# Dennis Miller: Did he stop being funny? Was he ever funny to begin with? If so, wha' happened? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 19, 2016, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-miller-did-he-stop-being-funny-was-he-ever-funny-to-begin-with-if-so-wha-happened/755165 "2016-05-19T15:40:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-miller-did-he-stop-being-funny-was-he-ever-funny-to-begin-with-if-so-wha-happened/755165/61 "2016-08-25T20:44:22Z")
Saw some old stuff, and he did indeed used to be funny. Now he’s not, and it’s not just his politics. His entire attitude is different. ---
**Author:** ![aliensshow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@aliensshow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aliensshow)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-miller-did-he-stop-being-funny-was-he-ever-funny-to-begin-with-if-so-wha-happened/755165/62 "2016-08-25T21:25:38Z")
He’s always been funny, it’s just now he’s funny (brilliantly) at the expense of liberal idiots, so they have to hysterically insist he isn’t anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-miller-did-he-stop-being-funny-was-he-ever-funny-to-begin-with-if-so-wha-happened/755165/63 "2016-08-25T21:27:29Z")
:: checks join date; nods :: ---
**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:** [August 25, 2016, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-miller-did-he-stop-being-funny-was-he-ever-funny-to-begin-with-if-so-wha-happened/755165/64 "2016-08-25T22:53:27Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > :: checks join date; nods :: Yes, there’s a certain desperation in the effort, wot? ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-miller-did-he-stop-being-funny-was-he-ever-funny-to-begin-with-if-so-wha-happened/755165/65 "2016-08-25T23:34:09Z")
I watched one of his more recent standups and it was ok, actually a little better than I expected. The thing is with me anyway, I don’t really think political humor is that funny, especially if that’s your whole act, it is the same reason I can’t stand to listen to Lewis Black for more than about 5 minutes, dude talk about something else, but sadly its like 95% of his material but I’m aware that’s why people go to see him. I think Jim Gaffigan is really funny, but the entire stand up about eating and food gets old as well. I like it better the way someone like Louis CK does it, like in his last standup on Netflix he is ostensibly telling a story about why babies cry on planes, he leads you down a certain train of thought and then tells you they cry because they hate that gay people are getting married, what are you gonna do they’re fucking babies. So he made his political point but he couched it in an entirely different scenario that you don’t see coming and then he goes on to talk about non-political stuff. I used to love Patton Oswalt a lot too because his material was just so bizarre and hilarious, but I find each new standup of his has more and more politics in it, and I just don’t find that stuff funny, he may be saying stuff that should be said, it just doesn’t make me laugh out loud the way I do when he talks about midgets, insane chefs, or deathbed: the bed that eats people. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-miller-did-he-stop-being-funny-was-he-ever-funny-to-begin-with-if-so-wha-happened/755165/66 "2016-08-25T23:44:58Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > I have no opinion on Dennis Miller (except that I always get him confused with the other 90s actor-comedian named Dennis – Dennis Leary), but Norm McDonald was the best Weekend Update host. Better than Chevy? Better than Jane? I think not. “Try these on for size, Connie Chung!” ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2016, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-miller-did-he-stop-being-funny-was-he-ever-funny-to-begin-with-if-so-wha-happened/755165/67 "2016-08-26T00:24:48Z")
Conservatives aren’t usually that funny. Its hard to be funny by punching down. ---
**Author:** ![aliensshow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@aliensshow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aliensshow)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2016, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-miller-did-he-stop-being-funny-was-he-ever-funny-to-begin-with-if-so-wha-happened/755165/68 "2016-08-26T01:09:05Z")
> [@YogSothoth](#): > > Conservatives aren’t usually that funny. Its hard to be funny by punching down. While I doubt you meant to admit that conservatives are superior, I’ll take it. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2016, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-miller-did-he-stop-being-funny-was-he-ever-funny-to-begin-with-if-so-wha-happened/755165/69 "2016-08-26T01:13:41Z")
> [@aliensshow](#): > > While I doubt you meant to admit that conservatives are superior, I’ll take it. It seems you don’t understand what ‘punching down’ means. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2016, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-miller-did-he-stop-being-funny-was-he-ever-funny-to-begin-with-if-so-wha-happened/755165/70 "2016-08-26T01:21:50Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > I have no opinion on Dennis Miller (except that I always get him confused with the other 90s actor-comedian named Dennis – Dennis Leary), but Norm McDonald was the best Weekend Update host. I liked Norm too. I remember one of his bits about how the LA District Attorney (or whoever) had just announced that the OJ Simpson case prosecution team would be getting bonuses for their extended service on the case. Norm added, “The DA said the bonuses would have been even bigger, except for the fact that they let a killer go free.” Doesn’t read that funny, but something about the way he delivered it makes me chuckle every time I think of it, even 20 years later. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2016, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-miller-did-he-stop-being-funny-was-he-ever-funny-to-begin-with-if-so-wha-happened/755165/71 "2016-08-26T06:23:39Z")
Before 9/11, Dennis Miller was a liberal, and liberals found him hilarious. After 9/11, Dennis Miller has (quite rightly) become a conservative, and liberals find him unfunny and downright offensive. It’s as simple as that. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2016, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-miller-did-he-stop-being-funny-was-he-ever-funny-to-begin-with-if-so-wha-happened/755165/72 "2016-08-26T18:17:32Z")
