Funny is subjective. Like art. One guy looks at a painting and says, my kid coulda done that. Other guy standing next to him says, the nerve! That’s a masterpiece!
Thus goes comedy.
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Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello? Three Stooges? All funny still after all these years.
Jackie Gleason, Sid Caesar, Jack Benny? Legends.
Jerry Lewis, Jim Carrey, Chris Farley, John Belushi, Robin Williams? Hysterical
George Carlin, Steve Martin, Billy Crystal? Huge.
Mel Brooks, Albert Brooks, Seinfeld, Larry David? My heroes.
Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Richard Pryor, and Un-named Problematic Scandalized Former America’s TV Dad? Groundbreaking.
Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler? So consistently laugh out loud.
Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, Craig Ferguson? My TV late night heroes (Sorry, Leno).
Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, Kenan Thompson, Kate McKinnon, Dana Carvey, Mike Myers and dozens of other SNL Not Ready For Primetime Players over almost a half-century? Hilarious.
Adam Sandler?
Adam Sandler? Anyone?
He was never funnier than when he was singing little ditties about Hannukah and Thanksgiving and Lunch Lady Land.
Listen. I know you think Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore are towering achievements in comedy. Little Nicky and Hubie Halloween, too, I suppose. I know he has his followers. My wife thinks he’s a laugh riot.
I’m just here to say he should stop throwing away his obvious cinematic gifts as a dramatic leading man and cease making dreadful throwaway comedies with Rob Schneider, Steve Buscemi and Kevin James. The dramas he has done are largely very watchable—even Funny People, which stalls in the third act. And that recent basketball movie tho! More of that, please.
This column was inspired by a social media post I wrote in which I took Hubie Halloween to task for being terrible. I stand by that. I’m just here to say, thanks to everyone mentioned above and hundreds of comics and actors, my sense of humor is pretty broad. It just doesn’t include Adam Sandler. He keeps me from 100% on my personal comedy Rotten Tomatoes.
But if you think he’s comedy gold, well, you do you. Not here to judge. And I’m not saying my kid coulda done that, because what’s funny is subjective.
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