Take your Tenacious D album that you bought only because it was trendy, take your crappy Adam Sandler album you haven't listened to since high school, trade them in at the record store and GET THIS CD.
It's Not Funny, is the second major CD release for comedian David Cross after the 2-disc Shut Up, You Fucking Baby. If the goal in the title of It's Not Funny was to tell you the opposite of what the actual content was like, it should be called It's Not So Goddamn Funny You'll Be Saying 'Fuck, This Is Funny," Every Five Minutes.
Okay, let us start with the packaging of this little gem itself. It comes in a heavy paper stock case better that the plastic cases because it opens easier and the plastic cases tend to break.
On the front cover is a stark black and white photo of David in concert, and on the back there is an adorable picture of David as a child from 1974:
Also, upon opening the case, you will find this little piece of paper within:
I won't ruin the surprise by telling you what's on the piece of paper, but I will tell you that it is relevant and isn't just a big piece of paper with the words "FUCK YOU!" written on it.
Now, not one of the track listings give you a clue to the actual content on that track, which s are more a commentary on the hackneyed acts of other comedians than anything else. Tracks like "My Immigrant Mom Talks Funny!" and "Pandering to the Locals!" This, of course, makes it hard to find certain bits you like, but Cross has been doing this style of nomenclature for enough time now that it has become signature, and you really won't mind it.
The stand-up runs the range from commenting on how boring kids are, to how incredibly stupid it is that you can actually go out and buy electric scissors, to a complete trashing of the war in Iraq and President Bush.
Actually, "trashing" puts it lightly.
Suffice it to say its not for the member of your family who has a big "W in 2004" sticker on their car. He also goes after Homeland Security and Tom Ridge, the racism of Strom Thurmond, and portrays Dennis Miller as a court jester for George W's amusement.
In the most extreme of all the examples from the album, David Cross jokes about Bush killing and eating a Jewish baby. He adds, "That's the only evil, crazy thing for Bush, you know, to do, that's left. He must be getting bored!"
So, yes, if you hate George W. Bush if you hate the War in Iraq, this album is right up your alley.
Still, it can already be felt that this album might get a lot of other reviewers saying how this album is bad "angry" which is kind of like saying that you think Shakespeare is a bad because he's too wordy. Whoever labels this album as bad because it is too angry is missing the point. When Cross is angry, he's angry at something stupid and wrong, such as commentary on the aforementioned selling of electric scissors:
"Ostensibly it's to save time, I think, it's a TIME SAVER...because it will save you over 2.7 seconds...and that shit adds up! That shit adds up..."
David's sarcastic, quick wit doesn't come just come through on his own bits, though. There are instances in the album which David interacts with people reacts to audience members. For instance, David jokes:
"I do believe that, on a whole, women are definitely smarter than men...I also believe that dogs are smarter than women."
After that, woman from the audience says, "I'm not buying that."
"You are right to not believe it," David replies, "I'm going to go ahead and admit it, that I do not believe what I just said---it was what's described as a joke. I'll be telling a bunch of 'em here tonight."
In addition to the regular, easy-to-find bits on the album, there, stashed 8 minutes and 35 seconds into the last track is a bit in which David Cross tells about his experience when he met the lead singer of Creed on Bravo's Celebrity Poker. A hoot.
And that's the most important thing to remember this CD...it's a hoot. It's a riot. It is damn, damn, damn funny. It's Not Funny redeems the section in your music store labelled "Comedy," Go get it.
--Shaun Clayton
May 24, 2004
