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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

Dirty Girl

Lisa Lampanelli

Comedy Central · 2007 · 42 min

An hour of high-volume insult comedy and aggressive demographic targeting.

Lisa Lampanelli built a lucrative career on a highly specific brand of high-volume insult comedy, shouting through stereotypes and aggressive sexual admissions with a permanent grin. Dirty Girl captures the self-appointed Queen of Mean at her mid-2000s peak, spraying hostility at every demographic available. The driving force of her act is a cheerful insistence on her own sexual history as the ultimate punchline, peaking with a wildly inappropriate joke involving her bedroom habits and Hurricane Katrina.

Filmed at the Moore Theatre in Seattle and broadcast on Comedy Central in early 2007, the hour arrived right as Lampanelli was cementing her status as the breakout star of the network’s celebrity roasts. Aside from her standard insult-comic routines, the set features a time-capsule array of Bush-era references, touching on Dick Cheney, the Iraq War, and American Idol. She also works in some lighter observations on old people using the internet and why she prefers dogs to men, mostly because dogs are capable of licking their own genitals. The audio release of the show was nominated for a Grammy for Best Comedy Album.

The set list

5 bits

  1. Targeting male audience members from diverse demographics with insult comedy.

    Riffs on racial and social stereotypes directed at specific front-row attendees, including an African American, a Hispanic man, a gay couple, an elderly white man, and a man mistakenly identified as Jewish.

  2. Lampanelli's sagging breasts.

    Self-deprecating bit about her aging body where she points to a Black audience member and claims her breasts look like his mother's did in National Geographic.

  3. Being kissed by Courtney Love following the Pamela Anderson roast.

    Jokes that she was high for five days afterward because Love tasted like crack and a cheap hooker, joking she thought she would be the ugly one in a lesbian relationship.

  4. Impersonating Andy Dick.

    Performs a caricature of Dick and jokes that the only reason he doesn't molest young boys is that he lacks the strength to hold them down.

  5. Dating a Hispanic man after previously dating a Black man.

    Uses a historical reference, claiming she jumped off the Amistad and onto a raft.

How it plays

Tone
Crude, blue, politically incorrect, and intensely raunchy.
On stage
Billed as comedy's 'Lovable Queen of Mean'—an unapologetically vulgar, foul-mouthed, and tough-talking insult comic dressed in a 1950s-style hot pink cocktail dress with bright red petticoats and a rainbow sash.
Pace
Relentless, non-stop, and outrageous delivery relying on high energy and sharp, rapid-fire putdowns.
About
Racial and ethnic stereotypes, Sexuality and gay culture, Dating and interracial relationships, Celebrity mockery, Self-deprecating commentary on personal appearance and aging

What the critics said

Critically noted for being significantly raunchier and funnier than contemporaries, balancing offensive demographic stereotyping with heavy self-deprecation where she willingly makes herself the butt of the joke.

In the room: Raucous and receptive, with front-row audience members willing targets who laugh along with her relentless barbs.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: imdb.com, allmusic.com, tv.apple.com, mymoviefinder.com, popmatters.com, nytimes.com, en.wikipedia.org, sacurrent.com.

Backstory

Lampanelli had established national visibility through appearances on Friars' Club and Comedy Central roasts (Jeff Foxworthy, Pamela Anderson, William Shatner) as well as The Tonight Show and The Howard Stern Show.

Details

Released
Taped
2006, Moore Theatre, Seattle
Runtime
42 min
Where
Comedy Central
Director
David Higby
Honors
Grammy Award nomination for Best Comedy Album (album release)
Topics
Before
Take It Like a Man (2005)
After
Tough Love (2011)

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