Telling jokes while at parade rest: stand down comedy.

So, I just watched the latest episode of The Venture Brothers, and I can't express how vindicated I feel that the Adult Swim powers that be have officially declared that they're getting sick of Dane Cook.

'Cause man, I've been getting sick of him for a while now, but the world has totally not followed my example. It started with his reality show about the Tourgasm tour, which revealed him as a self-absorbed prat who takes himself far too seriously. But you can like a comedian's bits without liking the comedian... I don't care if Eddie Izzard spends his off hours murdering puppies with his teeth, not even if the puppies are really adorable, nothing takes the funny out of the phrase "I like my women like I like my coffee: hot and strong and with a spoon in them". Now, to my knowledge, the Izz doesn't murder puppies, but that's moot: Dane Cook's comedy lacks staying power. Yeah, he's got his schtick, and it's pretty funny, but the thing about schtick is you can only handle so much of it. Oh, he's manic! Oh, he's... still manic. Aaaaaaand he continues to be manic. Lovely. A manic comedian, don't see that often.

Oh, schtick isn't bad per se: Mitch Hedberg had a schtick, and Zack Galafinakis had the same schtick but with a piano, but their schtick is backed by a lot of talent, a lot easier to take in large doses, and not NEARLY so overplayed. I like things less when they become popular; admittedly, it makes me feel like a Hot Topic-crawling pseudo-rebellious anti-poser-poser, but it's true. It's not that I dislike things because of their popularity, it's just that I have a limited tolerance for, well, nearly everything, and the more I hear a comedian or whatever quoted, referenced, or replayed, the more my tolerance is pushed. And then there's the fans, who ruin things further in two important ways. First, they are annoying, and the subject of their adulation becomes linked to that annoyance. Secondly... is a little more complex and hard to explain, so I'll give an example. I've never seen the Godfather, and I don't think I ever will, because it's so famous and popular. Think of those film snobs you know who would consider it classic cinema; now, what if I love the movie? Do I really want to be like THOSE people? Conversely, what if I like the movie okay, but don't love it? Are those people really so much more observant than I, that they can appreciate it on a level too deep for me? The only safe option is that I hate the movie so I can feel strongly but still not feel like a wannabe snob, but I don't like hating things and I don't like getting into arguments (which such an opinion surely would make me), so I'll just never watch it. Absurd? Yes, maybe, a little, but if you haven't realized by now that my brain is a very fucked-up place to live, then you haven't been paying very good attention, have you?

So, yeah. Dane Cook, as a stand-up at least, it gettin' kinda tired. And the television agrees with me, which means I'm RIGHT.