In reply to tester :
We enjoy funny movies, too. Unfortunately, lately we spend half an hour looking for a movie, and then the movie's 2 hours long, so we end up getting to bed at midnight. And then get woken up at 6 by the two tiny terrorists who run our house. We figured with a comedian, we could watch little 5 minute clips, and if they sucked, move on.
We've also already watched a ton of Carlin, so we intentionally skipped over him though he is a favorite. Same with Seinfeld and Comedians in Cars.
So, Friday night we sat down with Youtube on the Roku, this forum topic pulled up on my phone, a bowl of popcorn and some wine. I don't recall everything that we watched, but there were some misses and some hits.
Started off with some Lewis Black. Watched 4 minutes of him cursing like a sailor, and in general being an old man yelling at a cloud, went "meh" and went in search of something else. We're not averse to swearing, but it seems like he was swearing to be funny, which never works.
Pulled up "The Machine" (Bert Kreischer) and both had a good time, though Mrs. VCH said she'd have enjoyed it more if he'd put his shirt on. Seriously, dude looked pregnant. Ain't nobody want to see that. I said I think it was part of the act. Somehow.
Next we cued up Bill Hicks, who turned out to be surprisingly good. Like, nearing Carlin-levels of dark and funny. Really enjoyed his early-90's skit on drugs. He closed with some vaguely political rant, which we didn't appreciate, but that seems to be par for the course with most comedians.
I didn't recognize the name 'Steven Wright" until I saw the face and heard the voice...ah, of course, "K Billy's Supersounds of the Seventies...keeps....on....truckin'" he was hit or miss...older stuff seemed funnier. I especially loved his "cop asked me why I was going so fast...I said, "I had my foot to the floor...sends more gas through the carburetor....makes the engine turn faster, drives the wheels, accelerates the car..."
Not a huge fan of Britcom...I know I'm in the minority here, but Cleese is only somewhat funny for me.
We stumbled back to some of our old favorites...watched a Letterman interview of John Candy from like 1982 that had us in stitches. A Billy Chrystal routine from 1977. Wow. The fast-forward to the 90's and some comedy show with Billy Crystal, Whoopie Goldberg, and Robin Williams. It was pretty good, until they brought Don Rickles on. If that guy wasn't offending the Jews, he was going after the blacks, and when he got bored with them he went after some asians. I'm not really a "PC" guy but geez, even in the 90's, was this OK? I realize this was sort of his "thing" - taking jabs at people- but Mrs. VCH said she would be fine with never seeing Don Rickles ever again.
I went to pee, and Mrs. VCH watched Billy Crystal's eulogy from Mohammed Ali's funeral. What I heard of it was touching and funny.
I remembered a John Oliver piece on conspiracy theories I liked, so I shared that, and her mind was blown.
SNL people tend to be hit or miss, but on several rec's here I cued up some John Mulaney. We both enjoyed him, very funny, good work.
Closed off the night watching some Carol Burnette skits, which were just berkeleying brilliant and hilarious. In the current state of affairs, this one really hit the mark:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMTSbSrvcRg
Thanks for all the recommendations; I'll keep this topic linked so we can come ack to it later and try out a few more.