Current State of Writings on Subjects : Comedically Changing with the Times (as such)

I gotta hit a few Subjects that this blog hits soon. Ongoing ones that have been covered over the years here. There's a new Heino-Volution that has come to the forefront that needs looking into (probably even a deep enough look into) and some more Baseball ones have to be done.

For now we have to look at the current change in the comedy world which has taken shape pretty fast. It is changing ... no doubt. I mean there's not a lot of hold offs left anymore in the mainstream comedy world right now. There's not a lot of "old school" comedy left in the media world any longer.

Whenever you watch old stuff on youtube or whatever a phrase that constantly comes up in your mind is "Could They Have Done That Now?" ... and hypothetically about 85% of those mental queries usually end with "Probably Not, No."

Now young folks, before you cast us off and dislike all "old school" people and label us as horrible old dinosaurs and relics of the past .... let's look back at how we got here to begin with and maybe you can understand the comedy era that proceeded this current comedic era.

Let's limit the year range of the "previous era" to let's say 1990 to 2015 ... that's what we'll call the previous era of comedy. I can't speak for everyone so I'll use myself as the host-body to relate observationally how I was influenced living through the previous era of comedy.


1990 to 2015

I would say the nineties were categorized by the Howard Stern show, and WWE Wrestling. I'm not joking ... I think those were the two biggest factors on how totally out-of-control things got in media. The shock value of both these focal points of the art world kept increasingly getting more and more over-the-top in terms of shock value.

If you apply the "can you do that now" filter on half the things that happened on The Howard Stern Show from the 90s into the 2000s .... it's like a 100% "Probably Not. No" ratio. Could you invite a legally insane transvestite into your studio to hurl insane invective? Probably not, no. Could you bring in a set of twins to promote their new "album" who proceed to hurl insane invectives onto an actual crack head? No, I don't think so. Could you bring in two women to win breast implants by competing in a strip-off for a four foot tall man with a tiny head? No.....

Eventually the show toned down by like 2015 and I was one of the people back in 2015 who wrote something negative about the Howard Stern Show (here, at the very bottom). Looking back, I was wrong to say that. I mean, the show was the wildest carnival of insanity for like almost 30 years and then all of a sudden it was over ... I mean I probably wasn't the only person who felt sort of like "Wow, that's it, I guess...." but how can you be the "shock jock" character for 30 years? I'm sure it got boring for him after a while. He's a smart guy ... maybe he wanted a change, that's all. Evolving with the times is how you stay relevant. That's all, no big deal.

He has other talents. He's a great celebrity interviewer, very insightful and engaging. I think there's only four people up for the "Best Celebrity Interviewer of All Time" award and it's H. Stern, L. King, O. Winfrey, and D. Letterman ... and all of whom are still living so there's still time to continue to strive to be the best for these people.

I hope he continues interviewing and being engaging ... he might surpass those others on that list and be the Greatest Interviewer of All Time.

There's been other stand out "over-the-top" things in the art world in this era from Beavis and Butthead and Jackass others ... but I put WWE wrestling on here as the second focal factor because it went WAY OVER THE TOP ... to a point of like .... "Wow, this is so like, wow."

I watched wrestling obsessively from about like 1990 to 1995. Then I kind of grew out of it and focused on other sports ... maybe not so much grew out of it ... as the "product" was pretty bad in 1995. Looking at historical ratings lists it seems I wasn't the only one who tuned out in 1995 because they had low ratings. They lost HALF their viewership from 1994 to 1997. HALF. I was just another of the 1/2 people who tuned out it seems.

Then something curious happened, in 1998 ... the show gained steam ... got its lost half of viewers back ... and then by 2001 they DOUBLED their viewership again! Why? Because the show went totally out of control. The show was sex, n' drugs, n' rock n' roll!

....and it kept on getting more and more out of control until it made literally no sense. There's a bit where a 80 year old ex-female-wrestler gave birth on live television to a plastic hand (????). There's was a bit with a ventriloquist dummy (or corpse??) that was so poorly contrived that it probably made another 50% of people tune out on the spot.

