When did Chris Rock stop being funny?

[Mr. Blue Sky]

He was on Letterman earlier this week hyping his stint on the MTV VMAs. Not funny at all. He rambles. His "jokes" go nowhere. Then I catch a brief glimpse of him on the awards show. Ditto.

The last couple of times he's been on Letterman or Leno, he just plain sucked.

What happened? He used to be quite hilarious.

[Chefguy]

Like many comedians from inner cities (he's from Bed-Stuy), he had an 'edge' to his comedy, and laced it with generous amounts of anger. Perhaps his anger has been placated with the large bags of cash and he's lost touch with his origins.

[teemingONE]

The executives probably know what to except and ask him to tone it down. Hes probably stll as funny, but he has nothing without the anger.

[Governor Quinn]

I'm under the impression that the overexposure he received a few years ago is at fault for this.

[widdershins]

I think he has lost his edge somewhat, success does that, it first showed up in his film career. I liked him in Dogma but he was basically playing a version of his "angry" stage persona. He is weak as an actor, especially when trying to go against the screen persona he has built. I felt sorry for him as Det. Butters in Lethal Weapon 4, among all the garbage in that trainwreck he was trying to play a nervous nice guy in love with Danny Glover's daughter. Totally wrong for the part.

As broad as Jay and Silent Bob Stike Back was I found him distracting and unfunny as the militant film director. It was a tired retread of his once funny Nat X character from SNL sans the afro. That character works as the focus of a five minute sketch, but sinks even as a jokey cameo in a rude farce like JASBSB.

[Musicat]

It used to be funny if a comedian was Jewish. Then we had enough.

Next it was funny if a comedian acted black. Or super-black. Then that got old.

It's not funny anymore.

What's next? Gay humor?

[TeaElle]

I don't know, Rock got in a few very snarky zingers during the VMAs last night, most pointedly exclaiming "This is the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech. It's good to see that his dream has come true!" after that disgusting performance of that disgusting song by 50 Cent and Snoop Dogg.

I don't doubt that a lot of the lack of funny in many recent performances has been a result of requests for him to "tone down" his ascerbic side or his own attempts at expanding his range in ways that the audience wasn't expecting. But I don't doubt that if he does another tour or HBO special it will bring it the way "Bigger and Blacker" and previous outings have. When he's in his element (straight out comedy) and has a free hand to say whatever he feels like saying, the inate Rock wit is hard to hold dwn.

[capacitor]

A lot of comics like Chris Rock may not be as funny at things other than their stand up. Wayne Brady is funny whatever he does, but few can achieve that state of humor bliss. On the other side, Johnny Carson was probably one of few guys who was much funnier when he was not doing standup. I am very very surprised he didn't do acting roles in movies, although his face on TV served as backdrop to several movies.

[moriah]

You mean, you were able to get past the monotonous screechy whine of a voice to actually find Chris Rock funny? Were you reading transcripts?

[capacitor]

Chris Rock's stand up is very funny. His movie performances certainly were not.

[Tim R. Mortiss]

When did Chris Rock stop being funny?

That's like asking when did you stop beating your wife? In my humble opinion, he has NEVER been funny....Timmy