Was Sandra Bernhard ever funny?

OP no, she wasn’t. You nailed the comparison.

I remember her being very funny. But funny needs to be fresh and her funniness was one note and grew tired real quick. But initially she made you sit up because she was original.

In the end she didn't have a big enough talent to make it big.

I’ve seen her 3-4 times ( I forget) . I first saw her in Without you Im nothing. I thought she was great I was 13. Then I would watch her show on Comedy Central I forgot the name of it. She was is unique and was very different for the time. I liked her a lot and still watch her in stuff.

Short answer: No.

Thread Closed.

Can you get me a mirror? I want to see my reaction to the comments.

Bernhard is an American original and absolutely hilarious. Her material is head and shoulders above the standup dreck that Netflix churns out now.

Posted this last year. Went with friends to see her at Joe's Pub in NY New Years week right before the pandemic hit. They were her fans, but have to be honest, she was laugh out loud funny, and I came out a fan too. I'd see her again in a second.

No, but...

SB always communicated cool ideas and then ruined it by “punching up” or “polishing” every single fucking line. Very Carrie Fisher. Like she was holding back on the punch.

When she was comfortable on stage, she could do one woman show material and it paid off.

It was about her beauty.

She has no redeeming qualities.

[quote] I don't know what Madonna ever saw in her.

Madonna's reflection.

I always liked the HBO special, Sandra After Dark. If any of the typical DLers here haven’t seen it, it’s worth seeking out, though it may be difficult to find. It’s a veritable who’s-who of DL faves.

I never found her funny. She was unbearable when she guested on Will and Grace, but she is compelling in a way. I think she is more interesting just being herself during an interview or whatever.

She was hilarious on Will and Grace. I didn't know who she was before that, to be honest.

She insisted on singing, which was often a mistake. She was a terrible talk show guest even though she slept with Leno and Letterman (ugh). She was never comfortable with being a lesbian--maybe she is now but she wasn't for a long time. She thought it was amusing to mention a lot of brand names in her vignettes. like Love's Fresh Lemon scent, which became tiresome.

I think she liked partying and having fancy friends (Thanks, Madonna) more than she did working.

Terrifying that she had a kid.

I put her in a class with Kathy Griffin, Sarah Silverman and Catherine Tate, who all give me the creeps. I’m more the Wanda Sykes Margaret Cho Victoria Wood type.

She’s a lot funnier than madonna. And better looking now than that alien faced embarrassment.

I used to think her funny but it's been a long times since I've seen her in anything. I lost interest during her Madonna stage as I find Madonna obnoxiously narcissistic.

Very funny, and I'm not a Jew.

The movie made from her show "Without You I'm Nothing" is brilliant.

Was she meant to be funny? I thought she was supposed to be

[Quote] just loud and grating and obnoxious and not particularly friendly or nice

No. Never.

I think she can be a scream. I can count on one hand the times she’s made me hysterical with laughter, which probably sounds like a put down, but it’s more than the hundreds of other attempted comedians have achieved with me. I hope she will be Tig Notaro’s alien girlfriend on that Star Trek program.

No. Never. Ever. I tried to watch her routine once years ago, and my only thought was "it's like she's speaking to her therapist." Major nasty attitude with a face to match. Sandra? Fuqon!

She appeared to have glimmers of intelligence which is always novel in show business. But as it turned out, she was just as shallow as everyone else she satirized.

I enjoy her but I don’t think of her as a funny person. “Nobody speaks of pavilions anymore.” Is that funny? It’s worth a light chuckle, I guess.

A friend saw her live and thought it was ABSOLUTELY HYSTERICALLY FUNNY that SB whispered “ Don’t look at me” into the mic before singing X Tina’s song Beautiful. I explained to my friend that Xtina does the same thing on the record. Why is it funny when SB does it but deadly serious when Xtina does it?

Tl;dr— no, Sandra is not funny

Wow really? You all must think Dane Cook and Larry the Cable Guy are hilarious. Sandra Bernhard was never a straight up stand up but a performance artist. Her pieces are observational humor not set up set up joke. I think she's brilliant. Does she hit it out of the park every time? Of course not. But she's 20 times more interesting than most comedians out there.

I have seen her live a few times and am rarely disappointed.

I liked her joke about shaving her pubes and the next day she said she sanded her kitchen cabinets with her mussy.

Her mug gives me diarrhea.

Not only was she funny and original, she was glamorous and sometimes jolie laide.

