"Comedy" may be dead.

[DrLeftover]

Where’s their nerve? Today’s comics mock poop, not the powerful

March 1, 2014

As Chevy Chase might have put it on “Saturday Night Live,” Harold Ramis is still dead. And with him has gone the finest era of comedy: The ’70s kind.

Ramis was as close to the king of comedy as it gets, as a writer, director and occasional sidekick for “Animal House,” “Meatballs,” “Caddyshack,” “Stripes,” “Ghostbusters,” “Back to School,” “National Lampoon’s Vacation” and “Groundhog Day.”

Now Ramis, like his fellow counterculturalists John Belushi, Doug Kenney (co-writer of “Animal House” and “Caddyshack”), Richard Pryor and George Carlin, is gone.

...

When the smoke bombs cleared and the anarchy died, comedy turned inward and became domesticated. It also became smaller.

“The Cosby Show” and Jerry Seinfeld didn’t seek to ridicule those in power. Instead they gave us comfy couch comedy — riffs on family and etiquette and people’s odd little habits.

Now, in the Judd Apatow era, comedy is increasingly marked by two worrying trends: One is a knee-jerk belief, held even by many of the most brilliant comedy writers, that coming up with the biggest, most outlandish gross-out gags is their highest calling.

http://nypost.com/2014/03/01/wheres-their-nerve-todays-comics-mock-poop-not-the-powerful/