Tosh-point-Bullshit

There's a new media "personality" who has displaced both Perez and Paris Hilton as the most noisome, aggravating, idiotic and annoying figure on television...it's Daniel Tosh, whose "comedy" seems to be really thriving on Comedy Central of late. (I run into it when I flip to that channel early to watch The Daily Show.) He is German. He is physically attractive. He is hot. But his material is absolutely moronic and his comments on it drag it even lower than it is to begin with. And his audience and their stupid canned laughter seem so fake. Why is this guy still on ANY channel, let alone Comedy Central, which is supposed to specialize in things that are actually funny? His jokes and video clips are all of the lamest, most anti-intellectual, sensational variety, and his comments on them are so insipid they make Joel McHale on The Soup look like a genius. Is this an experiment to see how low American audiences are willing to go?

Pop culture does NOT have to be brainless tabloid fodder with absolutely no redeeming artistic value. The great thing about Pop Art was the ART.

It's shit like this that makes me mourn the loss of great comedians of the past like Richard Pryor and George Carlin all the more.

Carlin's Last Words

Tony Hendra has written a wonderful little piece on the late, great George Carlin for Huffington Post, arguing that Carlin was/is "America's Greatest Comedian." This comes as the book "Last Words" which he co-created with Carlin is about to hit the shelves. When I first saw an HBO special of Carlin's back in the early '90s it was life-changing: I'd never seen a comedian SO funny who at the same time provoked so much thought and tackled the huge cosmic issues that most people shy away from. He made me laugh til I cried, think about things more deeply and be righteously (but not self-righteously) pissed off all at the same time. (He also forever opened my eyes to what a boring, elitist "sport" golf is and to this day I can't abide it.) I will miss his raging, scorching commentary as he raced about the stage with amazing energy for an older dude (he'd already been at it for quite a while when I first saw a video of his stand-up). I have always had a special appreciation for stand-up comedians. I think performance in general is an art form I have a great deal of respect for, and comedy adds a further "plus" of respect, because I think making people laugh is not easy, and to make them laugh in a smart way, even less so. I think I would venture to say that great stand-up comedians are some of the greatest human artists. (And laughter itself so uniquely and spiritually human.)

Read Hendra's HuffPost article, buy the book, and treasure the memory of a true American original who won't be replaced any time soon.