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Who is the best out of the big 4 ???


Radio ollerhead

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At the moment, I'd agree Jeselnik is top 5. Love that guy. He must be due another Netflix special.

Last Bill Burr special was ok but not amaze-balls.

Favourite UK comic and writer (he does a column in the Observer) is Stewart Lee. He is an acquired taste and he doesn't seem bothered about alienating an audience. There is a protracted 10 minute piece in his latest act about Ricky Gervais. It's pretty brave to attack other comedians.

But Ricky can take it. He is considered quite divisive but the guy can write a good joke. Although you could argue he hasn't "done his time" in that he is a massively successful write and actor that doesn't really tour as a stand up. He just does a few massive stadium shows.

If an alien were to visit Earth and said "show me your best" arguably Bill Hicks Revelations might be the pinnacle of the art. However, I once read a book which transcribed his shows from start to finish and you can see how the same jokes evolve over many years. In other words, he did not have that much material, it was just refined to perfection.

Aforementioned Stewart Lee had a go at him (I saw live in a basement comedy store in London) saying something along the lines of "it's impossible to compete with Bill Hicks - the martyr - I have been doing this for 30 years and write a new original show every year to tour. Bill Hicks has three hours of material."

It's true. But what a three hours.

When I was a kid people used to trade VHS copies of Delirious and Raw. A lot of that stuff is a bit too risky now.

Watched a documentary about Steve Martin a few weeks ago. I never knew that he was the biggest name in standup in the late 70s in the US, playing stadiums. Until he decided to stop because he'd had enough. People went to see him to hear jokes they already knew, like it was a greatest hits. That is a curious thing I could never understand. I'll watch a stand up act again if it's been 5 years and I forgot everything, but listening to the same jokes over and over is just weird.

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Yeah Steve Martin was big when I was in school, he had that whole wild and crazy guy schtick, I was not personally a fan. It was weird at first seeing him acting in movies because we just knew him as a stand up.

In Bill Hicks defense, he died at 32 so I think it's safe to say he might have written some more A-grade material if he'd lived a bit longer. I watched the '92 special last night and on top of it being funny, his delivery was brilliant.

I think a comic's delivery and presentation goes a long way for me, I'm always gonna prefer a guy who acts out the jokes and uses funny voices & facial expressions n shit over a guy like Gervais who is smart and funny but he just stands there and tells his jokes.

Shit forgot about Brian Regan, yeah he's great too.

I've never heard of Anthony Jeselnik, I need to dial up some of his stuff.

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2 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I think a comic's delivery and presentation goes a long way for me, I'm always gonna prefer a guy who acts out the jokes and uses funny voices & facial expressions n shit over a guy like Gervais who is smart and funny but he just stands there and tells his jokes.

Stand up comedy is acting. They just play a character, which may be an exaggerated version of themselves, but a character all the same. For the most part they tell the same jokes night after night while acting like you as an audience are the first to hear it. Unless it is some kind of freak of nature like Robin Williams where allegedly half his set each night was original and made up on the spot in reaction to cues from the audience or maybe whatever happened to him that day. Coke had a lot to do with that.

Bill Hicks would of course have written more great material had he lived...although impossible to know if he would still be performing today. Part of his legend is having died young. I never could believe he was 32. He looked 52 at least. 

Hicks is the Hendrix or Randy Rhoads of standup. 

The Steve Martin standup stuff doesn't translate that well now. It was a time and place I guess. However, his early movies were cult classics in my neck of the woods. Up until about Dirty Rotten Scoundrels it was mostly solid gold.   

I enjoyed his Murders in the Building series recently with Martin Short. He can still make me laugh into his 70s...and he hasn't even really aged in 40 years. There is a pretty decrepit looking portrait in his attic.