[quote] Wow really? You all must think Dane Cook and Larry the Cable Guy are hilarious.

Yes, there are only two options. EITHER you find Dane Cook and Larry the Cable Guy funny, OR you find Sandra Bernhard funny. There can be no in between

And that is by no means a reductio ad absurdum argument!

I found her funnier when i was younger, and that kind of snarky bitchy attitude seemed really funny to me. But as time wore on I realized that was all she could do. I would see her in a performance in the 00s and she would recycle the same bits she had done in the 80s, only she had changed the names ("Britney Spears" for "Stevie Nicks").

She wears clothes well...

She always glammed up for David.

You guys are fucking insane.

She was brilliant on Letterman. 35 years later, these still give me belly laughs.

Letterman's funniest regular guest. By far.

I’ve always thought Amy Sedaris was Letterman’s funniest guest, but yes Bernhard was always good as well.

[quote]She was brilliant on Letterman. 35 years later, these still give me belly laughs.

Gays don't have belly laughs. I've never heard of such a thing.

R38 well whatever happens when the laughs involve the diaphragm.

She looks great at r34, but that's been heavily airbrushed.

Way better than Kathy Griffin, a dumber, desperate cut-price version who reminds me of nothing so much as the obnoxious woman at the bar who caterwauls about how much the gays love her.

At her best, Bernhard was incisive, smart, and bold. There were times I really didn't know how tongue-in-cheek she was being, and I liked trying to figure it out...like when she did a straight-faced cover of a Peter, Paul & Mary song on Arsenio's show during the first Gulf War, and prefaced the song with wholesome rhetoric about the troops. It might have been sincere, but nothing about it aligned with her persona. She was very good at committing to an attitude.

I never found her that funny. I never found that old bitch joan rivers funny either. She always told stale jokes about people who were long dead

Some of her earlier commentary was side-splitting: for instance, after Princess Diana's death, Sandra mocked all the celebrities who spoke to the press at that time: "When Tom Cruise told me how many times he'd been in that tunnel, I got the chills." I'm sorry if you disagree, but I find that fuckin' hilarious.

R41 Sandra was always half performance artist. Comes out of the Andy Kaufman school. She kept you guessing as she went through her cosplays. Many were sustained, some were lightening fast, just a gestural nod within a sentence, within another personae.

One would find her funny depending on ones ability to catch this play and find it entertaining or witty. She was laugh out loud fun to a few people and an interesting oddball, as least, to a few more.

I always liked the "problematic" Peaches.

I once had a Fire Island share with two guys who were OBSESSED with her. I never got why.

A lipstick lesbian who included a lot of gay observations in her act. A person into meta and masquerade when it was new and trendy, and a snarky bitch but not TOO bitchy to you the audience, who were invited into to share her tales which were a mix of caustic putdown and heartfelt idolatry of false idols in the zeitgeist. She personally was living an exciting High and Low lifestyle, comfortable Uptown and Downtown, with glamorous friends, a bit jet-setty, she was an insider but not too. Of course some gays were drawn in.

She was great. I remember her on MTV New Year's Eve show - drunk off her ass, asking Kevin Whatshisname if his dick had shriveled yet. It got her the boot. She created herself as Den Mother to vapid models in the mid 90's, and she would go on Stern with those idiots. They had no clue she was skewering them. She also had no use for Ellen, during the Anne Heche relationship, 'just slip the check under the door', she was not Rosie O'Donnell. Thank God.

R47 She was having sex with those vapid models! She followed Patricia Velasquez around like a puppy dog. Stop projecting what you feel into this laide laide monstrosity. She has a face made for radio that would make Medusa turn to stone.

Yes, she is. And so is Kathy..

She’s at her best when speaking of pavilions.

I find her more interesting than funny, but Billy Eichner is NO Sandra Bardyard.

I thought she was funny on Roseanne and on The L Word where she played a pretentious writing teacher.

She's unique, nothing wrong with that.

I also thought she was hilarious when I was 13. I loved her appearances on Letterman. I also loved David Letterman at the time so that tells you what my tastes were like at 13.

I saw her live for the first time about a decade ago, and the show was so disappointing that I almost walked out. Definitely an eye-opener about her actual level of talent.

She’s intense.

I was going to start a separate thread on "Sandra After Dark", but now I don't have to, R13! It really is such a time capsule. It was released in 1992, and the celebrity guest list includes Debi Mazar (who was filming Levinson's "Toys" at the time), Tom & Roseanne Arnold, Steve Antin, Ricki Lake, Nicki Harris, Robyn Bird, Louie Anderson, Lipsyncha, & Tom Jones (who by that time bad already started to mess w/his face too much).

