comedy albums

favorite comedy album: Firesign Theater's Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers...although I'm not sure if I like it for the jokes or for the mind-fuck aspect.

Also this, the best Chris Rock album, which was stolen from me:

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drd100/d135/d13532913q0.jpg

Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers is the bestest
Everything You Know Is Wrong, runnerup

though I basically love the entire '68-'75 run, right down to Not Insane. also Phil Austin's Roller Maidens and David Ossman's How Time Flys.

I think the David Cross album has some funny bits on it, like the thing about people misusing "literally" ("dude, that show was so funny I literally shit my pants!" "Oh, gross!" "What?" "You shit your pants!" "No, dude, I literally shit them!") and the bit about him happily volunteering his dead body to be used in a movie as a corpse or given to a necrophiliac is great. It IS curious, though -- the record is so ANGRY and not in any real focused way, like Hicks' material was (and saying Bill Hicks was not funny is preposterous... he had some excellent, excellent material). I feel like I want to give Cross a hug.

I think the Longmont Potion Castle first CD is hilarious (very surreal phone pranks).

Any Phil Hendrie "Best-Of" pre-Republican/pro-Iraq War material is absolutely essential (I have spent road trips in TEARS listening to these discs, if you don't know who he is, do a search -- so worth it).

I like that Comedy Central is releasing comedy discs with some regularity now, since they are a super fun thing if you travel a lot, I have found. I just wish the material was better -- They could put out Zach Galifianakis, or Patton Oswalt, or Paul F. Tomkins, or Sarah Silverman (who I know is very divisive, but I think is hilarious).

Oh, shit -- Search Todd Barry's "Medium Energy" CD -- that has some great bits and is very ilX friendly (he riffs on Fugazi, has toured with Yo La Tengo, etc.)

I wish Fred Armisen would do an album... his SXSW tape is still hilarious, and his past as Trenchmouth's drummer gives him cool connections... and he kills on "SNL."

I had no idea I had so much to say about comedy albums. Weird.

From what I've seen of Insomniac, that's probably the best thing you can say about him. SNAP!

Also in the running:
Steven Wright - I Have a Pony
Emo Philips - E=MO^2
Bill Cosby - god, any of the early ones are great
George Carlin - again, any of the early ones
Bob Newhart - the first four

Lots more in my collection but that'll do for now. If I go any further I'll start getting into why Mort Sahl and Dick Gregory and Lenny Bruce were more funny than anyone else because they weren't actually telling jokes, but I'll leave that for later.

"Why do they call corn on the cob corn on the cob? That's how it comes out of the ground man. They should call that corn, and all the other incarnations corn OFF the cob. If you chopped off my arm you wouldn't call it Mitch, and then stick it back on and call me Mitch all together would you?"

"My special message - penis."

Best comedy album ever: Monty Pyhon: The Final Ripoff "What a senseless waste of human life."

I can't get past Bill Cosby as being Dr. Huxtable to even try his albums.

Only some of this is funny tho. 'Tis a great album tho, a kind of English Serge Gainsbourg - with all that may imply.

Sez you! I can understand why you'd think that in both cases though, but with Firesign Theatre the humour takes a lot of work sometimes to get anything out of, and you have to be a fan of wordplay, I suspect, to really find it amusing after that. Don't Crush That Dwarf... is just so well put together on so many layers, and while the laughs aren't belly laughs one right after the other, for some reason it has an enduring appeal for me that standup-style comedy just doesn't a lot of times.

Shelly Berman In Concert is a great showcase of the infallable diction of this Lenny Bruce-esque comedian. "I took two cigarettes, i placed them both in my lips, i lit them both at once -- and i forgot to hand her one".

Concur on Bonzo Dog Band, and especially as there's a bleakness in their work too, right from "I Am Bored" through to the very underrated last contractual album.

Stanshall's "Teddy Boys Don't Knit" is also pretty good, though not as all-out comedic as "Sir Henry...". "The Cracks Are Showing" is magnificent; so concise and final. "Possibly an Armchair" is his sequel to "Sport (The Odd Boy)", with the tragedy behind the jokes made clear.

I know there are some comedy fans on ILX. Hopefully one of you will be able to help me with this question. I'm working on a paper on comedy sound recordings and I'm trying to figure out who has written about them before, and where I can find a good archive (or maybe just a good list?) or historical comedy sound recordings.

Are you anywhere near Boston? There's an archive at Emerson: http://www.emerson.edu/comedy/collection/upload/Debenham-finding-aid_final.pdf

This is awesome. Thanks.

Re Marcello's story:

I [...] asked whether there was any chance of a follow-up album. His reply: "Dear boy, I'd love to make another record, but who'd have enough guts to work with me?"

Morrissey?

He wants to do a concept album about shooting.

Ah.

No, it wasn't that, I was idly pondering if there was enough juice to add "Comedy Albums" to the list of ballot / poll items forthcoming.

I know it's not exactly "music" in most cases, but.

As long as I live, I will NEVER understand the appeal of Firesign Theatre OR Bill Hicks. They're NOT FUNNY!!

Arguing with Mr. Snrub a decade after the fact, you either understand the appeal or you don't; it's all subjective. I think the "funniness" of Firesign is less joeks and more puns, wordplay, surreal situations and references to literature, music and film. They are really radio plays on LP, not comedy records.

I'd vote in a comedy album poll

11 years later, I still think Bill Hicks was lame. Definitely have a harder time reconciling a lifetime of loving Bill Cosby's records.

Anyway, Bob Newhart should rightfully win any comedy album poll we engage in.

I'd vote

Me too.

I should have done that "Comedy" alBumpollballot, but thesedays I don't got time.

Hall & Kramer - Real Men

Not only does it have some really funny parts it's also filled with impressive sample works and even some psychedelic and "avant" tones through the whole thing. Probably the only comedy album I own which has replay value for me.

If you speak spanish Tres Patines (Cuba) and Polo Polo (Mexico) are classics.

I'd vote

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, February 25, 2015 3:44 PM (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Can anyone explain the appeal of owning stand-up comedy albums on vinyl?

well, touche

Can anyone explain the appeal of owning stand-up comedy albums on vinyl?

― everything

You can buy frames and use the ones with cool covers as artwork to decorate your walls while subtly boasting to your guests about your exquisite music taste.

Also:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CFdnhx8W8AExTjm.png

A few that haven't been mentioned:

Albert Brooks - Comedy Minus One / A Star Is Bought
George Carlin - Jammin' in New York (The best of his '90s era)
Derek & Clive - Ad Nauseum
Firesign Theatre - Dear Friends
Eddie Izzard - Glorious / Dress to Kill (But watching the videos is better. Interestingly, the CDs are taken from different performances than the videos)
Carl Reiner & Mel Brooks - 2000 and Thirteen

LMAO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfKT7cJGpY4