When Judd Apatow asked Chris Rock (in Vanity Fair, January 2013, guest-edited by Judd Apatow) if comedians of today are better than they used to be a couple of decades ago, he answered “… Hell fuckin’ no. … There are a lot of good comics out there, no doubt, but as far as the quality of the comics goes, I think what you have is a bunch of situational comics. What we have now is black comics that work only black crowds, gay comics that do only gay crowds… and so on with Asian, Latino, Indian, midgets, etc. The previous generation’s comics were better because they had to make everbody laugh.” You can tell how true that is by checking ratings on IMDB for comedies. Opinions diverge strongly about what’s funny and what’s not. My personal favourites at the moment are Lena Dunham with Girls and Amy Poehler with Parks and Recreation – i.e. I must be a caucasian female aged between 20 and 40.
