So, to recap: Facts. Love.

And don't forget to make people laugh. He left that part out. asshole

Making people laugh is a great contribution imo. Especially when there is much to be stressed/miserable about.

Well, I think 9/11 was probably the watershed moment there.

And lets be real, there are other reasons the US has interest in the Middle East beyond just stopping terrorism.

I love the Stewart formula. Make people laugh enough and they'll sit and listen to your sincere thoughts on anything, EVEN when you completely remove the comic veil. Not that I am at all criticising him or suggesting it is a deliberate ploy, I'm just glad somebody can say things so eloquently to an audience without it sounding like a lecture.

Holy shit, I fell of my chair, I laughed that hard. Seriously.
If you were a robot and somebody made a movie about you, we'd call it "The Irony Giant"
You truly are a clown, Bob. At the same time somehow terrifying and capable to make people laugh, a sad and hilarious man.
Don't you see it? You just told an angry, black dude, who reacts strongly to anything remotely racist, that you, white dude, are intellectually superior to him because you look at things subjectively. And all that in context to that video.

Hilarious, sad shit, man. You're a misanthrope's comedy gold.

Not quite, he (Donald L. Unger) won an Ig Nobel prize, a satirical version of the Nobel prize, given to "honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think". Basically anything that sounds way too silly but can still yield useful knowledge.

While silly, it's still (usually) all based on proper scientific method, and there's even an example of a man who first won the Ig Nobel prize in physics in 2000 (for levitating a frog with magnets), and then later went to win the Nobel prize in physics together with Konstantin Novoselov for their work on graphene. =)

"The rich keep you fed enough that you bark at the intruders." - Some youtuber.

Yes he's a little out of his depth and he's so desperate to try and get people to understand that he's hurrying and nervous. Well, he's a comedian, he isn't used to public speaking, he knows how to make people laugh not convince them in an argument. But he's out there, putting his neck on the line when he doesn't even NEED to - because as the tabloids (controlled by who?) enjoy pointing out he's rich. At least he got rich through his ability to make people laugh, rather than tricking people into voting for him because he'd act in their best interests then selling their decisions to the highest bidder.

We are seeing politicians scrambling for ANYTHING they can to hold power and keep making money for a little longer. That anything is immigration and they're quite happy to let people convince themselves its the immigrants. Even if we are slightly overcrowded for our infrastructure in Britain, we wouldn't be if the money in the system was active and being used to build and be productive instead of sitting in the pockets of people who have everything they want and 8 figure bank balances. These people in charge keep telling us they're going to tackle all these problems, but they never do anything to close the loopholes being used by all the huge corporations who have been paying NO TAX WHATSOEVER during the times of extreme wealth and growth. Is it any wonder our countries are in a dire condition? Our tax system has been starved of hundreds of billions, possibly trillions, who really knows!? And why weren't they closed? Just look at the links between big business and and politics, the only reason we aren't all saying "what the fuck is going on?" is because they can distract people through their control over the media and their convincing oratory skill into going "it's your neighbour.. it's his fault. was he born here? why is he using your hospital?", meanwhile we lose out of BILLIONS because the post office was sold off on the sly! Only to be told next election THAT WE ARE SHORT ON OUR FUCKING BUDGET. You're ok with that happening?! Why is it ok for them to keep coming back having lost our money and asking for more, but if it was a man who came directly to our door to collect our money in exchange for services, we'd tell him to piss off? It's EASIER to blame someone who looks and speaks differently rather than the clever bastard with a gleam in his eye sitting in the pub silver tonguing his constituents.

