# Please help me account for this strange anomaly in the world of American Comedy **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 29, 2003, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-account-for-this-strange-anomaly-in-the-world-of-american-comedy/198530 "2003-08-29T23:08:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2003, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-account-for-this-strange-anomaly-in-the-world-of-american-comedy/198530/21 "2003-08-31T03:05:53Z")
**Lobsang** – I _love_ pranks. I love anarchic humour. I love scatological humour. I love a good mindfuck. Do not think that my capacity for joyful immaturity is in any way diminished. It just requires something a little stronger than “Hey look-- that guy’s acting like an _idiot_!” to hold my attention. Hell, _I_ can do that. If I’m going to take the time to watch someone acting like an idiot, I expect them to be clever about it. Or something. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2003, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-account-for-this-strange-anomaly-in-the-world-of-american-comedy/198530/22 "2003-08-31T03:19:46Z")
When most people act like idiots they are not funny because they do basically the same things that the other people acting like idiots do. It’s boring. But some people can act like idiots in ways that most people could not have dreamed up. I think Tom falls into this category (not always) and Vic and bob do too (always) Watching people act like idiots is good if they are doing it right. ---
**Author:** ![fizzestothetop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e79b87/32.png) [@fizzestothetop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fizzestothetop)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2003, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-account-for-this-strange-anomaly-in-the-world-of-american-comedy/198530/23 "2003-08-31T03:23:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lobsang \* > \*\*That just proves my point. Surely if you’ve _learned_ not to do something then the desire was there to do it _before_ you learned it. > > I am damn sure that desire is there, even if you deny it, you might not even know about it, but it’s there. > > \*\* I can honestly say that I’ve never, ever had the desire to hump a dead moose (or was it a deer? It was some sort of large dead animal I’m sure). If that’s your bag that’s fine but it’s certainly not something I’m into. I’ll admit Tom Green was amusing in Stealing Harvard and Road Trip but Freddy Got Fingered has got to be the stupidest movie ever made. It didn’t even get a chuckle out of me. I was pretty much dumbstruck that something like that even got released in theaters, it was just that bad. ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2003, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-account-for-this-strange-anomaly-in-the-world-of-american-comedy/198530/24 "2003-08-31T03:43:56Z")
There was only one scene in “Freddy Got Fingered” that elicited a genuine chuckle from me (“Daddy would you like some sausage?”) but the rest of the movie was one flinch after another. It was actually, literally _flinchingly_ bad. And that’s how I feel about Green in general. The stuff he does to his parents is just over the top. It was one thing to bring Monica Lewinsky into their bedroom in the middle of the night, that’s just surreal, not cruel. But dropping a statue of them having intercourse on their lawn? These people need to disown the freak they raised, pronto. I’ll rate him unfunny and disinteresting in general, pathological in certain instances. I have no idea why he has a television program. None. ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2003, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-account-for-this-strange-anomaly-in-the-world-of-american-comedy/198530/25 "2003-08-31T10:05:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lobsang \* > \*\*Tom Green is pure, unstructured, not-mentally-censored expressiveness. > > He does what all of us deep down want to do but don’t do because our social learning stops us from doing.\*\* So it’s behavioural masturbation. In what way does this make good TV? > [@](#): > > \*\*Him and the UK’s Vic reeves and Bob Mortimer are geniuses of comedy. \*\* :eek: I thought we’d already agreed not to mention Green’s name in conection with real comedians!!! ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2003, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-account-for-this-strange-anomaly-in-the-world-of-american-comedy/198530/26 "2003-08-31T10:18:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Futile Gesture \* > **So it’s behavioural masturbation. In what way does this make good TV?** It makes good TV because behavioural masturbation is very different from sexual masturbation. One is fun to watch, the other isn’t. Look, I can’t explain it, but sometimes Tom Green’s antics crack me up (not always). If that makes me wrong in the head somehow then I guess I am wrong in the head. > [@](#): > > \*\*:eek: I thought we’d already agreed not to mention Green’s name in conection with real comedians!!! \*\* I didn’t get that memo, so I humbly offer my bare bumb for mass kicking. Vic and bob have no equal(s). ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2003, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-account-for-this-strange-anomaly-in-the-world-of-american-comedy/198530/27 "2003-08-31T10:20:27Z")