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Oh yeah, there are a lot of really funny people in the world, they're just not all great at stand up comedy. I don't dislike Steve Martin in general, I've enjoyed many of his movies, I was just talking specifically about his 70's stand up routine that didn't really appeal to me that much. But then I was just a teenager in the 70's. Robin Williams is another one, a very funny and talented individual but I wouldn't rank him as one of the best stand ups ever (not that he was bad just not one of the best ever) because stand up comedy is a very specific art form or skill set and I'm picky about my stand up. There's lots of very funny people who I think are just better suited for various other mediums for their humor besides stand up. Seinfeld's another one, I loved his tv show but he's not one of my favorite stand ups. Jim Carey's great at sketch comedy and in movies and stuff but I don't think he'd be the greatest stand up. Chappelle's a great stand up but his sketch show was 10 times funnier. I watched a couple of this Jeselnik dudes routines on YT earlier and he's quite good. I love dark humor so I'll have to dig deeper this weekend when I have more time.

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I'll never understand typical human behavior. Waiting in line for 9 hours to simply file past a decomposing dead body in a coffin? But why? For what purpose? What do they get out of it?

I don't do wakes or funerals even when I don't have to wait in line for hours. I did attend my wife's because we had already flown all the way to the other side of the world in hopes of saying our goodbyes, but then hadn't made it there in time to catch her alive at the hospice before her expiry. So then we were kinda stuck over there for a few weeks staying with her family members and naturally they brought me along with them to the funeral home to help them plan her funeral, leaving me no polite way to opt out.

But aside from immediate family I won't do funerals, and even then "immediate" being limited to just your spouse or your own children. Certainly not going for casual acquaintances or complete fucking strangers. Don't see the point. I would request at the time of my own expiry that no public services be held.

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52 minutes ago, KillaKukumba said:

All this talk about the Big 4, who should be in and who should be out, but this is the first time I've heard someone mention Queen. I'm sure many traditionalist will suggest they aren't worthy of the title.

The Big 4 Australians

Steve Irwin

Bon Scott

Ned Kelly

Ross Knight

Wanted to squeeze Paul Hogan, Heath Ledger, Nicole Kidman, Helen Reddy, ON-J, Jimmy Barnes, Colin Hay, Mad Max and Captain Bligh in there somewhere as well but there's just too god damned many notable Aussies.

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It's funny how Americans view/viewed Australians. (or how they were portrayed to us by the media)

For years American polls (fuck knows who they asked) rated Crocodile Dundee higher than Paul Hogan, many claimed they didn't even know who Paul was. What made it even funnier was when they were told Paul was a painter on the Sydney Harbour Bridge they couldn't figure out why that made him so important.

Steve Irwin was universally despised in Australia until he got on Oprah and married a Yank. At the time he wasn't really pushing the eco-warrior thing and his crocodile wrestling just didn't hit it off with Aussie audiences. We had our own local experts who had been on TV longer than Steve and were more respected. Marrying Terry and letting Bindi take over what she did made Steve a household name in this country. Actually what made him a household name was dangling his kid over a crocodile's mouth, he coped such shit for that.

But it's fair that American's don't really know who Aussies are because even we don't know ourselves. Mel Gibson was born in the USA, and considering how much of his adult life he spent in the USA it's a bit rich for us to claim him as ours. Dear ole Olivia Newton John, who died recently as an Australian ambassador with Australian awards too numerous to count wasn't born here, but we claimed her, and she claimed us.

We don't often claim Russell Crowe, despite many people still thinking he's an Aussie and we only claim Nic as Aussie when she does something good, the rest of the time she's Hawaiian. Because she married Keith Urban, she does get certain leeway for being Aussie. However Keith was born in NZ, and pretty much driven out of Oz by the Australian Music Industry. But now his success is too big to ignore we claim him as Aussie because he claims to be Aussie. 

 

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2 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Steve Irwin

Bon Scott

Ned Kelly

Ross Knight

Wanted to squeeze Paul Hogan, Heath Ledger, Nicole Kidman, Helen Reddy, ON-J, Jimmy Barnes, Colin Hay, Mad Max and Captain Bligh in there somewhere as well but there's just too god damned many notable Aussies.

Oh, fuck all of them.

Steve Irwin - see above.

Bon Scott -  dead. innit?

Ned Kelly -  dead and an over-rated thug

Ross Knight - never heard of him

And the others can all fuck off too, except Captain Bligh, who, while not an Australian was a great navigator and a world class arsehole.

