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nate bargatze

Humor

5 generations competed to see who’s the funniest. Gen X won and some Boomers have complaints.

"Every generation thinks they are the funniest. They're all wrong."

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A comedian sits on a stool and tells jokes.

Before anyone gets offended, of course there are hilarious people of every age in every generation. That's just a fact. But a lot of people are biased in believing that their generation—from Alpha to Boomers—are definitively the funniest. The popular longtime web series Good Mythical Morning decided to put it to the test by bringing a comedian from every generation to participate in a game show. A "joke-off," if you will.

  - YouTube  www.youtube.com  

Hosts Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal welcome their guests, calling it the "laugh clash zone," and they immediately get to business. First we meet Adley Jones, representing Generation Alpha (born between 2010–2024). Next up is Teig, who announces he's Gen Z (b. 1997–2010). Then we have Jared Kassebaum in for the millennials (born 1981–1996). Next down the line is Amanda Cohen, who is Gen X (1965–1980). And last, but far from least, is Michael J. Carmichael, the baby boomer (1946–1964).

The way the game works is all of the comedians are given a topic of which they must write and tell a joke. It's a little more complicated, but for the purposes of "which gen wins joke contest"—we'll leave it at that. There's a small judging panel and a tiny studio audience, who mostly (frankly) seem bored, despite all of the comedians being adorably eager and funny. The topics the hosts can choose from are: AI, Trader Joe's, Disney adults, PDA, Cybertrucks, and "a wildcard joke."

 comedy, laughing, audience, funny, gen People in an audience laugh.   Giphy GEICO 

Rhett is asked to choose the first topic, because of course, "he's taller." He chooses Trader Joe's. The comics deliver their best "What's the deal with Trader Joe's?" material, and while they all offer some interesting points of view, it's decided that the audience and judges responded most favorably to the millennial. (He tells a fun joke about Trader Joe's requiring their employees to have dainty tattoos.)

But there's much more to come. Three more rounds, and the comedians start loosening up. Gen Alpha takes the AI round with her "incel" joke, while Gen X strongly wins in the Cybertruck category by spelling out the word d-bag. Lastly, the hosts choose "wildcard" for the final round, wherein the comedians can choose whatever material they want. Everyone brings their A-game, but "based on the loudest laughs in the room," Gen X takes it again. (Personally, I was partial to the Gen Z-er, but to each their own!)

@dailymail

Which GENERATION has the best humor?! #generationz #genalpha #millennial #newyork #nyc #interview #timessquarenyc

The comment section perfectly exemplifies how it's fun to support ALL generations in the name of comedy. One person notes of the Gen X-er, "Amanda was the best come-from-behind I've ever seen. I liked Teig and Jared a lot more at first but she ended up slaying me in the later rounds."

Another commenter points out how tough the crowd was, especially the young girl in the front. "It took Pokémon twerking to get that lil girl in the crowd to laugh."

Some admit that what they found the most humorous doesn't fit with their gen. "I'm 22 years old and realize I have boomer humor." Another confesses, "The incel joke was so unexpected I spit coffee onto my work monitor. That little girl wins the whole episode!" (Let's hope their work monitor didn't explode.)

In over one thousand comments, every single comic got lots of love and support, but Boomer Michael J. might just have gotten the most. "Michael J was robbed!! So underrated, he deserves more love than this!!"

  - YouTube  www.youtube.com  

Of course, this is only one small group of comedians on one small day. For a larger sample size with more famous comedians, Netflix Is a Joke compiled their own "who said it better" montage. Safe to say they all brought their respective houses down. Bo Burnham, Mark Normand, Ronny Chieng, Christina P, Patton Oswalt, Nate Bargatze, Jordan Rock, Mae Martin, Iliza Shlesinger, Michelle Wolf, Tim Dillon, and Jo Koy all give their insight on generational humor—and it's top-notch.


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Joy

Nate Bargatze plays a deadpan angel in Christmas-themed nativity scene sketch

 "How can I feel entertained, saddened and find this to be funny at the same time?" one viewer commented.

CBS/Youtube

Heavenly good comedy.

Comedian Nate Bargatze has tickled Saturday Night Live audiences not once, but twice with his hilariously deadpan portrayals of George Washington as he inadvertently pokes fun at America’s little quirks—like our headscratcher of a measuring system and “doing our own thing with the English language.”

As part of his Nashville Christmas special for CBS, Bargatze channeled this same dry wit as he recreated a Christmas staple—the nativity scene. Playing Gabriel the angel—complete with a platinum blonde curl wig and massive feathered wings—Bargatze explained modern-day Christmas traditions to confused but reverent Joseph and Mary, played by SNL cast members Ashley Padilla and Mikey Day (who wrote the scene, as well as SNL’s George Washington sketches).

