Comedy

Chinese social media sites banned a Malaysian comedian based in the United Kingdom named Nigel Ng on Monday for making jokes about China’s dystopian surveillance state, Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, and Taiwan. Ng was only the latest victim in Beijing’s crackdown on comedy, which it increasingly views as a subversive force. Ng frequently performs on social media as a character called “Uncle Roger,” a name under which he maintained accounts on all of China’s largest platforms, including the Twitter-like Sina Weibo. Uncle Roger is a parody of a grumpy middle-aged Southeast Asian man who complains incessantly about things he doesn’t like, especially food. Originally developed as a possible sitcom character, Uncle Roger became popular for making fun of cooking shows. Ng also uses the Uncle Roger persona for standup comedy routines. Last week, he posted a clip from a standup performance in which he poked fun at the Chinese surveillance state, as transcribed by the UK … [Read more...] about China’s War on Comedy: Stand-Up Comedian Banned from Social Media for Mocking Social Credit System

Tim Robinson loves spicy food. This minor fact is one of the major things I learned at my very awkward dinner interview with Robinson and Zach Kanin, creators of the cult Netflix comedy series “I Think You Should Leave.” Robinson ordered drunken spaghetti with tofu — spicy — and, almost immediately, the spaghetti started to make his voice hoarse. He insisted, however, that this had nothing to do with the spice — in fact, he said, his food wasn’t spicy enough. I asked our server if she could go spicier. She brought out a whole dish of special chiles. Robinson spooned them enthusiastically over his noodles. As I watched Robinson eat big red bites of his meal, I imagined a comedy sketch in which a man (played by Tim Robinson) gets himself out of an awkward dinner with a journalist (played by someone who looks exactly like me) by loading his food with increasingly hot peppers until he begins to lose control of his body. The sketch would end with him being wheeled away on a … [Read more...] about Tim Robinson and the Golden Age of Cringe Comedy

Has a more significant television subgenre been born this century than cringe comedy? The question itself might make some people cringe, since audiences have been laughing at jokes rooted in uncomfortable moments since comedy began. Sitcoms as diverse as “All in the Family” and “Seinfeld” trafficked in social transgression and personal embarrassment. But as the 20th century has given way to the 21st, comedy has become increasingly dark, anxious and realistic, assisted by the looser rules of cable television and the rise of reality TV. Peppy punch lines have been replaced by comically tense situations. And no series has been as closely associated with this change as “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” which returns after a six-year hiatus for its ninth season on Sunday, one day after the season premiere of “Saturday Night Live.” So how did we get here? The designation cringe comedy has now become so pervasive that it risks losing its usefulness. But until it does, these nine shows, all … [Read more...] about Watch the Evolution of Cringe Comedy in 9 Clips

If a certain kind of big-tent comedy (the network late-night talk show, the mass audience sitcom, the movie blockbuster) is in decline, the last of this endangered species will surely be “Saturday Night Live.” The resilient institution still feels like a weekly national event, one made by committee that aims at the most popular targets assisted by the biggest stars. But it’s also why the most successful alternatives in sketch comedy, like “Key and Peele” or “Inside Amy Schumer,” have typically drawn a sharp contrast to that format with a specific, idiosyncratic sensibility. In the last year, the best examples seem to be going even further in that direction, rejecting topicality and embracing the obscure and the absurd. The excellent recent season of “Documentary Now!” spoofed the rarefied worlds of 1970s musical theater, jazz and performance art. (Has there been a better comic performance this year than Cate Blanchett’s sendup of Marina Abramovic?) The subject matter of “ I … [Read more...] about The Wonderful Weirdness of Netflix’s First Great Sketch Comedy Show

Popping with glorious, bright color and off-color jokes, “The Guard” is an Irish comedy and almost incidental thriller, though mostly it’s something of a bait and switch. The tasty bait (and reluctant buddies) are Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle, two of the best utility players in contemporary English-language cinema. Alone or together, they can be reason to see any movie. Even when they’ve been self-consciously set off against each other for maximum quirk, as they are here, these are performers who can dig a little deeper than their material. Aided and abetted by the writer and director John Michael McDonagh, Mr. Gleeson grabs the film early and runs. The scene opens on a speeding, crowded red car, tunes pumping, that races right past Sgt. Gerry Boyle (Mr. Gleeson), parked at the side of a pretty, peaceful country road. The car is going fast enough to stir the trees, but not an inch on Boyle’s fleshy, totemic face moves, his apparent slumber disturbed only by the crunch and bang of … [Read more...] about Mismatched Partners in a Crime Comedy

THE stars of “ Bridesmaids ” — Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph, principally, with Ellie Kemper, Rose Byrne, Wendi McLendon-Covey and especially Melissa McCarthy in support — are very funny. This is not just my opinion, and it should not come as news, if the raucous laughter at a sold-out theater last weekend in Brooklyn is any indication. “Funny,” apart from being a subjective judgment, is also a commercial imperative, and it is one that “Bridesmaids” has fulfilled. Since it opened on May 13 the triumph of this movie and its comic ensemble (one of whom, Ms. Wiig, wrote the screenplay with Annie Mumolo) has made a lot of money and taken on special cultural significance. “Bridesmaids” has been hailed as a vindication of the rights and abilities of all women — not just those six — to make jokes, and thus a resounding rebuttal to what is supposedly a widespread assumption otherwise. “Bridesmaids,” that is, is being congratulated for settling an argument that nobody was really having. … [Read more...] about The Funnywoman, Alive and Well