Unfunny comedians

[TheTecknician]

We've covered lousy actors and questionable singers. A further spin-off: who really isn't that funny, past or present? I offer:

Hale and Pace
Freddie Starr
Lenny Henry

Mean-spirited, I know.

On the plus side, I did like Jimmy Tarbuck. I'm probably being unfashionable but his delivery as a stand-up was perfect, even if some of the jokes wouldn't go down well today.

I think Lee Mack can be funny off the cuff but I hate the supposedly funny acted shows he does - theyre atrocious!

Harry Hill. Saw him live recently. Didn't smile much less laugh. Should have stuck with medicine

David Walliams and that awful bald git who's name I can't recall, and Reeves and Mortimer, though that's going back a bit.

Sarah Silverman - funny as toothache and sciatica combined

No not really. I haven't even seen one of his shows for a decade but I do remember laughing my arse off. Objectively he's not my type of comedian at all - I'm very much into either very confident edgy storytellers like Dave Chapelle, Jim Jeffries, Tiffany Haddish etc or more gag merchants. Not usually into mainstream TV dad stuff. But he makes me laugh. As does Kevin Bridges.

What do folk make of Paddy McGuinness? I watched a video of one of his live performances some years ago. It was a quiet afternoon and one of my colleagues brought it in to pass the time. It was terrible. Just shouty and vulgar. Most of us swear, if only a little, but this man was practically every sentence. I cringed and was glad when it finished.

Arthur Askey
Joe Pascale (reincarnated Arthur Askey)
Lee Evans (JP above, but without the spectacles)

And I think Paul.Merton has lost it a bit now, appealing to the audience to laugh at his jokes is a bit embarassing - even the cat appears to shudder a bit.

Ricky Gervais...tries to hard to be controversial and all his religious jokes are played out now after several tours.

Do still love The Office though

Love romesh
rosie, I only find funny when she does her CP humour, found all the poo stuff on task master dire.
that nish guy is irritating, so is Kathleen Ryan.

I actually quite like Michael McIntyre. I don’t watch the show where he takes celebrity phones but I used to watch his standup routines.

I can remember a couple of his skits literally reduced me to tears, I was laughing that hard! I think it’s because he’s quite good at observational comedy and taking the piss out of everyday stuff, like getting your kids ready and out the door. I can relate to it - I found it funny when he’s pretending to be his kids and does their voice 🤷‍♀️😂

And it’s a weird one for me as I normally prefer more adult, edgy humour but weirdly I really find Michael McIntyre funny, despite my usual preferences!

Rosie Jones
Lenny Henry
Alan Davis

That’s so weird - I cross posted and said almost exactly the same re my usual humour!!

Rosie Jones. Can't follow what's she's saying unless I'm concentrating really hard, a d find it's just not worth the effort.

Oh yes, Ricky Gervais, Not as funny as he thinks he is. He comes across as a right twat.

Totally agree, I was going to say that I can’t think of a single female comedian I find funny at all - I don’t even know what it is…

@SecretSoul I agree about the lack of female comedians. I think unfortunately women are judged on their looks more than men. The current popular female comedians are more likely to be conventionally attractive - Sara Pascoe, Katherine Ryan, Lucy Beaumont.

I think America (surprisingly!) is better than the UK in terms of gender representation in comedy and has a lot of female comedians that are worth a watch - Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Iliza Shlesinger, Taylor Tomlinson, Michelle Buteau, Chelsea Handler, Ali Wong.

Morecambe.

And Wise.

I was thinking about this a lot the other day because I like watching the wheel I think he’s great at presenting shows like that and it can make it very engaging and quite funny but I don’t think he’s as good doing stand-up so I don’t want to see him doing stand-up, but I do like him doing game shows like the wheel which I really like

Ricky Gervais, Frank Skinner, Frankie Boyle, Jimmy Carr

@SecretSoul. see it’s the “observation comedy” part that annoys me. Because he gets the observation, but seems to utterly forget the comedy, apart from laughing at his own non-jokes.

“you know traffic? HA HA HA Goodness, it’s slow, isn’t it. HO HO HO. I said to my wife if we don’t leave now we’ll be late, and do you know what - we were. HEE HEE HEE HEE HEE”

HOW IS THAT FUNNY???

I've never found Jennifer Saunders funny. She reminds me too much of kids from my school days.

I like Dawn though.

Another vote here for Rosie Jones. Not funny at all, and she’s an arsehole of a person as well

Agree that she's one of the least funny, but what makes her an arsehole of a person?

I can't bear Frankie Boyle, but my Scottish friend tells me I just don't 'get' his humour. Is it a Scottish thing?

Oh my God, no, he really was funny. He’s really old now, but he really was funny. He made me laugh a lot.

I've seen a lot of great (and unknown) female comedians on smaller pub circuits but they tend to be older and less telegenic. I know a few women who went into comedy in their 40s and have moderately successful careers but not on TV/radio.

Euh Paddy Mcguiness-liked him.in Max and Paddy's Road to nowhere, although did wonder if he was playing himself 🤣. Can't listen to him.on radio- dire