We are not fucking short on productivity - how many people do you know that think they have a lot of spare time and freedom from work? But that productivity is not being directed appropriately, and if you don't believe that then you need to get outside and talk to people who are less fortunate than you... benefit of the doubt, maybe you just haven't had to see it. But all the money that went on bonuses could be going into improving schools, police, hospitals, public transport and roads and god knows what else. A bunch of people would go without a brand new range rover sport or yacht or champagne holiday for 30... in contrast, thousands less people would die - think of the old people dying in the cold each winter? or hospital beds and treatments for those with cancer or anything that the NHS can't afford to treat? All the freshly educated nurses and doctors thanks to our universities being given cash to improve their facilities and training.

The theory behind all this was trickle-down-wealth, the money will be distributed through society by paying those at the top a lot of money. It CLEARLY does not work, and anyone who suggests otherwise would surely be considered insane. It's not working, we see it not working, so why aren't we fixing it or getting angry and making those in charge fix it?

If Brand is advocating anarchy (and i'd like to know your argument for saying that, i could stand to be convinced), it's because he's exasperated at our inaction and wants to try and stir people to act. We're currently at the other extreme - watching it happen. People are criticising the crowd for being too into brand, too "leftist" or some nonsense. But those are the people that are having their lives drained by these leeches at the top, of course they're only going to come and cheer if someone is going to say what needs to be said. Any other night, it's just drones debating different ways to stack the odds against everyone.

Edited: Tried to make it nicer, more readable, sorry for the long post but he's really really got a great point and i can't understand why we are all ignoring what's going on. We seem to accept that big business WILL get away with not paying billions in tax like that's fine.. but it's not, we can change it, we just have to stop fucking ignoring it and hold these twats to account like Brand is trying to do. It's not like he's suggesting some wild and risky change, he's just saying STOP LETTING AND HELPING PEOPLE STEAL MONEY FROM US. They won't, and watch Farage go bright red when brand talks about his scandals and rich business partners. If they won't, we need to get rid of them. You may not like his demeanour but he is expressing democratic and egalitarian points.

No problem. I've got a few jokes for you straight off the bat - what's brown and sticky? A stick. What's ET short for? He's only got little legs. Did you hear the one about the constipated mathematician? He worked it out with a pencil. Doctor doctor, i feel like a pair of curtains. Pull yourself together! What's black and white and eats like a horse? A zebra. What's black and white, black and white, black and white? A penguin rolling down a hill.

Hell, Tim Vine does hundreds of one liners in half an hour and the majority of them are not at anyone's expense.

I think you've confused what you find funny with the term "humour" as it were. You may only find shadenfreude funny, and so you think all humour is shadenfreude, but it is patently obvious that things can be humourous without being at someone's expense and i find it almost petulant to be asked to prove it when it is so obvious. You almost certainly know loads of jokes like that. How does Bob Marley like his donuts? Wi' jam-in. I stood there, wondering why the frisbee was getting bigger and bigger..... and then it hit me. What did the fish say when he swam into the wall? Dam.

From what i remember of Lenny Henry's standup (like him or not) in the old days, he didn't often tell a joke at someone's expense. Tommy Cooper used to make people laugh by doing bad magic tricks. Les Dawson used to make people laugh by playing the piano badly as only a good pianist can. Terry Pratchett makes me laugh by conjuring up funny situations in a fictional world. I laughed at the Big Lebowski when he shaded the pad of paper to see what secret notes Jackie Treehorn was making and it turned out to be a doodle of a man holding his own cock. What do you call a fish with no eyes? A fsh. I bought some new viagra eye drops, cos they make me look hard. What do you call a man with a shovel on his head? Doug.

I could go on and on and on, but i don't get paid for this and i have other stuff to do, but i hope i've opened your eyes to whole new realms of comedy where people don't get hit in the face with stuff. Where are the Andes? At the end of your wristies. Why didn't the skeleton go to the party? He had no body to go with.

I'm so confused by your request for proof that i feel like someone's asked me "Air? What air? There's no air, i can't see any!"

I'm utterly dreading to read your reply if it says anything along the lines of "That ET joke is offensive to short people! That skeleton joke is offensive to people with eating disorders! The penguin joke is offensive to the penguin you pushed down the hill!" Please don't embarrass us both by doing that, we both know those jokes aren't offensive. (Or very funny, to be honest.)

