Comedy obviously goes back to Aristophanes and the Commedia dell’Arte and jokes are probably almost as old as our species. Stand-up is a specific form. Some of the older comedians they play on comedy radio are still pretty funny (such as the genius Jackie Mason or George Carlin). Others have their moments but seem a tad rehearsed (Groucho Marx talking to the audience, Bing Crosby). I care little for the comedy of Lenny Bruce or Sam Kinison, though recognize their influence and approve of their personal battles for free speech.
Who is the oldest stand-up comedian whose work is still witty and relevant who you greatly like?
What is the oldest comedy you find funny?
Has comedy really changed all that much in the last century?
Which revered old-time comedians do you find unfunny or tedious?
Which country or culture does the best and worst job of being funny or whimsical?
I’ll offer up Jerry Seinfeld. Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee was entertaining, not stupid, and maybe even funny. He discontinued it 2019, when he was 65. He’s 69 now, and I think he could still bring the funny.
Bobcat Goldthwait (61). He’s an 80s era stand-up who is relevant and funny and progressive. I like his work today (as well as his old stuff)
A lot of his generation are getting into the “Oh man, can’t say anything these days! Everyone is so sensitive” realm but he still works.
Dana Gould (58) is very similar in that his old stuff is great and his new stuff is still funny.
How far back does that “specific form” go? Mark Twain gave public “lectures” which may have been close enough to count as stand-up comedy. I’ve run across bits from his published writings that I could imagine him doing as stand-up routines.
Not many since the recent passing of Don Rickles and Carl Reiner (not a stand-up per se, but he did a lot of sketch comedy and was an icon of American comedy). I suppose Bob Newhart, Mel Brooks and, hate to say, Bill Cosby (love the comedy, hate the comedian).
Probably Harold Lloyd’s debut of his “Glasses” character, Over the Fence (1917).
It depends on the type of humor. Physical comedy/slapstick has changed little, and the best was as funny then as it is now. Pure wit doesn’t change much. The wit of folks like Mark Twain, Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley holds up very well today. Topical and Hip humor is very short-lived. Shows like Laugh-In were funny in the 60s, but cringe-worthy now. I do believe we are in a golden age of comedy (not the only one) with regard to films, television and stand-up.
Jack Carter and Milton Berle come to mind, but there are others.
Best: Britain, Australia, New Zealand, United States—in that order. Worst: Germany, North Korea, France—in that order
Pure stand up, someone alone onstage talking to the audience, Bob Hope comes to mind. Mostly corny stuff, not much that’s edgy, but he was recorded a long way back. Lots of it is not relevant today, but he represented the little guy in much of his older humor going back to the Great Depression.
Groucho Marx would certainly have to be considered in the broad category of comedians but I don’t know when was his earliest standup without his family. Jack Benny and others were contemporaries in the days of radio on the tail end of vaudeville. All of them have left pieces of work that will stand the test of time.
I’ll second Twain – i’m a big fan. And you don’t have to go far to see “Mark Twain standup” – Hal Holbrook had a whole second career doing Mark Twain in his show “Mark Twain Tonight”, a show he performed from 1959 to at least 2014. But it’s wrong to call it a single show. He had multiple prepared segments that he mixed and matched for variety and to suit his audience. The published edition I have of the show is just a snapshot in time of this evolving performance. You can find it in audio and video recordings, and several places on YouTube.
Nor is that all. I find lots of his written material hilarious (Commenting on the Albert Memorial in London, right across the street from Albert Hall, he said “It’s good to have several monuments, to guard against loss. I intend to leave a collection of tombstones when I go.” Or, writing about “The Awful German Language”: “When a literary German dives into a sentence, that’s the last you see of him until he emerges on the other side of the Atlantic with his verb in his mouth.”)
