel 4 in the Cosby Show when I was a kid and when that finished we didn't hear much more about him. It makes me wonder if he was laying low because he knew the allegations would come to the surface. He's got a very guilty expression on his face even though it's a very expressionless face.

[delet...]

I think that carlin holds up. His stories are akin to those of a greek philosopher of old, the context may become distant but the meaning is still universal. Maybe he doesn't speak to people that aren't very politically minded, of a sceptical or cynical bent. I find that many people that would define themselves as liberal these days are none of these things (nor truly liberal), they're just going with the flow as most people are want to do. Carlin wouldn't like them either. I'd love to hear what he had to say about this neoliberal fascism.

 

 

(yes i'm aware what neoliberal means, i used it somewhat ironically, given that the kids these days are so overjoyed at their pointless victories and angry over their pointless bad things, the war on the 99% movement by the elite has succeeded spectacularly. So by their lack of action against neoliberalism one could call this a passive embrace of it and all that it is still ushering in from the TPP and TPIP to etcc.)

[caze]

I think that carlin holds up. His stories are akin to those of a greek philosopher of old, the context may become distant but the meaning is still universal. Maybe he doesn't speak to people that aren't very politically minded, of a sceptical or cynical bent.

 

no, it's more that he was speaking to a public that was a lot more repressed and conservative than today's is, so what he said then was shocking and original; but now, it sounds obvious and boring (and thus, not particularly funny).

Edited July 13, 2015 by caze

[LimpyLoo]

 

 

 

i don't find any of it creepy on reflection, just boring as all hell. I've never known one of his standup things to ellicit a chukle from me. This concerned me over the years, why don't i find him funny, he's very famous and is so due to the fact that he's in comedy, surely there must have been some point whereupon our senses of humour collided. nope.

 

I was always baffled by how well respected he was by comedians I admire. Sitting through one of his standup specials is painful. I always appreciated the unique character of his speaking voice though, and until I heard other comedians giving him high praise I thought that was what most people liked about Cosby.

 

 

he's one of the 'greats' that i always scratched my head about

(i also feel that way about Richard Pryor and George Carlin and a handful of other "must-like" comics)

 

 

If you don't like George Carlin you might have aspergers

 

 

George Carlin just talks about how stupid and fat Americans are. He is occasionally funny, but mostly he's just an asshole who thinks he's better than fat people.

[LimpyLoo]

FOR INSTANCE

 

[delet...]

 

I think that carlin holds up. His stories are akin to those of a greek philosopher of old, the context may become distant but the meaning is still universal. Maybe he doesn't speak to people that aren't very politically minded, of a sceptical or cynical bent. I find that many people that would define themselves as liberal these days are none of these things (nor truly liberal), they're just going with the flow as most people are want to do. Carlin wouldn't like them either. I'd love to hear what he had to say about this neoliberal fascism.

 

 

(yes i'm aware what neoliberal means, i used it somewhat ironically, given that the kids these days are so overjoyed at their pointless victories and angry over their pointless bad things, the war on the 99% movement by the elite has succeeded spectacularly. So by their lack of action against neoliberalism one could call this a passive embrace of it and all that it is still ushering in from the TPP and TPIP to etcc.)

 

no, it's more that he was speaking to a public that was a lot more repressed and conservative than today's is, so what he said then was shocking and original; but now, it sounds obvious and boring (and thus, not particularly funny).

 

 

 

i didn't find it shocking, as i listened to it late and i think what he was saying is as relevant as ever given the fact there has been a dramatic reduction in satirical send-ups of the eilte, i also think that he's a good story teller. If people liked his stand up because they thought the ideas discussed were original at the time they must have been pretty out of the loop, speaking to power and being aware of it's obvious failings or life's obvious foibles is not a new thing, it's as old as civilization. Hence my comment that his ideas still stand and opinion that we need more of it. Lord knows we don't get it from ideological ring fence dwelling insiders like john stewart.

 

Of course some people find cynical humour a bit much and if it's not your thing (limpy) that's alright.

[LimpyLoo]

 

 

I think that carlin holds up. His stories are akin to those of a greek philosopher of old, the context may become distant but the meaning is still universal. Maybe he doesn't speak to people that aren't very politically minded, of a sceptical or cynical bent. I find that many people that would define themselves as liberal these days are none of these things (nor truly liberal), they're just going with the flow as most people are want to do. Carlin wouldn't like them either. I'd love to hear what he had to say about this neoliberal fascism.

 

 

(yes i'm aware what neoliberal means, i used it somewhat ironically, given that the kids these days are so overjoyed at their pointless victories and angry over their pointless bad things, the war on the 99% movement by the elite has succeeded spectacularly. So by their lack of action against neoliberalism one could call this a passive embrace of it and all that it is still ushering in from the TPP and TPIP to etcc.)

 

no, it's more that he was speaking to a public that was a lot more repressed and conservative than today's is, so what he said then was shocking and original; but now, it sounds obvious and boring (and thus, not particularly funny).

