Best Comedy Albums of 2013

I love Brian Regan. I'll have to check some of these out. My wife and I are always on the lookout for good comedians. Thanks!

I much, much, MUCH prefer televised comedy over albums. With a guy like Louis CK, you'd be missing half his delivery.

I'm not a big fan of Anthony Jeselnick. About half his jokes are funny, but sometimes when he tries to offend but forgets to put in the humour. And when he does that he's just any old offensive asshole. Example: at a Comedy Central Roast he made some joke at Katey Sagal's expense about John Ritter's death, but it was just a reference with no punchline. You could tell from her face that she was confused and angry by it.

JonJacob wrote: Most people I know don't pay as well. I do, I'm a chump, I like the feeling of supporting the artist in question whether music or stand up... Some of these guys make almost nothing. Like Jim Hamilton says: "If you want to know how much money I make doing comedy, just take how much money Mike Tyson makes doing comedy and then subtract that exact same amount."

But yeah, I'm a chump. I make good living so why not?

Well, don't get me wrong, I do go and see comedians live and the ticket is often twice the price of a CD/DVD.

But there is no point in importing a CD/DVD from the USA just to watch it once. If all that stuff wasn't available online already, I simply wouldn't get to see it.

Besides, all the "art" I put out I don't charge money for either.

bfkiller wrote: I much, much, MUCH prefer televised comedy over albums. With a guy like Louis CK, you'd be missing half his delivery.

I'm not a big fan of Anthony Jeselnick. About half his jokes are funny, but sometimes when he tries to offend but forgets to put in the humour. And when he does that he's just any old offensive asshole. Example: at a Comedy Central Roast he made some joke at Katey Sagal's expense about John Ritter's death, but it was just a reference with no punchline. You could tell from her face that she was confused and angry by it.

There's a lot you're missing if you watch too though. It works both ways. I own most of Louis's specials in video format but I have Hilarious as an album, I've seen it too but I hear it differently when I don't see him. The subtleties in his voice mean more. I just prefer it that way but I do think you're missing stuff either way. Seeing can be a distraction.

As for Jeselnik, yeah, he is intentionally offensive. No doubt, and that won't always work for people but he is crazy prolific. Did you know that he wrote over 100 jokes a day for the Fallon show during it's first two seasons? It was him and one other guy that did all the work in those early years. That's a phenomenal feat. They were all clean too so he can do that style if he wants. He's just a good writer. I don't know much about the roasts though, I'm not a fan of roasts really. Although Norm Macdonalds roast of the roast in the Bob Sagat roast was brilliant.

Here's a Jeselnik joke I like:

My wife is always complaining that she's addicted to chocolate, like 'Oh Antony don't you go leaving chocolate around I'm addicted, I just can't help myself'. So I took her and put her in my car, then I drove her downtown and showed her a crack addict. Then I said: "You see that honey? Why can't you be that skinny?"

See, it's like you said. There is no punchline really. It's just a non sequitur but it works for some people. The joke is in the expectation being fucked on you, like slight of hand or something. That's the stage presence he's gone for and it doesn't work for everyone.

Schweig! wrote: Besides, all the "art" I put out I don't charge money for either.

... and thanks for that. I do and don't charge. It depends. I'm not criticizing though, there's nothing wrong with using the net that way. The market will decide if these people need to be supported for their work. I'm fine with letting it play out.

On that topic JJ, I also pay for albums, TV series, movies and even comedy albums when I bought them back in the day. I don't judge people that acquire the stuff for free at all. I bought the Inside Llewyn Davis soundtrack last week, loved it, recommended it to my friend over lunch yesterday and watched him download it for free right in front of me in a Starbucks. It's fine.

The one weird thing in all of this, and you referred to it earlier, is that he (and others) refer to me as the chump. I'm the chump for playing by the rules and supporting the medium. That's the funny part for me.

I'm fine with people that decide not to pay but I think putting people like me down is their own conscience talking above all else. That's my interpretation anyway.


That Jeselnik crack wife joke is fantastic. I actually really enjoy the roasts for the most part. I agree that the ones that don't play by the rules are bringing the most to the table (Norm MacDonald and Andy Sandberg (surprisingly)).

Black Barney wrote: I actually really enjoy the roasts for the most part. I agree that the ones that don't play by the rules are bringing the most to the table (Norm MacDonald and Andy Sandberg (surprisingly)).

Yeah, Sandbergs was good too. I forgot about that. Those two get compared all the time but I think, besides both undermining what a roast is supposed to be, have very little in common. They were both interesting takes on the form but came from totally different places. Sandberg's was almost politically motivated, it was anti-homphobia, anti-racism ... the subtle types or racism, homophobia and sexism. Not the more obvious and overt ones. Whereas Norms was pure absurdity. The 'jokes' he used were from an old joke book of jokes for a retirement party that his dad gave him when he learned Norm wanted to be a comedian. It's actually kind of a sweet tribute when you think about it. His delivery is perfect all the way through.

I remember hearing him talk about it and he said that there was almost no laughter and all he could remember was "the angry eyes of Alan Thicke" which is an hilarious phrase. Apparently people came up to him after the roast thinking he had told those jokes in earnest and treating him like some idiot who had lost his game. They had totally missed the whole point of his set.

With Sandberg I don't think anyone could miss it, it was obvious what his intention was (should have been for Norm too but his delivery was so weird it was tough to tell unless you were a fan).

Those two roasts were fascinating and I'd like to see more of that style. Patrice O'Neal did a great one on the Shatner roast too. He was really good at the roasts and it was sad when he passed away. I still miss that guy.

yeah Patrice called Shatner out for all the racist jokes and it was hilarious.

I didn't know that Nacdonald got his jokes from that book. That's fantastic. For me, his performance had even more layers to it cuz of his bizarre look he'd give all the jokes before that were supposed to be funny. So when it's his turn to go up, everyone was unintentionally making that same bizarre look at all his jokes. Total genius.

Yeah, Sandberg was more obvious, that's true. Hilarious tho.

I'm embarassed that I think my favourite all time roast joke I've seen so far was a pretty racial one by Sarah Silverman towards Aziz Ansari, it had me rolling, "I've been a supporter of Aziz for years now and only for the cost of a cup of coffee"

LOL

Actually when that Natasha(?) girl said to Bill Hader, "Bill Hader, you're this generation's Phil Hartman....hopefully." I almost pissed myself too

You guys who pay for products aren't chumps, you're great. (sincerely)

mads b. wrote: Great list. I love listening to comedy albums, but simply forget to buy them.

But the best comedy show of this year is of course the one found on www.noerdernestrikeback.dk - unfortunately only in Danish :-)

Hey mads, I saw one of your clips that was in English on youtube and it was quite good. Do you normally just do Danish only shows or is there something more of yours on youtube or something similar in English that we can all hear?