Jack Attack Tuesday -Dave Attell: An Appreciation and Post-Oscar Bullshit
Jack Attack Tuesday
Dave Attell: An Appreciation and
Post-Oscar Bullshit
Comedy albums are either the best thing in the world or pieces of derivative, overblown trash with, for me at least, no real middle ground. Either a comedian hits hard or he/she just isn’t hitting my funny bone. Great albums like Hilarious or Class Clown immediately come to mind in the win category, and performances like Raw and Harmful If Swallowed are most certainly misses (deal with it). I revisited my all time favorite, Skanks for the Memories by the great Dave Attell and it got me feeling pretty nostalgic. It also got me angry that not enough people appreciate Attell, hence this week’s main point: Dave Attell might be the funniest comedian out today, we just don’t know it because he isn’t as out there as guys like Louis CK or Bill Burr. I think I’m always looking for the next Skanks for the Memories, and since nothing has made me laugh quite that hard since I guess that makes me a tough sell.
I was around 13 or 14 years old when my uncle hooked me up with a copy of the album and I remember listening to it incessantly. Seriously, I had that shit on repeat on the way to school every morning for weeks. I remember Attell being the first comedian I had heard up until that point who actually referenced things I knew about. His bit about his midget buddy Baby Shoes is legendary, but the punchline about him working in a chocolate factory…brilliant stuff. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how hard I laugh at the “Is she crazy like it says on her bracelet…or is she just looking at my sheets? I DON’T KNOW!” moment. This album is a clinic on modern comedy and I’m shocked that Attell didn’t gain more traction off of it.
Then there’s Insomniac. Probably one of the raunchiest shows Comedy Central ever put out, Insomniac, for those of you who missed it, was Dave Attell going to cities around the country and staying up all night partying, drinking or possibly working with the nightcrawlers of said city. The premise was simple but some of the insanity Attell would get involved with made for a great show. I don’t know that Attell could host a talk show per-se but this was tailor made for him and he was great in it. I always hold out hope that some day he’ll do another season just because of how unique the show was, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed for now.
I can’t let a week go by without bringing this up, so I’m going to do it now and try to control myself. Those of you that know me and have followed my blog know that I despise one movie more than any other. That movie is The Sound of Music. So you can imagine my disgust and downright outrage that at this year’s Oscars they did a musical tribute to that gigantic piece of horseshit. Seriously, I can’t think of anything that encapsulated how I feel about the Academy Awards quite the way that this performance did. The spectacle of shit that is that fucking musical was on display and wasted no less than 10 minutes of my precious time. I don’t watch the awards shows anymore because I find them to be incredibly self-serving and boring, but can someone calculate the odds that the one Oscar ceremony I watch in a half-decade happens to do a Sound of Music tribute? Seriously? For A Few Dollars More also turned 50 but they didn’t feel the need to even mention that. I hate the Academy and fuck this year’s show, last year’s show and all the ones that came before it.
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