The next generation of comedy fans are in crisis and if current stand-ups hope to woo these Millennial crowds in the near future, they will have to make some drastic changes to their material and stage presence.

What’s to blame for this sudden disastrous turn of events? A series of viral videos on YouTube featuring a fictional 6-year-old boy named Fred.

Fred, who is really 15-year-old Lucas Cruikshank of Nebraska, is sole creater/producer/star of the 4th most subscribed to channel in YouTube history. Not even Miley Cirus or the Jonahs Brothers have reached this kind of popularity. Success like this is enough to make J.J. Abrams parachute in a squeaky voiced kid to the island. The entire Fred fan base consists entirely of 18 and under aged web users. So why is this massive success and enourmous fan following a problem? The videos are not funny. In fact. I they’re pretty horrible.

If I had to describe these Fred videos in more intellectual terms - if that’s even possible - I’d have to say that they are devoid of all wit, depth, and resonance that can be found in even the most trivial pursuits of comedy today. Plainly said - the videos are a series of silly non-sequitors featuring a fake little boy who stares at his girlish bangs while complaining and whining with a pitch voice about a small pool or going to the dentist.

With Cruikshanks’ sudden popularity, its clear that the Millennial generation has no concept of comedy at all due largely in part to the ease of video production and online publishing available to us and kids like Fred.

After the jump, you can view exhibit “A.” Be warned.
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We all know that reality TV shows are not real. They’re elaborate productions with scripts and story lines and cast with non-actors who are usually competing for a prize. When Comedy Central does reality TV however, it’s usually really not real. When I first heard of the new show, Reality Bites Back (hosted by Michael Ian Black and starring ten comedians who play/are contestants) my first impression was that it would be something along the lines of Contest Searchlight, American Garage, or Reno 911 (with two out of those three being horribly awful).

Last week, Comedy Central released the first 10 minutes of the first episode of RBB — you can see the entire premiere Thursday on Comedy Central at 10:30 pm EST — and I have to say it was very entertaining and at parts appeared to be true reality TV. Curious still, I asked comedian Kyle Cease, a real life Reality Bites Back contestant a few questions about the show and reality TV in general.

Reality TV shows on Comedy Central have previously been scripted satires meant to look like Reality TV. In what ways is Reality Bites Back different?

This is way different. Two reasons.
1. This show is fifty percent sketch and 50 percent real reality.
2. I am in it.

What kinds of things can viewers who maybe aren’t familiar with Reality TV or Comedy Central expect to see on Reality Bites Back?

This show is awesome. I really had a blast shooting it and enjoyed getting to be out of the box and putting my ideas in it, versus just acting. I really hope that it’s edited right though. If so, this show will be unreal. I can’t tell yet though. It’s always an honor to do anything for Comedy Central though. That last part was completely irrelevant to the question. So is this future sentence. I am a light version of all of the best styles. See. The sentence after that (See.) was relevant to the point that I was making three sentences before it.

Oh yeah, my answer to that question….They can expect to see a bunch of great off the cuff comedians in both situations they do and don’t want to be in. The minds of 10 different comics can be pretty powerful.

In the Bachelorette finale, DeAnna chose the professional snowboarder, Jesse, over Jason, the account executive from Kirkland, WA. Why didn’t she go with Jason who everyone knows is the obvious true love connection?

Well, Kirkland, Washington is rainy. It also isn’t quite as cool as Bellevue. I don’t know where the snowboarder is from, but it must be Bellevue.

Check out the first ten minutes of the premiere episode after the jump.

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8:02

Before I even start tonight let me apologize to a reader that made a comment on last week’s LCS live blog about how we deleted all the comments that didn’t match with my opinion. I think her name was Tara, and if i could paraphrase, she said something like why would i think anyone cares about my opinion and I think she also called me shallow.

I’m not repeating these things to set up a comeback. I’m doing it because we never, ever delete negative comments. So, Tara (if i’m getting the name right) believe me when I say your comments must have been deleted along with the immense amount of spam comments we get. Please feel free to make similar comments or the same and we’ll post them. I don’t care that you disagree with me or you think I’m shallow. You have an opinion about stand-up comedy. I think that’s good. Ok, enough of that.

8:09

So we’re finally in Vegas for the first round of semi finals. Richard Belzer and Steve Schirripa are our judges for the night. Adam Hunter is the first comic up.

