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Promotional art for Dysfunction Junction
Cover image credit: Promotional image via Comedy Dynamics

Dysfunction Junction

Tom Mabe

Comedy Dynamics · 2019 · 40 min

Suburban family frustrations and petty revenge from a veteran prankster.

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Released , on Comedy Dynamics.

Tom Mabe made his reputation torturing telemarketers and staging elaborate street pranks, but on stage he settles into the role of an exasperated suburban dad who solves problems through petty retaliation. The peak of the set is his childhood revenge story: after neighborhood kids repeatedly run over his front-yard snowman in a pickup truck, he simply rebuilds it packed tight around a municipal fire hydrant.

Taped at the Dry Bar Comedy club in Provo, Utah, and released in 2019, the 40-minute set finds the Kentucky comic working within the strict clean-comedy boundaries of the room. By this point in his career, Mabe had transitioned from his bestselling 1990s telephone prank records and CMT series into family-focused touring and viral video production. Here, the material leans on road trips to Orlando in a minivan, the hazards of cheering at airport security checkpoints, and finding out his own son has picked up the family prank habit. He closes with an acoustic guitar in hand for the title tune.

Notable bits & set list

3 bits

  1. TSA pat-downs and airport metal detectors

    Joking about running late to an airport and telling a TSA agent 'I like that, that's nice' during a physical pat-down.

  2. Confusing muscles at the gym

    Following his wife's advice to confuse his muscles by pulling into the gym parking lot and driving straight to Cracker Barrel instead.

  3. His first childhood prank at age eight

    Building a snowman over a fire hydrant after neighborhood drivers kept flattening his snowmen with their pickup trucks.

How it plays

Tone
Clean, lighthearted, and observational.
On stage
Prankster, storyteller, and observational comic delivering clean humor.
About
Airport security and TSA, Diet and fitness, Politics on Facebook, Call centers and immigrants, Childhood pranks, Family life

What the critics said

Profiled in People magazine, labeled 'gut-busting hilarious' by The New York Times, and awarded a 4-star rating by the New York Post.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: watch.web.roku.com, comedydynamics.com, drybarcomedy.com, archytele.com, disciplesofcomedy.com.

Backstory

Part of the Dry Bar Comedy series (Season 2, Episode 34), focused on clean stand-up comedy.

Details

Released
Runtime
40 min
Where
Comedy Dynamics
Director
Isaac Halasima
Topics

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