Filed Under Stand-Up Comedy
Carrot Top is No Dane Cook
Recently I came across a video the features clips of Dane Cook and Carlos Mencia that, besides using audio of Hicks railing against mediocrity (and the New Kids), invokes a quote from Bill Hicks about bad comedy. The quote is written as this:
Unlike many people, I do not think comedy is for ‘escaping from the daily grind of reality to kick back and not think for awhile. To just laugh at some… jokeblower like [Dane Cook]...
Wow. From reading the quote, it looks like Hicks saw Dane Cook and dismissed him. Generally when you put something in [brackets] like that, that means the quoted said “him” and you put the person’s name in for clarification.
Not here. Here’s the actual quote:
Unlike many people, I do not think comedy is for ‘escaping from the daily grind of reality to kick back and not think for awhile. To just laugh at some… jokeblower like Carrot Top. (To me, Carrot Top is the comedy equivalent of a streaker. Remember streakers? “Hey, there’s a nude guy running by!... wow… OK, anyway, what were we talking about?”)
The original context is here.. (This is the only result in Google for the actual quote.) It’s from the book “Love All the People”
Would Hicks not like Dane Cook? I could easily see that. But am I wrong in seeing that there’s a bit of gap between Dane Cook and Carrot Top? Comedy snobs, are there levels of your contempt?
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In theory, you’re right. But in this case, to say that the things Bill Hicks found reprehensible in Carrot Top (schtick for schtick’s sake, extreme intellectual laziness, pandering to the base instincts of the jocks and sosority girls, not telling actual jokes or providing insight but instead “doing” “bits”) are the entirety of Dane Cook’s act as well.
Misquoting Hicks is one thing, but that doesn’t make this paraphrasing of his words wrong.
Now, Bill’s comedy descendants (I’m thinking of David Cross, Patton Oswalt specifically, though I hear him in lots of places) are doing better in the business than he ever did, but they are plans to drain the Pacific Ocean to put in seats for Dane Cook’s next special. And if I may say, that makes me want to puke blood.