Hunter’s got great energy. I like his “I root for the underdog” joke, like “the black hockey player … or the Asian guy in porn.” His jokes come quick and hard, like a semi automatic. Both judges seemed to like him and I gotta say, I can’t help but like him as well. Here’s some Hunter on Showtime’s White Boyz in the Hood.

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Ron White has had a short little bit in his set for many, many years about how all guys are gay– that it’s just a matter of degree. To us, the bit always seemed more effective coming from a guy like White, a hard drinking Texan known for his appearances on the Blue Collar Comedy Tours.

It would seem likely coming from liberal-minded Marc Maron or Jim Norton, who’s admitted to gay behavior in his formative years. There’s a version on White’s latest album, You Can’t Fix Stupid.

Listen to it here.

Now, we never 100 percent disagreed with White. But as as Armani unveiled its new ad campaign with soccer star David Beckham, we’re starting to think about it again. Huh? whaddya say, straight guys?

Comedian Greg Giraldo landed in Buenos Aires Airport this morning to shoot a pilot, where he told Punchline Magazine that he will act as the host of what has been described to him as the American version of the Argentinian version of The Daily Show.

Giraldo recently wrapped the first season of Lewis Black’s The Root of All Evil, where he plays one of the show’s attorneys who tries to prove that his clients — pop culture icons — are more evil than his opponents’ clients. The show was renewed last month; the second season will premiere July 30 on Comedy Central.

ASPEN, CO — Turns out the folks at RooftopComedy thought it interesting to hand out some comedy industry awards. It’s about 6:15 pm here in the Mountain zone and the awards presentations just wrapped at the Wheeler Opera House. The awards were voted on by representatives from RooftopComedy’s 20 partner clubs — that is, the venues where Rooftop film everynight — as well as the 24 comedians who are performing at the festival and finally, Rooftop staff.

GoBananas in Cincinnati picked up two awards in the club category (one for being the best place for young comics to perform; the other for being the best all around club to perform). The likes of Robert Hawkins, Auggie Smith, Tyrone Hawkins, Eddie Gosling and more picked up comedian awards. And even we, Punchline Magazine, picked up an award for best online comedy publication; other nominees were TheApiary, Dead-Frog, and SheckyMagazine.

Starting tomorrow and ending Sunday in lovely Aspen, CO, the inaugural run of the Aspen RooftopComedy Festival is going down. A lot of you will remember that there was a long-running, pretty huge comedy fest in Aspen called the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. As of last year, it has gone bye-bye.

But stand-up video site RooftopComedy quickly picked up where the former fest left off. And we’ll be there this weekend to check it out. So make sure you check the blog for some updates from Colorado. The likes of Tig Notaro, Robert Hawkins, Andi Smith, Jimmy Dore, Auggie Smith and many more are scheduled to perform. Go here for a full list of performers.

The cool thing about this fest is that its being run like a mini Just For Laughs, where there’s focus on some of the brightest up and comers, not to mention a showcase for some of the already well-established comics. It’s not just a parade of giant names at huge venues. We’re looking at you, Vegas.

Austin-based comedian Bryan Gutmann has a hard time believing that people have a hard time believing I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter isn’t butter. Check out his newly-uploaded vid from ComedySpace. Remember, comics: create a profile and start uploading; you can end up on the Punchline Magazine blog as the stand-up video of the day.

After the jump, check out Gutmann on Comedy Central.

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Comedy Central announced today that it has renewed Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil, the faux courtroom reality show that pits comedians acting as attorneys against one another. The new season will premiere July 30 at 10:30 pm EST.

In each episode, the comics have to prove to judge Black that the pop culture icon they’re representing is more evil than the other. Past battles include YouTube vs. porn, marijuana vs beer and Oprah vs the Catholic Church. The likes of Patton Oswalt, Greg Giraldo, Andy Kindler, Kathleen Madigan and Paul F. Tompkins have been featured as defendants.

According to Comedy Central, Root has garnered nearly 2 million viewers each week and was the best series launch for the cable giant since Chappelle’s Show first season premiered in 2003.

Comedian Julian McCullough is terrified of his Brooklyn neighborhood. But moving would mean giving up the all the fun that goes along with being scared. Check it out.