B wanted me to see an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, a comedy series I've never watched. So at the end of an otherwise very nice day, I endured 21 minutes of it. Didn't laugh once. My short review was that it reminded me of Married with Children.
Maybe it's my age but if I ever did, I no longer find characters funny who are, well, contemptible. The family in Married with Children was contemptible; there was never a time that you laughed with them, only at them, and they seemed to have nothing but contempt for each other. The Philadelphia crowd were so beyond stupid that they would have been rejected for a Porkies remake. When comedy becomes a matter of making human beings so pathetic that you are ashamed to belong to the same species, something is wrong.
The Real Housewives women are the same. Narcissistic cows without any redeeming qualities.
Makes me see nihilism in the culture, the kind you got from Seinfeld and its co-creator Larry David, with his hideous hit, Curb Your Enthusiasm.
They ain't Groucho or The Marx Brothers or even Carol Burnett or the Three Stooges or Mel Brooks. And while I'm at it, why is it so funny when comix have to say shit and motherfucker every other word? Black comedians are the worst offenders here, but a lot of what passes for funny these days seems to me to be hopeless snotty rage of an adolescent kind.
B is not a fan of nihilism. In fact, Groucho is his epitome comedian. Very good taste in fun. Usually.
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