I wouldn't go down the road of ranking the bad things, it could get messy. I think how this whole argument started was based on what wasn't a joke but could just be a guy telling a girl in a room that she should be raped. All those jokes you just said are funny, and the jokes Jim was talking about completely surreal and defensible. The furore stemmed from a particular joke and an undercurrent of anger that the issue is being ignored or even shoved aside by saying women deserve to be raped. So it's understandable that people are mad.

Every joke you said was funny to me, and that's the point Make, People, Laugh. It's your job if you're a comic and you're onstage to Make your audience laugh. There's a famous clip somewhere of awesome comic Patrice O'neal who's no longer with us. He was debating rape jokes with a woman on TV and he made her LAUGH at a rape joke. A person who is basically professionally angry about rape, he made her laugh at a rape joke it was soo funny. Now that is a talent and something that I feel is worth protecting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjIuPSuYSOY

As someone who understands Japanese, let me burst your bubble: they're not doing this to see boobs. They would do it even if they were attached to another guy's sweaty butt. The goal is to win and make people laugh, whatever the cost. The girls are only there for the viewers.

Here's how a comedian who is also a decent human being responds to this sort of thing:

"It can be challenging for people in comedy and art to find better ways to do what we do, and avoid hurting people who don’t deserve to be hurt. But that’s my problem to solve, not anyone else’s.

I want to make people laugh, and occasionally think, and maybe — wow! — both at once. I want to have fun doing it. It may always mean being irreverent, skeptical, absurd, even indulging quite a bit of cynicism and sarcasm. But I never want to depend on continually kicking people who are already down to do what I do. I’d rather find another line of work entirely. (Bowling alley attendant comes to mind, since that might have been my last honest job before getting all artsy-fartsy and comedyish.)

I want to stand on the side of humanity. I want to be humane, even when being a goddamned wise-ass."

@bareboards2

Castration jokes ARE used all the time. The easy examples are poking fun of guys who had a Vasectomy, implying men are whipped (she carries his/your balls around in your purse) and even pirates of the Caribbean made Eunuch jokes.

The same as rape jokes, there are no sit down and tell the tale "rape" jokes (ones that take a while to get to the punchline). You wont hear "Knock knock - Who's there? - Rape!" jokes.

History is full of jokes that made humour in bad taste, but still make people laugh. One of the more recent ones are the Dead baby jokes. Are they disgusting? yes. Are some of them still funny? Yes. Do I actually have a pile of dead babies in my garage? No.

Just like I'd never actually casterate someone, or rape someone.

Hehehhehe,

Ok, I'm here. I'm not a spammer. I'm a real bonified person that just loves to make people laugh.

I just discovered this site, and haven't had time to work on my profile, but, I will be adding real photos of myself. My name is Jamie, I'm an improv stunt actor. I will be mostly posting my videos on here. The main purpose of my videos is to make people smile. I hope I made you smile!

Jamie

[redacted]

>> ^KnivesOut:

Witty observations are a well accepted form of comedy. I think you guys may be over-analyzing it.
If the realization of an idea makes you laugh, is the idea funny? No, you may be laughing at the absurdity of it. The absurdity is what's funny (or the shock of it, or the sadness). And I think that still counts as comedy. People laugh for a lot of reasons.


I think u can only evaluate it from the perspective of the comedian if there objective is to make people laugh then its intended comedy and they are comedians .

I never got the impression that the peoples above were "trying to make people laugh"

>> ^ponceleon:

I'm always amazed that Jimmy is able to get away with Pedo/rape jokes the way he does...


I think he gets away with every joke he does because actually the stand-up side of him is a huge exaggeration of his real self. In person and when he's being interviewed he's one of the loveliest guys you could meet and clearly doesn't believe most of the stuff he tells jokes about