In case you're looking for something to do tonight before you go back to work tomorrow, you should check out Dane Cook: Vicious Circle on HBO at 9PM. It's Cook's first HBO special (he had at least one Comedy Central gig that I can recall) and it's well deserved. His two comedy albums (Harmful if Swallowed, Retaliation) both sold like crazy and he recently finished up a nation-wide college tour that was documented in the HBO series Tourgasm. I was at the Syracuse University show and saying it was one of the funniest two hours of my life still doesn't do it justice. So I'll leave you all with this: I think somebody sh*t on the coats. If you know what I'm talking about, then I know what you're doing tonight. If that means nothing to you, then you better be watching HBO this evening.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-04-2006 @ 11:14AM
Jesse Thorn said...
It think every Dane Cook fan should spend some time with this link, and get a feeling for what he's really about.
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9-04-2006 @ 11:14AM
Jesse Thorn said...
Let's try that again:
http://www.brianmpalmer.com/blog/2006/09/03/a-vicious-review/
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9-04-2006 @ 11:59AM
SJ said...
Jesse, thanks for the link. I agree with the articles mentioned; Dane Cook is highly overrated. He mostly appeals to college males only. Just because he shouts a lot and does crappy impersonations does not make him funny. Granted, the way he delivers the jokes is sometimes fun, but it's just too much.
Dane Cook will never ever join the ranks of George Carlin, Seinfeld, Lewis Black, Chappelle, Mitch Hedberg, etc. It won't be long before he fizzles and fades away.
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9-04-2006 @ 12:40PM
Jonathan Toomey said...
Thanks for the link Jesse. The two articles from Salon and the LA Times made some excellent points (they were very well written), but I couldn't disagree with them more. While it’s safe to say that Cook’s humor is simple, pedestrian even, to me that’s where the appeal is. He’s taken common and universally understood maxims and made them funny all over again. To knock down his system of comedic delivery (as Havrilesky and Brownfield both did) simply because Cook stays away from political commentary or doesn’t have a warped sense of reality doesn’t degrade his stand-up. He’s his own flavor, even if that flavor is heavily dosed with the essence of plain ol’ vanilla. Granted, I’m only a year removed from college and as such am part of Cook’s target audience, but I took offense to Havrilesky’s suggestion that since I rally around Cook, then I’m too ignorant to enjoy (or understand) the more complex comedy of someone like George Carlin or Bill Maher. I enjoy them both very much, as well as the other comedians she suggested were in a class higher than Cook’s. The assertion that Cook always allows his audience to “be in on the joke” is 100% true and I love that aspect of his comedy. I don’t always want to be in the dark and feel like the comedian is trying to pull one over me. I want to laugh now. Not two hours after the show when an oddball comment finally reveals it’s humor to me. There’s nothing wrong with humor of that nature, and I’m not saying I don’t enjoy a true “intellectual laugh.” But sometimes I want toilet-bowl humor, and Cook fits that bill and he fits it well. The way I see it, if you don’t enjoy Dane Cook then you’re probably too uptight about life to begin with. Just watch the evening news. Sometimes you need to laugh right now, at this very minute without thinking too hard about it. I don’t see how there’s anything wrong with that.
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9-04-2006 @ 1:12PM
ColinInLA said...
At times it seems that events and people get caught in a media whirl which belies their worth and/or talent level. . Paris Hilton; Blair Witch Project; the second Pirate movie; Jessica Simpson (and whatshername, the sister); Snakes On A Plane. In short, there's very little 'there' there and when the phenomenon kicks in, it just doesn't matter. Cook's gone a long way on meager ability. Lucky him.
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9-04-2006 @ 1:13PM
SJ said...
Jonathan, I know humor is subjective, but how can anyone find these two jokes to be funny? (And just for the record, I am a college student right now):
“When you’re in the wrong relationship, with somebody awful, I call that a relationshit.” (Huge laugh.)
“She must wash her vagina with a dirtier vagina.” (Uproarious laughter.)
I don't think Dane Cook is completely crap...I have his album "Harmful If Swallowed" and there are some funny moments, but I realized that Cook is 90% about the delivery and 10% about the joke. His humor may be infectious if you watch him live, but I think great jokes also work well in the written form.
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9-04-2006 @ 1:32PM
Jonathan Toomey said...