I don’t find political humor, aimed at either the left or the right, all that funny. Miller has always had political jokes in his bag, but it seems like it has taken over. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2016, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-miller-did-he-stop-being-funny-was-he-ever-funny-to-begin-with-if-so-wha-happened/755165/73 "2016-08-26T18:19:23Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > Before 9/11, Dennis Miller was a liberal, and liberals found him hilarious. After 9/11, Dennis Miller has (quite rightly) become a conservative, and liberals find him unfunny and downright offensive. It’s as simple as that. No, it isn’t that simple because Dennis Miller was never a liberal. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2016, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-miller-did-he-stop-being-funny-was-he-ever-funny-to-begin-with-if-so-wha-happened/755165/74 "2016-08-26T19:14:40Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > Before 9/11, Dennis Miller was a liberal, and liberals found him hilarious. After 9/11, Dennis Miller has (quite rightly) become a conservative, and liberals find him unfunny and downright offensive. It’s as simple as that. Do you actually believe this? Do you even read posts on this board, especially this thread? I mean, for comprehension, not just looking for key words like “liberal” that trigger your stimulus/response reflex? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2016, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-miller-did-he-stop-being-funny-was-he-ever-funny-to-begin-with-if-so-wha-happened/755165/75 "2016-08-26T19:58:26Z")
> [@zoog](#): > > I used to like him a lot in the SNL days and his HBO show was fun. When he went almost 100% political, he stopped being funny. That’s exactly it… he was funny when he was about general stuff- pop culture, politics, trends, etc… But after 9/11, he seemed to flip out and gravitate toward the political side of things, and his act rapidly morphed away from being comedy, and into being rather acerbic conservatively oriented political commentary. Nowadays he’s trying to make a point more than he’s trying to be funny, and that’s what’s making all the difference. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2016, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-miller-did-he-stop-being-funny-was-he-ever-funny-to-begin-with-if-so-wha-happened/755165/76 "2016-08-26T21:16:03Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > Before 9/11, Dennis Miller was a liberal, and liberals found him hilarious. After 9/11, Dennis Miller has (quite rightly) become a conservative, and liberals find him unfunny and downright offensive. It’s as simple as that. Again, good comedy typically punches up. If he was a liberal, those jokes would have been funny. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2016, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-miller-did-he-stop-being-funny-was-he-ever-funny-to-begin-with-if-so-wha-happened/755165/77 "2016-08-26T21:27:42Z")
something else too he used to be called "dennis leary for smart people but that type of comedy seems to fallen out of favor entirely ---
**Author:** ![ganthet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de0a6/32.png) [@ganthet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ganthet)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2016, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-miller-did-he-stop-being-funny-was-he-ever-funny-to-begin-with-if-so-wha-happened/755165/78 "2016-08-30T01:41:35Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > Before 9/11, Dennis Miller was a liberal, and liberals found him hilarious. After 9/11, Dennis Miller has (quite rightly) become a conservative, and liberals find him unfunny and downright offensive. It’s as simple as that. Dennis Miller pre-9/11 was a moderate with a libertarian bent. He had no particular soft spot for liberals, and especially had no love whatsoever for the Clintons. ([March 2001 Dennis Miller Live](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4Z2XEYAIbo) - “The Clintons are the Costco of sleaze.”/ [Late 2000 Dennis Miller Live](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ohn2Q9ftU7I) - disdainfully predicting Hillary’s run for president when she initially announced running for the U.S. Senate in NY and saying that if Bill would just give Hillary a good lay, she would forget all about the Senate) He went from this: [QUOTE=Dennis Miller pre-9/11] Americans stick their nose where it doesn’t belong more than Cyrano de Bergerac giving head. [/QUOTE] to: [QUOTE=Dennis Miller post-9/11] Forbes magazine has named Mel Gibson this year’s most powerful celebrity. … Forbes’ least powerful celebrity? [Miller displayed the widely circulated image from the Lynndie England photographs of a hooded Iraqi prisoner with wires attached to his outstretched arms] You’re looking at him. Screw this guy. … [He’s a] bad guy. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2016, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-miller-did-he-stop-being-funny-was-he-ever-funny-to-begin-with-if-so-wha-happened/755165/79 "2016-08-30T01:51:38Z")
My appreciation for Dennis Miller’s humor tracks roughly with my esteem of Ayn Rand’s literature. I found it brilliant in 1993 when I was a college senior… now, not so much. One of us outgrew the other. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2016, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-miller-did-he-stop-being-funny-was-he-ever-funny-to-begin-with-if-so-wha-happened/755165/80 "2016-08-30T13:41:15Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > I think that ties back to his radio gig, too. I listened to his first day on his radio show and he was all loaded up with references and obscure call-backs. Then he went on The Daily Show and gave the exact same routine, word for word, acting as though it was extemporaneous. Well, just to be fair about this point, all comedians do this. If you see a comedian on a talk show having a funny conversation, it’s not extemporaneous; it’s a planned bit, being fed by the host. Very, very few comedians have ever been truly and consistently good at improvisation, and ever the ones who are famous for it aren’t actually improvising as much as you think they are. Writing truly A-grade comedy is incredibly difficult and slow. No comedian has so much material that they won’t repeat elements of their current set from show to show. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-miller-did-he-stop-being-funny-was-he-ever-funny-to-begin-with-if-so-wha-happened/755165.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-miller-did-he-stop-being-funny-was-he-ever-funny-to-begin-with-if-so-wha-happened/755165.md?page=5)