Wrestling has kind of come back down to normal levels now in terms of shock value and it is basically 100% about the "cool moves" now a days which is ok ... but it could use like some story telling elements and "ring psychology" elements though. Ronda Rousey, I think, is maybe the biggest thing to happen in wrestling in a pretty long time. The Roddy Piper gimmick works and the character works.

Anyways, gang, this is what was going on in the 90s and early 2000s in the media world ... over-the-top insanity. This is what you did in the media world to get laughs and viewership. We were exposed to this 24-7 and then guess what happened? The internet happened...

The internet got big in the mid-90s and it was VERY different than the now-a-times internet which is very "personal brand exposure" oriented ... the old school internet was if you took old school Howard Stern and old school WWE and amplified it by one million percent ... and the result was unfiltered over-the-top disgusting insanity.

In the now-a-times internet, like ONE FALSE STEP online and your personal-brand/ youtube-persona/ influencer-status / acting-career/ or-whatever is OVER. In the old school internet it was different, it wasn't uncommon for like your friend to be like "Yo, check out this video of this guy shoving a battery through his eyeball!" and you'd click on it be like "oh wow, look at that...." .. you know? It was messed up! The Internet was messed up!

Was it normal? No it wasn't. To be honest, if I was like a parent in the 90s or early 2000s (or even now) and you asked me 100% honestly if I'd let children go on the internet ... I'd have to say no. Even today it's TOO MESSED UP for kids this dumb internet.

So, you got to keep in mind, new generation, where the old one came from, you know? Like, I agree that we should come back down to civil and thoughtful levels on the internet ... which for a good decade now has been utterly out-of-control ... but it's not gonna just happen over night.

You're telling a generation before you to be 100% politically correct but you have to understand this generation is one that grew up thinking that ... playing rock and roll trivia with an unbelievably drunken dwarf, or watching a wrestling match where a guy's teeth got knocked up into his nose while his children cried in the audience, or getting a link from a friend that was supposedly for a movie trailer but turned out to be a guy eating cackie .....were just totally normal things that happened in front of a screen.



Conclusion

We are quickly going from a media landscape where everything was acceptable to a media landscape where very little is acceptable ... and the new generation has to give us some leeway to make the transition, I think.

I'm no longer a hold out to the "old school", I'm on board now with the change now too. I'm reluctant but I know it's for the best. I started this blog because I wanted to be part of that old comedy guard I looked up to ... I wanted to be "famous" but not like how people want to be famous now a days on the internet ... now people want a million youtube subscriptions so they can get their sponsorship contracts as "influencers" ... for me starting this silly and at times stupid blog back a decade ago .... I wanted other forms of "fame" ... I wanted to be on Howard Stern ... or on Wrestling as a crazy heel manager a la Bobby Heenan .... you know? I think the 90s generation aspired to different forms of fame ... at least I did.

Many times I thought about deleting this thing ... but from a personal standpoint it was a learning experience. Especially in the last year ... I've been going back and reading old ones ... and wow some are like so "old guard" they are cringe-worthy as all heck by today's standards.

That's where I'm coming from. I see a few holdouts in the comedy world from time to time on Twitter and stuff and I respect the old guard and their fight. I know it's hard for people who have had a "character" or a "shtick" or a "bit" their whole lives and that act has to be toned down or even retired in present times.

I really believe society goes through fads .... and maybe in 2096 we'll hit another bump in the road and the pop art world will for another 20 years be an eyeball blast of horrible craziness again.

As for 2018? Well, haven't we all seen enough crazy guys stick batteries through their eye balls for one lifetime, gang? Haven't we all been blasted in the eyeballs enough by shocking silliness?

I have. I know that.

But, New Generation, all I'm really asking is for you to give the Old Generation some transition time. The media landscape from 2015 to 2018 ... not even three years .... has changed unimaginably. One question that still nags at me is....

Would even the silly little jokes Bobby Heenan did on Wrestling Challenge even be allowed today? Probably not, Gorilla Monsoon .... probably not.

And in one way, Gorilla Monsoon .... that's sad.