Comic Strips

But the rest don't

Richard Pryor laid himself completely bare on stage, talking about his own personal trauma, racial injustice, addiction and America itself.

Dave Chappelle (as much as he's a dick) went hard into racism making you both laugh and sort of flinch at the same time.

Bill Hicks would deliver basically full on sermons against capitalism, consumerism and conformity with the same passion as a street preacher.

Hannah Gadsby and Daniel Sloss both turn their inner hell and struggles into stand up acts that make you cry from empathy and laughter.

Bo Burnham rips apart every section of culture he can get his little twink hands on.

Norm MacDonald often turned jokes into full on thought experiments where you're suddenly contemplating death and futility while he's staring at you with zen-like calm and a smile on his face. James Acaster isn't too different, you're just replacing the Zen-like calm with excitable energy and a goofy grin.

Frankie Boyle gets dismissed as being nothing but crass humor but is EXCEPTIONALLY sharp at taking apart inequality, classism and politics in general.

Sarah Silverman has been pissing on social norms for decades and pointing out how ridiculous they are.

Tig Notaro could also be arguably classed in the Daniel Sloss/Hannah Gadsby one but has a different type of hell and as personally a big fan I wanted to just call her out on her own.

Lewis Black uses screaming indignant rage to lash out at bureaucratic idiocy, corruption, the death of common sense and the sliding of society.

Louis CK, however you feel about him, also tends to line up a lot of his comedy with the second guy considering how big of a fan he was. Louis spoke, with this dudes families permission, at a ceremony honoring said man and has tried (and failed in a lot of ways, succeeded in some others) to carry the torch of...

George Carlin who was less of a comedian than a prophet with a punchline. Dude deconstructed language, religion, social constructs, politics, capitalism, and every ounce of hypocrisy he could find. He was doing stand up and talking about aging and death from when he had a full head of hair until he was shuffling around in slippers. Shuffling around and STILL BEING HYSTERICALLY SHARP might I add. Man used comedy as a weapon against anything he found distasteful to humanity. If Plato had a sense of humor and access to HBO, he'd have sounded like George Carlin.

As much as douchebros like to abuse the statement, the statement does have truth. You don't have philosophers who sit down and wax about the world anymore, at least none that are given much attention on the whole. Comedians bridge that gap. They make you laugh, sure, but to laugh you've got to think. A joke requires you to make a mental leap at some point, it's just one you weren't expecting. A good comedian can make that leap not just funny but also mean something.

And I didn't downvote you, nor do I think people should. It's a valid question. The answers are not always obvious. Not everyone is going to know everything or see everything from a certain point of view.