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Why Comedians are Everywhere These Days

By
Relationship Advice Expert April Masini

Q: Dear April Masini,

In the past few years it seems like comedians are everywhere I look. If someone isn't sending me a YouTube video of a comedian, I'm watching a comedian reality show, or seeing Dane Cook's face on television. Ten years ago, I don't think I could name a single comedian, now I could spew off a list of at least 20. Why are comedians so popular in our society all of the sudden?

Sincerely,

It's Hilarious

A:

Dear It's Hilarious,

Within the last few years, our society has definitely seen a boom in comedians.

Reasons comedians seem to be everywhere:

1. People covet what they see. If they don't see it and aren't exposed to it, it's not possible for anyone to covet something. This is why the fact that there are so many more venues for entertainment -- cable channels, YouTube, internet access, reality shows -- has created more of an outlet for comedians. A decade ago there were fewer comedians because there were fewer outlets and jobs for comedians. Now, there are so many reality shows, competitions, and entertainment shows that need to fill time with acts like comedians, that comedians have become more popular based on their need.

2. Comedians, like writers, don't need licenses or to be accredited like doctors. They don't have to pass a bar exam and they don't even need as much as a fishing license. Anyone can do it. They don't need equipment like musicians, that can be expensive. They don't need skills like magicians. And there is not the commitment that having children has for a parent or that investing in medical school has for a doctor. In other words, anyone can become a comedian.

3. Comedians are to the 2000s what journalists were to the 80s. With the onset of Watergate, and the glamorization of journalism as heroic, journalism schools boomed and journalists were everywhere. Now, comedians are everywhere on television, the internet, in clubs and on YouTube, and they've become the new get famous quick, hip career to have.

4. Comedians have been put on a financial pedestal with the success of comedian based television shows. Roseanne, Jerry Seinfeld, and Carlos Mencia all started out playing one night stands in dives just to try to get an agent. They paid their dues and pulled the brass ring when producers made them television stars who got rich. Suddenly, funny, less attractive-than-stars entertainers could be famous and rich. This made the comedian something everyone wanted to be.

April Masini -- nicknamed "the new millennium's Dear Abby" by the media, is author of the best-selling books Date Out Of Your League and Think & Date Like A Man, the two (just released) step-by-step dating and relationship manuals, Ideas for a Fun Date and Romantic Date Ideas, and the critically acclaimed dating and relationship online magazine www.AskApril.com.

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