I am a huge stand-up comedy fan and it saddens me to see it rarley on TV these days. You'd think with more and more channels, more stand up series would take off.

Right now, there are currently only three stand-up comedy series on television. Two on Comedy Central (Mash Up and Gabriel Igasias presents Stand Up Revolution) and one on Bounce TV (Off The Chain.) A series on Youtube, Comedy After Dark ran earlier this year also as did JB Smoove presents The Ruckus on Comedy Central.

At one time, 20 years ago in 1992 all of these programs used to air:

HBO's Def Comedy Jam

HBO's One Night Stand

Showtime's Comedy Club Network

MTV's Half Hour Comedy Hour

VH1's Stand-Up Spotlight

A&E's An Evening at the Improv

A&E's Caroline's Comedy Hour

A&E's Comedy on the Road

FOX's Comic Strip Live

BET's Comic View

Comedy Central's Comic Justice

And there was probably a few more I'm forgetting about. Man, there seemed to be comics on all the time back then.

I honestly think youtube has hurt comedy shows on T.V

Youtube has so many comedians posting on the site daily, that i think it's became a safe haven for the more then Stand Up.

And if they become big.. they usually can only strike deals for a T.V show & nothing to do with stand up.

Gunsnhalen said:

I honestly think youtube has hurt comedy shows on T.V

Youtube has so many comedians posting on the site daily, that i think it's became a safe haven for the more then Stand Up.

And if they become big.. they usually can only strike deals for a T.V show & nothing to do with stand up.

A lot of comics were discovered on those shows I listed. Remember VH1 Stand up spotlight. Rosie O'Donnell used to host and Jenny Jones was a performer on an episode.

Dave Chappelle performed on all of these excecpt Comic View and Comedy on the Road. Luis CK's first performance was on MTV's Half Hour Comedy Hour.

Even the 1 hour specials HBO used to air of certain comics. The last 2 1 hour specials HBO aired were years ago from Chris Rock and George Lopez. Showtime seems it took over for the comedy specials, but they don't have the big names. Corey Holcomb just have a special a few weeks ago on Showtime. He wouldn't be able to have a special 20 years ago, not with Damon Wayans, Carrey, Bill Hicks, Sam Kinison, Howie Mandel Sinbad, ect all having specials. Of course, of those 6 names, the first two don't do stand up anymore, the middle two are dead and the last two are irrelevant now.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

Gunsnhalen said:

I honestly think youtube has hurt comedy shows on T.V

Youtube has so many comedians posting on the site daily, that i think it's became a safe haven for the more then Stand Up.

And if they become big.. they usually can only strike deals for a T.V show & nothing to do with stand up.

A lot of comics were discovered on those shows I listed. Remember VH1 Stand up spotlight. Rosie O'Donnell used to host and Jenny Jones was a performer on an episode.

Dave Chappelle performed on all of these excecpt Comic View and Comedy on the Road. Luis CK's first performance was on MTV's Half Hour Comedy Hour.

Even the 1 hour specials HBO used to air of certain comics. The last 2 1 hour specials HBO aired were years ago from Chris Rock and George Lopez. Showtime seems it took over for the comedy specials, but they don't have the big names. Corey Holcomb just have a special a few weeks ago on Showtime. He wouldn't be able to have a special 20 years ago, not with Damon Wayans, Carrey, Bill Hicks, Sam Kinison, Howie Mandel Sinbad, ect all having specials. Of course, of those 6 names, the first two don't do stand up anymore, the middle two are dead and the last two are irrelevant now.

Those where very good shows to

Grant it int he early 00's i was young,... but would catch a good majority of these on last night & loved them

But really youtube is like the go to place to discover talent.. especially music & comedy.]

It's hurt & helped a lot of hopefuls, but i think comic view and shows of the like where more proper in showing off people who where good.. and some who where not

The internet is what happened.

That's why we aren't getting as good comedies as we deserve on Tv. There is not many avenues for stand up right now, however funny is funny and if you are good, success will come.

