# Is Carrot Top a comedy genius? Is anti-comedy the true existential comedy? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 7, 2003, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-carrot-top-a-comedy-genius-is-anti-comedy-the-true-existential-comedy/173552 "2003-05-07T00:12:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-carrot-top-a-comedy-genius-is-anti-comedy-the-true-existential-comedy/173552/21 "2003-05-07T15:10:08Z")
Think about this- most of the time when you hear a really funny joke, you immediately forget it because you were laughing so hard. On the other hand, if something whips you into a white-hot frenzy of anger, you’ll probably seethe about it for hours if not days. As the article in the OP says “I will probably remember C-A-L-L-A-T-T for at least 15 years.” ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-carrot-top-a-comedy-genius-is-anti-comedy-the-true-existential-comedy/173552/22 "2003-05-07T15:53:05Z")
I like Carrot Top. Norm MacDonald too. Keep in mind Carrot Top commercials do not equal Carrot Top comedy. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-carrot-top-a-comedy-genius-is-anti-comedy-the-true-existential-comedy/173552/23 "2003-05-07T15:59:42Z")
Carrot Top and funny are mutually exclusive terms. He reminds me of other unfunny, annoying comedians from years past: Emo Phillips, Pee Wee Herman in his stand-up days, Louis Anderson, et. al. Why did God take Chris Farley and leave Carrot Top? Why God? Why? ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-carrot-top-a-comedy-genius-is-anti-comedy-the-true-existential-comedy/173552/24 "2003-05-07T16:20:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by voguevixen \* > \*\*Keep in mind Carrot Top commercials do not equal Carrot Top comedy. \*\* Exactly. Is it the commercials that make people hate him? I’ve never really cared for them but his comedy is hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7feea3/32.png) [@PatrickM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickM)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-carrot-top-a-comedy-genius-is-anti-comedy-the-true-existential-comedy/173552/25 "2003-05-07T18:58:20Z")
Anti-comedy, be it from Carrot-top or Andy Kauffman, is about as useful as human male nipples. Who wants to go to turn on the TV and be deliberately annoyed just for annoyance’s sake? Comedy is to entertain and occasionally enlighten and not just bust people’s chops for the enjoyment of the performer. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-carrot-top-a-comedy-genius-is-anti-comedy-the-true-existential-comedy/173552/26 "2003-05-07T19:32:05Z")
I have seen CarrotTop live and thought that he was very funny. However, his commercials are very annoying. It has always been said that your career was over when you had to start doing the Hollywood Squares - but I think the same might be said when you must start doing telephone comercials… ---
**Author:** ![djf750](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ea666f/32.png) [@djf750](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/djf750)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-carrot-top-a-comedy-genius-is-anti-comedy-the-true-existential-comedy/173552/27 "2003-05-07T20:11:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by voguevixen \* > \*\*I like Carrot Top. Norm MacDonald too. Keep in mind Carrot Top commercials do not equal Carrot Top comedy. \*\* I agree. I even think Pauley Shore is funny. Stupid funny. But I’ll deny saying it. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-carrot-top-a-comedy-genius-is-anti-comedy-the-true-existential-comedy/173552/28 "2003-05-07T20:56:23Z")
There has been a certain group of comedians in recent years who have played off the intentionally as unfunny as possible so that it’s funny because your expectations are that they should be funny. It’s not a bad idea and certainly can be humorous except for one tiny, insignifigant problem: the fact that it’s a one-note joke and once the audience is no longer ammused by it you’re left with someone who isn’t funny. Oh, and Carrot Top is more annoying than intentionally unfunny. ---
**Author:** ![Already\_in\_Use](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@Already\_in\_Use](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Already_in_Use)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-carrot-top-a-comedy-genius-is-anti-comedy-the-true-existential-comedy/173552/29 "2003-05-08T03:21:15Z")
Carrot Top is indeed a comedy genius. Or maybe I just needed to say something really evil for post #666. ---
