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STUDIO: Comedy Central
MSRP: $26.98
RATED: UNRATED
RUNNING TIME: 176 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Comedy Central Shorts
• DVD Previews
The Pitch
We’re making a stand-up comedy compilation DVD, and out of the eight performers, Carlos Mencia is the 6th funniest guy. This means that nearly 40% of this DVD is at least as bad as Carlos Mencia. We’re fucked, right?
Demetri’s thoughts on wormholes and their effects on unstable Magnetars
went well over the collective head of the audience.
The Humans
Dane Cook, Brian Regan, Lewis Black, Demetri Martin, Carlos Mencia, Mitch Hedberg, Jim Gaffigan, Jeff Dunham
Jeff’s weekly attempt to hock the Bea Arthur RealDoll.
The Nutshell
The Best of Comedy Central Presents: Uncensored, a compilation of various Comedy Central half-hour specials from the last ten years or so, features Dane Cook, Brian Regan, Lewis Black, Demetri Martin, Carlos Mencia, Mitch Hedberg, Jim Gaffigan, and Jeff Dunham.
The featured comics tackle topics both coarse and urbane, including lollipops, corporate America, Aliens, Indiana, and the finer points on how white people walk differently than black people.
The Lowdown
Unlike many other art forms, most stand up comedy has a short shelf life. There are exceptions, of course; any Carlin, Allen, Kinison, or Hicks fan could easily argue the point that good stand up comedy should be timeless. All too often, though, stand up bits are so entrenched in a specific time and place that even if it is a work of comic genius, it can’t help but diminish over time. And that’s one of the problems with much of Comedy Central Presents: Uncensored. So much of it feels like a product of the late ’90’s, and since none of it (with the exception of Mitch Hedberg’s stuff) is really transcendent in the way that Carlin’s or Hicks’ material is, it’s often painful to watch. To wit: Brian Regan does a bit on “Peanut Butter and Jelly in the same jar! How lazy do you have to be, nowadays?”. I haven’t seen this product in stores since at least ’99. There are other examples, such as “Golly, Starbucks is everywhere these days!”, but I’m not going to list them all. These stale references are pervasive, and they’re just not funny anymore.
Comedy Central Presents: Uncensored is a bare bones regurgitation of eight stand up specials from a fairly wide range of comic talents, and it’s certainly not all bad and dated. The best of the eight is easily the late, great Mitch Hedberg’s performance. If you’ve paid any attention to comedy in the last decade, you’ve probably heard of him, as his material is smart, funny, and accessible. Demetri Martin does a decent job, too, and although he’s a little too quirky and precious for me, I can see why he’s popular. Brian Regan rounds out the top three with his fun, family-friendly (if horribly dated, which isn’t his fault, as I’m sure the special was recorded in the ’90s) material. Sure, he’s not as edgy or smart as many of his contemporaries, but he’s got a nice presence that works well on stage.
one was that comics were actually encouraged to use the ‘N’ word.
Dane Cook is a joke thief. Moving past that tragedy, Cook’s performance here isn’t that bad, although he looks like he’s coked out of his mind. After trimming out the irritating jumping and yelling, Cook’s early material is pretty funny, and although he’s a comedy wasteland today, I’ll admit that I enjoyed Harmful if Swallowed. His performance here is an abbreviated and censored version of Swallowed, so it’s probably best to listen to that CD in lieu of this performance, as there’s no good reason to do otherwise. If anything, Cook’s performance makes me miss Hedberg even more, as Hedberg wasn’t afraid to let his audience figure out the joke on their own, while Cook pummels his humor home with a sledgehammer.
Moving on to Lewis Black: His schtick here is tiresome and repetitive. He gets points for being a smart, articulate person, but he forgets that exasperated indignation isn’t enough to sustain a joke.
And then there are the rest.
Carlos Mencia leads the bottom three, which is a pretty damning statement for the other two. There’s certainly nothing wrong with ethnic humor, especially when it points out the folly and absurdity of racism, but Mencia’s tirades about political correctness, arab terrorists, and “Orientals” just aren’t funny. It’s button pushing for the sake of button pushing, and while it’s not offensive, his lowest common denominator approach to comedy doesn’t add anything to the disc.
