Stand up and accents..which work, which don't?

Comments elsewhere viz Jack Whitehall got me thinking about what accents work best in stand up. As they say, good stand up is all about delivery and timing and key to delivery is the accent. For me, well spoken/posh accents just doesn't cut it in stand up. They do in sitcoms but not in stand up. I'd say the best suited are probably Glaswegian, Irish (republic), Bolton and maybe Geordie. Aussie and Yank don't work that well for me either.

Not sure I agree about accent being key (and is Jack Whitehall not posh?), but I do think it's interesting that certain parts of the country seem to be much more fertile breeding grounds for comedy people than others. Glasgow and South Lancashire - absolutely loads. Yorkshire and the Midlands - comparatively few.

I feel I'm fairly safe saying it, since hardly anyone visits this forum...

PS Nobby, among others, might have words to say about whether a Dublin accent is funnier than Belfast...

[Deleted by the author on 24 Apr 2012 18:57:52 BDT]

The moment I hear a Namibian accent on a comic, I have to leave the auditorium. It just ain`t an accent for comedy.

Being Welsh I usually cringe when the accent is over-emphasised (as they often do). They just sound twp, mun.
Maybe others feel the same about their own accent.

If it's funny , it's good.
If it's not funny, regardless of accent , it's bad.

Nuge, I think you're identifying that urban comedy pushes your buttons, and this is more likely to be delivered in inner-city accents (e.g. scouse, geordie, glaswegian, cockney). Metropolitan/home-counties comedy (e.g. Michael Macintyre, Miranda hart, et al.) is likely to irritate people who really don't have shared experiences with the comedians, or just don't identify with them. I think there's probably also a factor to do with the ability of comedians with a strong urban working-class identity (even if it doesn't truly match their origins) to talk about taboo subjects - think of pretty much any Frankie Boyle routine - and come across as edgy rather than ignorant. This might account for the hostility that Jimmy Carr attracts, at least.

Does anyone actually like Jimmy Carr (or his material)? It's astounding that he has managed to make a career as a comedian (?). Go on tell me he does a lot of work for charity someone.

A funny comic is funny no matter what part of the country, (or what Country, come to that) he/she comes from, but the exception would be when the accent is so thick that I can't understand what they're saying, having said that though some comedians didn't even need to speak to make you want to laugh, I'll put forward the name Tommy Cooper, I only had to look at him and I felt ready to laugh straight away.

Each to their own RL - Tommy Cooper made me cringe and he only had one act - pretendiing to do a trick badly when you knew he could do it.

Extermely tedious the first time I saw it , let alone the number of times this pathetically boring man repeated it. I only had to look at him to reach immediately for the "off" switch.

Kev, there's a worrying trend here that I find myself agreeing with you on several topics. It seems almost taboo to not like certain comics, musicans, sports slebs etc but I'm with you on 'national treasure' Tommy Cooper. Then again I dont find any slapstick humour funny, not him, not the Young Ones, none of it.
Gordon - I guess I best like quite dark, edgy humour and my antipathy is really for cosy, family friendly comics rather than well-spoken ones. There are some well spoken ones I do quite like come to think of it who do have a bit of edge e.g. Chris Addison, Milton Jones, David Mitchell and Fry & Laurie (when they were a double act).

Worrying indeed Nuge ;-) ...the "realist" element in us both is showing.

Yeah, Kev it's a weird thing how some entertainers, public figures, pieces of music and TV shows etc seem to've become sacred cows and if anyone dare say or even think likewise they're treated like a heretic that deserves to be burnt at the stake. Who and what makes certain figures 'national treasures' anyway?

Cor! Blimey you two, I was only putting forward a personal opinion and then along come you two all guns blazing and shooting me down in flames, I never mentioned "National Treasure", you did, I just said that I found him funny, you don't, that's fair enough, comedy, like beauty is in the eye/ear of the beholder.

Er... the fact that a lot of people like them.

