Super Retardo

Mitch Fatel’s signature weapon is the cognitive dissonance between how he sounds and what he is saying. Delivering dirty jokes with the wide-eyed innocence and halting, giggly cadence of a shy schoolboy, he slips highly explicit observations past an audience before they realize they should be offended. His second album, Super Retardo, leans heavily into this contrast, pairing a sweet demeanor with graphic material about sexual mishaps, prostate exams, and late-night visits to Denny’s.\n\nRecorded in 2005, the album captured Fatel at the height of his mid-2000s club momentum. Around this time, he was a fixture on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno as a field correspondent and was named Best Stand-Up at the 2006 HBO Aspen Comedy Festival. The title of the record stems from one of his signature self-deprecating premises—if society banished slow-witted people to an island, he would end up there but rule as king because he can cut his own meat.\n\nWhile the naive, dirty-minded act can feel repetitive over an hour, the set succeeds on the strength of Fatel’s audience interactions. Tracks like ‘Gay Porn’ and ‘A.D.D.’ show his commitment to maintaining a totally guileless facade while whispering some of the filthiest jokes imaginable. This record captures his club act at its peak, preserved on CD shortly before he transitioned to televised network specials.