The bottom two are abysmal. Jim Gaffigan’s routine is a flaccid observational jab at life’s peccadillos, and while he’s pretty much harmless, he’s undoubtably the most boring comic in the group. At least Mencia kept me awake. And then there’s ventriloquist Jeff Dunham, who cycles through a group of the least amusing puppet characters since Muppet Treasure Island. I’d rather watch circus clowns.
Darryl Revok wasn’t amused by the performance.
What’s interesting about this supposedly uncensored product is the lack of any discernible mature content. There are a few swears here and there, but viewers who purchase Uncensored looking for edginess will be very disappointed. These presentations are identical to the ones that appeared on Comedy Central over the last few years, although a few fucks and shits go un-bleeped. Overall, Uncensored isn’t a very exciting or worthwhile endeavor for fans of stand up comedy, as the performances are mostly dated and de-fanged, but if you’re interested in seeing some decent performances from Hedberg or Martin, keep your expectations low, and you might enjoy yourself.
The Package It’s a sparsely populated release, although there are a few cool snippets from The Sarah Silverman Program and The Colbert Report in the extra features section.
The
audio is an acceptable Dolby 2/0, and the video is standard TV quality, which is fine.
The mic attempted to attack Dane’s face in this rare outtake.
13 comments
I actually remember a time when I DIDN'T hate Carlos Mencia. Does anyone else remember Loco Slam on HBO? It was on sorta towards the end of Def Comedy Jam's first run and was sorta the Latino version of that, only there were more actual JOKES. Anyway, Mencia was the host of that and also had a couple of other specials around that time, which woulda been around '94-'95 or so. I agree that he IS painful to watch now. Like you said in the review, he just sorta beats the same "joke" into the ground over and over now, and the puzzling success of his show has pretty much made that his permanent gimmick.
Timeless comedy… how about Richard Pryor? How the fuck did you miss that one and manage to mention Kinison?
The Cook screencap is a perfect sample of his routine. Good job with that.
I hope the Allen you were referring to in your timeless pantheon was Steve Allen rather than Tim Allen. Tim Allen's comedy makes my ass weep tears of hydrocloric acid. And as for Hicks' material being timeless, I would have to disagree. His shows often featured bits about the Kennedy assassination that were already terribly dated when he was telling them nearly 20 years ago. I respect Hicks as a comedy great, but I just don't think he's the best example of a timeless comic. Another problem is your ranking of Jim Gaffigan beneath even the miserable Mencia. I can't recall a bad special of his on Comedy Central, so I have no idea of what he's represented by here. But it must be his worst special ever. I've seen him live twice and he totally killed each time. He's 10X the comedian Mencia is.
I read "Allen" as Woody Allen, whose stand-up material is exceptional, for those who haven't seen it.
I was referring to Woody. I thought that would have been obvious.
Mencia better than Gaffigan? Crazy talk.
I loved Hicks, and devoured everything he did, but it sure as hell isn't timeless. His final sets were so filled with bile and contempt that they were nearly unlistenable. (the "goat boy" bullshit, etc.)
I'd have to put Mencia at the bottom of the list. All he does is talk about tired stereotypes and accentuate his points by yelling "bitch" at the top of his lungs.
Gaffigan: "People wearing glasses sure do look smart. But what if their glasses are crooked? Then they look crazy!" His humor really cuts to the heart of the glasses-wearing issue.
Gaffigan tends to do a simplistic style that's very low key in his approach, and I think it works more often than it does not. How else can you get 5 minutes out of making fun of Hot Pockets, but have it all be true?
When Ned the fake Mexican does a joke that doesn't include the word "beaner" then I might stop and listen.
Those who'd like the Mitch Hedberg performance (including the amazingly painful unedited, unpolished version) are better served to purchase the "Mitch All Together" CD/DVD.
There was only one bad Hedburg performance i've ever seen, and it was the one where he was missing the glasses. i really felt for the guy – it seemed that his whole game was off without them to hide behind, and you honestly could see it in his eyes.
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