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Comedy Albums
Posted by Rob Ortenzi on 17-Nov-06 @ 04:43 PM| No pun intended, but comedy albums are kind of funny- meaning, you know, "different." You can listen to an album of music over and over again, but it seems as though comedy albums don't warrant repeat spins. How many times can the same joke be funny, anyway? The same way reruns of The Simpsons remain funny year after year: Good material never gets old. And while you may not yet have these 10 comedy classics in heavy rotation on your iPod, we promise they will remain funny after the first listen. |
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David Cross Shut Up, You Fucking Baby. (SUB POP,2002)  David Cross (a.k.a. Tobias Fünke on Arrested Development) has always been a fearless comic-in his 1999 HBO special, he did a bit about being raped by the Virgin Mary-as well as one of the sharpest tongues in standup. On this two-disc set, he heaps scorn on the president, the Catholic Church, the Promise Keepers, the empty patriotism following 9/11, and a host of other targets. Cross did jokes about living in New York during 9/11 just months after the attacks, and four years later, the material still has a bite: “That [smoke] was the nastiest shit-I swear to God, those buildings were made out of tires and skunks.”
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Adam Sandler They’re All Gonna Laugh At You! (WARNER BROS.,1993)  Long before he became famous for his onscreen man-boy shenanigans (Billy Madison), and even longer before he showed he could actually act (Punch Drunk Love), Adam Sandler was just another comic working his way up the ranks on Saturday Night Live. This, his first CD, set the template for the many others that would follow. There are songs (“The Thanksgiving Song,” “Lunchlady Land”), a recurring joke (a series called “The Beating Of...” a high-school janitor, a high-school Spanish teacher, a high-school bus driver, etc.), and a lot of funny, lowbrow nonsense (check out “The Longest Pee”).
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Jerry Seinfeld I’m Telling You For The Last Time (UNIVERSAL,1998)  Jerry Seinfeld needs no introduction, and even though he ruled the comedy landscape in the ’90s, he didn’t make an album until 1998. The title references Seinfeld’s retirement of all of his old material, and the album buzzes with the style he practically trademarked: wry observational humor that avoided racy subject matter. But Seinfeld proves you don’t have to drop f-bombs and talk about testicular shaving to be funny. His bits about a visit to his parents in Florida, a supermarket-induced coma, skydiving with a helmet and others work regardless. Seinfeld fans will like the Q&A at the end of the disc, where he discusses the show.
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Mitch Hedberg Strategic Grill Locations (COMEDY CENTRAL,2003)  Before he died from heart failure in March of 2005, Mitch Hedberg was a rising star in the comedy world, with everyone from Ryan Adams (who’d tried unsuccessfully to tour with him) to Howard Stern recognizing his greatness. He built his act on quick, silly observations delivered with his lazy, stoner-sounding voice, and Strategic Grill Locations is full of his bizarre non sequiturs: “On a traffic light, green means go, and yellow means yield, but on a banana, it’s just the opposite: Green means hold on, yellow means go ahead, and red means ‘Where the fuck did you get that banana at?’” Hedberg’s accompanied onstage by a bassist playing jazzy grooves, making him sound like a funny beat poet.
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Stebem Wright I Have A Pony (RHINO FLASHBACK,2005)  For much of his career, Mitch Hedberg was called a Steven Wright imitator, and not without reason. Both comics shared an absurdist style built around one-liners and a dry, laid-back delivery. (Amazon.com even offers specials on a Wright/Hedberg combo pack.) But Wright’s style on this 1998 album was so dry, it was positively arid; he never seems like he’s doing a bit, because he always sounds like he just woke up. The jokes come quickly and quietly, but they’re always funny. Some of the standouts include a bit about buying powdered water but not knowing what to add to it, and another about his giant seashell collection, which he has scattered on beaches around the world.
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Patton Oswalt Feelin’ Kinda Patton (UNITED MUSICIANS,2004)  Feelin’ Kinda Patton is a taboo-shattering riot from the opening line, with Oswalt (a.k.a. Spence Olchin on The King Of Queens) walking out onstage to declare, “I watched a man shave his balls.” Then, after a quick “Let me back up...” he segues into a bit revealing “facts” about little people (“If you hit a midget on the head with a stick, he turns into 40 gold coins”) and proceeds to tip one sacred cow after another. But as Oswalt’s observational humor proves, he can make anything funny. You wouldn’t think a bit about Paas’ dominance of Easter-egg coloring would be hilarious, but it is, with Oswalt imagining a cantankerous old man running the company: “Paas: ‘Happy Easter, and bite my wrinkly ball sack!’ Put that on the box!”
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Eugene Mirman The Absurd Nightclub Comedy Of Eugene Mirman (SUICIDE SQUEEZE,2004)  The title pretty much says it all. Mirman’s quickly moving material definitely has an absurdist edge, as in a bit where Mirman’s dog insists he can speak English. Not all of the bits work, but his jokes move rapidly enough that the misses don’t linger. But there are plenty of hits on here, like an opening story about how Mirman’s credit-card company let him set up the security question that customer service asks to verify his identity. “So now, whenever I call, they have to ask me what am I wearing, and I have to respond, ‘I don’t think that’s appropriate!’”
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Chris Rock Roll With The New (DREAMWORKS,1997)  Great comedians have a unique, instantly recognizable style, and there’s no mistaking Chris Rock: When he’s really worked up, his halting delivery makes every word sound like it has a period after it. And he’s plenty worked up on this album, which, even with its dated references to O.J. Simpson and the Million Man March, still sounds relevant today. Rock is an astute social critic, particularly when it comes to his race. And the point he’s trying to make still sounds valid in 2006, even though the references are positively mid-’90s: “Marion Barry at the Million Man March-you know what that means? That means even in our finest hour, we got a crackhead onstage!”
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Denis Leary No Cure For Cancer (A&M,1993)  Denis Leary now works mostly as an actor, having even gone family-friendly with his voice work in the Ice Age movies, but back in the late ’80s and early ’90s, Leary was infamous for his manic, abrasive standup routines, where he chain-smoked, did bits about smoking, and generally blew smoke about the world’s stupidity. Just listening to him on this album is exhausting, as he seems stuck on rapid-fire, yelling about drugs, cancer, whiney people, bad music, New York, NyQuil, Elvis and various injustices: “We live in a country where John Lennon takes six bullets in the chest-Yoko Ono was standing right next to him, and not one fucking bullet! Explain that one to me, God!”
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Bill Hicks Rant In E Minor (RYKODISC,1997)  Another comic who died just as he was getting popular, Bill Hicks influenced countless comedians who came after him, particularly with his biting social commentary and over-the-top offensiveness. An extended bit on Rant In E Minor about Rush Limbaugh, Ronald Reagan and Barbara Bush may be the filthiest standup routine ever commercially released. And even though Hicks recorded Rant In E Minor in 1993-as he underwent treatment for pancreatic cancer-he sounds remarkably prescient when he rails against President Bush and the war in Iraq. Of course, he was talking about George H.W. Bush and the first Gulf War, but the material works just the same.
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