 

 

 

i didn't find it shocking, as i listened to it late and i think what he was saying is as relevant as ever given the fact there has been a dramatic reduction in satirical send-ups of the eilte, i also think that he's a good story teller. If people liked his stand up because they thought the ideas discussed were original at the time they must have been pretty out of the loop, speaking to power and being aware of it's obvious failings is not a new thing, it's as old as civilization. Hence my comment that his ideas still stand and opinion that we need more of it. Lord knows we don't get it from ideological ring fence dwelling insiders like john stewart.

 

Of course some people find cynical humour a bit much and if it's not your thing (limpy) that's alright.

 

 

it's not that GC is too tame or too cynical for me

he's just not my thing

 

i'm not saying he's bad

i'm just saying that he's never...

...actually two days ago i was reading some of his quotes on wikiquotes or wherever

and in print, I find GC occasionally funny

 

but to me he's like a buffet of low-hanging fruit

[Zephyr_Nova]

I also really admired Carlin as a wordsmith. His bits were always water tight. Perhaps of all the standup "legends" his writing is the tightest. Man had some serious rhythm.

[awepittance]

he did but its sort of a widely held 'belief' among comedians that Carlin's work for the last 10 years became essentially rehashes of not only his earlier work but pretty typical 'non-pc' reactionary stuff (that people like Dennis Leary after stealing Bill Hicks act already turned into an almost self parody). people who consider him a genius usually look to his actual standup comedy from the first 2/3rds of his career, not as much his later bitter lectures (when a lot of them feel like he was just phoning in)

Edited July 13, 2015 by John Ehrlichman

[Candiru]

 

 

 

i don't find any of it creepy on reflection, just boring as all hell. I've never known one of his standup things to ellicit a chukle from me. This concerned me over the years, why don't i find him funny, he's very famous and is so due to the fact that he's in comedy, surely there must have been some point whereupon our senses of humour collided. nope.

I was always baffled by how well respected he was by comedians I admire. Sitting through one of his standup specials is painful. I always appreciated the unique character of his speaking voice though, and until I heard other comedians giving him high praise I thought that was what most people liked about Cosby.

he's one of the 'greats' that i always scratched my head about

(i also feel that way about Richard Pryor and George Carlin and a handful of other "must-like" comics)

If you don't like George Carlin you definitely have aspergers

[Hugh Mughnus]

mods can we fix the thread title? bill cosby is only 85kg. I mean he's 6 foot 2 so he's tall, but I don't think he's particularly big.

 

He's old though so can we just go with Bill Cosby is a tall but moderately sized old rapist?

 

I feel like that's more accurate.

Edited July 14, 2015 by StephenG

[usagi]

Bill Cosby is a shrub rocketeer

Bill Cosby is a buntyman

Bill Cosby is an Unabummer

Bill Cosby is a small bean regarder

Bill Cosby is a 2 pin DIN plug

[Hugh Mughnus]

unabummer

[usagi]

I just remembered those all mean paedophilia. fak.

[caze]

he has more genes in common with crabs than he does with you and me.

[chenGOD]

he did but its sort of a widely held 'belief' among comedians that Carlin's work for the last 10 years became essentially rehashes of not only his earlier work but pretty typical 'non-pc' reactionary stuff (that people like Dennis Leary after stealing Bill Hicks act already turned into an almost self parody). people who consider him a genius usually look to his actual standup comedy from the first 2/3rds of his career, not as much his later bitter lectures (when a lot of them feel like he was just phoning in)

 

Yeah this is kind of what i wanted to say. He could be funny as fuck, but his material got tiresome in his later years.

[Nebraska]

whoopi goldberg changes stance on bill cosby "all the information kinda points to guilty"

 

[NI64]

 

he did but its sort of a widely held 'belief' among comedians that Carlin's work for the last 10 years became essentially rehashes of not only his earlier work but pretty typical 'non-pc' reactionary stuff (that people like Dennis Leary after stealing Bill Hicks act already turned into an almost self parody). people who consider him a genius usually look to his actual standup comedy from the first 2/3rds of his career, not as much his later bitter lectures (when a lot of them feel like he was just phoning in)

Yeah this is kind of what i wanted to say. He could be funny as fuck, but his material got tiresome in his later years.

Oh I disagree entirely. I think his material just got better and better as he aged. His really early, less cynical stuff I think hasn't aged nearly as well. But overall I'm in the "Carlin is God" camp. Seen all his specials, read all his books, only regret having never seen him live. I think for me the main appeal is just his brutal honesty about life in America. Even today, a lot of people might say they agree with him, but you never hear people just lay it all down as hard and unabashedly as he did, particularly on religion. Everybody is just so terrified of being quoted saying something politically incorrect now. Carlin clearly did not give a shit what anybody thought about his words. The man lived entirely outside of society, but stayed on the sidelines, spectating and critizing. A true comedic genius.

[Zephyr_Nova]

Amen.

 

I saw him live during what I believe was his last tour. Never thought I'd be laughing with my mom about fucking the salvaged remains of dead women. (My mom's quite conservative, but Carlin had a way with words.)