Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Generation Obama comedians

As I think about comics/comical actors born into Generation Obama, I find myself dividing up even that thinly sliced demographic cohort into smaller groups. (PS: I realize that I'm not strictly sticking to a particular set of years in these various posts. Like I said, generational diviniation is more of an art than a science.) Over-generalizing doesn't begin to describe what I'm about to say, but I'll bite the bullet. We've got to respond to Canellos's challenge!

Comics born between 1952-59: Jerry Seinfeld, Dan Aykroyd, John Goodman, Roseanne Barr, Matt Groening, Rick Moranis, Howard Stern, Sandra Bernhard, Dana Carvey, Whoopi Goldberg, Gilbert Gottfried, Kelsey Grammer, Fran Drescher, Denis Leary, Jon Lovitz, Ray Romano, Drew Carey, Bernie Mac, Tom Arnold, Tracey Ullman, and Weird Al Yankovic. It strikes me that theirs is an angry, edgy, sarcastic, often nihilistic humor. These comics are satirists who believe that progressive social change is necessary, but -- unlike their kookier, cuddlier boomer comic elders (Cheech Marin, Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, Ted Danson, John Belushi, Bill Murray, Jay Leno) -- they don't believe their satire can contribute to that change; they don't seem comfortable, finally, with being comedians. Among the many things preventing progressive change, they seem to believe, is humor itself, which is perhaps why many of them favor the deadpan, even stoneface style: Weird Al and Aykroyd and Romano and Seinfeld are prime examples, as are Kelsey Grammer and Bebe Neuwirth, who of course played an absolutely stone-faced duo on "Cheers."

Ellen Degeneres is the odd woman out -- she seems much more like a cuddly boomer. Hard to imagine these others with a daytime talk show.

Comics born between 1960-64, on the other hand, practice slacker comedy. This is the comedy of those who -- schooled in the scorn of "Saturday Night Live" and Howard Stern, really don’t believe that progressive social change is possible. Theirs is the free-floating, all-consuming, air-quote irony that Generation X was accused of; in fact, these 1960-64s are the original and true Generation X. (Douglas Coupland, author of the novel of that title which branded everyone born after 1965, was born in 1961; Coupland lifted it from the punk band fronted by Billy Idol, born in 1955.) The comedy of Steve Carell, Mike Myers, Jim Carrey, Conan O'Brien, Eddie Murphy, Amy Sedaris, Damon Wayans, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Mike Judge, Craig Kilborn, Greg Kinnear, Lisa Kudrow, Norm MacDonald, Hank Azaria, John Leguizamo, Rob Schneider, Yeardley Smith, and David Spade is perfectly suited to the Bush era, a time when progressives have been marginalized, rendered politically impotent, branded as traitorous. It's simultaneously vulgar and aestheticist, politicized and apathetic. Unlike the previous group, these comics don't seem like resentful children or younger siblings; they seem like the prematurely sophisticated only children of broken homes. They're sophisticated savages, latchkey kids raised by TV. They really do have love to give, to paraphrase a line from "Magnolia," a movie studded with Generation Obama actors, but they just don't know where to put it.

Jon Stewart, David Cross, and Janeane Garofalo (all from the latter group) are a different story. I think... But anyway, I went way, way out on a limb here. Still, I'm going to put this theory out there. Email me with constructive criticism, friends.

MORE FROM BRAINIAC: Generation Obama Jones | Generation Obama politicians | Generation Obama comedians | Generation Obama mailbag | Generation Obama: Music | Generation Obama sports stars | Generation Obama vs. the Boomers

Posted by Joshua Glenn at 02:40 PM

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