Raw Hamburger

Gregg Turkington’s alter ego Neil Hamburger is an act built on profound failure, but his 1998 album finds a specific new way for him to fail. Fictional management supposedly pressured the comedian to modernize his material for the audio release, hoping he could compete with the shock-value comics of the era. Hamburger obliges, applying his trademark throat-clearing, agonizing pauses, and miserable anti-comedy to subjects he clearly does not understand.

Instead of pushing boundaries, Hamburger delivers punishing jokes about bestiality, cloning, and Snoop Dogg. The punchlines are deliberately weak, turning the tension onto the live audience. They are forced to endure an entertainer attempting an edgy rebrand that only highlights his own pathetic existence. Released by Drag City, the record builds out the lore of a desperate lounge act trying to salvage a sinking career by isolating whatever fans he had left.