# America's Funniest Home Videos - they are NOT funny! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 2, 2009, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-funniest-home-videos-they-are-not-funny/519719 "2009-12-02T17:00:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-funniest-home-videos-they-are-not-funny/519719/21 "2009-12-02T20:03:11Z")
The worst one I ever saw, which ended up winning the best of the year or some such, was some kindergartener saying his ABCs, except instead of just saying them, he shouted them. A! B! C! D! E! It’s one thing to have humor that I don’t think is very funny, or is inappropriate, or whatever. I may not find it funny to see a guy get hit in the balls, but I can at least see where the humor is supposed to be coming from. But a kid shouting the alphabet? There’s just no humor there whatsoever. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-funniest-home-videos-they-are-not-funny/519719/22 "2009-12-02T20:06:15Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > I had long figured it for dead. > And this series along with Full House has the notoriety of ruining Bob Saget’s career. He had actually a pretty edgy comedian before getting involved with those shows. But then they made him say all those corny jokes in the stupid voices. Ruining? Seriously? People would know who he was without those shows but not as many. Plus now he gets to work in as many “Heyyy, look, I’m not really Danny Tanner–I can CURSE!” jokes as he wants. Sure, seeing an edgy comedian is funny. But seeing an edgy comedian who used to be Danny Tanner is timeless. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-funniest-home-videos-they-are-not-funny/519719/23 "2009-12-02T20:08:23Z")
> [@tarragon918](#): > > I remember enjoying “Candid Camera” when I was a kid – the candid-camera type shows they’ve done recently have been mean jokes as well; I don’t recall Durwood Kirby and company being mean in that way. [Tracy Morgan](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0605079/) sure ain’t no Funt, Allen nor Peter. ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-funniest-home-videos-they-are-not-funny/519719/24 "2009-12-02T21:31:24Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > There was an amusing little bit on Cracked lately about how people enjoyed AFV, but couldn’t stand annoying hosts and just wanted to get to the ball-hits and cute kittens, so we invented YouTube. Methinks there may be some truth to that. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-funniest-home-videos-they-are-not-funny/519719/25 "2009-12-02T21:53:32Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > And this series along with Full House has the notoriety of ruining Bob Saget’s career. He had actually a pretty edgy comedian before getting involved with those shows. But then they made him say all those corny jokes in the stupid voices. No it didn’t. He was a stand-up comedian before Full House and AFHV. After those he is still a stand-up comedian and is still doing movie and television work. If it hadn’t been for FH and AFHV he may have only ever been a stand-up. His stand-up comedy crudeness never changed because of those two shows. EDIT: Groin shots are always funny and always will be. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-funniest-home-videos-they-are-not-funny/519719/26 "2009-12-02T22:03:04Z")
> [@Tahssa](#): > > EDIT: Groin shots are always funny and always will be. Barney’s film had depth. But football in the groin had a FOOTBALL in the groin! ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-funniest-home-videos-they-are-not-funny/519719/27 "2009-12-02T22:12:49Z")
> [@Tahssa](#): > > No it didn’t. He was a stand-up comedian before Full House and AFHV. After those he is still a stand-up comedian and is still doing movie and television work. > > If it hadn’t been for FH and AFHV he may have only ever been a stand-up. His stand-up comedy crudeness never changed because of those two shows. > > EDIT: Groin shots are always funny and always will be. All right, I’ll admit I was mistaken in saying they ruined his career. But they did effectively ruin his reputation for awhile. And there’s no denying that the jokes he had to say on both those shows were corny as fuck. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-funniest-home-videos-they-are-not-funny/519719/28 "2009-12-02T22:18:42Z")
But now he gets to make all those raunchy Full House jokes. Let’s face it–there are people turned on to him just because of that. Same with John Stamos. He may have done other things but the people waiting to see him outside the theatre after his performance of Bye Bye, Birdie chanting JESSE JESSE weren’t there because they thought his percussion work with the Beach Boys or his choreography was to die for. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-funniest-home-videos-they-are-not-funny/519719/29 "2009-12-02T22:30:24Z")
> [@Tahssa](#): > > No it didn’t. He was a stand-up comedian before Full House and AFHV. After those he is still a stand-up comedian and is still doing movie and television work. And it’s given him a lot of material, too. His TV special from 2007, That Ain’t Right was bloody hilarious, but would have been about half as long (but just as funny) if it weren’t for the Full House/AFV-derived jokes. A couple of the better examples: Spoilered, because I don’t want to be the first person who swears openly in this thread. \>\_\> [spoiler]Talking about his time on AFV when his screeners would send him videos that could never make it to air, just to fuck with him. (‘It’s all flapping and gross…and it’s so fucking hot.’ … ‘This asshole screener sent me snuff!’) ‘Ask me my favourite episode. The last one.’ (He was referring to FH, but I’m sure it applied to AFV.) Talking about watching South Park with his oldest daughter when the episode where they sent a video of Cartman to AFV came on, and they made fun of how lame he was. (‘Catman was like, “this guy sucks almost as bad as the guy on Full House”. I’m like, “fuck you!” And my daughter was like, “well, they’re not wrong.” I’m like, “fuck you! You’re out of the trust fund!”’)[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-funniest-home-videos-they-are-not-funny/519719/30 "2009-12-02T22:45:21Z")
