Fucking ASSHOLE-slash-alleged "comedian" Dane Cook Tells Theater Shooting Joke At Laugh Factory

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Dane Cook Tells Theater Shooting Joke At Laugh Factory

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/27/dane-cook-aurora-shooting-joke_n_1710221.html

If you've ever gone to a comedy show in the days following a tragic event, one thing inevitably happens. After several acts perform sets that avoid the elephant in the room, one comic will, after breaking the ice, tentatively ask permission to try out their (recent tragic event) material. More often than not, the audience says yes.

This seems to have been the case at Los Angeles' Laugh Factory on Thursday, when Dane Cook performed a joke related to the tragic theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado. Caught on tape by an audience member who was committing one of the cardinal comedy-show sins -- taping a comedian's set without permission -- Cook joked that "The Dark Knight Rises" is such a bad movie that " ... if none of that would have happened, I'm pretty sure that somebody in that theater, about 25 minutes in, realizing it was a piece of crap, was probably like, ‘Ugh, fucking shoot me.’”

The joke was met with a few groans, but they quickly gave way to laughter and then applause.

While some may feel that any jokes related to a tragedy are inappropriate, the clip could be seen as illustrating a fundamental tenet of comedy: that laughter leads to catharsis, and catharsis leads to healing.

[Erose999]

1. People are paying to see Dane Cook? Who knew?

[sarcasmo]

2. One of the least funny comedians in recent memory.

[Bluenorthwest]

3. Second time in recent weeks that my sympathy for offened people is reduced by the fact

that they willfully paid to see Dane Cook.

[deutsey]

4. My god, that's a lame "joke"

I can't even get all outraged about it. It's just stupid.

I do believe that laughter leads to catharsis, catharsis leads to healing...but the comic first needs to say something that elicits laughter.

[Drale]

5. Ok seriously stop this with bullshit

Comedians have always touched subjects that no one else will touch. If you don't think something is funny don't laugh at it, don't try and make a person a public enemy. People get to offended these days. If you go to a comedy club prepared to be offended and if you don't want to be offended don't go to a comedy club.

[Initech]

7. I'm personally more offended that Dane Cook still has an audience.

[Drale]

8. I agree with that but

its ridiculous that people freak about because of one joke, if you don't like it don't laugh its as simple as that and I never laugh at Dane Cook.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

12. I agree with both of you. nt

[Blue_Tires]

44. I'm more offended that he ever had one...

He never would have lasted 30 seconds matching up with even the b-list stand ups in the 1980s...

But he's handsome and the girls swoon, so that still counts for something, I guess...

[arely staircase]

46. i know

seriously, what's up with that?

[treestar]

18. And then they can put up with the critiques and consequences

If someone finds it not funny

[Brickbat]

21. What's the subject of the joke, here?

It's true, really good comedians have often used humor -- and shocking humor -- to make a point or ridicule something that deserves to be ridiculed. Richard Pryor is an obvious example, of course, for using strong language and humor to point out true problems of poverty, racism and other social issues.

What's the point, subject, or social issue that this comedian is addressing? What is the truth he's uncovering by being shocking?

And it's true, shocking comedians don't have to be addressing deep philosophical ideas. But if they don't, then they're just being shocking to shock, and that's lazy and cheap.

[deutsey]

32. Yeah, I think of Lenny Bruce doing his act after JFK's assassination

Although many entertainers canceled their shows after the assassination, Bruce went on either the night of or the night after JFK was shot.

He walked up to the mic, stood there for a long, dramatic pause, and then said: "Poor Vaughn Meader!" (Meader was a comedian famous at the time for a popular record he did impersonating and satirizing JFK and the Kennedys). He was basically saying that Meade's career was pretty much over after Dallas (and, apparently, Bruce was right...Meade quickly sank into obscurity after the assassination).

It struck a chord, his audience laughed, and Bruce went on to reflect on and discuss the tragedy in his own, unique way.

Had Bruce gone out and tried to make the actual shooting and death of the president a joke, I doubt he would have had the same reaction from the audience (especially back in '63).

I think only a very small minority of comedians are able to find the right balance when doing that high-wire act...Bruce, Carlin, Pryor, Hicks, a few others...definitely not Dane.

[arely staircase]

48. bruce, carlin, pryor, and hicks

should not even be mentioned in the same context as dane cook.

