Has Comedy reached its’ Demise?

Comedy has been embedded within every culture since the beginning of time. While it holds the reputation of being a staple within cultural arts, the backlash of executing the art has tremendous downfalls. Of course, it provides an outlet for the public to digest news-worthy material in a different light. On the other hand, certain approaches can be more controversial than effective.

This graphic focuses on the main groups of comedic value: how it is representative of the era, political climate, and economy in regards to the entire social environment. Accessibility to the public demonstrates the social and technological era. Public relations fall in line with the cultural and social aspects of content, mostly directed towards societal reactions to comedic input. Security covers the public’s response, which ultimately dictates the profit of entertainers. All of these facets in the realm of comedy are intertwined in a way that effects both the skeleton of the society, and the individual that attempts to dissect it.

For instance, Anthony Jeselnik has been criticized for his vulgar material and, seemingly, lack of empathy. However, within the short video embedded above, he manages to wrap up a never-ending struggle that comedians face due to our technological era. Social media has played an enormous part in comedian revenue and social safety. The technological climate that has invaded our society has its’ pros and cons — just like anything else — but the repercussion regarding the entertainment industry has made the sole’s of performers feet tip-toe over egg shells; both financially and culturally.

First and foremost, comedians consistently have a difficult time building revenue. Who needs to pay for a ticket to a show when accessibility to a stand-up act is readily available at the fingertips?

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The meme above leans toward the insight of the comedian on a personal level. While the art crafted brings resolution or insightful contemplation to the public, providing for individual sustainability still rises as an issue.

With live audience attendance rates dropping and live-streaming soaring, it is only natural to question the reliability of income.

As a consumer and advocate of the art, acknowledging the tactics that may be used to support the artist is crucial. Below, describes a handful of ways to promote the success of comedians.

Unfortunately, the above issues are not the end-all and be-all.

One way comedians gain the growing audience they strive for, is being in the majority of thinkers in respect to the political and economic state of the audience they are reaching for. While plenty of controversial comedians rise to popularity, the shock-value tends to wear off at some point.

On the contrary, many comedians strive to deliver news, targeting the run-of-the-mill, middle class families and providing perspective through the lens of this population because it takes up a lot of the demographic areas, and most times is something the comedian themselves can thoroughly relate to best.

This is why many comedians try sticking to personal anecdotes, as seen below in the slides, because it provides a safe0guard for content and is most times truly relatable and simplistic enough to reach an over-arching topic.

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Within the above slides, comedians from each generation are represented. The art of comedy has been consistent, but just like everything else, needs updating in accordance with the era.

Censorship has become a huge part in this generation due to the mass amount of varying demographics that have access to routines.

Comments are almost always available, so debate over subject matter becomes more important through this media.

Hyperlinks are embedded in some pictures provided above to give more resources.

These questions rise in response to how comedy is viewed throughout an entire spectrum. The answers to these questions are not concretely achievable. However, it helps to ponder over the issues because it not only addresses the problems of comedians and how their material effects us, but it impacts the way we think about our daily lives, in correlation with our embedded culture.

Discussion amongst comedians results in many topics pertaining to social media. Not simply because of their craft, but because the technology has been absorbed so swiftly amongst current generations. Of course this has an impact on everyone throughout the world, but when focusing on the comedic world, it becomes a big issue.

I also decided to take a similar topical approach within a podcast that I was able to record recently. I sat down with Chicago-based comedian, Stephen A. Salemi and discussed political and social views that become embedded in entertainment culture.

Below, I made a video that touches on all of the issues that have surfaced within this art form. The struggle financially, socially, and globally when creating entertaining and witty content.