Billy Crystal. Comic Relief (HBO). What about me? Who will relieve me of the time wasted?
To be truthfull, I didn't even see it. I heard a significant portion of it on the radio. Maybe the visual really gave it something. I hope so. The audio only portion was not pleasant.
It was for a good cause, I guess. So I'm not going to get too down on the guy (and I am not a fan, anyway), but seriously, Billy, why?
If you missed it (lucky you!), Crystal did his take on an elderly, black jazz musician. Tells the tale of living through the hurricane. Punctuates every little quip with "Can you dig that?.....I knew that you could." It really missed the mark. You could hear the audience straining to find the laughs, but managing only nervous titters. It went on way too long. One count had it upwards of 11 minutes. I didn't time it myself.
This bit did nothing for me. It was actually uncomfortable to listen to. I most certainly did not dig it.
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Life in the space. Whichever one I'm in at the moment.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.
8 comments:
I only caught dane cook, who rocks in my opinion. I did see the commercial with Billy Crystal in it and it made me shudder. What the hell happened to him. He looks all shiny and bloated like a dead fish.
The clarinet player story wasn't supposed to create huge laughs. It was supposed to tell you about a man whose home was completely destroyed (I wonder if you have any idea what THAT feels like), and yet he still played the music he had in his heart.
I wonder if you saw the performance, within which, were built in comedic laughs. Uncomfortably unfunny jokes. The story being told made the retelling of poorly written and delivered jokes all the more horrifying.
Thank you for your comments.
I did see it with my own eyes. If you watched or heard more of the show, most of the jokes were insulting the people who made the levies, the people who didn't donate any money (or very little money), and the people who showed in one way or another that they didn't care about what happened to such a huge part of America. The reason the audience sounded so uncomfortable was probably because people in general don't want to laugh out loud at things that can make them seem prejudiced or insensitive in some manner, especially on (inter)national media channels. If big death jokes about animals and people drowning or being trapped under wreckage were made, people wouldn't laugh because in the context of this show, it's not funny. The catchphrase of the event was "Comic Relief; It's No Joke."
You have an interesting view on this. I wish I could see it your way. Sadly, what I saw was something else entirely, regardless of the catch phrase.
i finaally caught the rest of the show and somehow the other performers managed to mix seriousness with humor without making my skin crawl. i know what you mean about crystal, gabe. i'm one of those people that feel uncomfortable watching someone else bomb. it was one of those moments.
Well, I can see where you're headed, whether or not I believe it. But at least we can politely and intelligently disagree. You probably know as well as I do that there are too many people who "discuss" these things with as many insults and cusses as they can type.
Quite right. Thank you for adding your own impressions.
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