[deutsey]

49. You're correct...Mea culpa

[Drale]

37. In my opinion Dane Cook is not funny

but some people find him funny and as far as I'm concerned he has every right to say what ever he wants when he's up on stage. If you don't find him funny don't laugh at him but don't condemn him for a stupid joke he made.

[Brickbat]

40. Don't condemn him for a stupid joke? What is this, Stalin's Russia?

[LanternWaste]

39. "If you put on a stage play, be prepared to be criticized, and if you don't want the criticism...

Comedians, much as movies, new orchestral pieces, stage plays, et,. al., are also subject to scrutiny and criticism. "If you put on a stage play, be prepared to be criticized, and if you don't want the criticism, don't put on the stage play..."

Seems little more than six of on and half a dozen of the other to me...

[Tom Ripley]

6. That was definitely no "poor Vaughn Meader"

but then again, Dane Cook is definitely no Lenny Bruce

[WilliamPitt]

9. Gilbert Gottfried

Scant days after 9/11, Gilbert Gottfried was participating in a roast of Hugh Hefner, and made a 9/11 joke...something about being worried about flying to New York and having to change planes at the Empire State Building. The crowd groaned and booed, some shouted "Too soon!"...and Gottfried recovered by launching himself into The Aristocrats joke.

He leveled the room, and afterwards, people said the catharsis of the laughter was amazing.

Of course, Gottfried's shoot-first approach to humor got him dumped by Aflac after he mad a joke about the Japan tsunami, but the moral still holds: laughter heals.

Watch. It is a thing of beauty, from the film The Aristocrats. WARNING: ***Incredibly*** not safe for work:

P.S. Dane Cook is simply an awful comedian.

P.P.S. If you don't get the Aristocrats joke reference, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Aristocrats_(joke)

[Bluenorthwest]

14. Gilbert goes first. He's the master of 'too soon' and Dane Cook, as you say is no Gilbert

Gottfried. One is a comedian, the other is Dane Cook.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

16. Dane Cook never seems to be able to get around to the punch line. Just when you think

he's gonna get there. He makes some stupid sound, facial expression or just flexes to look pretty instead.

[skypilot]

38. And...

...his audience doesn't seem to actually laugh at his "jokes". At least they didn't on the DVD I rented a few years ago of one of his performances. He was performing to a stadium full of douchey-looking 20-something guys and their girlfriends and I swear that they didn't actually laugh, instead everyone simply applauded when Dane said something that (I guess) they thought was funny. It was really odd. Maybe they laughed at some point later in the performance. I could only stand to watch about 20 minutes of it.

[Tom Ripley]

45. I've always assumed that was his appeal. "He's just like me and people are listening to him!"

It really doesn't matter to his audience that he is not funny. They are looking for validation, not humor.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

55. Spot on. The little bit that I was able to endure gave me the same exact

impression.

[nolabear]

17. That was one of comedy's most brilliant moments.

But the reason it was, was Gottfried's ability to take a big mistake and turn it on its head. Had he not done that it would have just been uncomfortable. Same as the Tosh rape joke. There was a great article on Jezebel re how to tell a funny rape joke. Some really funny examples were given, but they had that twist that wasn't just "Hey, wouldn't it be funny if you got raped?" In The Aristocrats Sarah Silverman does a cringingly hilarious rape joke.

I believe it. Dying is easy. Comedy is hard. (And I have the most conflicted relationship with Gottfried ever. He creeps me out and now and then crosses over into crude brilliance).

[WilliamPitt]

25. His stand-up is incredible

His movie/commercial persona, not so much.

[deutsey]

34. I can't get beyond Gottfried's voice

However, when I take him in small doses, he has made me laugh.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

10. No topic is off limits in comedy.

With that said, Cook's "joke" was so lame and unimaginative, that was the true offense. He could have riffed on the shooter in a way that would have worked, but he doesn't have the talent to do so.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

13. He needs to wait for Louis CK to come up with a good joke about it. Then he can steal it. nt

[Arkana]

20. Nah, Patton Oswalt.

Nothing quite like an English major who's also a comedian.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

24. I just meant that he's been known to steal jokes from Louis CK. Probably

a bunch of others too. But that's the first one that came to mind.

[JohnnyRingo]

11. We need a bad taste unit of the police dept.

The club could have a BTU officer in the audience to rush the stage and charge Cook for "insensitivity" with a "too soon" specification.

Actually, comedy clubs are on the very frontiers of our social boundaries. Expect to be offended once in a while.

