I find myself watching Doug Stanhope, Jim Jeffries, Frankie Boyle et al and thinking

“Yeah, good point. People are shit. Your observations on reprobate society are correct”.

Should I talk to a professional or persist in my misanthropy?

try some bill hicks for a lighter look at life…

Done that. Same rules apply.

Although further reading on Bill suggests he wasn’t as full of misanthropy and malaise as his stand up persona suggested.

Further reading on Stanhope verifies he **** hates you.

Love all 3 of them. Hicks overrated

Plenty of similar strong comics who are positive. The stuff Brendon Burns does now.

You can make some reasonably correct, and even quite funny observations while still being a **** about it

Aha, so, on the topic of Brendon Burns:
The aforementioned comics pretty much changed my perception on many sociological topics since they appeared at just the right time of furious mid twenties.

Where’s the happy **** ’cause if you go back, it’s Carlin Pryor and Bruce and they dont **** help either.

And it’s all Al Murray’s fault. Explaining standup is method acting with such candour I’m confused.

Ok, go surreal, Tony Law, Pappys, Beasts.

If you want to look at your views now, Bridget Christie, the more recent stuff Rob Newman has done. Mark Thomas remains committed and political yet generally positive,

Carlin was the real deal, Pryor too. But Bruce disappeared up his own arse.

There’s a coked up Bruce stream of consciousness shtick on YouTube which is overwhelmingly pretentious and nonsensical.

I’ve been in awe, truly life changing, recently of various stand ups philosophy and power to improve consciousness. I rarely laugh, just chortle and “oh, yeah, that’s right”.

Leary opened the door to me a long time ago, but I’ve been advocating comedy as an art for a while now.

Leary just ripped off Hicks. Just see their stuff on smoking. And his tedious angry young man in a leather jacket schtick. Good actor though. Fine with someone else’s material…

Comedy can be an art or a craft or both.

Someone said there is a difference between Funny “Ha Ha”, and Funny “Ah Ha”. I get what you’re saying