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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

The Pride Is Back

David Cross

HBO · 1999 · 55 min

An hour of articulate complaining about late-nineties American consumerism.

David Cross opens his first hour for HBO by walking to the microphone and singing an operatic aria to milk the crowd for laughs before he ever speaks a real sentence. From there, he locks into an aggressive, cynical rhythm, targeting the bizarre contradictions of late-nineties American consumerism. He spends significant time questioning the logistics of airport pornography, the flaws of airline programs that ask passengers to donate miles to sick children, and why High Times operates at a slightly lower intellectual level than Highlights for Children. It is a hyper-articulate hour of complaining from a comic who knows exactly how to weaponize his own irritation.

Taped at the Showbox Theater in Seattle in 1999, the broadcast captured Cross right after the cancellation of his sketch series Mr. Show. He performs in front of an enthusiastic audience of Pacific Northwest alt-comedy fans, delivering a set that helped codify a specific lane of indie stand-up. The performance was widely praised and eventually named one of the 25 best comedy specials of all time by Rolling Stone.

The set list

5 bits

  1. Being sexually assaulted by the Virgin Mary

    Gleefully mocks religious veneration with an uncensored routine describing being raped by the Virgin Mary.

  2. Sketch cold open with a date

    A narrative cold open showing Cross lying to his date about being captain of the swim team before being taken away to perform his set.

  3. Art in airports

    Deconstructs and ridicules the absurdity of art installations inside airports.

  4. Stephen Hawking with a prostitute

    An impression and comedic routine depicting Stephen Hawking interacting with a sex worker.

  5. High Times magazine and James Lipton

    Satirical send-up addressing High Times magazine coverage and an impression of James Lipton.

How it plays

Tone
Brash, snide, sarcastic, and irreverent.
On stage
Brash, unapologetic, sarcastic, and hectoring critical thinker who skewers conventional beliefs.
Pace
Passionate and at times apoplectic and preachy when outraged by social attitudes.
About
religion and religious fundamentalists, trendy advertising and extreme marketing, media violence, airports and airport art, pornography, Dr. Kevorkian and organ donations

What the critics said

Praised for sharp, enduring satire of corporate Christianity, media pandering, and youth marketing, though some felt his blunt anger occasionally overtook the punchlines.

In the room: Live theater crowd at The Showbox in Seattle.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: imdb.com, letterboxd.com, tvinsider.com, plotexplained.com, theguardian.com, ew.com, en.wikipedia.org.

Backstory

Filmed in 1999 following the mutual conclusion of his HBO sketch comedy series 'Mr. Show', in an era of late-90s extreme marketing, media violence debates, and pre-Bush administration cultural discourse.

Details

Released
Taped
The Showbox Theatre, Seattle
Runtime
55 min
Where
HBO
Director
Troy Miller
Honors
Included in Rolling Stone's top-25 comedy specials
Topics
Before
HBO Comedy Half-Hour (1996)
After
Shut Up You Fucking Baby! (2002)

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