[Whisp]

15. I've never heard of this guy

so I looked up a couple youtubes.

I like his stage presence - he's sort of cute in a way. Confident, cocky, and comfortable with what he is doing.

His material, otoh, is really tepid. I don't understand why the audience laughs so heartily and often but I'm supposing if you paid for tickets you are likely to find something worth the money to justify the purchase.

About his joke you pointed out - he just wanted attention and got it - any publicity is good publicity. It wasn't a very clever joke and probably too soon after such a tragedy but I can't really cry foul over - comedians are supposed to be obnoxious and attention seeking and say the unspeakable.

[Arkana]

19. Dane Cook is a terrible comedian, but not because of this.

He's a terrible comedian because his jokes are either a) shitty or b) stolen from someone else, and he thinks that by leaping up and down on the stage like a hyperactive seal and running around in circles makes him funny.

[msanthrope]

22. All good comedy is tragedy plus time....nt

[lpbk2713]

23. Sounds like the next gen Andrew 'Dice' Clay

"Annoy" never equates "funny" IMO.

[Tom Ripley]

26. Did you know that Andrew 'Dice' Clay and Yakov Smirnoff were once roommates?

Can you imagine the level of concentrated suck within those walls?

[lapfog_1]

27. I am not, by nature, a heckler...

but I think after hearing this "joke" I would have stood up and said "much like this performance by you, Mr. Cook"

[Blaspherian]

28. What's funny is that he would call any movie crap

considering his duds.

[bullwinkle428]

31. Really? You didn't think "Employee of the Month" with co-star Jessica Simpson

was the "Citizen Kane" of its time??

[CBGLuthier]

29. That Man is Not Funny. Only news here is he is even more not funny than usual.

[reformist2]

30. He's a good example of how the free market isn't always right.

[zappaman]

33. Relax, it's just his way of reminding us

what an incredibly unfunny douchebag he is.

[MadHound]

35. If you're offended by this,

Good thing you didn't overhear any of the conversations among the emergency responders. Cops, EMT's, firefighters are all notorious for their very raw, crude humor about whatever situation they are currently dealing with or have just dealt with. It is how they blow off steam, how they remain sane amongst the madness, humor.

Frankly I'm glad that somebody is breaking the humor barrier, humor helps everybody heal.

[slampoet]

41. There is a WORLD of difference between participatory humor and standup

participatory humor isn't repeated night after night and rarely written out or even planned.

Plus even if it is planned it is storytelling and not in joke form.



I'm sure the humor of Male Whores is cutting too, but it doesn't have any bearing on stand up and I'm a little off put that you would imply that Dane Cook has any of the problems hard working Americans have. It is precisely his lack of life experience that makes him an unfunny comedian and the object of scorn from people who know how to write comedy everywhere.

[MadHound]

43. Well, frankly I don't even know who Dane Cook is,

But the fact of the matter is that one of the greatest coping mechanisms that humans have is laughter, humor, comedy. It has always been part of the job of a jester, a comedian, to use humor to help heal national wounds. Is the joke lame, sure, but at least it is an attempt to heal through humor.

What are you doing to help this country heal from this wound? Oh, yeah, denigrating those who are actually doing something about the problem.

[slampoet]

54. When was the last time i got paid for comedy?

Last week? and I'll get paid again in two weeks.

you loose Captain Assumption, Take back your decoder ring, i ain't buying your boxtops.

[arely staircase]

36. dane cook told a joke?

that is news.

[slampoet]

42. He paid a writer, who told him the joke, which he then repeated the same way except less funny.

[DefenseLawyer]

47. Dane Cook is a hack, but......

people that get bent out of shape over a comedy routine need to refocus their energy.

[cbdo2007]

50. I don't mind tasteless or offensive jokes as long as they're really, really funny.

This may have been the dumbest joke I've ever heard and it's not even factually correct.

The general concensus about the movie is that it is excellent, I haven't heard one person say that it's a bad movie, so the joke begins ridiculous and then the punchline was just lame.

I don't mind people telling jokes about this but make them good jokes at least.

[snooper2]

51. are you still mad?

[Earth_First]

52. Too soon?

[MrSlayer]

53. Oh no! Not a joke!!!

Cook is a terrible comedian as is the Tosh guy that caused an uproar last week but I have no problem with people making jokes about anything as long as they're funny. This joke isn't funny.

[JI7]

56. who is Dane Cook anyways ?