rant · moment 9 of 14
Unfunny Comedians Building Careers on Outrage Instead of Talent
from My Last Christmas · #128
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
5 minTim predicts outrage culture will recede and says the N-word will return to network TV within six months, then pivots into a rant about unfunny comedy-adjacent media figures who band together and get press despite never getting real laughs.
- 31:03Tim predicts the outrage wave is about to crash based on conversations with diverse people across the country.
- 31:52Articles like "vegans are too white" have become indistinguishable from parody.
- 32:33Real headlines about polyamory as revolutionary concept read like rejected Onion pitches.
- 32:51Tim jokes that network TV will normalize the N-word within six months.
- 33:32Some bloggers and activists are so fervent in their beliefs they're essentially indistinguishable from religious extremists like Muhammad Ata.
- 34:07Unfunny comedians have infiltrated the comedy community because they have press connections and write favorable coverage of each other.
- 34:33Unfunny people band together like the mafia, helping each other's careers through networking and marketing.
- 34:57These comics can make clever Twitter puns but never produce the guttural laughs that comedians like Patrice O'Neill and Joan Rivers achieved.
- 35:21Their anger at never getting real laughs drives much of their online behavior.
outrage cultureJoan RiversPatrice O'NealMuhammad AtaKelly RipaMichael Strahan