The month of April was deemed by Comedy Central as stand up month. For Comedy Central this is not out of the ordinary but it seems that lately stand up has been making a big come back. We are seeing more of a generation in their late twenties early thirties make it somewhat big. For example we have Anthony Jeselnik and Amy Schumer with their own show. Both of these comedians I had first saw on various roast, a standard for up and coming comedians. I’m not much for Jeselnik humor but I have to say that Inside Amy is fucking hilarious. It is nice to see that around my age group and older, is finding their voice again in a world were a lot of people prefer happy thoughts.
Various shows have really been putting comedians on blast. For example Community has not only the handsome Joel McHale from the Soup, but they have Donald Glover who has had a special on Comedy Central, which was hilarious. As a fan of the nerd humor, he hit my funny bone more so then Daniel Tosh who also has been on the up and up since his show Tosh.0 debut. I am not the biggest Tosh.0 fan, but I have seen one of his stand up specials and I must admit it was funny but recently he has hit some heat for a rape joke, which personally I do not find very funny, but I suppose that is what they do as comedians, make people feel uncomfortable. I did not hear the joke so I cannot be a fair judge as to how it came off.
It isn’t just the younger crowd that has people going, Louis C K had an HBO special on April 13th and he has been around for a long time. HBO had put some of his other specials on and Lucky Louie. For the most part I have seen all of his specials but this one from 1996 was quiet refreshing to watch. It was nice to see where a young Louis CK had started, his jokes have progressed a lot and with time like in any profession, he has gotten better but I could see where he was coming from and the young talent that was there. Just like the rest of these comedians they will only get better.
Not only are specials making a come back but comedians writing books are too. I watch a lot of Chelsea Lately and I have noticed that a great deal of her writers/round table guest are starting to get book deals. This is refreshing because Handler has written many comical books and she is a great advocate for her writers making it on there own without her help. Her sitcom After Lately had made a joke about Heather McDonald’s book and her crave for famous friends. Although they were making fun of McDonald, it was still promoting her book. In fact Handler promotes everything everyone does as they are sitting at her round table and even ask him or her if she doesn’t know if they have anything to promote. This is to me something enduring about helping out another comedian. If you have ever read any of Handler’s books you would know that a lot of people told her she would never work in LA, yet she does and she supports her guest.
I am loving this trend of going back to the comedian basics. I grew up watching old stand up and now that I am in my mid twenties, I am happy to see new stand up coming out. It has always been there but it has been on the down low and as many of my friends want to just give stand up a shot, I support them. Not only do we have an uprising of young comedians coming out, but we have not forgotten were we come from like Joan Rivers having her own fashion show making fun of celebrities and what they are wearing, a basic staple of Rivers’ stand up for decades. Chris Hardwick didn’t bite the MTV dust, he stuck around and how has a successful podcast and Talking Dead. Hell we still talk about the late George Carlin and the things he has done for comedians. Rosanna Bar ran for president. These people didn’t go away and now it is all of there times to come back and give our society the reality check, kick in the ass they need. We have always needed these people to be the voice of reason and now its in full force.