or ‘bum’ even. ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2003, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-account-for-this-strange-anomaly-in-the-world-of-american-comedy/198530/28 "2003-08-31T15:06:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lobsang \* > \*\*I didn’t get that memo, so I humbly offer my bare bumb for mass kicking. Vic and bob have no equal(s). \*\* Actually the punishment is a large frying pan struck across the face. Repeatedly. Now, _that_ is comedy. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2003, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-account-for-this-strange-anomaly-in-the-world-of-american-comedy/198530/29 "2003-08-31T15:21:36Z")
> [@](#): > > He does what all of us deep down want to do but don’t do because our social learning stops us from doing. For me, not wanting to eat a ball of vaseline and hair was instinctive not learned behaviour. Though I have always wanted to drop a dead racoon on Mike Bullard (Canada’s “top” night-time talk show host). ---
**Author:** ![Anniee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@Anniee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anniee)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2003, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-account-for-this-strange-anomaly-in-the-world-of-american-comedy/198530/30 "2003-08-31T16:31:01Z")
He was freaking brilliant in Stealing Harvard. He had me in tears laughing. Freddy Got Fingered was ok if you could get past the filthy subject matter. The sausage scene…BWAHA! Never seen the show, but he’s sort of like Chris Elliott - sheer lunacy; and either you love him or you hate him I guess. In this case I love them both. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2003, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-account-for-this-strange-anomaly-in-the-world-of-american-comedy/198530/31 "2003-08-31T17:37:38Z")
I would just like to point out that, in my opinion, Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer have all the comedy value of an autopsy, though none of the charm. Having said that, they’re still better entertainers than Tom Green. ---
**Author:** ![j.c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@j.c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j.c)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2003, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-account-for-this-strange-anomaly-in-the-world-of-american-comedy/198530/32 "2003-08-31T22:57:56Z")
**Lobang** You prove my point about Tom G. appealing to people who take a childish delight and seeing someone act up. As I’ve seen infants, psychotics, and carsick dogs evoke the same reactions, I don’t find the responses to his behavior particularly telling indications of the content of his humor or the attitudes of his victims. As others have pointed out, this assertion was just wrong: > [@](#): > > He does what all of us deep down want to do but don’t do because our social learning stops us from doing. Have I “learned” not to do certain things? Perhaps yes, in the sense that I’ve learned that to be an autonomous individual in society I must hold myself to certain standards. I’ve also “learned” that even though fire is pretty, I shouldn’t touch it. Are you suggesting that these lessons are at the cost of my true and better nature? I hardly think so. Some of us think that sex improves with experience. Should I reject this “learning”? By learning not to pee in my pants and sitting in my sticky clothes and a puddle of urine until someone tends to me, I’ve avoided countless yeast infections and worse. This has not only been good for my general health butalso my sex life. Surely someone with Green’s rakish comedy persona would be glad that I have learned this particular lesson. But hey, if you enjoy him, go crazy. I’m all for people having a good time. **Larry Mudd** and the rest of us will be elsewhere. It’s a big world - I know someone who doesn’t like “The Simpsons”! ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2003, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-account-for-this-strange-anomaly-in-the-world-of-american-comedy/198530/33 "2003-09-01T03:22:47Z")
No matter how brilliant any of his post-Freddy work may be, I am never going to willingly watch any of it. His level of performance (I’m not going to call it comedy) is so low that I don’t believe he should ever be rewarded for anything he does again short of rescuing children from a burning building. Besides if he were really just doing the things that we all secretly want to do, he’d be going up to annoying people and smacking them really hard with heavy blunt objects. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-account-for-this-strange-anomaly-in-the-world-of-american-comedy/198530.md?page=1)