Althouse saw the Guardian article about Eddie Izzard now wanting his pronouns to be "she" and "her," making the full switch to transgender. Except not quite. But let's start with something I liked.
I liked "Dressed to Kill" very much, but the other things I have seen, much less. He seemed to get both more mean and less silly. Comedians are often troubled people, who get some good feeling back by poking holes in their society. The society often deserves it, but the balance is delicate. With just a slight increase in irritation it becomes merely insulting.Once you have an audience that you know likes certain types of insult, or prefers certain targets you can go quite a while providing them with the mere insulting with just a bit of silliness or some vaudeville expressions to keep up the pretense that it's still comedy. They will still laugh, still think it's funny for quite some time.
The funniest comedians for my taste poke holes in their own absurdities as readily as in those of their adversaries. They show some confidence that their audience will identify equally with both, which keeps the whole thing from degenerating into bashing.
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