Dane Cook

Cyre2067

Cyre2067

The Living Force
Anyone else notice this guy? Last week i was stumbling along and on myspace i saw "Dane Cook!" then up in NYC in times square i was wondering around and saw a huge "Dane Cook!" billboard... okay odd... then i go over my friend doug's house and he starts making jokes, i don't quite get it, and he responds "It's dane cook, dude, haven't you seen him yet?" to which i replied, "No... who's Dane cook?"

My answer came in the form of his DVD "Vicious Cycle", in which Dane appears all decked out in fine clothing, in 360 degree auditorium, it looked to be an HBO production of high quality.

Then we get to his jokes... the first thing he does is get everyone to applaud lieing. Claiming "we all do it" etc etc. Making it appear funny/cool to lie. He goes on to venerate cheating in relationships, christianity (being raised catholic) and a few other nuisanced items i cannot recall.

All in all i got the impression he was pushing some sort of agenda of mediocrity, by making normal americana seem funny in a positive kinda way. The fact that he appeared out of no where, and obviously is being back by big $ also lend to PTB endorsement.

Anyone else seen his stand up? Its funny, but definately something slimy beneath it.
 
I saw it, he's funny in a obsessive compulsive sort of way. He has some interesting observations about human nature (ie constant lying) and he supports the catholic belief system because he says he was raise catholic, so he occasionally incorporates his support for that into his standup routine. He seems to have gotten a huge boost of popularity in last couple of months (maybe due to that Dane Cook's Tourgasm thing where he and a group of other standup comedians travelled around the country doing standup), but overall he is just another useful dink. I don't think there's anything particularly slimy about him - sure he supports organized religion and other such things, but so do billions of other people who know not what they do. He was given an opportunity to make a lot of money and be very popular, and he took it, or so it seems. His useful ignorance is most likely why he's so popular, but other than that, I don't think he knows any more than he appears to know. At least that's what it seems like to me at the moment...
 
I agree Scio, he's prob just a UI. I just found the timing of my discovery of him and his humor to be... i dunno off.

that said i still laugh my head off at some of his stuff.
 
I agree with your first post, Cyre, in the sense that most stand-up comedians seem insidious to me. I don't know how to put it except they tend to reinforce standard STS points of view using the technique of saying things like, "Don't you hate it when..." or by poking fun at the weak instead of the powerful.

That's why the more enlightened comedians like Bill Hicks, George Carlin, Jimmy Tingle and even Chris Rock to an extent (I heard him do his post-9/11 routine and also riff on inheritied super-fortunes, it was good) seem so refreshing in comparison.

By the way, I always felt the presence of heavy evil surrounding Seinfeld, but that could just be me ;)

Cyre2067 said:
I agree Scio, he's prob just a UI. I just found the timing of my discovery of him and his humor to be... i dunno off.

that said i still laugh my head off at some of his stuff.
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If Bill Hicks had discovered The Work and kicked porn and pork ribs into touch, I think he would....probably be on this forum now! He had a remarkable sense of awareness, particularly regarding the absurdism which permeates the pathocratic official culture (circa '87-94), not to mention his quasi-shamanic mushroom episodes, which I am inclined to take as his truth. He backed it up with a fairly coherent personal philosophy, too.

There doesn't seem to be anyone in comedy as completely fearless as him nowadays. He moved, as Norman Mailer would say, in a completely straight line for as far as he could go, which particularly irked the likes of Jay Leno and David Letterman (via the suits in jackboots).

I'm trying to circulate his Oxford Uni concert cd around some friends right now; it should at least stimulate some debate.

I await the hype that is Dane Cook with some degree of scepticism, when he inevitably hits UK shores, but 'tis best not to assume too much.

However, the $$$'s ring alarm bells. Where there is brass there is usually muck. I foresee an occluded funnyman.

Cheers for bringing this fellow to my attention, Cyre!
 
Didn't Jay Leno give Bill Hicks his first TV break..?

I kinda liked Dane's routines that I checked out on youtube tbh. Some of it was rather crass... (not really slimy), but as Scio says he does have some good observations.

Most of today's biggest comedians/stand ups are quite shocking though, or at least they have to be to 'get there' I guess. Eddie Izzard & Ricky Gervais are at their funniest when they attack subjects like religion and sex and politics. But sometimes it does seem like where does it end?

Sienfield evil, Don?! I always thought the same about Tim Allan...

Is it just bread and circuses (or 'American Gladiators' as Bill Hicks would say)?
 
Stevie, I think you're right. I am struggling to recall the details of the Hicks biography I read back in '04, but there was a definite falling out - witness the "Jay and Satan sell Doritos" sketch from the astounding "Rant in E minor".

Hicks was bitter regarding the financial gain by those peers of his who checked in their objectivity at the door to the corporate tower.

I don't think the "We are immortal beings, there is no such thing as death, and as matter we are the imagination of ourselves" sketch was ever going to reach a mass media audience. Gutted. Tipper Gore would have labelled him obscene anyway. But, of course, he didn't unpeel the full banana.
 
i've only seen cook as a host on saturday night live (last season) and was quite disappointed that he is being asked back to host the season premiere this year.

i have no intentions to watch his standup or his unfunny-titled tv-show, something about him just turns me off
 
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