Dane Cook: A Conservative's Comedian

The other night we were flipping through the channels and landed on the HBO special of Dane Cook's 'in the round' performance. I've always been curious about this guy- he's uber popular with the college set and I'd never seen him perform. I still watch the VMAs- I can take it! The first bit didn't make much sense, but he sure was energetic. He paced around the stage and repeated the punchlines several times, accompanied by large hand gestures. So far it wasn't too impressive, but we decided that it wasn't fair to come in at the middle of a bit, so we decided we'd let him try again with the next one. That too was not funny. He was describing how a guy sneezed on him and then chastized him for using 'bless you'. The joke was that atheists take big offense to the use of 'bless you'. Dane's dazzling insight was to say back to this man, 'what should I say then? You won't go to heaven because you don't believe in it?' This illicited a huge laugh from the crowd. I didn't think this was particularly witty or clever- it was just stating the obvious. There were other pieces to the joke, involving the word 'fuck', but even the profanity wasn't offensive or funny- it felt like a kid who has just begun to exercise his use of the word and threw it into any possible expression whether or not it belonged there. A master of language, Dane Cook is not.

Perhaps the reason why this guy is so popular is because he appeals to a very broad range of mostly conservative people. I read recently that most college kids are for the most part conservative; a surprising statistic given that colleges and universities have always been strongholds of liberalism, even if those kids grow up and revert to the political leanings they were raised with. The atheist joke and much of the rest of his act mirrored the acts we see played out on the political stage; lots of gesturing, much repeating of the same viewpoint (often identically worded) and very basic arguments presented without nuance. It doesn't matter that the joke is lame or uninventive- you feel good as long as you're in on it. Tourgasm or not, Dane Cook sucks my fucking ass.