I liked her on Roseanne.

Her cover - naked except for pasties and an American flag - of Prince’s “Little Red Corvette” is one for the ages. As was 1982’s “The King of Comedy” with diNero and Jerry Lewis.

For good or ill, they don’t make ‘em like that anymore.

I think she's a funny conversationalist like Howard Stern, Julia Louis Dreyfus, or David Spade more than a funny stand-up. In contrast to Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, or Dave Chapelle, who are funny stand-ups but not funny communicators.

If that makes sense...

I put her in the same category as Tama Janowitz.

She was an it girl for a hot second

I loved when Letterman asked "what are you wearing, what is that?" She said it's a bustIer. Letterman said what is it for and she said "It's to boost my ta's".

Who started this thread? Was it Joyce? Fuck her! I'm never talking to her again!

Sandra's was the best cover Playboy ever published

I love her. Saw her in San Francisco last week and she was hilarious. Not everything is for you, OP. Remember that each and every day of your life.

"I am OBSESSED with Stevie Nicks."

Sandra Bernhard was HILARIOUS in the 1980s. Without You, I'm Nothing 1988 was extremely popular with her fans and it was funny! You had to be clued into her take on the zeitgeist to enjoy her shows and comedy. So, it's niche. Has always been niche. Hasn't dated so well because most people caught up to this VIEW on the zeitgeist. The many layers of inauthenticity and role playing. SB was sliding quickly through many layers of "speaking in tongues". Andy Kaufman and Robin Williams were comics who did this before Sandra, of course.

R61 she said bustier, dear. Sandra knows the correct word for crissakes.

There must have been dust on those mints.

She’s too woke now.

Who knows more about kitchen clean up than Diane von Furstenberg?

Three words… Streep, Barr, BRILLIANT!

I wouldn’t characterize her as a straight up comedian. She is more of a performance artist or someone who does observational humor. I’ve seen her a few times. She’s not everyone’s taste but I think she’s funny as hell.

Sometimes funny but I can see a mean streak. Like a HS "mean girl" mean. I think I heard she had a very hot body at one point.

[quote] I think I heard she had a very hot body at one point.

I wouldn't say 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 hot, too skinny. But definitely fit

Meh. I just watched The King of Comedy and can say with conviction that she single handedly ruined the movie. Not a smart casting move when one of the main protagonists takes you out of the movie every time she’s on screen. I muted the sound during her many tirades about JERRY! Abbott was nice to look at but she couldn’t act for shit. The rest of the supporting cast was terrific. I especially loved the older front desk receptionist in Langdon’s office.

front desk

[quote]She’s at her best when speaking of pavilions.

Especially the Indonesian ones! And no one else does, really...does that sadden you?

She was great in her era (the 80s and the early 90s), but then she ceased to be very relevant or develop interesting new material. But that's usually the way with comics. They have a period when they're young and relevant, and then they seem exceptionally dated.

She was held back during her career especially by insisting on doing so much singing in her shows. She's just not a very talented singer, though she has always imagined she was.

Back in the late 80s, she had a very funny monologue about visiting (maybe it was a dream) Stevie Nicks and it was kind of perfect at the time - unsure if it’s aged well.

R78 "She wrapped me up in her shawl, twirled me around the room, took $6 out of her carpetbagger purse, no questions asked..."

“Like… a Gypsy! Like… Rhiannon…”

^^^ Love that, R78. I'm hoping maybe this thread will encourage others to take a look at some of Sandra's work. She is witty in the truest sense of the word.

I love this runway tribute to Gianni Versace's untimely death.

Yes!^^^

“And she kicked off her platform boots!”

She was also really good in The King of Comedy, one of Scorsese’s most underrated films. And Jerry Lewis is also excellent in it.

[quote]I especially loved the older front desk receptionist in Langdon’s office.

Was that... the one and only DL fave... Shelley Hack?

No, r83. Hack played Langdon’s personal assistant. Shelley was in her mid-thirties the year TKOC was made. The receptionist was played to perfection by an actress in her fifties. She more than held her own in her scenes with De Niro. As it turns out, I knew someone who was in the movie through a casual acquaintance. He was her ex-boyfriend and a real piece of work. He was so insanely jealous that she had a part in a Scorsese movie AND shared a scene with De Niro that he ripped up her copy of the script in a drunken snit fit. I still think about him.🍆😈

Jessica Kirson is my preferred funny lesbian Jewess.