**Author:** ![donkeyoatey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@donkeyoatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/donkeyoatey)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-carrot-top-a-comedy-genius-is-anti-comedy-the-true-existential-comedy/173552/30 "2003-05-08T03:41:50Z")
He would be a comedy genius next to that Neil Hamburger character that was on Jimmy Kimmel last night. Whatta train wreck. I see him occasionally on the Comedy Network’s Just for Laughs shows. Pretty good stand-up act. ---
**Author:** ![The\_MacDairmuid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_MacDairmuid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_MacDairmuid)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-carrot-top-a-comedy-genius-is-anti-comedy-the-true-existential-comedy/173552/31 "2003-05-08T06:59:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by voguevixen \* > \*\*I like Carrot Top. Norm MacDonald too. Keep in mind Carrot Top commercials do not equal Carrot Top comedy. \*\* I am. But I don’t think he’s funny. Nor do I find funny any of the others I mentioned. I used to cringe when Norm did SNL’s Evening News and ran through a bland joke with his bedpan delivery… then asked the audience if he wasn’t funny enough. But Carrot Top commercials… they are the setting stroke of the last nail in his coffin. ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-carrot-top-a-comedy-genius-is-anti-comedy-the-true-existential-comedy/173552/32 "2003-05-08T08:04:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Just Some Guy \* > \*\* > It’s not a bad idea and certainly can be humorous except for one tiny, insignifigant problem: the fact that it’s a one-note joke and once the audience is no longer ammused by it you’re left with someone who isn’t funny. > > \*\* Hmm. So you’re saying that being unfunny is funny, in that there is a humorous dichotimy between not being funny and humor. Eventually, the audience tires of this, but the comedian persists, and so really becomes unfunny, which is what they already were, so they thus become meta-unfunny, thus rising to levels of hilarity unreachable by more urbane routes of humor-seeking. Until, this meta-unfunniness approach loses its appeal. But, the comedian still persists, and is thus meta-meta-unfunny…and so on for an infinite iterations, each rising higher and higher upon the funniness scale. Such is genius. Is this correct? ---
**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:** [May 8, 2003, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-carrot-top-a-comedy-genius-is-anti-comedy-the-true-existential-comedy/173552/33 "2003-05-08T21:55:47Z")
Y’know, some of Carrot Top’s gimmicks might actually be funny, if they were done by a commedian. Let Gallagher go through Carrot Top’s prop collection, and he’d (rightly) have people rolling in the aisles. But Carrot Top has absolutely no delivery, whatsoever. All he does is go through a pile of props, and say “This is a \_\_\_\_. This is a \_\_\_\_\_. This is a \_\_\_\_\_.”. If that’s the kind of “comedy” I wanted, I would turn on C-SPAN. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-carrot-top-a-comedy-genius-is-anti-comedy-the-true-existential-comedy/173552/34 "2003-05-11T04:31:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scumpup \* > \*\*Carrot Top and funny are mutually exclusive terms. He reminds me of other unfunny, annoying comedians from years past: Emo Phillips, Pee Wee Herman in his stand-up days, Louis Anderson, et. al. > Why did God take Chris Farley and leave Carrot Top? Why God? Why? \*\* Now, see, here you go. I **like** the early stand-up days of Emo, Pee Wee, Carrot Top (I’m leaving Louis Anderson out of this). Add to that Andy Kaufman and Judy Tenuto. Weird. Full of self-referential irony. In fact, the early Steve Martin was like that. And what do all these comedians (in the early stages of their careers) have in common? Popularity with the teen/college crowd. And not simply because of sex/drugs jokes. So, I’m so sorry, Scumpup. You’re just not young, cool, and hip anymore. 😛 Now, I’ll grant that when you take these comedians and try to make them fit into some other type of performance (comic roles, commercials, talk shows, etc…) the results can vary greatly from genius to train wreck. Peace. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-carrot-top-a-comedy-genius-is-anti-comedy-the-true-existential-comedy/173552.md?page=1)