Judd Apatow's HBO documentary about Garry Shandling takes four hours to demonstrate that Garry Shandling was not funny and neither is Judd Apatow, in person or in the movies he directed. The biggest problem with most comedy today is how inward it is directed, how it avoids any relationship to the real world. It is interesting that Shandling decided to go to Hollywood because of a few kind comments from George Carlin at a club in Arizona, since Carlin was the only heir that Lenny Bruce had, in his willingness to confront the absurdities of the world. Shandling and Apatow and the rest of their ilk (Jerry Seinfeld, et al.) make jokes about themselves and about show business. Shandling turned down offers to host late-night shows and instead did an unfunny parody of them on HBO -- The Larry Sanders Show -- complete with plenty of four-letter words, even though The Tonight Show and The Late Late Show themselves were already what Dwight Macdonald called "self-parodies: unconscious."
Shandling was restless, neurotic and insecure, still grieving about the death of his brother when they were children. He could never commit to anything for very long and gradually grew more and more inward as he became interested in Zen Buddism. He never married or had children and spent years building a house that was apparently never finished. He mentored lots of other comedians but was quick to fire staff members that he perceived as disloyal. In the final analysis his comedy was mostly unfunny self-pity.
