Yerington: Alternative humor leads the 2nd golden age of comedy
In a time where comedians like Eric Andre and comedy duos like Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim are loved by young people; I sat down with UI lecturer and playwright Megan Gogerty to dive into the rise in popularity of nihilistic and absurd comedy.
Megan Gogerty performs in โLady Macbeth and Her Pal Megan,โ a one woman show.
September 11, 2018
In a time in which comedians such as Eric Andre and comedy duos such as Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim are loved by young people, I was very interested in what that says about us as a generation and why we love this wacky shock-filled form of comedy. I thought of no one better to talk to than University of Iowa theater and standup-comedy Lecturer Megan Gogerty.
When talking about this time, Gogerty spoke about our being in the second Golden Age of Comedy, with the the first being in the 1970s. Gogerty noted that comedians such as George Carlin and Richard Pryor were pillars of helping to create a new form of comedy built around anger and calling out political injustices in the world. That all changed about the time of Watergate and Nixonโs resignation.
โWatergate shifted this anger and disillusioned a lot of people about what is โjusticeโ โฆ America loses its taste for political/confessional comedy, and we get instead a thing called โAnti-Comedy.โ โ
This โAnti-Comedyโ was led by comedians such as Steve Martin and Andy Kaufman. They caused audiences, as Gogerty put it, โ[to] laugh in spite of the joke.โ It skewed showbiz tropes and comedic traditions. The form was so popular because of the emotional distress caused by the late-1970s; America rushed to see such bits just to see something totally ridiculous and funny.
This comedy has now shifted to people such as Andre and comedy duos such as Heidecker and Wareheim, but now with a great focus on nihilism and a higher dose of absurdity.
A great example of this is the โWho Killed Hannibal?โ bit from the Andre show. For those who donโt know this bit/show, it plays out like a normal talk-show monologue in which the host tells the audience the nightly monologue but in the middle, a generic joke about climate change. Andre turns to sidekick Hannibal Buress and proceeds to shoot him with two clips from a handgun. Then he turns to the camera and says, โWho killed Hannibal?โ
The sketch on paper sounds horrible and dark, but because of the comedic โTonight Showโ host and sidekick tropes being thrown on its head, we laugh.
We laugh because the jokes he was saying before donโt matter; talk shows are all rehearsed and produced before they are filmed. Thereโs no โreal banterโ that ever happens between the two. So when we see that, it doesnโt matter that Andre shot Buress because itโs just absurd.
Finally, I asked my big question: Why is this new form of โAnti-Comedyโ becoming so popular for people in this time? Gogerty responded with, โIf I was to hazard a guess, one of the reasons this nihilistic comedy and absurd comedy is popular among certain populations, is 1) The internet let people have niche comedy โฆ and 2) This feeling of powerlessness, this feeling of nihilism, of everything is absurd.โ
I asked what could possibly be the cause of this absurd nihilistic comedy, Gogerty responded with, โItโs very difficult to analyze our current moment because we need distance,โ but she went on to note that time periods such as the 1970s and our current times are seen as โHigh Stress Times.โ
โNo matter if you feel good about it, we are in a high-stress time,โ Gogerty said. โWe have a senior official in the *New York Times* being like โP.S. weโre running a shadow governmentโ; thatโs alarming.โ
Gogerty doesnโt believe that this presidential administration is what totally caused it, though. She cites an article by Frank Rich in which he argues that this point in America can be traced back to the recession in 2008. The event signals that Americanโs trust was broken. โNot a single banker spent a night behind bars, so there is a feeling of: Is there justice; are there rules?โ Gogerty said.
In a time in which we see rules not applying to people who inhabit the 1 percent and in which we feel powerless, this crazy, weird form of comedy helps fill a hole in which others may enjoy a bit of laughter. As a student about to enter the real world, I feel it is always good to have a bit of comedy to help with the obstacles that will come.