We need to build the space shuttle out of the putty that’s holding that skeletal visage together…it’s apparently indestructible!
Robin Williams still does good stand up. His last one was pretty good. His movies were never funny.
I’ve never seen Steve Martin do anything funny.
Amen.
Chris Rock gave him a run for his money for a time, if you want to consider the best standup material as “funny shit that regular people relate to”.
Was Tim Allen ever any good? All he seems to do nowadays is grade-D kiddie krap.
I can’t comment on the OP but I had to correct this.
Goodmorning Vietnam is brilliant. I could be wrong but I thought it was very well regarded.
ETA: Ooops. Just spotted CookingWithGas’s post. I didn’t search for that spelling.
Robin Williams’s guest shot on SVU this season was very very good. The guy can act.
He, and everyone else, was great in Galaxy Quest.
I also like the first Santa Clause film, and For Richer or Poorer, though that’s just my own obscure taste, I think.
Wow! Tough crowd tonight. 
I thought it was awful, myself. Not necessarily for Williams’s performance, but just for its dumb comic-book plot that invited Williams to painfully overact at times.
It’s next in my Netflix queue!
Eddie Murphy’s Raw came out in 1987. Are any of you doing the same job the exact same way you did it 20 years ago? Whether you like what he’s doing or don’t, it’s hard to argue that Eddie Murphy isn’t talented and creative. Creative people tend to reinvent themselves, or at least their art several times throughout their careers.
I won’t be seeing Meet Dave, just like I didn’t see Norbit, but Murphy has very shrewdly created a self perpetuating fan base for himself. I loved Raw when it was new, but now it’s not the type of humor I enjoy. My ten year old son, however says Donkey is the best thing in the Shrek movies and wants to see Murphy’s other movies. In a few years someone will tell all the Donkey/Norbit/Nutty Professor loving middle schoolers “If you think THAT’S funny wait’ll you hear…” and Raw will have a new following.
I disagree with the premise that Murphy has fallen. His movement has been lateral. And I thought his performance in Dream Girls was outstanding.
Doesn’t he do poems on the Bob and Tom Show on the radio?
I strongly recommend to any Steve Martin fan or comedy fan in general to read Martin’s memoir, Born Standing Up. It’s an excellent history of his start in performing (he actually started out doing magic tricks and it grew from there) and also talks about the abyss of fame and how he dealt with it during that crazy time in the '70’s when he was a comedic phenomenon. Very interesting, funny and quick read.
I have alot of respect for perfomers and creative people who are not satisfied with their current success or relying on their old material forever. Ones who are brave enough to try new things to see what happens. Martin is a good example of a performer who has tried different things, some worked, some didn’t.
Jim Carrey, to me, is an example of someone who seemed to start out mainstream, then became more alternative or interesting. In Living Color and the Ace Ventura movies made him something of a household name, but he has turned that into some interesting comic and dramatic performances: The Truman Show, Man in the Moon, Eternal Sunshine…, etc.
It is interesting to me, though the metamorphasis between being “cutting edge” and then becoming “comedy for the masses”. Robin Williams, Martin, Murphy, even Richard Pryor all made this transition. Even musicians like Billy Joel, Phil Collins and Elton John have done this…at one time they were considered “alternative”, now you’d be hard pressed to think of these performers as anything but “mainstream”.
Is it the pressure of having to come up with something new and fresh? Or is it just deciding to go for the money and give the people what they want rather than be true to yourself?
I saw Tim Allen in Ann Arbor a few years ago.I always liked his standup. His TV show was pretty good too. Now he is a Disney whore ,cranking out kid crap over and over. He is raking in the dough though.
I think the Disney whore stuff (although he was great in Toy Story and TSII) is karmic retribution for For Richer or Poorer.
You win the thread.
Rate what? Contempt? I HATE Ferrell and Sandler!
But you missing lots of other. Mike Meyers, Chris Farley (ok, he was terrible, but still popular until he died), Phil Hartman, Dana Carvey (who just did an hour-long HBO special – which mostly sucked), Dan Ackroyd, Billy Crystal, Tina Fey, Janine Garafalo, Christopher Guest, Norm McDonald, Michael McKean, Chris Rock, Sara Silverman, Harry Shearer, David Spade, Martin Short.
That’s just off the top of my head, and they all went on to more success after SNL.
And Jane Curtain
And what’s her name, the Seinfeld chick.
Yeah, he’s still making money:
I’d say he’s completely changed his act since he first started — it’s somewhat hard to imagine the star of “Doctor Dolittle” doing “Cill My Landlord” on SNL. If that’s “sinking,” then yes, he has. But he’s getting paid a ton to do it, so evidently it’s working for both him and the audiences that pay to see him.
This is the Information Age. We have 100 channels on TV, 24-hour comedy, DVDs, TVs in every home, and the Internet. I doubt we’ll see many comedians again who can survive for 20 years on the same jokes like Bob Hope, George Burns, Henny Youngman, Don Rickles, Rodney Dangerfield, Milton Berle, Jonathan Winters, Jack Benny, and so on. Not that those guys aren’t funny, but it was a different world. It was always possible before that nobody had heard your best stuff. Now it’s on YouTube in 30 seconds and you have to come up with something new.