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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

Shut Up You Fucking Baby!

David Cross

Sub Pop · Album · 2002 · 1 h 59 min

A hostile double album recorded during a tour of rock clubs.

David Cross approached Shut Up You Fucking Baby! less like a standard comedy hour and more like a hostile indie-rock gig. He toured music venues instead of comedy clubs. He released the resulting double album on Sub Pop. He even trolled his own listeners by giving the tracks clichéd titles like “Monica Lewinsky and the Three Bears” and “Austin Powers Saying ‘Yeah Baby’” that have absolutely nothing to do with the material. The actual stand-up is an extended, disdainful rant against organized religion, the Bush administration, and obnoxious radio jockeys. Cross operates with a palpable sense of anger, treating minor annoyances and global politics with the same withering contempt.

Compiled from sold-out 2002 shows in Portland and his hometown of Atlanta, the audio release captures the comedian riding the underground cachet of his defunct HBO sketch series Mr. Show. The set moves fast, packed with short bits about the war on drugs, the conceptual absurdity of square bagels (“Squagels”), and boy bands. “Who’s my favorite New Kid?” he asks at one point. “The first one that dies”. The album earned a Grammy nomination for Best Comedy Album the following year, though it ultimately lost to “Weird Al” Yankovic.

The set list

5 bits

  1. George W. Bush post-9/11 and the War on Terror

    Argues that even Ralph Nader would have bombed Afghanistan and criticizes the country for praising Bush's basic competence like a child finishing third in the Special Olympics.

  2. The Missile Defense Shield

    Satirizes the Strategic Defense Initiative by describing missile defense as a net made of magic held in place by pixies.

  3. September 11 and Gabriel the Rollerblader

    Refers to 9/11 as 'the week football stopped' and depicts seeing a lisping rollerblader wearing a high-end gas mask storming down Houston Street.

  4. Reading real promotional copy and instructional manuals

    Directly reads on stage from the Promise Keepers handbook and ridicules Cosi's ad campaign for 'Squagels,' their square bagels.

  5. Kansas City tour stop meltdown

    Chronicles the misery of morning-zoo radio interviews, getting drunk with the band Harlow, and hotel wake-up call confusion that made him question his sanity.

How it plays

Tone
Acerbic, vitriolic, biting, and satirical.
On stage
Fierce, incisive, unabashedly atheist, angry, and intellectually combative against political and religious orthodoxy.
Pace
Freewheeling and casual narratives that seemingly ramble but wind back to their main thesis, fluctuating between calm mockery and passionate, screaming rants.
About
George W. Bush and the war on terrorism, Organized religion and Catholic Church scandals, Post-9/11 patriotism and flag commercialization, Southern culture versus New York and Los Angeles, Parody of hack comedy tropes and morning zoo radio

What the critics said

Universally praised by alternative critics as a landmark comedy album that revived the political standup album format, commended for its uncompromising rage, meticulous detail, and refusal to conform to safe mainstream comedy tropes.

In the room: Raucous rock-club atmosphere where Cross tackled hecklers, drunken interruptions, and ringing cell phones directly.

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

Backstory

Taped in the spring of 2002 across rock club venues during the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, amidst rampant post-9/11 jingoism and early George W. Bush administration policies.

Details

Released
Runtime
1 h 59 min
Where
Sub Pop (album)
Honors
Nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album (46th Annual Grammy Awards, 2003)
Topics
Before
The Pride Is Back (1999)
After
Let America Laugh (2003)

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