Modern Humor

[Spark Of Spirit]

I thought for a discussion thread, we could try discussing this emerging trend in mainstream humor where the comedy no longer seems to come from outrageous situations or developed plots but instead on a specific type of humor that revolves around what I call 'obscurities' both in dialogue, jokes, and plots.

*This is not meant to be about any specific show, network, or creative team, it's just something I thought deserved general discussion. Most of this is just crazy babbling that has been building in my head, so take it all with a mountain of salt.*

'Obscurities' for me seem to mean how the humor comes from 'obscurities' in the main character's life. Dialogue that frequently references obscure material for jokes or plot points, characters that frequently are defined by 'obscure' traits instead of defined flaws or character development, and plots that revolve on obscure ideas or references from other non-related material.

Modern humor seems to be fully devoted to this idea that referencing other material in their own leads to a unique concoction that drives people to watch it. I mean, that is what almost every popular comedy does nowadays. I can only name a handful (all of which are animated) that do not. And in theory, I can see where they're going... But as always, it ends up being lazy due to how most of the adopters of this style refuse to incorporate the basics of good storytelling. Plots development that makes logical sense, jokes and plot points that come from logical situations inside the universe, characters that have traits and defining features instead of manchildren who act like teenagers and say 'dude' a lot, young boys as dumb as a sack of hammers and frequently say stupid things for a cheap joke, young girls who have heads full of air and nothing to contribute, shrew middle aged women who talk fast and reference things from the 1980s that have little resemblance to the actual plot. Now how many shows did I just reference there? Note that I wasn't thinking of any particular one.

These shows tend to base their style on one thing in particular, and that's dialogue. There are two types at play, usually fast paced dialogue that try to cram in as many jokes into one line as possible (cribbed from the Simpsons) that are usually pop culture references that have little of anything to do with the plots, characters, or the century we're living in. The other is slow paced humor that tries to show the "wacky" in modern day situations (cribbed from Seinfeld) by splicing mundane situations with tired cartoon humor that is only funny because 'it's real life not a cartoon!' The dialogue is almost always filled with every character saying something really stupid and little else.

My problem with this is that, it all feels very lazy and tired. Every comedy on TV follows this format now, leading to the death of sitcoms, adult animation (that isn't just another family show), and even dramas have been infected with this stuff.

Here is an example of a show that does this style well, and why these shows miss the mark:

Home Movies. Every character in Home Movies is distinct in both their humor, character, and ideals. You cannot transplant any character dialogue from one to the other, and that's the way it should be. The plots are driven by the character's reactions and believable decisions in it. Most important, while the humor is dry and dialogue based, it does not hinge upon knowing anything other than the character speaking the lines. Modern humor frequently does not make a distinction between characters, and instead uses a general style of humor that any character can state. It is my feeling that we're losing something with modern humor and everything is getting more and more homogenized.

But why am I bringing this up now? I don't really know, myself. I guess I'm just tired of turning on the TV and flipping to reruns to find something different to watch (which is weird in itself), instead of watching the latest Curb Your Enthusiasm rip off from people capable of better or celebrity dance off that I couldn't really give a crap about.

By the way, I think the first time I legitimately heard anyone say 'dude' on TV (that wasn't a surfer movie or something) was in South Park's first episode. Now try escaping the word.

[Angus]

I kind of see that more in cartoon movies like the later Shreks, Doogal, Happy Feet (songs from the 1970s), and then there's ugh, Moulin Rouge. The references attempt to make a connection with the  older demographic, but I figure that comedy that uses too much of that will just result in crickets chirping. Maybe they just need to create more dedicated decade shows like Happy Days or That 70s Show, I Love the 80s,  to express such nostalgia; actually TVLand does quite well in that market.

In the anime world, there's otaku anime like Lucky Star, which has Konata and maybe Akira as notable personalities, while everyone else is interchangeable with every other anime comedy. It does have some nice parodies but so many obscure jokes and references to other shows that you feel like you have to watch as a pre-requisite, or crawl onto a resource site to figure out. TV serial dramas get to be like that as well, except for the episodics and the ones that can pull you in no matter how few previous episodes you've seen.

