Entertainers

I will not link, but it will be easy enough to check it out if you are interested.  I have mentioned previously that while entertainers shape culture, it may be even more true that audiences shape entertainers. I made especial reference to the comedian Taylor Tomlinson, who I binge-watched about a year ago but grew increasingly disquieted by. Because of the binge she still shows up in my YouTube sidebar a lot.  Or perhaps she is very popular now and is showing up in everyone's sidebar.

Her shtick is "nice girl becoming increasingly whorish," and I wondered if this need to degrade good people is more commonly applied to women, or is neutral. She has become quite skilled, with good timing and some spontaneity, but especially good at facial expressions and postures. As she became increasingly raunchy in her routines, I wondered where it would go next. There's only so far one can go in the direction of jokes about what you do in bed. Yet it was only a year ago that I described her as "nice girl who says outrageous things," which is milder, indicating she has gone downhill fast.

There was a clip on the sidebar that looked like it might be less sexual, so I gave it a click, hoping that she is going for a wider range of humor as her career expands. Where she has gone is simple meanness. In a manner similar to late-night hosts, she is better and better at giving the impression that she is saying something humorous because such is her skill that she can deliver it that way, but is really just saying mean things. No joke involved. 

Hayley Morris makes me wince sometimes with how bluntly scatological she can be, but her routines of imagined conversations among the parts of her body continue to have actual humor in them. I worry it won't last, but for now it's still funny. 

Update:  First commenter Eric has a great link, The Perils of Audience Capture. We (or at least I) immediately think I would never do anything that ridiculous. And yes, I wouldn't do that. But i have been Assistant Village Idiot for over fifteen years now, and I wonder how much all of you have shaped David Wyman into some more composite character between a realspace and online persona. I see Glenn Reynolds as quite different from the person he was fifteen years ago, and last I checked in on his wife, it is even more true for her.

Well, if I have influenced you at your sites, that can only be for the good, of course. You're welcome.