There have been several heydays of stand-up comedy, but there is a rising interest in the past several years of people wanting to be entertained by a live comedian saying really funny stuff right before their eyes. From Richard Prior, to Eddie Murphy, to Adam Sandler, and now Zach Galifianakis, the humor has changed over the years. It can be said that comedians have to work a bit harder today to get the same amount of laughs because audiences by now have heard so many different comedians that if someone doesn’t stand out, the audience will not pay attention to them.
With so much in contemporary society to poke fun at, comedians today are having a field day with politics, hypocrisy, religion, you name it. For a good comedian who understands what funny stuff is all about, nothing is off limits. Part of the point of stand-up comedy is to question people’s ideas about certain subjects that many people have an opinion about. By poking fun at core issues of the day, people are forced to re-frame their thoughts around the topic now that a humorous perspective has been placed over it.
Because there is a lot of hypocrisy out there, in pretty much every place in contemporary society, comedians are helpful in bursting the bubble on hypocrisy and showing people that not only are these matters of hypocrisy some real funny stuff at times, but it also brings up really good questions about the nature of humanity and what humans will accept. Comedians are like jesters that steer people in the direction of humor and of truth. By bursting the illusion of the world with sharp wit, comedians reveal a slice of how things really are instead of how things are perceived. It’s actually a very helpful role in today’s society.
People these days are going to see stand-up comedians more frequently these days. There are comedy clubs in every major city that are open every night to highlight new talent that will knock people in the audience down with their extreme funny stuff. There is a new style that is surfacing as well. Instead of one-liner jokes with a punch line at the end, comedians are heading in one of two directions. Comedians either tell long narratives with funny anecdotes or they take the audience on a whirlwind of absurd humor. Either way, it’s good to see stand-up comedy on the rise.