I think more choices for entertainment have cut into all aspects of entertainment. Video games cutting into retail sales of DVD/Movies and TV watching for example.

Timmy84 said:

The internet is what happened.

Reality Shows happened.

it's called evolution

the world is a completely different beast now

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

Timmy84 said:

The internet is what happened.

Reality Shows happened.

This is it.

Unfortunately reality shows have taken over and 90% of them are garbage and so unnecessary.

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

Timmy84 said:

The internet is what happened.

Reality Shows happened.

Yep.

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

Timmy84 said:

The internet is what happened.

Reality Shows happened.

That too.

Gunsnhalen said:

I honestly think youtube has hurt comedy shows on T.V

Youtube has so many comedians posting on the site daily, that i think it's became a safe haven for the more then Stand Up.

And if they become big.. they usually can only strike deals for a T.V show & nothing to do with stand up.

And there's no censorship, they can say anything they want without having to be restricted because of the channel or time

aardvark15 said:

Gunsnhalen said:

I honestly think youtube has hurt comedy shows on T.V

Youtube has so many comedians posting on the site daily, that i think it's became a safe haven for the more then Stand Up.

And if they become big.. they usually can only strike deals for a T.V show & nothing to do with stand up.

And there's no censorship, they can say anything they want without having to be restricted because of the channel or time

And we don't have to hear all the bleeps.

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

Timmy84 said:

The internet is what happened.

Reality Shows happened.

What does the internet and youtibe have to do with stand-up though?

Sitcoms, dramas, prime time soaps, late nigt talk shows, sketch still exist in the same quanity. But, why not stand up?

LittleBLUECorvette said:

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

Reality Shows happened.

What does the internet and youtibe have to do with stand-up though?

Sitcoms, dramas, prime time soaps, late nigt talk shows, sketch still exist in the same quanity. But, why not stand up?

No one watches that as much as they do reality shows. You haven't seen the ratings? Besides unless it's on TBS or FX or whatever, the national networks have fizzled with the stuff you mentioned. Late night is doing better on E than NBC for instance. The only stand-up on TV I know of is Martin Lawrence's on Showtime.

Timmy84 said:

LittleBLUECorvette said:

What does the internet and youtibe have to do with stand-up though?

Sitcoms, dramas, prime time soaps, late nigt talk shows, sketch still exist in the same quanity. But, why not stand up?

No one watches that as much as they do reality shows. You haven't seen the ratings? Besides unless it's on TBS or FX or whatever, the national networks have fizzled with the stuff you mentioned. Late night is doing better on E than NBC for instance. The only stand-up on TV I know of is Martin Lawrence's on Showtime.

Does 1st Amendment Stand Up still air though?

LittleBLUECorvette said:

Timmy84 said:

No one watches that as much as they do reality shows. You haven't seen the ratings? Besides unless it's on TBS or FX or whatever, the national networks have fizzled with the stuff you mentioned. Late night is doing better on E than NBC for instance. The only stand-up on TV I know of is Martin Lawrence's on Showtime.

Does 1st Amendment Stand Up still air though?

idk... it wasn't like they did theirs weekly...

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

Two more series both from Comedy Central, Stand-Up, Stand-Up and The A-List.

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

Timmy84 said:

The internet is what happened.

Reality Shows happened.

Girl the curse of the devil.

Its funny LBC brings this up. Last last week on the dumb network FOX, Bill O'Reilly was doing a year in perspective of all the people he had interviewed. One of those people happened to be Jimmie Walker. Mr. Walker was taking Jay Leno to task for not inviting on and/or introducing new comedians to the viewing audience. He said, it was ironic because it was thought when Leno got the "Tonight Show" gig one of their own would continue the late night tradition of Jack Parr and Johnny Carson started, inviting comedic unknowns to cut their teeth as it were.

I never thought about but he's right. Yes, there are cable channels the cater to comedians or satire but in some instances you are singing to the choir... so you've become a niche player.