Bargatze pokes fun at everything from Christmas trees aka “big pine trees” decorated with "garbage that your kids made at school” for who knows why, to the incredibly unbalanced ratio of “boring” Jesus songs to songs “about snow and snow-related activities,” to the real star of all Christmas celebrations not being Jesus at all…but Santa. According to Gabriel’s summation, Christmas is really “90/10” in favor of Santa. Honestly, where's the lie?

But the funniest bit arguably comes at the end when Joseph proclaims that "Christmas day will forever be celebrated by all the faithful Jewish people," which draws immediate laughter from the audience. Skirting the issue, Gabriel simply replies, "I'm gonna take off. Merry Christmas, y'all."

Watch:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Yep, hitting the nail on the head in so many delightful ways, right? And while it's easy to see how a sketch like this could easily become controversial in the blink of an eye, Bargatze has managed to do what few modern-day comedians can accomplish—create comedy that's funny without offending anyone. His material is famously unpolitical, doesn't use curse words, and doesn't hide behind a mask of surliness that's customary of many of his contemporaries. It's an approach the clearly works, given his pretty fast rise to fame, and apparently makes potentially sensitive subjects—like religion—easier to tackle.

Down in the comments, people had nothing but praise.

“How can I feel entertained, saddened and find this to be funny as well, all at the same time?”

“Funniest things I’ve seen in years. I’m usually a ‘quiet appreciator’ of comedy but this makes me laugh out loud.”

“A Nate Bargatze Nativity Scene is the funniest Christmas GIFT this year! Love you dude!!”

"These are the most unique and fresh comedy skits [I've seen] in a long time."

“Ahhhhh…this just made my whole year!! (As I sit here looking at a pine tree adorned with used popsicle sticks, tabs from soda cans tied together with yarn, little brown paint handprints that… if you reaaallyyy use your imagination … look like Rudolf, and a few ‘unbroken’ glass balls held together with hot glue.) “

Fingers crossed that we have an Easter Bunny skit in our future, with Bargatze playing the title character.

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Pop Culture

SNL's latest 'Washington's Dream’ sketch hilariously skewers the quirks in American English

Nate Bargatze is back as Washington for the second time.

via SNL/YouTube

Nate Bargatze and Kenan Thompson star in SNL's follow-up to "Washington's Dream."

In 2023, “Saturday Night Live” struck gold with a historical sketch where, in 1776, then-General George Washington laid out his dream for the future of America after the Revolutionary War. The twist is that his dream is to promote a series of nonsensical American cultural quirks, such as the refusal to adopt the metric system and the arbitrary ways American English differs from the UK’s.

The sketch was a great send-up of the cultural differences that separate Americans from their cousins across the pond and stand-up comedian Nate Bargatze, as Washington, delivered them in a pitch-perfect deadpan.

The sketch was the second most popular from SNL season 49 and introduced the low-key stand-up comedian to a much wider audience. On October 5, 2024, Bargatze returned to host SNL and once again donned the powdered wig as Washington. This time, America’s first president addressed his troops, played again by Mikey Day, Kenan Thompson and Bowen Yang, about his dream for America from a boat crossing the Delaware.

In the second “Washington’s Dream” sketch, the general tells his soldiers that he hopes the new country will "do our own thing with the English language."

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

"I dream that one day, our great nation will have a word for the number 12. We shall call it a dozen," Bargatze's Washington says.

"And what other numbers will we have a word for?" a soldier asks.

"None," Washington replies. "Only '12' shall have its own word because we are free men, and we will be free to spell some words two different ways." Which ones? "Doughnut, and the name 'Jeff'," he explains, noting that there’s "the short way with the J and the stupid way with the G."

Washington also plans to differentiate some living animals from those on our plates. "We will also have two names for animals: One when they're alive and a different one when they become food," Washington explains. "So cows will be 'beef.' Pigs will be 'pork.'"

"And chickens, sir?" Yang asks. "That one stays. Chickens are 'chicken'," says Washington. "And we will create our own foods, and name them what we want. Like the hamburger."

"Made of ham, sir?" Day asks. "If it only were that simple," Washington adds. "A hamburger is made of beef, just as a 'buffalo wing' is made of chicken." However, he assures his troops that a hot dog is not made from man’s best friend. "A real American would never want to know what's in a hot dog, just as they will never know why."


Just like the original “Washington’s Dream,” the sketch was co-written by cast member Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell, with Mike DiCenzo.

The bit was initially conceived by SNL writer Seidell, who was surprised by how well the counterintuitive casting worked. “I forget who we originally wrote it for, but it was very much a dramatic actor who would play more of a serious Washington,” he told Indiewire. “You can see that version of it, but in hindsight Nate was the perfect person to do it because it had this charm that I don’t know that it would have with a real powerful George Washington. An Academy Award-winning actor might have taken it too seriously.”

Here is the original "Washington's Dream" sketch:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

SNL will return on Saturday, October 12, featuring host Ariana Grande and a musical performance by Stevie Nicks.

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