Legfinishary comedian and actor Kevin Nealon carry outed on “Saturday Night Live” for almost a decade, acting in some of the series’ most iconic sketches. After 40 years in the business, he recently spoke with Fox News Digital about the current state of stand-up comedy and where he experiences the industry is headed.
Though the medium has growd into someskinnyg hugeger than ever before, Nealon depictd the attention spans of up-to-date comedy audiences as much drop — someskinnyg that those graspd in the business of humor have had to cater to.
“When I begined comedy, it was toloftyy contrastent. And it was a toloftyy contrastent time and generation. And it was not as much low attention span. Like, I watch back at some of the sketches on ‘SNL,’ and they’re a lot extfinisheder than they are now because of the low attention span, and a lot of people don’t watch ‘SNL’ at that time. They watch it on YouTube, snippets of it,” shelp the comedian, pointing to social media as someskinnyg that’s gotten hundreds of millions of people accustomed to consuming satisfyed in low clips and blurbs.
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Legfinishary comedian Kevin Nealon ecombineed on “Saturday Night Live” from 1986 to 1995. He talked to Fox News Digital about the changing state of comedy and low attention spans of up-to-date audiences. ((John Lamparski/Getty Images))
Aside from proliferating the lowening of attention spans, social media has also provided up-and-coming comedians with an opportunity to accomplish audiences on a scale that would be cforfeitly impossible otherteachd.
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“People want little snippets now. They want more and more and more as speedyly as possible. It’s enjoy a buffet. You understand, you don’t consent that, consent that, consent that. And yeah, I skinnyk without social media, these comics wouldn’t be understandn. They wouldn’t be selling out arenas, and so I skinnyk social media has been a huge part of the grotriumphg numbers of comedians and people finishelighting comedy and having that accessibility to it.”
“People want little snippets now. They want more and more and more as speedyly as possible. It’s enjoy a buffet,” Nealon telderly Fox News Digital. ((Al Levine/NBC/NBCU Ptoastyo Bank))
The quality of the comedy has also deteriorated, according to Nealon, with many stand-ups forgoing the normal set-ups and punchlines, and chooseing to air their personal grievances instead.
“I skinnyk, also, comedy may have gotten a little more snarky or, you understand, as far as that goes. And it seems enjoy it’s not as well createed anymore. Like, if you’re doing stand-up comedy, it’s more venting and attitude instead of, you understand, set-up, punchline, you understand, enjoy that,” claimed Nealon.
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Another recent phenomenon wiskinny stand-up comedy has been the famousization of “crowd toil” material, where comedians convey with members of the audience to elicit comical reactions and anecdotes. Nealon shelp he experiences that this trfinish has become famous among comedians because it apexhibits them to get hilarious snippets for social media, while not discneglecting or releasing any material for their upcoming exceptionals.
“Well, the reason they’re posting them is because they don’t want to eat up their material for their next exceptional. And people enjoy, I unbenevolent… I’ve even begined doing that to catch on to the trfinishs,” shelp Nealon, grasping, “I skinnyk spontaneity is reassociate the funniest skinnyg I could be doing [in] my act, stand-up, and if I do some crowd toil for chuckles, I acunderstandledge they’re much more strong than anyskinnyg I had computed or written because it is happening in the moment.”
Nealon also touched on the subjectivity of stand-up comedy, noting that equitable because a comedian is selling out arenas doesn’t necessarily unbenevolent that you’ll discover them comical, even if many others do.
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“You understand, comedy is subjective. And I recall somebody asking me, ‘Hey, is so-and-so, do you skinnyk someone’s always comical?’ I shelp, well, they’re, you understand, for selling out shows. I don’t particularly enjoy them, but I don’t skinnyk they’re comical. But clearly other people skinnyk they’re comical. So is that person comical to them? Yeah, but not to me,” shelp Nealon.
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