> [@stpauler](#): > > As for the “winners” of the show, I always figured that those were the people who were just available to come out during the day they were taping the episode. They’re rarely the funniest videos of the show. Plus the finalists usually involve children or animals, with the idea that such clips would be harder to fake. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-funniest-home-videos-they-are-not-funny/519719/31 "2009-12-02T23:06:37Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > But now he gets to make all those raunchy Full House jokes. Let’s face it–there are people turned on to him just because of that. But how many people knew about that side of him when he was doing Full House? If someone had told me circa 1995 that Bob Saget was playing a comedy club in my area, you couldn’t have paid me to go see it, because I would have been expecting the same type of painfully corny humor he was doing on FH and AFHV. The reason he’s had so much success in recent years is because 1) a lot of the people who were weened on Full House are now grown up and want to see him out of curiosity and 2) most importantly, he’s had years to rehabilitate his reputation and get the word out that he’s nothing like the squeaky clean dork Danny Tanner. ---
**Author:** ![ryobserver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@ryobserver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryobserver)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-funniest-home-videos-they-are-not-funny/519719/32 "2009-12-03T00:29:40Z")
Is AFHV still on the air? I stopped watching years ago (not long after I finally got cable, come to think of it). Long before that, I’d already noticed I could predict the winner of the audience vote with considerable accuracy: If one finalist video had a “cute” kid (especially one doing something annoying to others or humiliating to itself), that video would win; if none had a cute kid or more than one did, the one I found least funny would win. I think the last time I watched was when Kerri Strug (remember her?) was a guest, so that would have been 1996. She was brought on to introduce some videos of gymnastics mishaps. Unfortunately for the show, whenever the camera cut back to her for a reaction shot, she was wincing or grimacing. Because really, why _would_ she find falls off the equipment and crashes into the vaulting horse hilarious? ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-funniest-home-videos-they-are-not-funny/519719/33 "2009-12-03T02:29:45Z")
AFHV is Citizen Kane compared to the ripoff version over on Animal Planet. That one’s literally just shots of cats walking around with the host talking over it. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-funniest-home-videos-they-are-not-funny/519719/34 "2009-12-03T02:50:31Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The worst one I ever saw, which ended up winning the best of the year or some such, was some kindergartener saying his ABCs, except instead of just saying them, he shouted them. > > A! B! C! D! E! I find that one irresistable, myself - something about the kid’s enthusiasm - but my personal favourite has always been [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHfNwgYOM88). ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-funniest-home-videos-they-are-not-funny/519719/35 "2009-12-03T03:07:37Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I find that one irresistable, myself - something about the kid’s enthusiasm - but my personal favourite has always been [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHfNwgYOM88). Well, that clip is just a precursor to cute cats on the Internet. I remember reading somewhere that someone had a weird thought that today those two cats are probably dead. I don’t know why I brought that up. But there it is. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-funniest-home-videos-they-are-not-funny/519719/36 "2009-12-03T03:09:40Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Well, that clip is just a precursor to cute cats on the Internet. > > I remember reading somewhere that someone had a weird thought that today those two cats are probably dead. I don’t know why I brought that up. But there it is. 1993? I’m sure even the kitten is dead. Marge: That’s kind of a downer… Of course, I’m innured to it, since my father periodically says of old movies: “Sometimes I think about how every person in this must be dead by now.” ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-funniest-home-videos-they-are-not-funny/519719/37 "2009-12-03T03:25:39Z")
I’m just waiting for “Ouch my balls!!” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-funniest-home-videos-they-are-not-funny/519719/38 "2009-12-03T03:25:56Z")
The kitten might still be alive. It’d be maybe 17 now, which is hardly an unprecedented age for a cat (I’ve known some to live to over 20). ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-funniest-home-videos-they-are-not-funny/519719/39 "2009-12-03T03:32:08Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The kitten might still be alive. It’d be maybe 17 now, which is hardly an unprecedented age for a cat (I’ve known some to live to over 20). Bet he’s at least 76% less adorable, though. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-funniest-home-videos-they-are-not-funny/519719/40 "2009-12-03T06:18:41Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The worst one I ever saw, which ended up winning the best of the year or some such, was some kindergartener saying his ABCs, except instead of just saying them, he shouted them. > > A! B! C! D! E! > > It’s one thing to have humor that I don’t think is very funny, or is inappropriate, or whatever. I may not find it funny to see a guy get hit in the balls, but I can at least see where the humor is supposed to be coming from. But a kid shouting the alphabet? There’s just no humor there whatsoever. Oh geez, I remember that clip! I never got what was so funny about it either. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-funniest-home-videos-they-are-not-funny/519719.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americas-funniest-home-videos-they-are-not-funny/519719.md?page=3)