The comedy thread

[barracuda]

Thanks to Montag's introduction there, I think I'm starting to like Katt Williams.

[Jeff]

Still on my Stewart Lee bender.

[AhabsOtherLeg]

You might have seen this one before Jeff, but it's my curent favourite routine of Stewart Lee's. Some of the subject matter could be offensive or upsetting to some members here (jokes about paedophilia) while other parts might not make much sense due to cultural differences or whatever. But it's great. Long, as I said. A two-parter.

He does a lot of his trademark stuff in this one: - deconstructing his own performance as he performs it, deliberately testing the tolerance and goodwill of his own audience, and being really funny in a deceptively understated way.

It helps if you know in advance that Glasgow has long been known in Britain (or at least in Glasgow) as "the comedian's graveyard" due to the hard, often hostile reception which is generally given to acts who have got lazy or tired by the time they arrive.

Some comedians make an attempt to ingratiate themselves with the audience.
Stewart Lee did this instead:

[Jeff]

Brilliant, thanks!

Lee has a piece in The Independent today on the business of comedy:

In 1993, after David Baddiel and Rob Newman became the first comics to play Wembley, Janet Street-Porter declared comedy "the new rock'n'roll". Like the naïve pop bands of yore, in whose soiled footsteps we trod, young stand-ups like myself hit the road in transit vans full of lager to embark on expensively promoted tours from which we saw little, if any, of the takings. In this respect at least, comedy was the new rock'n'roll. Today, the death of recorded music and the tyranny of The X Factor means that even rock'n'roll is no longer rock'n'roll, just a stringy facsimile made of cat guts, navel fluff and hair gel. If this travesty is rock'n'roll, then stand-up comedy could be too, for latterly it's equally adept at fleecing vulnerable people out of hot-dog money in cavernous barns.

...

There's a deeper argument to be had here about whether the stand-up comedian, who shares anthropological roots with the holy fools and tricksters of myth, should even be a success. Aren't we supposed to be outside society, looking in, poking fun?

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/co ... 45510.html

And probably best posted to this thread:

[Allegro]

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Protocorn Public Service Announcement

[AhabsOtherLeg]

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Allegro... what... What did I just watch?

I... I don't know... what's happening anymore. Compared to that video, the fact that there is a man currently in existence called Baba Booey seems almost self-explanatory - like the most natural thing on earth. I not understand.

Jeff, that was a great little article - he's right, a lot of performers (not just comedians) seem to be operating behind a kind of unofficial pay-wall now, and won't put on any kind of show (or even reveal any personality at all) unless they've seen the takings beforehand. Everybody's acting like they're James Brown, but less talented. They don't even try to be interesting or funny in interviews anymore, unless it's a major show and they've got product to promote, which is kind of pathetic.

More folk like Tom Waits is what we need - on top of all his other talents, he's one of the best comedians I've ever seen, and he puts a bit of craft and effort into it as well, while still coming across natural. of course, this was on Letterman. Maybe he doesn't bother for lesser shows - but I bet he does:

[Allegro]

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Allegro... what... What did I just watch?

I... I don't know... what's happening anymore… I not understand. [Refer.]

My ’splanation is brought to you by

This message brought to you by the Protocorns and the negative vampire Socrates committee to reverse engineer spark variety wormholes.

How could it be any clearer?

Think of it as a soup, Ahabs, as, a little bit of somethin’ for everyone. Besides all the-beauty-of-art in that, what is it?, a cartoon? Okay, bedsides all the-beauty-of-art in that cartoon, there stood Carl Sagan. A little science and religion, a little philosophy, a little ufology. Who could ask for anything more?

When you find such a find as that cartoon, where else to put it? I ask myself. Into the RI fire pit?

Love Stewart Lee and Tom Waits (here, too, but I’ m guessing you already knew that ).

[82_28]

Thanks to Montag's introduction there, I think I'm starting to like Katt Williams.

As one may imagine, I am diggin' this Katt Williams cat too. That's the way I talk when I get worked up! That shit was motherfucking funny!

[Jeff]

[semper occultus]

[Cosmic Cowbell]

Honesty is the best Privacy Policy...

"At COMPANY _______ we value your privacy a great deal. Almost as much as we value the ability to take the data you give us and slice, dice, julienne, mash, puree and serve it to our business partners, which may include third-party advertising networks, data brokers, networks of affiliate sites, parent companies, subsidiaries, and other entities, none of which we’ll bother to list here because they can change from week to week and, besides, we know you’re not really paying attention. We’ll also share all of this information with the government. We’re just suckers for guys with crew cuts carrying subpoenas.

Remember, when you visit our Web site, our Web site is also visiting you. And we’ve brought a dozen or more friends with us, depending on how many ad networks and third-party data services we use. We’re not going to tell which ones, though you could probably figure this out by carefully watching the different URLs that flash across the bottom of your browser as each page loads or when you mouse over various bits. It’s not like you’ve got better things to do.

