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. I don’t fault him for having writers or anything but since he’s not actually making this stuff up on the fly, it has to be-written and he doesn’t seem to have the staff to come up with that much material per week. So he has to fill it (unsuccessfully, IMHO) with other stuff.
His gimmick is to make it all look like he pulls this stuff instantly from some deep well of references but that’s not actually who he is.
Robin Williams was the master of improv who really wasn’t improv-ving. You’d see him do the same “spontaneous” spiel on two or three different talk show appearances. His talent wasn’t ad libbing as much as acting; I’m not just saying this because he killed himself, but in many ways he was an actor playing a comedian.
I don’t think Dana Carvey has as many emotional issues as Williams, but he also does the faked spontaneity extremely well; he’ll go into the same organic anecdote or comedy bit three times in a week when he’s promoting a movie or something and seem each time like he just thought of it.
Groucho Marx, one of the funniest talk show guests ever, did a great blend of old material and ad libs. I have a minor addiction to the 50s/60s show What’s My Line and his stuff as a panelist, even if it’s a rehash of material you’ve heard from him before, is hysterical.
I guess I’ll have to answer that I never thought he was funny, but that’s not exactly true. He was never one of my favorites, but he did do some funny stuff back in the day. As far as I can tell, he’s now just a retired celebrity and no longer a comedian.
So what I really need is a vote for “He used to be so-so, and is no longer funny at all.”
I used to love his HBO show, and when he would get on a rant, it was brilliant. But as others have noted, that was scripted (and brilliantly performed), but it is not who he naturally is.
I went with hit or miss, although it’s been mostly miss that I’ve seen recently. I don’t know why he changed, he was funny but not stellar in that regard so he probably needed to change in some way. Maybe he’s showing his true political colors, or maybe he just needed a more receptive audience.
I thought he was really funny on his syndicated talk show in the early 90’s. He had good guests and really good musical acts, etc.
Now he’s not funny at all.
I never liked him, his gimmick is to tack on an semi-obscure (but not too obscure) reference to a not particularly funny joke. Then, the audience feels smart for getting the reference, none of require more than a literature 101 level of knowledge.
Miller used to funny, but only in a limited context. Which is why he didn’t do a lot on SNL outside of WU.
Look at his early 90s syndicated talk show. He couldn’t riff with Nick Bakay*, couldn’t interview ordinary guests (let alone get some laughs along the way), etc. It was DOA.
His later HBO show was okay at times. He got to rant as much as he wanted and the guests were more suitable for his style.
Eventually he lost even these limited skills.
Nick Bakay, pre-Paul Blart, pre-Sabrina, was a top notch sidekick. The ad libbing he did with Allan Havey on Night After Night was amazing. Miller kept glaring at Bakay whenever Nick threw in something off the cuff.
Another vote for the 9/11 explanation. I remember liking Dennis Miller Live back when it was on, but it really did seem like the 9/11 attacks flipped a switch in him. I haven’t seen much of him lately (I don’t watch football either), but I did catch a fairly recent standup special he did. It was kind of painful to watch. It had the vibe that he’d put a greater priority on going after Obama than he did on being funny. The resulting material felt like he had scoured the internet for and subsequently compiled all of the anti-Obama drive-by comments he could find. The fact that the evidently right-wing audience acted as though Miller was being much funnier than he really was made it seem like a stereotypical political echo chamber.
Sooooo, you guys are blaming him because, what? He didn’t think 9/11 was funny?
No, what happened is back in his SNL heyday he and you were both young and didn’t really care about personal politics. Now that everyone has gotten older you blame him for not remaining an ignorant liberal…
Miller was very, very funny. SNL wasnt his best work; his standup was outstanding. Yes, it was smug, reference-filled stuff, but he did it as well as anyone.
Whether it was 9/11 that helped make him unfunny I don’t know. Miller himself has said 9/11 changed him, and I think we should take the man’s word on that because he is the most reliable source. He would probably dispute that it made him less funny, but he admits it changed him, and changes to a person’s outlook on life can SIGNIFICANTLY affect their skills as a comedian.
Bear in mind, though, that he’s 63 years old, and he may simply have run out of jokes. We tend to remember comics who last a long time because, well, they last a long time, but most do not. You only have so much material in you and then you run out.
First of all, I’ve met Dennis Miller in Vegas and he is really a cool guy. I love his cerebral humor and his rants and consider myself lucky I get 80-90% of his jokes. But the last few years his routine has been the same. How many times does he need to tell that Sinatra/nanny/mother story? I think he’s just run out of material.
If he no longer says anything funny at all because of it, then you can debate the truthfulness, insightfulness, and deepness of his observations, but that doesn’t make them funny.
Nah. As I said, even his non-political radio talk is dull. In comparison, I can find Rush entertaining to listen to (when he’s not hawking books or iced tea) even if I disagree with 99% of what he has to say. Miller just isn’t entertaining. Back in the day, I used to flip to his show when Rush was on commercial but eventually just didn’t bother and listened to the commercials instead.
I saw his show during his Off-White Album tour. I’ve been watching comedy for 40 years. That show is in my top five. Maybe top three, with early Steven Wright and Lewis Black on the Black Album tour. He was hilarious and brilliant for 90 straight minutes.
Yeah, something weird happened to him after 9/11. The jokes sound similar but just don’t work. He’s not the first one. Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Jackie Mason, even late George Carlin. Something curdled inside them and they began attacking enemies instead of satirizing them.
When I was 18 I got Richard Nixon as President. Don’t try to tell me about personal politics not mattering when you’re young. I was also 35 when Miller became the greatest anchor of Weekend Update. Nobody’s ever come close. And I say that from experience not youthful nostalgia.
