These are the Confessions of a tardy reviewer. Months ago I promised to review the two DVD set Comic Relief: The Greatest ... and the Latest, and I had a terrible time bringing myself to do it.
I have a friend who wonders why people write negative reviews. If you don't have anything nice to say, why say anything at all? Aside from the fact that it's a reviewer's job to point out when something is not worth the time, I kind of agree with her, which is why I have not written my review of the DVD set before now: I don't have much nice to say.
I confess, I am not much for watching stand-up comedy on television. When I see comics on Comedy Central, for instance, I rarely think they're very funny. The people in the audience always seem to be having a much better time than I am. I believe there are two explanations for this. One, laughter is contagious, so the jokes seem funnier when you are watching a show live and the people around you are laughing. Two, alcohol. Things are so much funnier when you've have had a few.
So why did I volunteer to review a collection of stand-up comedy? Hope springs eternal; I naively thought I'd find a "best of" collection to be funny.
I'm afraid I didn't. While I found co-host Robin Williams' irrepressible improv hilarious at times (his obsession with his genitalia is a theme that runs throughout the years), most of the acts did not make me laugh. Historians of the comedy business and fans of Comic Relief and the stand-up genre should be delighted with this collection. If you must own everything Robin Williams or co-hosts Whoopie Goldberg and Billy Crystal have ever done, then go for it. If you are a casual comedy viewer, well, your attendance is not required.
Article comments
1 - Todd Jackson
I could say a lot of nice things about stand-up and the Comic Relief set - there's a fair amount of great material there for people who do enjoy stand-up.
But I want to correct a factual error about your assumption as to why the audiences are laughing at the specials you see on Comedy Central. For most of the Comedy Central produced specials there is no alcohol served. (Other specials perhaps, but it's still less than you're assuming.) Alcohol isn't necessarily much of a factor for why they're laughing.
I can't speak for an entire crowd, but at many of the stand-up shows I've attended - both for and not for broadcast - there are people laughing and there are people not laughing. People are a lot less sheeplike that you'd think about laughter. It's a visceral response that's hard to fake. The ones who are laughing are doing it because they're having a good time.
I can understand assuming that an audience might be a little off in some way if they're enjoying something you do not - a particular movie or TV show. But if you're making that generalization about audiences of an entire genre or art form (i.e. stand-up), the asusmption should be that that genre or art form is not for you.
In other words, stand-up may not be your bag. Nothing wrong with that. It just ain't your thing.