From "Nikki Glaser Wants to Kill as Host of the Globes. Is She Overthinking It?/ To refine her monologue for Sunday’s show, she relied on two writers’ rooms and 91 test runs. Then came the fickle audiences and a crisis of confidence" (NYT).
Should a standup comedian reveal the inner workings like this? It can't make anything funnier for us, the audience. Eh, but who watches the Golden Globes? I used to, but now, I don't even know how to watch them. And I don't think I've even gone to the movies all year (other than to see that one documentary).
The political joke that always kills recently bombed — hmm. Wonder who that was about?
Do we have too many jokes about pedophiles? Are we suppose to experience that question as funny?
ADDED: I have one other post with the tag "Nikki Glaser," and it may shed some light on what sort of joke she might make about sex criminals. From March 28, 2022:
"Everyone saw an assault take place. Everyone in the room with their own eyes. And then if you would have tuned in 20 minutes later, you would have never known that happened."
Said the comic Nikki Glaser, quoted in "Howard Stern Lambastes Will Smith and Academy Inaction Over Chris Rock Oscars Slap/Comic Nikki Glaser called into the show and said she was also shocked, adding she was worried about what Smith's actions signal to others who don't like a joke at a club and attack a comic over it" (The Hollywood Reporter).
This is a big change from the usual post-Oscars complaint about the stars and all their activism. This time the complaint is about all their inactivism.
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38 comments:
I saw one of the test runs at the Hollywood Improv. She was fantastic and hilarious
Just sign Ricky Gervais for the job. He'll get it done properly.
Jokes about lovers of feet are dangerous too.
Some jokes only a woman can tell, like how any guy who orders his steak well done can't be trusted to eat you out when you're on the rag.
Dude.
This is just more mentally ill sh*tting in public.
Knock it off.
“Do we have too many jokes about pedophiles? Are we suppose to experience that question as funny??
“I know you are but what am I” - Pee Wee Herman
"Should a standup comedian reveal the inner workings like this? It can't make anything funnier for us, the audience. Eh, but who watches the Golden Globes?" Those poor old networks, they're like your grandmother's 1986 Cadillac. Not one of the better years, but you still remember the fins and the styling from the salad days, if you think hard enough. But 1986? It's just old, faded, and sad, nothing grand about it. Awards ceremonies these days, it's a giant 'what for?'. Very few dream of being 'one of them' anymore.
It seems funny to me when the parody is the truth and the truth is a parody. Imagine a country declaring its independence so it can sell itself to the highest bidder. Imagine a declared supporter of feminism also a declared supporter of rape. Imagine an army that hides behind its people. Imagine a crime family leader publically awarding a medal to the leader of the soft on crime movement.
All this might happen if The Other becomes The Power while still thinking of itself as The Other and so becomes The Other Kind of Oppressor.
I’m waiting for Nick Bargatze to be hired to host the Oscars. He certainly will not be examining his navel lint for the NYT.
- Krumhorn
I'm lukewarm about Glaser's stand-up, like a lot of woman comics to sex and vagina focused, but she is absolutely brilliant as a roaster. Fearless. Brutal. That's why I'm surprised that the GG want her.
She can be really funny sometimes, but when her jokes are duds, they are pretty lame. You could say that about most comedians.
Meh.
The air is fresher,,, life opens up - when you discard Hollywood.
Female comics are so very rarely funny. They take themselves too seriously.
Comedy is subjective. Millions think Ishtar is funny. Others roll in the aisles over the 3 stooges. And many break out in laughter at the mention of "penis" or "vagina".
Personally, after watching some of her stuff on Youtube, she strikes me as very "meh". Another boring vulgar comedian with jokes about "muh sex life" and your standard issue Hollywood liberal democrat. The chris Rock thing was funny and unserious.
I'm assuming "political Jokes" = "jokes attacking Trump" and are no longer funny because of the assassination attempts and being worn out after being used for 9 years.
Might do well with the generation that grew up watching Dan Schneider shows on Nickelodeon.
Glaser was adding to things to obsess over. 'Do we have too many jokes about pedophiles?' she wondered.
That right there sounds like a parody or a satire.
I read the snippet thinking I knew who "Nikki Glaser" was only to realize that she's somebody different who I'd never heard of. There's always somebody who you don't quite know at the comedy roasts telling jokes about her vagina. She may be one of those, but she's not the one I was thinking of.
The awards themselves are a joke. But if a comic has a chance at a prime time tv audience, good luck to her.
I'm guessing that the unexpected bomb was a clapper joke she tried on a non-clapper audience. The Golden Globes should be safe as houses for that sort of thing.
Perhaps the comment re too many pedophile jokes was itself a joke - she is a comedian, after all.
Particle physicists claim that the act of observing a particle changes the nature of that particle. Perhaps something like that occurs with jokes.....I suppose Bob Hope was the "curator" of the jokes he delivered at the Academy Awards, but my guess is that he would shy away from such a description of himself. It sounds dry and a bit pretentious. If you gaze too long into the structure of a joke, you become the joke......I saw her roast of Tom Brady, and I remember that it was funny, but I can't remember anything else about it. A stand up set is an unstable particle that vanishes like a muon in the upper atmosphere. If her set is funny, it will create a ripple. If she bombs, life on this planet will not be radically altered.
