Dark Side of Comedy

All of the comedians in the lineup are great talents and I'm eager to experience their stories.

But personally, I'm disappointed that there is not a more diverse representation of America's ocean of great comedians. Maybe future seasons will balance things out. But if it ends up being a single season show, and the first season is limited to the ten episodes currently listed, an important opportunity to experience the challenges, hardships, and successes of comedians from wider representation of America's rich diversity will have been lost.

There are ten comedians presented...among them: 8 White people 7 Men 3 Women 1 Black 1 Latin 0 Asian 0 Native Americans 0 Anyone else

In defense of the makers of this series, in the real world the majority of standup comedians are white males. So in that sense the lineup is as real as it can possibly be.

Having lodged my complaints, I still want to thank the makers of this series for their hard work and the opportunity for us as an audience to learn more about some of America's greatest laugh makers. And I'd like to express my sincere hope for the success of this series so that future seasons will provide an opportunity for the makers to present many more comedians from all walks of life.

There are some big names that I know and I've see some of the work they have done and there are some where I think I've never heard that name before. There are some where the dark side is past trauma, mental health issues, drug and alcohol abuse and even death but others seem less dark or serious along the lines of oh you got canceled because people disagreed with you or because of reports of abusive behavior. There is a big difference between psychological issues linked to past abuse leading to drug use and death and your show was canceled because of racist and sexist comments. One of those is much more self inflected than the other.

They repeatedly say from the beginning through the end of the second season that comedy is a male field and women are not welcome and do not reach the same level as men. What about Lucille Ball? She is considered one of the greatest comedians ever and her work is still being copied and redone because it is so good and timeless. Add in Carol Burnett and Vicki Lawrence from Mama's Family and the cast of Golden Girls. If you watch the Bewitched tv series the husband is the punch line, I Dream of Jeannie again the man is the punch line and yet they claim that most of the time women are just there for men to make fun of. Yet that doesn't seem to be the case. Lucille Ball was the president of a production company that was at the one of the largest and most profitable, it was started because nobody wanted to work with her husband Desi Arnaz because he was Cuban. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz separated because he developed a drinking problem. Where is Lucille Ball's story she is a bigger cultural icon than Ellen Degenerass whose dark side was leaving her talk show after reports of racist and sexist remarks. The one created a company to film and produce a sitcom she wrote and starred in, the other went from staring in a sitcom someone else wrote to talk show host to scandal and out of the public eye. Don't complain comedy I a male dominated field and then ignore one of the biggest comedians in pop culture history who happens to be female. Then again they didn't have anything about Adam Sandler or Jim Carry or Will Smith. Sandler and Carry might not have a dark side to discuss despite being great comedians but Smith does and not just because he punched someone on live tv during an award show.

"Vice" has again another interesting series this time "Dark Side of Comedy" which looks at the tragic and often controversial pop culture changing stage days of Andrew Dice Clay, Rosanne, Richard Pryor, and Dustin Diamond and even John Belusi. As episodes show vintage stage footage and classic interviews with each and many historians of media and entertainment and pop culture buffs give their takes on how each comedian impacted society and it's times. And actors shown as they portray moments that involve the real life comedian and critical and real happenings of big moments in their life. Overall it's revealing and tragic showing that being funny and on stage is not always what it seems to be as underneath the clown is crying!

The stories are good, factual and of course, tragic. The best part is the interviews with friends or people close to the stars or comedians. The randos however, and especially Debra Wilson, are unnecessarily aggressive and indiscriminate. Her input added nothing credible and since PhD, MD doesn't flash by her name, she is out of her depth and really shouldn't have been given that platform. There is a lot of soul searching, confusion and anger, as is common to anyone who has lost someone to addiction, be it in physical death or just unable to save them to one extent or another so you connect with them and have immense empathy but there is also a heavy dose of blaming the industry and finger pointing, as is the case when anyone famous dies. Overall it's a raw and emotional look into what were, or are, hugely entertaining, but anguished individuals addressing themselves or via those close to them how this industry is a draw and very rewarding to people already on shakey footing and their realization that nobody or thing is what "broke them" so it can't be responsible for, nor can't it to any extent "fix them" but it takes a very liberal and roundabout path to them coming full circle in accepting they and they alone are ultimately responsible for their complete derailment.

I love stand up comedy, huge fan of stand up comedy. I will watch any decent series that deals with, analyzes, dissects stand up comedy and stand up comedians. I understand his series is different and deals with the "dark side of comedy". However, a little balance would be greatly appreciated. Many of the subjects are great comedians who had a "dark" side in one way or another. But, how about a little more credit to their incredible achievements, perhaps in part a result of their "dark" side? I admit I am only three episodes in and thus my review is premature. But, thus far I am not impressed. For one thing, Dave Foley's narration: Dave Foley is hilarious, much admired, huge success. However, his narration comes across as monotone, too much of a bummer. We can highlight the positive and still get at the "dark" issues with which each comedian dealt. Even more so, I really hate the recreations. These are in every episode so far. They add nothing, they are artificial. I don't understand the rationale for using these recreations. I don't need some still photo of someone vaguely representing the comedian or the situation being described in the narration.