Ten Defining Moments That Shaped Modern Comedy
Comedy is more than laughter. Comedy is an act of revolution, a fire lit under the status quo—yeah, it’s rock and roll, but also it’s more rock and roll than rock and roll. Duh. Today’s most successful comedians are raw, gritty, convincing men who are warriors for free speech and vitamin supplements that shrivel your peener! These are big, tough, kinda whiny dudes with strong opinions, and they will fight like dogs for their right to express that! So, looking back at the landscape, this is an official, comprehensive, and objective guide to how we landed at this glorious point in comedy. Here is Benny Scheckner!’s Ten Defining Moments That Shaped Modern Comedy:
1. The Comedy Central Roast of Donald Trump
This is the nexus point connecting multiple influential figures in comedy today, and all centered around America’s jokester, the prankster president himself, Donald Trump! Relevant comedy icons like Larry King, Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, and Snoop Dogg, aka Huggy Bear from the classic comedy film Starsky & Hutch, are all given the spotlight. Young comedians continue to watch this triumph with jaws agape in awe, and wonder if comedy can ever be this good again.
“Donald Trump, you’re known for your terrible haircut and now I see why. Your hair sucks.” —Whitney Cummings, hilarious joke
2. All of the racist side characters in Disney movies
“Shanghai, Hong Kong, Egg Foo Yung. Fortune cookie always wrong.” —Shon Gun, the Chinese alley cat in The Aristocats, sung while playing a piano with chopsticks
Iconic racial stereotypes like the crows from Dumbo and many, many others from your childhood favorites that you’ve probably forgotten about gave today’s great comedic thinkers a nuanced and empathetic vernacular with which to discuss complex issues.
3. Pauly Shore’s Pink Diggily Diggily
As the son of comedy’s greatest GOAT, Comedy Store booker Mitzy Shore, an amazing person-being with perfect taste in comedy, who was never vindictive to anyone, Pauly’s influence was felt even before he was born. But afterwards, when handed a platform, boy did he prove himself worthy of respect with Pink Diggily Diggily. This is an early masterpiece that all great comedians respect as much as they respect Mitzy herself!
4. Charlie bit my finger
When Charlie bit that finger, he took a bite out of society. This was an absolute satirical masterstroke on Charlie’s part, and still the peak of physical comedy.
“Chaaaaw-lay. Chaaaaw-lay bit me.” -The kid Charlie bit
5. Stuff Steven Tyler yelled on stage in between songs at Aerosmith concerts
There is no one funnier and, as far as I know, less incriminated than Steven Tyler. His hilarious commentary has been an influence on many, many douchebags who attended Aerosmith concerts over the years. Indelible morsels of humor like “Good luck staying dry after that one” continue to have a palpable, lasting impact today, especially in comedy.
6. Lenny Bruce
The first comedian to ever be persecuted, Lenny Bruce began the proud tradition of comedians fighting for free speech, much like today’s rich, powerful, demonized class of comics.
7. Al Jolson
Okay, obviously there’s some problematic stuff going on with Al Jolson. But ignore all the blackface—the dude actually had really good comedic timing and an amazing ability to meld comedy into his great singing. Again, you gotta ignore how often he was wearing blackface, but there really is great comedy there. We’re just talking about raw comedic talent, timing, delivery—it’s there, you just gotta get past the blackface.
8. The Buzzfeed video of Ted Cruz doing impressions of Simpsons characters
There’s no doubt that The Simpsons is some of the greatest and most important comedy ever created, a show with an incredible legacy going back almost forty years. And yet, The Simpsons managed to fly mostly under the radar until 2015, when notorious cool guy Ted Cruz came out to Buzzfeed as a Simpsons fan. While yes, he risked making himself look like a nerd, he managed to shed light on the then-obscure Simpson family, enlightening us all to their hilarious antics. The characters truly live on in Ted’s impressions of them in this one video.
9. Popeye the Sailor Man
The consummate badass, Popeye scores laughs the old-fashioned way—by downing a supplement and cucking a fat guy. Popeye’s muscles and strong jaw make him formidable and relatable to dudes looking to get into comedy, and watching him get laid at the end of every episode really resonated with young men looking to rescue women from harmful situations.
10. Socrates
The original dude “just asking questions.”