Is standup comedy pretty much dead?

Is standup comedy pretty much dead?

With previous generations, you can point to a handful of iconic comedians that helped define the culture at that time. What comedians does the current generation have? I would bet that most people can't name even one active standup comedian.

Comedy Central, HBO, and the other premium channels barely even play standup anymore. The late-night comedy programs no longer book comedians. Netflix is trying to get into it, but only with established comedians like Chappelle. There doesn't really seem to be any effort to expose people to new comedians anywhere.

How do we save standup, Sup Forums?

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all the decent comedians went into podcasting

Louis CK

>friend is at boxing match a few days ago
>Amy Schumer and Chappelle are behind him
>Chappelle says hi, takes pictures and then keeps his mouth shut and watches the match
>Amy pipes in every 10 minutes with a shitty vagina joke

The two he remembered were when somebody said out loud "Oh, he's bleeding" she chimed in with "I know I am", and when some guy was saying if somebody found a 20 it was his she responded with "And if anybody finds a tampon that's mine".

This is why standup is dead.

>somebody said out loud "Oh, he's bleeding" she chimed in with "I know I am"
>tfw her and Kevin Hart are this generations two biggest comedians

*ahem*

aren't you forgetting this ol' chunk of coal? I swear to god, not a day goes by when I don't think about this fucking old man and how I hate his fucking guts.

comedy is actually in a boom right now. more people have sold out madison square in the past ten years than ever before.

also, you're just looking back on golden years. at any given time, there will maybe be one or two truly popular comedians. not only that, but most comedians only have one or two great specials.

the big one right now is.. Louie? Maybe? Definitely in the late aughts. Early aughts was Chris Rock. Before him it was Seinfeld (but he doesn't even have a great bit).

The only real challenger to stand-up is youtube, but it's actually easier to make money being a sell-out college comedian hack rather than a rando with 70k subscribers

>this generation thinks a whiny voice and repeatedly calling people fat, stupid fucks is comedy genius

Norm doesn't belong to the current generation though

He's not doing anything groundbreaking, but John Mulaney is one of the best stand ups I've seen in recent years.
New in Town is right up there with the best sets I've ever seen. It's just one great bit after another.

I only watched the pilot of his sitcom, though. It was so bad, I didn't bother continuing.

Standup died with Patrice

Source? I'm guessing it's mostly older comedians like Seinfeld and Chappelle that are just coasting by on their reputations?

All my favorite comedians (Attell, Norm, Stanhope and Regan) put out an album in the last 3 years so I'm ok.

source for what

Louis and Chappelle will probably go down as the current generations Carlin/Pryor. Standup might just be a stepping stone now to building show/cartoon/podcast empires, but judging by dudes like Seinfeld and Chris Rock that's probably been the case since the early 90's.

The MSG thing

splitsider.com/2014/06/six-comics-aziz-ansari-is-joining-as-msg-worthy/

Aziz, chris rock, kevin hart, dane cook, russell peters in the last ten years. it doesn't list Louie but he's done it too. before that it was only eddie and dice

Yeah i like mulaney and birbiglia a lot

>Russell Peters

Literally unironically who?

For years the standup dream pathway was like this:
>Perform on Johnny Carson
>Get called over to talk after the break
>Hopefully be called back to perform and/or guest host
>Ride out your increased prominence to record a standup album and/or special
>Land a sitcom or talk show deal

Not much has changed. Through the 80s-2000s there was increased emphasis on standup specials (taking the place of comedy albums in the 70s) and perhaps there's less of an emphasis on them today, but Netflix produces and distributes a shit ton of standup specials and they've bolstered the success of a number of comics.

Take for example Aziz Ansari, who is one of the most prominent "young" standup comedians—he more or less gained his degree of fame by taking all of the above steps (albeit in a slightly different order—he gained initial fame through Parks & Rec but then proceeded to have a number of successful stand-up specials and talk show appearances before landing a sitcom deal with Master of None). Louis CK, same thing, although his sitcom was/is more niche than the big network sitcoms of the 80s and 90s.

I don't think standup is in itself only a "stepping stone" because there are still a number of prominent comics who follow the old model and still achieve outrageous success

He's an Indian-Canadian comic who was seriously popular (at least in Canada) in the early 2000s and seems to have had some cross-over appeal into the US which has included a sell-out at MSG.

