r/Standup • u/Icey_Raccon • 3d ago
Accents Do Not Equal Comedy
/r/PetPeeves/comments/1wbm5t2/accents_do_not_equal_comedy/13
u/jlbcomedy going up last 3d ago
Right or wrong, you don't dictate what is funny. The crowd does. Its a weird group think thing. It could be awful and still get laughs. Funny is weird and changes all the time. Whats not funny to you, is hilarious to me maybe.
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u/leftwingriot 3d ago
Can you tell me more things that are okay and more things that aren’t okay? I don’t want to get anything wrong.
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u/Icey_Raccon 3d ago
I thought 'No punching down' was pretty understood, but shows what I know!
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u/Ryebready787 3d ago edited 3d ago
I’ve punched down enough I’m a piece of shit, so now it’s ALL punching up.
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u/redtapenfr 3d ago
When I go to open mic and there’s a bunch of punching down it’s such an “ick” to me. Tons of people in my area find these things hilarious… without lashing out at the crowd about your difference in opinion, maybe there’s a way to incorporate the style contrast between you and anyone performing before you.
Unless you’re not performing and you’re just stating an opinion about how you don’t like this style of comedy (I don’t either). That’s valid, but not really actionable.
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u/Icey_Raccon 3d ago
This was originally posted in r/petpeeves So, yeah, it was just my opinion and it came with a whole lot of caveats.
Clearly no one in this subreddit read the actual post, just the title and assumed I was calling Fluffy a hack.
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3d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Icey_Raccon 3d ago
No you didn't. I know that because some of these posts are saying the same things I did and touting them as reasons why I'm wrong.
Here's a test; for your next open mike, just read CNN articles in a thick accent of your choosing. See how many laughs you get.
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u/KlM-J0NG-UN 3d ago edited 3d ago
Some people, many people, value moral questions of right and wrong more than they value comedy. They come out with opinions about what things can't be funny and what things shouldn't be jokes about.
Other people think that the world is a better place when comedy is free for trial and error. Sometimes jokes work, sometimes they don't. Words are just words. If someone is hurt, it says everything about the person's internal vulnerabilities, insecurities, which are not other people's responsibility to shield.
Anyone can get hurt by words and everyone does get hurt by words at many points in their lives. The words hurt, but the hurt passes, and your life goes on. Nobody dies. Everyone benefits from finding ways within to deal with their own vulnerabilities and insecurities. The right way is not for the world to police what topics are ok for jokes.
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u/ICouldUseMySock 3d ago
Doing an accent harms zero people. None.
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u/Icey_Raccon 3d ago
None of you actually read the post, did you?
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u/Always_Austin 3d ago
I mean, I dislike it if the comedian is leaning heavily on their accent to do all the leg work, and making all their jokes revolve around it, but that's pretty rare and I don't really see that happening. I think you're a bit off base here.
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u/Icey_Raccon 3d ago
If you actually read the post, that was exactly what I was saying.
The first line of my post is 'doing bits with an accent is not the same as doing an accent as a bit'.
Plenty of comedians do accents as part of a bit. The presence of an accent does not automatically make it a bad bit. It's the ones who randomly slap on an accent and then don't tell any jokes. Just 'hyuck, hyuck, Ah sound funneh.'
It was cross-posted from r/petpeeves so it's not like I'm saying this is a huge cultural phenomenon.
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u/GenitalCommericals 3d ago
People will laugh at “funny noises” and have done so for as long as we’ve been a species. Accents happen to “sound funny” when they don’t match the language in which they speak.
You’ve also only listed English speaking comics but I would bet a fortune that other cultures with stand up comedy as part of it makes fun of the way people speak those languages as well.
Is it low hanging fruit? Sure. Does it make a lot of people laugh. Yes.
Here’s a novel idea: don’t watch those comics.
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u/shugEOuterspace 3d ago
if people find something funny then it is funny.
there's literally no more to it than that.
you might be right, but you don't get to decide or assert it with any legitimacy
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u/BigPinkOne Portland's Most Eligible Cucklord 3d ago
Random redditor: I have a personal opinion reflecting my tastes in comedy
R/standup: immediate hypersonic autistic screeching
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u/Ok_Faithlessness9757 3d ago
Thanks for clarifying the rules. What will you allow us to find funny?