Each of these sites may leave behind a little gift known as a cookie -- a text file filled with inscrutable gibberish that allows various computers around the globe to identify you, including your preferences, browser settings, which parts of the site you visited, which ads you clicked on, and whether you actually purchased something. Those same cookies may let our advertising and data broker partners track you across every other site you visit, then dump all of your information into a huge database attached to a unique ID number, which they may sell ad infinitum without ever notifying you or asking for permission. Also: We collect your IP address, which might change every time you log on but probably doesn’t. At the very least, your IP address tells us the name of your ISP and the city where you live; with a legal court order, it can also give us your name and billing address (see guys with crew cuts and subpoenas, above).

Besides your IP, we record some specifics about your operating system and browser. Amazingly, this information (known as your user agent string) can be enough to narrow you down to one of a few hundred people on the Webbernets, all by its lonesome. Isn’t technology wonderful? The data we collect is strictly anonymous, unless you’ve been kind enough to give us your name, email address, or other identifying information. And even if you have been that kind, we promise we won’t sell that information to anyone else, unless of course our impossibly obtuse privacy policy says otherwise and/or we change our minds tomorrow. We store this information an indefinite amount of time for reasons even we don’t fully understand. And when we do eventually get around to deleting it, you can bet it’s still kicking around on some network backup drives in somebody’s closet. So once we have it, there’s really no getting it back. Hell, we can’t even find our keys half the time -- how do you expect us to keep track of this stuff?Not to worry, though, because we use the very bestest security measures to protect your data against hackers and identity thieves, though no one has actually ever bothered to verify this. You’ll pretty much just have to take our word for it.

So just to recap: Your information is extremely valuable to us. Our business model would totally collapse without it. No IPO, no stock options; all those 80-hour weeks and bupkis to show for it. So we’ll do our very best to use it in as many potentially profitable ways as we can conjure, over and over, while attempting to convince you there’s nothing to worry about. (Hey, Did somebody hold a gun to your head and force you to visit this site? No, they did not. Did you run into a pay wall on the home page demanding your Visa number? No, you did not. You think we just give all this stuff away because we’re nice guys? Bet you also think every roomful of manure has a pony buried inside.)

This privacy policy may change at any time. In fact, it’s changed three times since we first started typing this. Good luck figuring out how, because we’re sure as hell not going to tell you. But then, you probably stopped reading after paragraph three."

I am hereby open sourcing this privacy policy. Feel free to use it on your own sites or suggest it to any that seem deserving (but I’d appreciate a credit and a link, if you’re so inclined).

http://www.itworld.com/print/129778

[Cosmic Cowbell]

Saturday, 12 December 1998, 16:13
S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 LONDON 000368
NOFORN
SIPDIS
DOE FOR GPERSON, CHAYLOCK
EO 12958 DECL: 12/12/2018
TAGS EPET, ENRG, PGOV, RS">RS, NI
SUBJECT: ENGLAND: RELIABILITY AND LONGEVITY OF UK-US RELATIONSHIP CONFIRMED
REF: A. LONDON 365 B. LONDON 366
Classified By: Consul General Robbie Honerkamp for reasons 1.4 (B) and (D )

1. (S/NF) Summary: We're no strangers to love. You know the rules and so do I.
A full commitment's what I'm thinking of. You wouldn't get this from any other guy.
I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling. Gotta make you understand.

2. (C/NF) Chorus: Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you.
Never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye, never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.

3. (S/NF) We've known each other for so long Your heart's been aching but You're too shy to say it
Inside we both know what's been going on We know the game and we're gonna play it
And if you ask me how I'm feeling Don't tell me you're too blind to see

4. (C/NF) Chorus: Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you.
Never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye, never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.

5. (C/NF) Chorus: Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you.
Never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye, never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.

6. (C/NF) Background Singers: (Ooh, give you up) (Ooh, give you up) (Ooh) Never gonna give, never gonna give
(Give you up) (Ooh) Never gonna give, never gonna give (Give you up)

7. (S/NF) We've know each other for so long Your heart's been aching but You're too shy to say it
Inside we both know what's been going on We know the game and we're gonna play it
I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling Gotta make you understand

8. (C/NF) Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you.
Never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye, never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.

9. (C/NF) Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you.
Never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye, never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.

10. (C/NF) Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you.
Never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye, never gonna tell a lie and hurt you. ASTLEY

http://www.ding.net/wikileaks/234867.txt

[barracuda]

[Jeff]

[Allegro]

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Jesus Ain't Coming Back | Kat Mandu

by Bradley Howard

In the content that Bradley describes in his notes below, there's a brief clip in his vid that's considered by some like me to be violent; so, beware. Kinda takes all the fun out of it, don't it? ~ A.

VIMEO NOTES BY BRADLEY HOWARD. This is a film clip I produced, directed and edited for Brisbane comedy performer Kat Mandu and her single Jesus Ain't Coming Back. WARNING: it does contain content that some people may find offensive so if that is you, please do not watch, but if you have a sense of humour, enjoy.