He's like a slightly more edgy and less "cute" Aziz Ansari

because podcasting is better than standup, and arguably requires more talent. you can't just repeat yourself talking off the cuff.

Amy Schumer is the worst stand-up comedian in the world but at least he last special was a bit of a flop and people have started to get sick of her schtick in recent years.

She's still undeniably huge but, I don't know, she's kind of following the same path as Lena Dunham and Jennifer Lawrence - i.e. people are sick of her "I'm real and gross!" routine.

the favorite standup of everyone who isn't white or black

>She's still undeniably huge
Truer words have never been spoken

s it just me or is Steve Martin a massively underrated standup comedian?

He's never ranked with the bigs as much

Pun was most definitely intended brother

By the plebs maybe, he gets mentioned a lot on comedian podcasts whenever the old days come up. I think I last heard people praise him on Norm.

I miss when the banjo was part of his act.

He quit early because he fought his act had reached his natural conclusion, then started doing movies instead

based

>is Steve Martin a massively underrated standup comedian?
No. People who watched and listened to him back in the day understand how good he was.

i think you're underestimating how retarded people are

Essential nu-male core:
>Bill Burr
>Bill Hicks
>Louis CK
>Bo Burnham

yes, even though those comedians have entirely opposing fanbases and 100% different styles, they are somehow all emblematic of modern liberalism

What's wrong with Bill Hicks?

you forgot Doug Stanhope

aziz ansari? really?

bill hicks will have maybe one punchline every ten minutes in his act. I like the guy but he's not a great writer at all

Maybe before he married Nia and had Cleo taken away

...what do any of them have in common aside from being comedians?

Shitty canadian who steals Bill Cosby jokes

ever since liberals went crazy, there hasnt been any room for any comedy that isnt political. you can blame you-know-whos for that

really? because most people I know watch apolitical shit like eric andre or rick and morty. louis CK doesn't touch politics at all and he's the biggest in the world right now.

I don't think I've ever met someone who faithfully watches political talkshow shit other than John Oliver

By normies, yes, he's very underrated.

>Bo Burnham
Bo Burnham has never made me laugh. It's like he's talentless, and decided to try and make people think he's talentless on purpose.

nu-males still think Billy is a misogynist

stick webcams in lounges
no one wants to leave their house anymore

Everyone has a "special" these days as streaming services try to bring in people to their services by providing stand up material, which takes away some of the draw to the "special".

would reccomend Tom Segura
only two stand up bits I've seen in years that had me crying laughing

Stand up comedian here, chiming in with my 2 cents.

It's really shitty. People only want to see comedians they know. People don't wanna go and hang out and smaller level clubs. The demand for live entertainment has dropped a lot. Music has managed to survive because of its accessibility. You don't have to watch it, or even really pay attention to it. Stand up comedy though? That has demands on the audience, and most venues don't want to meet those demands. They want people to come in, hang out, buy drinks. Bands dont tell people to STFU, or say things that offend people, or have anything resembling a "theater" atmosphere.

The comedy club experience is a really unique one. It's like a play, but the 4th wall isn't there, you want to serve drinks, food ect.

All this doesn't even address the notion of getting people to see "nobody" comedians. Lots of comedians get 1 hour specials cause they're famous, not cause they have a solid hour of comedy to perform. It's backwards. We should be getting specials from good comedians. They're called "specials" they used to be that. You'd have talent showcases on TV and it was a special to have one comic fill the entire time.

Netflix needs to do a showcase style show. 20-40 minute episodes with 3-5 comics. None of this hour long special shit, give people a chance. The most expensive part of producing this is talent scouting and searching for it, otherwise, it'd be dirt cheap to make happen.

Stewart Lee is the best comedian to have ever lived

They are doing that you moron, it's literally called The Standups. Comedy Central does it too, This Is Not Happening.

I think I saw a good 1 hour long set from a few years ago.

But I used to see more I think, maybe I've just not been looking for them as much.

Too often I find 5 hilarious minutes of some person I've never heard of before, and then if I try looking them up that's all they fucking have.

I think a lot of people did not give him a chance because of how forced and gimmicky comedy central made his show seem, but this nigga has the two most solid 1 hour specials I have seen come out in the last 7-10 years. He ranges from young eddie murphy to steven wright in terms of jokes per minute, very consistent quality, and actually has conviction about pushing the envelope of 'fucked up' jokes.