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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

Die Laughing

Doug Stanhope

Stand Up! Records · Album · 2002 · 64 min

A 2002 audio album built entirely on aggressive, deliberate provocation.

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Die Laughing is a deliberate attempt to alienate anyone expecting standard club jokes. Doug Stanhope opens the set with a bit titled “Stillborn Liver” and proceeds to spend the hour attacking everything sacred and sensitive. He takes absolute worst-case scenarios, like the upside of sexual abuse, and forces the premise through a grinding logic until the crowd has to laugh against their own instincts. The audio album was recorded at the Laff Stop in Houston in October 2001, exactly when the country was least interested in aggressive cynicism. Stand Up! Records released the CD the following year as Stanhope was steadily building a cult following and shifting into the bleaker rants that would define his later career. It captures him before his theater-touring days, working a standard comedy club with material that dares people to stay on board. He leans completely into his role as a degenerate philosopher, using prolonged chunks on school shootings and a lengthy defense of sodomy to test the absolute limits of the room.

The set list

3 bits

  1. MADD and drunk driving

    Tackles Mothers Against Drunk Driving and societal attitudes toward DUI.

  2. Radical pro-abortion views

    Offers shocking and radical pro-choice perspectives designed to challenge the American mindset.

  3. President Doug

    Rants about the presidency and contemporary American politics.

How it plays

Tone
Caustic, dark, profane, fiercely intelligent, and satirical.
On stage
Fearless, filthy, confrontational, and full of bile; indifferent to whether the crowd laughs, delivering cynical, booze-soaked rants grounded in hard truth and deviant sexuality.
Pace
Free-form, furious, and aggressive.
About
American culture and stagnant mindset, American politics and the presidency, DUI and MADD, Pro-abortion arguments, Religion, Deviant sexuality

What the critics said

Critically praised as a worthy successor to Bill Hicks and Lenny Bruce, highlighted for filthy, bile-filled delivery paired with fierce intelligence and sharp comedic aim.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: en.wikipedia.org, amazon.com, wikidata.org, albumoftheyear.org, alchetron.com, imdb.com, allmusic.com.

Backstory

Released in August 2002 during a period when Stanhope was dealing with backlash, protests, and stage attacks following comments about the September 11 attacks, and alongside his award-winning run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Details

Released
Runtime
64 min
Where
Stand Up! Records (album)
Honors
Named 'One of the Top Ten Comedians to Watch' by Variety magazine (2002)
Topics
Before
Comedy Central Presents (2001)
After
Word of Mouth (2002)

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