SJ: To me, you're missing the point here. Sure those two lines ("alone" mind you) aren't funny. But the first line regarding "relationshits" is the intro of one of Dane's rants and the vagina line is the closing to another. Both bits are extremely funny and it's easy to say they're not when taken out of context and not seen as a whole. That's what the first article Jesse linked to was all about (the Havrilesky one). The author isolated lines, which by themselves sound dumber than dirt. A casual reader would interpret it as such, especially if they knew nothing else about Dane. I'd suggest taking a listen to his second album and then watching his "Comedy Central Presents" special which I believe is on the "Harmful..." DVD. Any writer is in a better position to critique when they've taken the time to examine a whole body of work (albums, interviews, live shows). This task is something I get the feeling that neither you, Havrilesky, or Brownfield have done.
In case you haven't noticed, I'm fiercely supportive of Dane Cook and really can't fathom why he's getting all this negative press. Granted, "Tourgasm" did suck hard, but it really wasn't representative of his stand-up. So the guy caved a little and made a bundle by attaching himself to a mediocre docu-series. Plenty of other great comedians done worse.
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9-05-2006 @ 8:16PM
Stina said...
I highly disagreee with all of you that say Dane Cook isnt funny and that he only targets college males. Im a female in High School and i LOVE Dane Cook and not because hes hot, i think hes hilarious. My whole school actually thinks hes hilarious, in fact all 8 of my teachers thinks hes hilarous. And some of you do have a point he will never be Seinfield or Lewis Black beacuse no body will. They are there own comical genuises just as Cook is.
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9-04-2006 @ 11:10PM
Teaflax said...
Dane Cook is to comedy what wrestling is to athletics. There's really no defense for championing that kind of vacuous, anti-intelligent (as opposed to merely anti-intellectual) entertainment. Anyone who works in some capacity as a critic, should be able to easily see through this kind of pandering to the lowest common denominator, and could - at best - mount some sort of ironic meta-defense of it.
But to claim that Cook's CCP or CD material is somehow better when it is *exactly* the same knuckle-headed thing as everything else he does is either being disingenuous or...well, deluded.
To defend an artist who is dumbing down an artform where there are thousands of smart, sharp and genuinely thought-provoking *and* funny performers is to spit on the genre as a whole.
Love Dane Cook all you want, but don't pretende you love stand up comedy - and for the love of all that is holy, do NOT pretend it is anything other than what it is; empty calories for empty minds.
Also, Tourgasm wasn't bad in the true sense of the word, since it was actually quite good in showing Cook and his buddies as the homophobic and slightly dim frat guys that they are. And it certainly showed where Cook gets his drive; his perennially distant and unimpresed father is obviously the source of this burning need to be accepted and loved.
I hate to think what will happen to this guy once his star fades in about a year or so.
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9-05-2006 @ 2:39PM
Scott H said...
Well, I'm way out of his target demographic--nearly 40, and never had a college-boy sense of humor--but I watched his special last night and I was laughing the whole time. His talent isn't really in jokes you can write down, but in his energy and his ability to tell stories, and have tons of sidebars, but then get back to the stories, and to act them out physically. I was REALLY impressed--this wasn't stoner comedy, or "angry" comedy, or some guy who's gotten more press than his talent. He was good! No, he's not at George Carlin level, but come on--he's in his 20s.
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9-05-2006 @ 2:39PM
Justin said...
Actually Dane Cook is 35, not in his 20's.
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9-05-2006 @ 3:49PM
BGDC said...
Jesse - thanks for the posts. Really, those articles summed up exactly why I dislike Dane Cook and dislike so many young comedianes today. They have nothing to say. No edge, no commentary, just some guy talking. I go to the Improv and wonder why so few comedians say anything.
A few months back I caught Drew Carey there and found myself laughing...he's funny? Yeah that tv show wasn't Carey at all. Instead of lame office humor Carey got up and started tearing into Oprah and the Cult of Oprah. He wasn't just talking about Oprah but rather the people who worship her. I nearly fell out of my chair when he declared: "After my set those who want to accept Oprah into their hearts can come up to the stage." "I'm so glad Oprah had herself cruficied for our sins."
Sacha Baron Cohen is the yin to Cook's yang. where Cook's all about including people, Cohen's work (much like Andy Kaufman) revolves around us and them. He's got social commetary and exposing the world for what is. Thank god some comics still want to say something.
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9-30-2006 @ 1:35AM
Tommy said...
It is obvious that most of you know nothing about comedy because all you do is take it seriously and analyze it. When over 2 million people say someone is funny and they rave about how much they love them- guess what? that person IS FUNNY! Maybe not to you, but your argument that they suck becomes worthless. Stop being jealous of Dane because he has touched more lives in a positive way than all of the people in all of your family trees put together. Yes, he is that powerful. Like it or not Dane is the man and its about time you accept it. Move on, go eat some treats and pout for a while. When you come back, I hope you find that someone sh*#t on your coat.Do you like that???Su-fi. BAMF
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