I can see that.
It might be worth knowing that most of the time, what gets on the air at SNL is what the studio audience laughs at* the most out of the much larger pool of dress-rehearsal sketches and its not usually the stuff that the cast and writers like the most.
It's a notoriously shitty audience of "tourists" (everyone hates a tourist, but we're all tourists eventually) who are mostly interested in seeing classic characters, walk-ons from famous people and impersonations of famous people in the news. The stuff that actually holds up many years later and is remembered fondly is very often stuff that was on in the second half of the show and not all that well-received at the time.
He knew he wouldn't be as popular as Dennis Miller doing that job, so his schtick was basically saying "fuck you" to the live audience and getting uncomfortable laughs. He was also saying fuck you to NBC. Basically, he didn't really want to be there but was going to light a fire on the way out. It was uncomfortable watching it at the time. Seth Myers and Amy Poehler picked up a lot of his same delivery, but without so much antagonism or repressed anger.
I don't know if that's complicated or cheap, but it was very different at the time, so I at least had to respect him for not playing it safe.
Now, as you say, it's just cliche. "Edgy," "politically incorrect," "not for everyone," etc is often just code for "I'm an asshole who says ignorant things instead of actually doing comedy."
As a cis person, I can recommend some stand-ups that you should not ignore or bin, I think. Or at least, they aren't trying to pass off being a dick as comedy. You might not think they're funny.
* There are examples when Loren Michaels insists on airing a sketch that he thinks is funny even if the audience doesn't get it. Admirable.
It might be worth knowing that most of the time, what gets on the air at SNL is what the studio audience laughs at* the most out of the much larger pool of dress-rehearsal sketches and its not usually the stuff that the cast and writers like the most.
It's a notoriously shitty audience of "tourists" (everyone hates a tourist, but we're all tourists eventually) who are mostly interested in seeing classic characters, walk-ons from famous people and impersonations of famous people in the news. The stuff that actually holds up many years later and is remembered fondly is very often stuff that was on in the second half of the show and not all that well-received at the time.
He knew he wouldn't be as popular as Dennis Miller doing that job, so his schtick was basically saying "fuck you" to the live audience and getting uncomfortable laughs. He was also saying fuck you to NBC. Basically, he didn't really want to be there but was going to light a fire on the way out. It was uncomfortable watching it at the time. Seth Myers and Amy Poehler picked up a lot of his same delivery, but without so much antagonism or repressed anger.
I don't know if that's complicated or cheap, but it was very different at the time, so I at least had to respect him for not playing it safe.
Now, as you say, it's just cliche. "Edgy," "politically incorrect," "not for everyone," etc is often just code for "I'm an asshole who says ignorant things instead of actually doing comedy."
As a cis person, I can recommend some stand-ups that you should not ignore or bin, I think. Or at least, they aren't trying to pass off being a dick as comedy. You might not think they're funny.
* There are examples when Loren Michaels insists on airing a sketch that he thinks is funny even if the audience doesn't get it. Admirable.
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