By Vic Holtreman
Short version: Although you might expect that people in their forties would find this funny, it will probably be funnier to folks in their twenties to whom forty seems infinitely far away.
Now I’m sure I haven’t lost my sense of humor because I just watched a comedian parody President Bush and although I voted for him I found it laugh-out-loud funny.
This DVD, not so much.
“But why are you rating it 2.5 stars?” you may ask… Basically because upon a second viewing it did elicit a few chuckles and when I step back and look at it, I imagine that if I was in my early to mid 20’s I might actually find his routine a lot funnier.
Greg Behrendt is author of the recent best-selling book He’s Just Not That Into You, which no doubt (and he freely admits) is due to he and his book being highlighted on Oprah. As a matter of fact he uses his appearance on her show to open his routine.
When he first came out on stage the first thing I noticed was a biker wallet chain hanging from his belt, which seemed a bit out of place on him. This turned out to be part of his “uncool” schtick later on. He starts out talking about his appearance on “O” and how he was nervous and didn’t want to mess it up, fighting an inner “bad” voice that was telling him to reach over and lick her face…
If you found that funny, go ahead and buy/rent the DVD. To me it just sounded… wierd.
His entire stand-up routine is based upon the fact that he was cool when he was younger but that inevitably, coolness evaporates as you get older and there’s nothing you can do about it. For me the funniest bits on the DVD were when he talked about rock concerts, and how if you show up when you’re 40 everyone looks at you as “creepy old guy” (see, now that was funny), and how there should be adults-only rock concerts that start early, last only one hour, cost an exhorbitant amount to get in to eliminate teenagers from showing up and instead of t-shirts sell band paraphernalia with logos on Day-Timers. 🙂 (Click on the image below to hear the clip)
There was also a bit about taking his broken CD player in for repair and the attitude he received from the 20 year old behind the counter. Greg is definitely a long-time rocker, and his love of the music really made that element of his show the best, I think.
He went on to talk about some of the things that come with age like waking up stiff from “sleeping wrong”, but he seemed like he was trying to sell it so hard that it lost some of it’s humor for me. I think that if he had dialed it back a bit it might have been funnier. There was also and extended bit revolving around Halloween which started out pretty funny but went on too long.
Of course he had to cover marriage in general and “game night” in particular (where couples get together to play some sort of game like poker, Pictionary, etc.). He thought that was pretty lame, but hey, I actually have FUN when my wife and I get together with other couples. I guess it’s not as cool-sounding as getting puke-drunk, but I guarantee that overall it’s a better experience. 🙂
There was a ton of the use of the F-word, which again, when I was 20 I thought was pretty funny, but now I think it’s a cheap way to get people to giggle nervously.
There was also an almost-funny “mockumentary” on the DVD and a montage of well-known Hollywood types doing one line about what they think is cool, which is really important to me (not).
Greg comes across as a likable and self-deprecating guy, who, being just a couple of years younger than I am had me assuming that I would really be able to relate to his humour. Alas, this didn’t turn out to be the case, as the material seemed to be tailored not to those who are already “uncool” but to those who still think they are.
Trust me, “uncool” is a much better place to be.
