YOU DON'T KNOW FROM FUNNY

Entertainment Weekly, which never met a list it didn’t like, recently posted a photo gallery of The 25 Funniest People in America which kicked off at No. 25 with Augusten Burroughs and somehow managed, through its next 24 picks, to become less and less credible. And while many will argue that comedy is subjective, that one person’s Eddie Murphy is another’s Dane Cook, and that arguing about this list is playing into the hands of the editors who know that controversial lists draw in readers, it is important to note that for many, EW is the entertainment magazine of record. And that makes this list - a toxic combination of racism and incompetence - one that deserves further scrutiny.

 

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1. The Judd Apatow Posse - White
2. Stephen Colbert and the Colbert Report -Mostly white (plus a token Southeast Asian)
3. Tina Fey - White
4. John Stewart and the Daily Show team - White
5. Steve Carell - White
6. Chris Rock - Black
7. Matt Stone and Trey Parker - White and white
8. Amy Poehler and Will Arnett - White and white
9. Larry David - White
10. Kristin Wiig - White
11. Conan O’Brien - White
12. David Cross - White
13. Ellen Degeneres - White
14. Ricky Gervais - White
15. Will Ferrell - White
16. Amy and David Sedaris - White and white
17. David Letterman - White
18. Jack Black - White (despite his surname)
19. Craig Ferguson - White
20. Diablo Cody - White
21. Demetri Martin - White
22. Dave Chappelle - Black
23. Sarah Silverman - White
24. Catherine O’Hara - White
25. Augusten Burroughs - White

Now, let’s take a look at the racial makeup of the EW writers credited for having contributed to this piece. (If there is a mistake here, please tell me. All racial information was gleaned from the best information available online.):

Rebecca Ascher Walsh - White
Scott Brown - White
Kristen Baldwin - White
Michael Endelman - White
Raymond Fiore - Black
Nicholas Fonseca - White
Gregory Kirschling - White
Michelle Kung - Asian
Jeff Labrecque - White
Alice M. Lee - Asian(?)
Nancy Miller - White
Josh Rottenberg - White
Chris Nashawaty - White
Jessica Shaw - White
Dan Snierson - White
Ken Tucker - White
Karen Valby - White
Alynda Wheat - Black(?)

 

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Not only is the group that put together this list overwhelmingly not comprised of black people, but the group has clearly never seen a black comedian perform anywhere other than on television.

The most glaring omission is Tracy Morgan. Anyone who has ever seen him do standup, who watches him on 30 Rock, or who heard him on his most recent appearance on Howard Stern’s Sirius radio show, knows that Morgan may well be the funniest bastard on the planet. And somehow, he cannot crack a list that includes Diablo Cody (who has one screenplay and friends at EW, where she is a contributor), Catherine O’Hara, Kristin Wiig, Will Ferrell, and Demetri Martin.

(And before you claim that I must be a misogynist, it should be noted that Lisa Lampanelli deserves to be on this list and Sarah Silverman deserves better than the No. 23 position.) In addition, I recently saw a female black comedian on HBO who made me laugh so hard, I did a spit-take while watching her routine. (Unfortunately, I came in approximately two minutes after the start of the routine and didn't catch her name.)

Unfortunately for Morgan, he’s black. And if you include more than two black people on the list, you might scare your subscribers in South Dakota who have never seen more than two black people in the same city let alone in the same group of 25. That’s also why Charlie Murphy failed to make the list.

Of course, you can argue easily that the writers of this list also ignored genuinely funny white males like Artie Lang, who deserves a place on this tally. But that’s less glaring than is the fact that two of the funniest bastards who ever picked up a microphone are at No. 6 and No. 22 respectively. That both aren’t in the top five is nothing short of criminal. That they also failed to include Eddie Griffin is insanity.

Can you see where we’re going here? Redd Foxx, who has been dead for 17 years is funnier than Poehler can ever hope to be. Though I consider myself a fan of by his earlier shenanigans, Ferrell has been funny once in the past year, in an Internet video, where a three-year-old stole the show. And while I love Tenacious D, Black has been coasting for about 10 years now. (Need proof? Check out his appearance on the American Idol finale where he was a Pip.)

Eighteen people contributed to this list. Could one of them, and I know I’m asking for a lot here, have gone to a comedy club in the past year? Could someone have watched Def Comedy Jam?

I’ll leave it to others to explain why Amy and David Sedaris (both of whom are actually funny on their own, and have not, to my knowledge ever worked together) had to be teamed as one entry. Are the late-night talkers (Letterman, Ferguson, O’Brien, etc.) that hilarious anymore? And the clock on the Judd Apatow Posse (their capitalization, not mine) might not have reached 14:59 yet, but we’re certainly into the 13th minute.

Back to the original point, did anyone read this list and wonder where have all of the funny black comedians gone? Because if you didn’t, then you’re definitely not part of the solution.

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[Spencer]

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