The 10 People Who Shaped Comedy This Decade

by Garrett Hargrove

We here at the Lampoon are all about comedy.  Remember Animal House?  Comedy.  “If you don’t buy this magazine, we’ll kill this dog”.  Comedy.  Remember Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj? Yeah.  Well go on and forget that one.  But still.  We are comedy.

Also, the end of the decade calls for nonsensical lists for people to argue over.  Just look at Digg.  Try to find one article without “Top X of the decade!”  We’ve innovated here and combined lists… with comedy.  Something NOBODY else on the web is doing.  So this list is the top 10 people who made a major impact on comedy or were comedy innovators in the 2000-09 decade.  (I kept it positive influences.  No point putting Dane Cook on here to talk about the impact he had ruining Stand-Up.)

10. Tina Fey

She was SNL’s first female head writer before they decided to take a hiatus from being funny.  She wrote and starred in the only redeeming thing about Lindsay Lohan’s career (Mean Girls), if you don’t count slutty pictures of her.  She then carried “30 Rock” to a fantastic start.  She’s won 7 Emmys, 2 Golden Globes and she has that sexy librarian thing down.

9. Conan O’Brien

When Letterman and Leno started feeling old, Conan made Late Night still feel edgy and fresh.  Or maybe he just seems awesome next to Jimmy Fallon.  He wrote for “The Simpsons” when it was awesome.  He wrote for “Saturday Night Live” when it was awesome.  He also has the most awesomely random stalker of all time (from the ultra-reliable wikipedia):

Subject of stalking

It was reported that since September 2006, O’Brien had allegedly been stalked by Father David Ajemian of the Archdiocese of Boston, who despite multiple warnings to stop, had been sending O’Brien letters signed as “your priest stalker” and coming in contact with O’Brien’s parents. Ajemian sent a letter to O’Brien, frustrated that he had been denied a spot in the Late Night audience.

I’m heading to Boston just to sit in on one of his sermons.  “And God said ‘it was good… FOR ME TO POOP ON!’”

(Rest after the Jump)

8. Seth MacFarlane

Led one of the most incredible fan-driven resurgences ever.  After two seasons of Fox dicking around with the time slots and maybe-maybe not canceling it, “Family Guy”’s writers bolted and the show took a nose dive in its lame duck third season.  The show was gone.  Its distinct rhythm and style of comedy though really caught on with fans when they found it second hand on the DVD shelves and Cartoon Network, leading to the first instance of DVD fan support resulting in the resurrection of a television show.  He got all of the original writers and manatees back on the show and its as strong as ever.   Now MacFarlane has like fifteen shows on Fox and also played a major role in attracting that young adult geek to the cartoon network Adult Swim lineup.  That most definitely contributed to the success of “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” and “Robot Chicken”.

7. Stephen Colbert/Jon Stewart

While CNN, MSNBC and Fox have all become jokes, the Comedy Central back-to-back programs might have become the most reliable source for news.  Its reported that more young people get their news from TDS than any other source.  Their SNL-Weekend Update type daily news program and huge ratings have consequentially influenced other networks to add jokes to their shows like making Katie Couric the CBS Evening News anchor.  Good one, CBS.

6. The Lonely Island

Launched Youtube from a novelty to a necessity.  Their “Lazy Sunday” video slammed YouTube with 5 Million hits and opened the flood gates to the infinite possibility of streaming video comedy.   They are also the only redeeming thing on SNL since the departure of Fey.  They knocked a whole album out of the park with tons of songs that sound like mildly interesting porn sites: “Dick in a Box”, “Jizz in my Pants”, “Mother Lover”.  Its a dream for all of those people who wished “Weird Al” would write song with jizz humor in them.

5. Will Ferrell

He was this decade’s Robin Williams or Jim Carrey.  The go-to comedy guy when you needed a sure fire hit.  Here is his resume from this decade:

• Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
• Zoolander
• Old School
• Elf
• Starsky & Hutch
• Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy
• Wedding Crashers
• Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
• The Producers
• Stranger Than Fiction

Then, he started to fall off:

• Bewitched
• Blades of Glory
• Semi-Pro
• Land of the Lost

In this decade, he gave us one of the greatest Christmas stories ever, one of the best college movies, the super-quotable Anchorman and made NASCAR interesting to the rest of us.  His sort of “It seems like I’m improvising the whole script” routine spawned off many imitators (Seth Rogen, John C. Reilly, Steve Carrell).  And even with his recent movie fall-off, he has still been giving us the comedy in other ways (”Eastbound & Down”, funnyordie.com, not that I am endorsing you go to another site for your comedy).  But, above all of that, his greatest achievement was his portrayal of this man:

4. George W. Bush

Whether you supported him or loathed him, he was an integral part of what happened this last decade.  And supporters and detractors all found comedy in his nature and policies.  From Michael Bay’s awkward “Can you get me some Twinkies” line in Transformers to “Strategery” to Will Ferrell’s Broadway show “You’re Welcome America: A Final Night with George W. Bush.”  Imagine how boring 8 years or Al Gore or 4 years of John Kerry would have been by comparison.

