Michael McIntyre is Overrated

I'd never seen any of Michael McIntyres stand up routines before the end of last week. I knew about him of course;- his meteoric rise to success in the last few years. Endless coverage on "Live at the Apollo", well perhaps not as much now. But perhaps most intriguing of all was his controversial status amongst other stand ups, from Frankie Boyle, to Vic and Bob, to Stewart Lee. Was it sour grapes on their behalf? Were they justified in saying that his act was bland and always playing it safe? Or was McIntyre a true popular comedy talent who was the victim of sneering snobbery? (nb, I don't think any of the detractors I have named are comedy snobs. Lee is perhaps my favourite stand up of all. I too follow the values of the Carphone Warehouse.) Well I watched some of his "Apollo" stuff, and his tour thingy, and he .. just .. isn't funny. I couldn't laugh at any of it. His line about a sin bin sounding like a Catholic skip was about his funniest, and that wasn't even funny really.

Now I'm not a comedy snob. I approached with an open mind. I saw how popular he seems to be with the comments he has. I got bollocked on facebook for saying he wasn't any good. But I just don't get why this guy is so popular. At first I thought is it the "Live at the Apollo" itself. LATA guarantees a friendly audience. Some of the best and most electric stand up can come from a comedian who is under pain of things going badly from the audience, they have to play to win, and even up their game. But his other tour was the same kind of stuff. His observation comedy is just that, observing and responding to everyday stuff, and being all jolly and skippy and jumpy about it. But apart from cheery observations about how the Scots name eggs and tape and stuff after them, or how everyone never judges where tube train doors will stop when preparing to board, where is the depth to his stuff. It aint there.

I know observation comedy is considered "lazy" comedy in some circles. I don't agree. Observational comedy can be more prone to being lazy comedy, but when it is done with a bit of panache, and if the comedian can run with the observation and dissect it to really get under the skin of why it is funny, you have the stuff of classics. Peter Kay may have flaws as a comedian, but he is good at highlighting the hilarious nature of a lot of Lancashire idioms (years of being boxed in from civilisation by the Pennines and Peak District!) and tells it with a genuinely witty verve. Some of his stuff looks pretty shit on paper, but he pulls it off with great flair and humour to make it rise above the script. McIntyres observations seem to be designed just to be taken entirely at face value. The sort of "have you ever noticed" stuff of crappy comedy. There is no depth to his stuff at all, no real analysis of why the observations are funny and in many cases the observations don't really seem to even hold true.

It seems to have worked though, people like this stuff. A bunch of face value stuff designed to get easy laughs (like Little Britain.) It may even be something else. I am completely in the dark as to how he became so successful.