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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

It's Not Funny

David Cross

Sub Pop · Album · 2004 · 73 min

Cynical political stand-up recorded in George W. Bush's Washington.

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.

The set list

5 bits

  1. Texas sodomy laws and Rick Santorum's comments

    Lampoons Senator Rick Santorum's comparison of sodomy to incest and Texas lawmakers attempting to ban sodomy while repealing bestiality bans, taking the scenario to an absurd conclusion at the dog pound.

  2. War on Terrorism and the concept of freedom

    Mocks the rhetoric that terrorists attacked America because they 'hate freedom', noting that if that were true, the Netherlands would be dust.

  3. Bush's proposal to put a man on the moon

    Contrasts excessive government aerospace spending with domestic poverty, proposing to put a man in an apartment instead.

  4. $4,300 World War III prevention pack

    Ridicules homeland security preparedness kits by detailing a survival pack containing a zinc lozenge, a nickel, a wish, and an expensive jet ski funded by donor kickbacks.

  5. Meeting Scott Stapp on Celebrity Poker Showdown

    Features on the hidden track recounting an awkward encounter with the Creed frontman after publicly disparaging the band.

How it plays

Tone
Acerbic, outraged, provocative, sarcastic, cynical, and uncompromising.
On stage
Condescending, smug, defensive, supercilious, brainy, unapologetically aggressive against hypocrisy, and exuding relaxed magnetism.
Pace
Conversational yet high-speed, stream-of-consciousness, verbal steamroller delivering biting rants.
About
post-9/11 political fearmongering, George W. Bush administration policies, GOP and conservative politicians, organized religion and creationism, commercialization and pop culture

What the critics said

Divided and polarized; lauded by publications like PopMatters and The Onion as a vital, fearless truth-teller in the mold of Bill Hicks and Lenny Bruce, while critiqued by outlets like Pitchfork and Washington City Paper for an arrogant, alienating persona and predictable partisan broadsides.

In the room: Responsive if feisty comedy club crowd, with Cross aggressively swatting down hecklers and questioning audience reactions.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: allmusic.com, subpop.com, en.wikipedia.org, discogs.com, pitchfork.com, washingtoncitypaper.com, popmatters.com, vulture.com.

Backstory

Recorded in Washington, D.C. in the shadow of the Bush administration, post-9/11 national anxiety, the War on Terror, and rising political polarization leading into the 2004 election cycle.

Details

Released
Taped
The Improv, Washington
Runtime
73 min
Where
Sub Pop (album)
Topics
Before
Let America Laugh (2003)
After
Making America Great Again! (2016)

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