3. Bill “The Sports Guy” Simmons

He launched a million imitators, myself included.  He found interesting ways to merge pop culture and a deep sports history in ways and analogies that were hilarious and insightful.  He added a huge degree of levity and fun to ESPN, which was spinning into a giant, unrelatable behemoth.  He’s added Stomach Punch, The Reggie Cleveland All Stars and the Patrick Ewing Theory into our lives.  You can find all of his work here:

Web Site

Column Archive

2. Judd Apatow

Without Judd Apatow, the comedy films of the decade would have been Borat and some movies with Martin Lawrence in a fat suit.  The Apatow family tree that started with “Freaks and Geeks” and then merged with the Frat Pack created an alliance that owned the comedy films of the last ten years.  (I will post the family trees below.  They’re a mess.)

1. Trey Parker/Matt Stone

Seriously?  “South Park”?  The last two seasons have blown.  But the decade started with the end of Season 3 and saw 8 incredible seasons that tackled everything from the 2000 debacle election to Hooters.  Nobody was off limits.  It may have had the longest “Did you see South Park last night?” tenure of any show.  SNL had that for awhile.  “The Simpsons” did in the 90’s.  But they were kind of “Oh, that was funny in a cute way” kind of things.  South Park had the “I can’t believe they had the balls to go there” episodes weekly.  There may not be any funnier television in history than those Seasons 3-11 of South Park.

As always, we love some good debate.  Tell me how much my list sucks and put your own in the comments below.  Thanks for reading!

Honorable Mention:

Dave Chappelle His two season run of “The Chappelle Show” was incredibly brilliantly hilarious.  Then he was gone.  If he had spread it out, even just to 4 seasons, I think he would have cracked the top 10.  But it would feel like putting Frank Reich in the top 10 Buffalo Bills discussion.  Sure that 32 point comeback was awesome, but where were you the rest of the time?

Matt Zaller Redefined what a celebrity interview should be.  Ali G was clearly pre-inspired by him when he did his show with funny celebrity interviews early last decade.

Johhny Knoxville & “Jackass” Spawned the ‘Kick you in the balls’ humor that Idiocracy warned us about.

Sasha Baron Cohen Arguably made the funniest film of the last decade with Borat.  His french F1 driver fell a little flat in Ricky Bobby.

Steve Carrell Boomed with Anchorman and “The Office”, but always felt a little derivative of Ricky Gervais and the Apatow crowd.

Star Wars Kid Self explanatory.

“Weird Al” Yankovic The White & Nerdy geek God did nothing to tarnish his comedy impact.  Also not sure he grew it any more than he did in the 90’s.

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The Apatow/Frat Pack Family Tree

Frat Pack

Though he isn’t a part of the Frat Pack, it all began with Mike Myers.

Austin Powers: Will Ferrell

Then, Ferrell, star power growing, teamed up with friends Ben Stiller & Owen Wilson.  They had worked together on The Cable Guy, Permanant Midnight and “Heat Vision and Jack” (the last with Jack Black).

Zoolander: Will Ferrell, Ben stiller, Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn (minor role)

Then came Old School.

Old School: Will Ferrell, Ben stiller, Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Luke Wilson, Snoop Dogg

Starsky & Hutch: Will Ferrell, Ben stiller, Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Luke Wilson, Jason Bateman, Snoop Dogg

Apatow

It all started with “Freaks & Geeks”:

“Freaks & Geeks”: Jason Segel, Seth Rogen, James Franco

Merger

Then came the merger of the two with the super venture:

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy: Will Ferrell, Ben stiller, Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Luke Wilson, Jason Bateman, Snoop Dogg, Seth Rogen, Steve Carrell, Paul Rudd, David Koechner, Jack Black and inexplicably, Tim Robbins

Then, from there, it became a “OK, its your turn to have your own movie” with a new star emerging from the group, with the others fully throwing their support behind the current star.  It was this amazing comedy co-op that produced some awesome films.

After Anchorman, it became Steve Carrell’s chance with The 40-Year-Old VIrgin, with Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd backing him up.  Then it was Seth Rogen’s turn with Knocked Up with Paul Rudd and Jason Segel supporting and Steve Carrell in a cameo.  Then came Segel’s Forgetting Sarah Marshall with assists by Rudd and Bill Hader and Jonah Hill and Jason Bateman.  I Love You, Man finally starring Paul Rudd and helped out by Segel and so goes the circle of life.  They keep adding the best talent from SNL, “The Office”, “Arrested Development” and other random places like grabbing Danny McBride after the indie hit The Foot Fist Way. Its an incredible formula that keeps all of the actors happy and quality movies being produced.