A YouTube channel I follow recently uploaded a clip of Tommy Tiernan performing at the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal a few years ago. I'd seen the footage before, but not for a while.
It made obvious to me what I've believed for many years now - that Tommy Tiernan simply isn't funny, and that his success is derived from a series of 'tricks' i.e. pacing around the stage, vigorous hand gestures, excessive use of volume (e.g. shouting at the end of a sentence) and, of course, swearing.
I see no craft, no wit, no quality to any of his material. There isn't a single line that, were you to write it down on a piece of paper, you could pinpoint where the "funny bit" is.
I remember, in secondary school, when Tiernan's popularity exploded. All the lads would quote his first DVD, but I never once understood why they liked him so much.
I'm not convinced it was a mixture of Emperor's New Clothes syndrome mixed with mass delusion.
No one wanted to be the one person who didn't laugh at Tommy Tiernan, so they all 'laughed'. After a while, the forced laughter seemed natural, because people had convinced themselves Tiernan was funny.
There are so many great stand up comedians out there, who write proper jokes, with a feedline and a punchline, but Tiernan doesn't seem to ever do this.
Or am I wrong? Is Tiernan really that funny?
