Comedy and Politics with Mike Donovan and Jimmy Tingle
February 19, 2012 2 Comments
This appears to be one of those weeks where I try to catch up on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, mostly by listening in the car as I drive to work and friends, and from work and friends. Oh, and I also drive to the gym.
In Episode 250, Maron returns to do a show in Boston, where he went to college and first got into comedy. There are two highlights of the show for me, one of them an Inside Comedy Moment, and the other a Political Comedy Moment.
The Inside Comedy Moment is Maron and Mike Donovan talking about comedians snapping.
Maron’s point is that these moments of raw comic honesty have been lost due to technology:
Back then everyone snapped. Before the age of people shooting cameras or you had to worry that someone was doing something, people used to lose their minds on stage.
Donovan’s point is that reacting to bad audience behavior by losing one’s cool is a great leveler of comedians:
If you listen closely you’ll find George Carlin, Bill Hicks, on and on down the line — they snap exactly the same as any other working comic. “Why don’t you shut the fuck up? No one came here to see you!” They’re not very clever about it. It’s a myth that you can suddenly come up with these witty, clever, brilliant ways to handle a bunch of assholes that are talking in the front row for your entire show.
The Political Comedy Moment consists of two jokes by Jimmy Tingle.
Joke #1:
Newt and I, we just differ on the issues. I’m a big supporter of gay marriage. Newt believes that marriage should be between one man and up to three women.
Joke #2:
Gingrich, he’s always talking about, “I want to debate Obama! I want to debate Obama! I want a Lincoln-Douglas style.” I think Obama should say, “Okay, I’ll debate you Newt, Lincoln-Douglas style. One condition: I’m Lincoln.”
Both jokes are great…although history buffs will point out that the Lincoln-Douglas debates took place in 1858. While they raised Abraham Lincoln’s national profile and helped set him up to run for President in 1860, in the year of the debates the Illinois legislature re-elected Stephen Douglas and sent him back to the Senate.
About Matthew
He’s definitely right. Having seen Carlin, I’ve witnessed him losing it on someone in exactly that way. Not very creative, but effective.
To my regret, I never saw Carlin live. He seemed to always be playing Vegas by the time I had the chance, although I think I did pass up the chance to see him once at a winery in northern California. Those tickets were expensive, but I kind of regret not going now.