Comedian and sitcom creator sends a message to Hollywood as Americans look elsewhere for laughs

When was the last great comedy movie?

It's a question that's been circulating among comedians, comedy actors and writers alike, with "The Joe Rogan Experience" recently dedicating an episode to it.

Fellow comedian Steve Byrne, who just sold out five shows at Rogan's new club during South by Southwest (SXSW)'s annual comedy festival, has an answer.

If you don't know Byrne from Rogan's Comedy Mothership, then surely you know him from his "Sullivan & Son" days, or his viral clips on social media. The veteran comedian sat down exclusively with Fox News Digital in Austin, Texas, ahead of his fifth and final show last weekend, where he laughed about his most notable career flops and cried over his friendship with Vince Vaughn.

But for the comic, the movie industry’s recent trajectory is no laughing matter, citing films like "Bridesmaids," "Wedding Crashers," "Superbad" and "The Hangover" as being the last few "hardcore, R-rated, no-holds-barred" films to hit theaters.

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The most recent among the list — "Bridesmaids" — came out 14 years ago in 2011. The others preceded it, bolstering Byrne's claim that 2000s' funny films are, much to the chagrin of many, a thing of the past.

"Hollywood [today] could do a better job allowing comedians to be funny," Byrne told the outlet. "…I fear that my kids are growing up in a generation that isn't going to have those kinds of, like, communal jokes or communal scenes or, you know, I mean, to have… all these cultural references that we all grew up with. And to know that there's a generation of kids out there right now that aren't. Hollywood's not making comedies. They're not taking chances."

Byrne described Hollywood's "failure" as a likely reason behind stand-up comedy’s sudden rise to "fill the void" of Hollywood comedies.

"Comedians were never selling out arenas, to the degree where you have multiple comedians out there that are now arena acts. That's because Hollywood has failed in terms of filling the void with comedies. And so people are getting their fix in arenas."

And the math proves it. According to Pollstar, revenue from stand-up shows doubled from 2022 to 2024, with the combined gross revenue among the top 25 comedians during the past year being $582.7 million.

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The comic issued some advice to Hollywood figureheads who may be keeping up with the recent shift in trends, arguing that if they were "smart," they'd let today's top-selling comedians just "go for it."

"I think if they [Hollywood] were smart, they'd let some of these guys go for it and not be too restrictive in terms of like, obviously, what Bill Burr has done, what Shane Gillis has done. These are blueprints. Obviously, there is a desire for someone to let them take that into a narrative form and make films."

The remedy? Byrne decided to write and direct film scripts himself. And though his latest endeavor isn't necessarily "hard R" — and though he can't yet reveal attachments to the project — he told Fox News Digital he's currently "inking a contract" with a big name (who may or may not have starred on "The Office").

Byrne, whose stand-up routine is known to include everything from monologue-style jokes to crowd work (a comedy term for engaging with the audience), prides himself on being able to make fun of everyone — including both sides of the political aisle.

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He recently wrapped on his latest comedy special, "Violent Moderate" — which includes his "most risqué" joke to date — telling Fox News Digital that he wanted to be "more centered." The comic referred to the entertainment industry as "progressive and left…as a whole," explaining the recent boom in other platforms outside of Hollywood's domain. 

"I think that's why, you know, people are leaving traditional outlets to go to Your Mom's House or Rogan's podcast, etc., etc., because they're not getting their fix from these other mainstream elements that, you know, pretty much only primarily support people that agree with them and play in their same sandbox."

Rogan himself concurred, taking to his podcast to pose the question: "Do woke people make comedy? Is there even an attempt at a politically correct comedy movie?"

Despite his frustration with the industry, Byrne told Fox News Digital there's nothing better than being in comedy.

"I think being a stand-up is the greatest job in the world," he said. "The fact that you can take something relatable or something you can just pull out of the ether, and you bring it to a roomful of strangers and elicit just a single emotion, which is laughter… There's nothing better than that."

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Who are this comedian's favorite comedians, you may wonder? Well, Byrne's got a few in mind.

"Bryan Callen makes me laugh like nobody else," he said. "He's so smart, so gifted, so talented… he just genuinely makes me laugh."

Byrne also pointed to renowned comedian Sebastian Maniscalco, claiming his "disdain for humanity" is "f------ hilarious."

Notable curmudgeon Bill Burr shares a similar zest for anger, Byrne shared.

"Bill [Burr] will call me and just not even say hello. Not even, ‘how are you doing?’ He'll just go off on a tangent for three minutes, disgusted at something."

"What I get to hear behind closed doors to this day… [are] some of the funniest conversations."

Finally, the funny man cited long-time pal Vince Vaughn — who produced the 2010s sitcom "Sullivan & Son" and other titles penned by Byrne — as not only "the funniest human being" he's met in his entire life, but quite possibly his greatest friend.

"Vince Vaughn is not a comedian — he's a comedic actor — but he's certainly one of my best friends, if not my best friend. And I will tell you right now, he is single-handedly the funniest human being I've ever met in my entire life."

"Vince has the most innate ability to go directly to where the gold is. He just bypasses it all. I have to work very hard; I'm not wired that way... [But] he could literally do this tonight better than I could for 60 minutes, and I've been doing it for 25 years."

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Byrne brought it full circle — revealing that, had it not been for Vaughn, he wouldn't have started writing for film and television.

"He said, ‘you should write something for yourself.’ I said, ‘I have never written anything other than jokes.’ He's like, ‘you could do it. You should write your own show. You're Korean and Irish… so write your own thing.' So I bought all these books and six months later I gave him the script for "Sullivan & Son." He goes, 'You don't know how many times I've had a conversation with friends like this, and they never do it. You actually wrote this?' He's like, 'I'm going to read this tonight.' And that's how "Sullivan & Son" happened… I could get emotional, but I wish everybody had a friend like him."