It's Not Funny

David Cross spends a lot of this set sounding like he is trying to vibrate himself apart with pure frustration. His targets are the immediate absurdities of a post-9/11 landscape, specifically the panic-buying of home radiation kits and a color-coded threat index that serves no functional purpose. What keeps the set from devolving into a pure political rally is his willingness to go after easier, sillier game, like the overwrought radio rock of Evanescence or the self-congratulatory exhaustion of new parents.

Recorded over a four-night stand in January 2004 at the Washington, D.C. Improv, the album served as his second release for indie label Sub Pop. At the time, Cross was gaining a new wave of television visibility thanks to the debut of Arrested Development, but the stage remained his outlet for pure, unvarnished anger. That tension is highlighted by the track listing itself, which uses sarcastic, overly literal titles like “Pandering to the Locals!” and “My Immigrant Mom Talks Funny!” to mock the lazy tropes of mainstream stand-up.

While some of the topical references, such as Trent Lott, Strom Thurmond, and the Bush administration, secure the set firmly in the mid-2000s, the underlying skepticism of authority remains sharp. Notable moments include a routine imagining a George W. Bush press conference that devolves into the president eating a baby, and his visceral hatred for the corporate proliferation of Starbucks.