We’ve seen her live a few times (and once randomly at the baggage carousel at JFK coming home from Bermuda) and I just LOVE HER. (but I would, wouldn’t I?)

Agreed that she’s more of a performance artist than a comedian. I’d put her in the same bucket with Laurie Anderson, but meaner, hotter and much, much gayer obviously.

She’s fantastic in King of Comedy.

Her Letterman appearances alone made me love her.

Her skewering of Mariah Carey, Naomi Campbell, Tom Cruise was spot on.

Paraphrasing something she said decades ago: “my mom in an abstract expressionist and my dad is a proctologist so my view of the world was set early on”.

Loved her on Roseann. Very funny.

[quote] She was unbearable when she guested on Will and Grace

I thought the same. Those guest spots kind of shriveled up any positive feeling I had about her. I was never really a fan though.

When she appeared in Truth or Dare, her scenes made me uncomfortable. She seemed too intelligent, compared to Madonna anyway, to be so close with her. (Plus Madonna was acting out so much that at times Sandra seemed uncomfortable too.)

I did appreciate how confident she was with Letterman. He was quite good at making people nervous for his own enjoyment and that shit never worked on Sandra.

Her late 90s monologue The Women of Rock n Roll is classic Sandra, and it has aged well. She trashes the new breed, Alanis Morrisette, Fiona Apple ("just ... get out of that dirty bathtub for starters"). and yearns for the times when Heart was a big deal (the concert promo t-shirt with 'One eye obscured by a peacock feather"), and notes how Janet Jackson got all raunchy with The Velvet Rope ("I mean, I've heard some crazy shit before, but Miss Jackson saying 'my pussy's gonna well up and explode??"). She even alludes to Mariah Carey having a nervous breakdown years before she really did.

Right around 2017 I was walking east on W. 22nd towards Ninth Ave with my assistant at the time, and who should come around the bend but Sandra, walking right towards us. She lives in one of those swanky apartment buildings on The Highline. I admit I fanned out a little but it could have been worse. I motioned to her that I wanted a moment with her, and she said 'No, no, I really can't," but two seconds later she relented. My main reason? If you've ever heard her monologue "Hermineo is my house painter" you'll know.

I gave her my card and she said she'd call me. I've been waiting for that call ever since.

R92 She totally shined you on! Are you completely fucked up behind it?

Her WITHOUT YOU IM NOTHING was a hoot…

R92 Well Sandra is a star fucker. Duh.

No r93, I'm old enough to know that "Sure, I'll call you" means the exact opposite.

I was kinda-sorta attempting to frame it like a Sandy monologue. iirc the same thing happens to her when she meets Stevie Nicks. Or was it Courtrney Love? That was one of her 'insert celeb's name here" interchangeable monologues.

I wouldn't fuck Sandra Bernhard with Bea Arthur's dick.

You're INSANE. She was one of the best celeb guest stars on W&G. Followed by Molly Shannon and Matt Damon.

Nope, she has the face of an alcohol-soaked raspberry.

[quote] She was one of the best celeb guest stars on W&G

Most of the guest stars on W&G were pretty good. Only several like Cher and Demi Moore dropped the ball.

On a recent road trip, my man and I listened to all her comedy albums that were available for streaming and laughed our asses off. He wasn’t as familiar with her work as I am, so I was glad he enjoyed it. On one of them she tells a story about the night she and another famous woman ( I think Michelle Lee?) tried to take Liza Minnelli out to dinner. It was hilarious. Her singing bits do get tiresome, though.

I was a teen during most of her Letterman appearances and just loved her. Still wonder why he just stopped having her and never ever brought her back. Amy Sedaris was probably even better as a guest, or at least they are neck and neck.

[quote] Most of the guest stars

[quote] Only several

"Most" of the guest stars were good, but only "several" weren't?

That makes no sense, R100. If several weren't good, then most weren't good, either.

[quote] her Letterman appearances and just loved her. Still wonder why he just stopped having her

When she said she separately fucked both Leno and Letterman she said Leno was better

She fucked those guys? Letterman is said to be horse hung.

I watched an interview with her in which she said she had almost no contact with Letterman beyond appearing on his show. She certainly didn't mention fucking him.

He chin fucked her from afar.

To answer OP's question: yes, she was very funny, but it was decades ago, and she's spent the last several decades living off that reputation.