It's just as common these days, and just as big a mistake, for people to write comics off because they're too nice, too polite etc - and conversely to extol stuff because it p*sses people off rather than because it's funny. It's the punk mentality, exported to comedy. Personally I think you were on firmer ground laying into the poshos (though it seems an awful long time ago now).

True Gille...just as it's a fact a lot of people don't like them too.
It can't be just numbers ...a lot of people liked the Spice Girls but I don't hear anyone calling them National Treasures. John Gielgud was considered one , although 95 % of the population wouldn't have known anything he did even when he was
alive

RL ..I'm not knocking you , or anyone else who likes Tommy Cooper ...just stating my viewpoint. That's what the forum is about isn't it? Come over to the music forum if you really want to see some comments flying ...this is tame by compariison ..but it certainly isn't personal, it's something I have a viewpoint on , and your obvious like for Cooper needed a counterarguement stated imo. He's a "Marmite taste" .. I suspect there's no middle ground with his brand of, (peurile imo), entertainment .

Nuge raises a good point though ..there seem to be certain actors / singers / comedians who some (not all) people think should be immune to criticism , and Cooper has become one of them. The question Nuge is asking is why?

Be fair RL, Kev did say each to their own but that he personally didnt rate Cooper. I was agreeing with him. We were hardly having a pop at you. No you never used the phrase national treasure but the media have, many times.
gille - in all these fora we're all stating personal views not irrefutable facts.I dont diss comics for being 'nice'. There are plenty of 'nice' ones I do like but who at least have some originality and don't trot out the well worn cliches of observational comedy of the 'you know like when you're standing in a queue at the post office...' type. They're the ones I write off.

Right: so edginess on the one hand, or family-friendliness on the other, is not what decides whether they're funny. Neither one is necessarily better in itself, but I do think shock tactics are cheap; and I admire the ability of those, in comedy, music, film etc, who succeed in entertaining without having to resort to them. It's easy to disparage them for doing the obvious, but I reckon to do the obvious well is actually the hardest thing.

If evidence were needed: look at the fact there hasn't been a really worthwhile, mainstream British sitcom now for 20 years - though there have been a number of good 'alternative' ones (for want of a better word).

Not edginess in a crass being shocking for it's own sake way, but edginess meaning being at the cutting edge is what i mean. I agree, if a comic can be original without being crass that's where the skill lies. But the likes of Mcintyre are going over the same old ground Jasper Carrot and Victoria Wood covered decades ago. Just my view that's all.

Well said Lacy!

But what's cutting edge, if it doesn't mean material the crumblies aren't able to cope with, because it's so hip? There's a place for shock value but it doesn't necessarily = great comedy. Nor does novelty.

And btw, when you start talking about sacred cows etc, what it sounds like is that you're stating the majority view to be not only wrong but stupid. Perhaps that wasn't the intention...

As it happens I'm not a fan of TC either, but I respect the fact that he's been very popular for a long time. I feel that has to be based on something, even if it's not something that appeals to me personally.

No-ones view on Tommy Cooper is stupid, gille ...but you are not correct when you say it is "the majority view" either... in the case of Tommy Cooper I would suggest the truth is that he has a small band of fans , a smaller number who can't stand him , and the vast majority who don't care either way !

>> If evidence were needed: look at the fact there hasn't been a really worthwhile, mainstream British sitcom now for 20 years - though there have been a number of good 'alternative' ones (for want of a better word). <<

There weren't many 20-30 years ago, either. My Family is in the same tradition as Terry & June, Ever Decreasing Circles, etc. While I'm sure you wouldn't classify Black Books, I'm Alan Partridge or The IT Crowd as 'mainstream', Outnumbered certainly is. I'd rate Outnumbered as pretty worthwhile, and clearly family-friendly.

[Deleted by Amazon on 19 Jul 2012 14:37:04 BDT]

Trouble is ...if they brought out something like "love thy neighbour" or "mind your language"today , it would be described as "cutting edge" on your "pushing the boundries" definition Nuge.

as for the Beatles, i've had a lot of flak over on "music" for guggesting 85%+ of their output is extremely poor...it's my honest opinion however.