Opinion: Comedy Versus Stand Up

Imagine this-you come back home after having a rough day at school. All you are looking for is something that can bring you laughter, so you start scrolling on Netflix and pick a comedy movie; however, this movie isn’t funny at all. That’s the problem with comedy movies nowadays. They are very repetitive, and it’s very hard to find a comedic movie that keeps you entertained and laughing the whole way.

For example, I watched this one movie called the “Triangle of Sadness,” on Hulu; however, it was just very confusing. Right away, the movie started off kind of weird showing off models and their audition to be on the runway. It started off very serious, and it didn’t have any jokes but I gave it the benefit of the doubt and kept watching. About 30 minutes in, the plot was still very boring, and it didn’t have any jokes, even though it was labeled a comedy. But who knows, maybe it got funnier along the way but let’s be realistic here, if a movie doesn’t make any progress within the first 30 minutes, is it really going to be a good movie? Also, will you really keep watching it?

Now don’t get me wrong the “Triangle of Sadness” isn’t the only bad comedy movie. Multiple movies out there are just overdone or shouldn’t even be labeled as a comedy. For example, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” was a good movie but there wasn’t anything comedic about it. Now if you really want to laugh, watch stand-up comedies instead because those are guaranteed to give you a laugh.

The thing with stand-up comedy is everyone has specific preferences on what jokes they want to hear which does take a little time to look through but when you find the one you are interested in, you are guaranteed to laugh at the movie for an hour and a half rather than three minutes.

This being said, some of my favorite stand-up comedies are those by Chris Rock, Jo Koy and Dave Chappelle. These comedies come in the form of specials that feature a set of jokes. Rock’s most recent special, “Selective Outrage,” it features jokes about Will Smith and what occurred at the Oscars, as well as the Kardashians. Now if this isn’t your cup of tea no worries, in Koy’s special he talks about COVID and his experience as well as his childhood and his mom. For Chappelle’s special, he also mentions COVID but also funny experiences he’s had with people who interpret his comedy wrong.

Overall, stand-up comedy is the way to go if you want a laugh.