When you have stuff in a performance that is referential to the process of its creation, it breaks the spell an artist is trying to create. Like when a songwriter bitches in his song about not being able to come up with a rhyme, or worse, lyrics like "another line without a hook," in "Not OK."
It doesn't bother me to know Joan Baez's story about how Dylan wrote "When the Ship Comes In" in a half an hour in a hotel room, when Joan, the star, had to go down to the front desk and demand that they let in the scruffy nobody, Bob Dylan. You know his first thought was "When my ship comes in, they will know who I am!" But he didn't write that, he changed it to "the ship" and he used his anger to write a great song.
But stories like this about writers rooms, and the performer being a cog in a high priced machine? I am glad I don't know how to watch the Golden Globes.
You have to admire the people who run our "entertainment" industry. If not for their talent, at least for their smarts. Of course, its mostly smart Jews. No dumb Goy could've created it.
First you create the "Oscars" which is just Hollywood giving itself awards and giving publicity to the movies that make them rich. Then, you create knock-off awards like the Golden globes, for the boobs that cant get enough of the Oscars.
Imagine the car industry creating the "Henrys" for the best car of the year, and getting all the men to tune in. LOL.
Isn’t there a joke somewhere in the fact that the NYTimes “embedded” a journalist in a comedian’s writing room for a whole month?
Glaser is hilarious (google her roast jokes if you’re dubious). The New York Times is as funny as a root canal. Glaser no doubt already regrets the association.
Award show hosts - e.g. CMA's are, typically, unfunny -and vanilla. Jokes b y committees sanitized. The Oscars and GG's became the outliers. Ricky G? Hilarious. The million and one (just) Trump bad comics? Not so much.
Is she going to wear the mini-dress and do the simulated blowjob jokes on the stool?
Someone check in and tell what color panties she was wearing.
When the NYT hired Zinoman to be their standup comedy guy, we warned our readers (of our online mag, SHECKYmagazine.com) at the time, "Be careful what you wish for." No good can come of it, we said. Years later, on a podcast, Zinoman seemed to still be somewhat peeved by our opposition. Our argument was that standup comics don't need the approval of corporate media and that "critics" like him would warp our artistic process. (I think this article proves our point somewhat.
As for Glazer, she's on a roll right now (probably has new, high-powered management/representation due to her Brady roast performance) and she's been around a while, so she knows what she's doing. (She and I were in the same Lastt Comic Standing "class", back in 2010.
She wasn't "rattled." When that joke "bombed," after killing dozens of times, she was likely more annoyed than rattled. It's frustrating, but if it kills repeatedly, it's solid, notwithstanding one poor result. 91 times is more than enough. (I think I only ran my Late Late Show set about 15 times, as it was only five minutes. I ran my Last Comic Standing set a few dozen times-- by making it the opening five minutes of my regular club set for a few weeks.)
The GG gig is a thankless one, but it affords a comic a huge platform. It is like the Correspondent's Dinner. It doesn't matter if you kill or not, you get a ton of publicity in the lead up and a ton and a half in the 48 hours after. After her tongue bath in the Times, she could go up and read the phone book and it wouldn't matter. The cranks and crackpots and busybodies who condemn a comic after a high-profile appearance like this one don't matter. They just come off sounding like old ladies. Like fusspots who say dumb shit like, "Women comics aren't funny." In the grand scheme of things, comedy is subjective and pronouncements about the relative funniness don't matter.
I maintain the pedophile comment is a great meta-joke. First, it is funny to think about how many pedophile jokes are okay, where is that line. Second, it forces you to think "why is she telling pedophile jokes for this event," which then makes you think about Gervais calling Hollywood on its crap and maybe Glaser is subtly calling them all pedophiles (how many frequented Epstein Island? How many were underage when they got their first role in a Weinstein movie? How many suffered through the long-known and tactile accepted casting couch at a tender age? Corey Feldman, anyone?). Finally, it serves to publicize both the GG and Glaser - i wouldn't have known it was taking place tonight otherwise, for example.
You like his deadpan clueless pudgy dipshit routine? Ari Matti would be great. That fucker cuts to the bone. Mercilessness is what your Hollywood clients deserve.
Queer sexual orientations. #NoJudgment #NoLabels #LustWins
“Female comics are so very rarely funny. They take themselves too seriously”
That’s when they’re funniest.
Nate, not Nick. Very funny guy! He's a clean comic. If your audience is old people -- and I'm guessing their audience is skewing older and older -- Bargatze is the way to go.
If you want a more caustic comedian, I would suggest Sam Morril, who's very funny off the cuff, and can do great improv with his audiences. I would love to see Morril up there, buying drinks for Hollywood celebs while he asks them about their problems.
Crowd Work
Should a standup comedian reveal the inner workings like this? Absolutely not. Comedy relies primarily on the element of surprise. If you tell everyone how your sausage is made, they will see your punchlines coming.
This is a very interesting comment.
Thanks for analysis from an actual comedian!
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