I enjoy comedies that have fleshed out characters but generic modern humor has a place in the world too. The current events jokes on talk shows can amuse, and can be passed around like viral videos. They might have a strong pre-requisite of pop culture, but it's no big whoop on who presents them whether it'd be Jay Leno or your friends blogging on Facebook. But the best jokes are the ones I can think up myself given my situations and observations.

I haven't seen Curb Your Enthusiasm as it's one of those pay network channels, but if it's the trend setter you say it is with comedy then it should outlast its clones.

[Foggle]

Dialogue-based humor is the best possible kind (IMO), but it needs a skilled writer to succeed. Which is the problem with many modern comedies; the writers think that post-revival Family Guy is the epitome of quality humor and tend to pen utter tripe with little to no thought put into it. Exhibit A: 2007's Oscar-winning comedy, Juno. This movie is in no way clever, it is literally just a string of obscure references and "jokes" about character quirks. It lacks wit, despite trying desperately to be witty.

For a good example of modern humor, on the other hand, you should really watch In Bruges, as I think you'd like it. It's absolutely brilliant and one of the funniest damn films I've ever seen. There's also Excel Saga (the manga), in which every character is a little bit strange, but the author never relies on that fact for cheap comedy and instead presents them in the most plausible way possible, making everything they do all the more hilarious.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I don't want it to sound purely like I hate this era of entertainment, I just hate that we should be having more options available in this era and we simply don't.

I enjoy dialogue based humor a lot, but sometimes I just wanna see an anvil dropped on someone's head without some screechy voice-over yelling "I'm okay!"... While its good that humor can be more subtle, it almost feels like we're losing the other end of the spectrum at times. In this day and age with so many options available, it would be nice if we could actually have those options and not just be told we do.

Even Fraiser had an episode where someone threw a pie.

[Angus]

It'd be nice to have more visual humor like Tom & Jerry and Pink Panther, or even Mr. Bean back in the 1990s. Then you can broadcast it at a noisy restaurant without the captions. Some of today's movies still rely on catchy visuals, unfortunately a lot of that requires 3-D glasses, and as usual, the best scenes are in the trailers.

[Foggle]

sometimes I just wanna see an anvil dropped on someone's head without some screechy voice-over yelling "I'm okay!"...

Oh, definitely. Good slapstick is hard to come by today precisely because of that "I'm okay" bullshit. I'd love to see something like Looney Tunes come about today that isn't toned down for the Roman Catholic Revival parents but also isn't fucking disgusting like Ren & Stimpy's later episodes.

While its good that humor can be more subtle, it almost feels like we're losing the other end of the spectrum at times. In this day and age with so many options available, it would be nice if we could actually have those options and not just be told we do.

I disagree somewhat. I feel that, these days, people are almost incapable of writing subtle humor, as writers seem to use the "obscurities" you talked about in your first post as a replacement for true wit. Both ends of the spectrum (high-brow and low-brow comedy) are under fire here, with the more subtle stuff being decimated entirely and the more obvious stuff being made too obvious, at which point all humor - in both cases - is lost.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I have to agree with Foggle on the subtlety part. Most writers these days simply aren't any good at subtle humor, and are under the impression that making obscure references makes up for that, but its not even close to a replacement. There aren't really any modern shows period which I feel manage to successfully pull of subtle humor. If the writers actually manage to come up with something funny, they'll run that joke into the ground these days, milking it for all its worth since they lack the talent to keep coming up with fresh material, which to me is obviously anything but subtle.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yeah, Foggle is right on that. The problem with the lack of subtlety is pretty much why I can't stand most dialogue driven shows. Like Harvey Birdman would have a dozen jokes going at once even if nothing was actually happening on screen visually. Usually it had something to do with the plot or general situation that makes it all the funnier without detracting from the bigger picture without going into stupid tangents that sound more clever than they actually are. Its the main reason why modern Adult Swim sucks as a whole, since it lost a lot of the subtlety it once prided itself on and in the process doesn't even have any of the creators of their original line up left.

I thought it was cool when we were seeing more dialogue driven shows at first but they just aren't very funny as a whole. You could say the majority is always shit, but at least they might be decent to look at or something, bad dialogue-driven shows literally have nothing to offer if the dialogue sucks.

Slapstick humor is just as bad where its stuck on Butch Hartman style randomness with PC-era 'safe' jokes that neuter the whole point of slapstick.