Read This: On SNL’s Bruce Chandling and other intentionally lousy comics

No discussion of anti-comedy would be complete without mentioning Andy Kaufman, who did incredibly inept impressions as Foreign Man and openly berated audiences as lounge lizard Tony Clifton. That set the precedent for Greg Turkington, who created the character of Neil Hamburger, billed as “America’s Funnyman,” armed with an endless supply of phlegm and tasteless one-liners about celebrities. On Mr. Show, Tom Kenny portrayed Hawaiian shirt-clad laughmeister Kedzie Matthews, who seemingly learned all the worst lessons from Robin Williams, Gallagher, and Carrot Top. England’s answer to the anti-comedy phenomenon is Ted Chippington, whose clumsy, monotonous jokes all begin the same way: “Walking down this road the other day…” The article also includes a discussion of Norm MacDonald, who has occasionally been lumped in with the anti-comedians but utterly rejects the label. “Anti-comics, when you come right down to it, are critics,” he says, “which may be why they find favor among, guess who, critics.”