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20 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

Oh, fuck all of them.

Steve Irwin - see above.

Bon Scott -  dead. innit?

Ned Kelly -  dead and an over-rated thug

Ross Knight - never heard of him

And the others can all fuck off too, except Captain Bligh, who, while not an Australian was a great navigator and a world class arsehole.

Relax Doc, my 'Aussie Big 4' was just a little humor designed to get Orca to go on one of his infamous "You Yanks don't know shit about OZ" rants. It never fails, every time I say anything at all, no matter how innoucuos about the Republic of Ozzyland or Aussie slang or Aussie food or just about anything to do with 'down under' it makes steam come out of his blowhole.

Captain Bligh was just thrown in for your benefit Doc since you mentioned the Rum Rebellion the other day. If he was Governor of Australia then I reckon he was as Australian as any other Australian, at least while he was based there. At that time in the first decade of the 1800's any Australian over 20 years of age had been born back home in England, no? They had only just sent the first batch of prisoners over in 1788.

Ross Knight is the bogan farmer bassist and lead vocalist for one of my favorite Aussie bogan bands The Cosmic Psychos. Perhaps you've heard of them, they're from some little shithole in regional Victoria about 2 hours north of Melbourne.

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36 minutes ago, KillaKukumba said:

Claims others rant while replying with War and Peace length opinions written as fact = priceless.

Yes sir, others rant. I like to think that I have elevated my rants to the level of diatribes.

Sorry if you find a 5 minute read challenging to get through. I'll try to tighten it up and use smaller words for you next time.

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1 hour ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Yes sir, others rant. I like to think that I have elevated my rants to the level of diatribes.

Sorry if you find a 5 minute read challenging to get through. I'll try to tighten it up and use smaller words for you next time.

Oh if I'd known all you wanted was to communicate in poorly constructed insults I wouldn't have bothered offering you the 5 minutes I do.

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3 hours ago, KillaKukumba said:

Oh if I'd known all you wanted was to communicate in poorly constructed insults I wouldn't have bothered offering you the 5 minutes I do.

Megadeth, Metallica, Kreator Slayer would be my big 4 in order. Anthrax last if I can’t sub. Lotta influential bands around that time. I like this topic in death and black metal as well.

 

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5 hours ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

I have the vest words, perfect words, no one has words like me, we love words don’t we folks? Basically what I got from that GG, next you’ll insist you want to make America Goat again…

Make America Goat Again, haha yeah I'm probably gonna have to steal that.

 

5 hours ago, KillaKukumba said:

Oh if I'd known all you wanted was to communicate in poorly constructed insults I wouldn't have bothered offering you the 5 minutes I do.

What do you want an apology? I'm sorry Orca if I've insulted or wounded you. I'm generally aiming more for laughs than for insults. I sometimes forget that you're an endangered species and need to be handled with extra special care. 

That diatribe line as well as the Aussie Big 4 thing were supposed to be funny. Not so much, huh? Guess I'll have to go lie down now and see if I can get some more sleep and then try to do better tomorrow.

 

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1 hour ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

That diatribe line as well as the Aussie Big 4 thing were supposed to be funny. Not so much, huh? Guess I'll have to go lie down now and see if I can get some more sleep and then try to do better tomorrow.

I got the jokes, but I do actually disdain all those fuckers - except Ross Knight whose name I did not know but whose band I do. I think your take on Oz is most amusing, and often all too accurate.

Bligh was such an awful human being that you've got to laugh, but not so funny when he had power over you was he Mr Christian...

And personally I think rant > diatribe. A rant is a bit more unhinged which makes it more fun.

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9 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

What do you want an apology? I'm sorry Orca if I've insulted or wounded you. I'm generally aiming more for laughs than for insults. I sometimes forget that you're an endangered species and need to be handled with extra special care. 

That diatribe line as well as the Aussie Big 4 thing were supposed to be funny. Not so much, huh? Guess I'll have to go lie down now and see if I can get some more sleep and then try to do better tomorrow.

 

You assume way too much but keep going one day I'm sure you'll achieve your goal.

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