"Neurotic, cranky, potty-mouthed attention-seekers?"

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on September 26th, 2005

Jeffrey Zaslow of the Wall Street Journal filed a story in Saturday’s edition on the phenomenon of standup comedy channels on satellite radio services.

Satellite-radio services aren’t dependent on advertising, and comedians say this is liberating. When comics appear on terrestrial-radio morning shows, “stations are scared to death that listeners will hear something they don’t like and then call up Kraft and say, ‘I’m not buying Velveeta!’ ” Mr. (Bobby) Slayton says.

Say what? Having your bits turn up on satellite radio is liberating? How about doing the bits in the clubs where the material was originally peformed and recorded in the first place? Would that not be the really liberating experience? We’re already liberated. It would seem that everyone is late to our party. And what is Slayton talking about? Who cares if the local morning zoo asks you to knock out a fuck or two here or there?

Don’t get us wrong, we’re anxious to get our stuff on XM. We’ve been urging comics to send in their stuff for some time now. But it’s merely another medium– and this one just happens to accept “raw” material and doesn’t care about language or subject material restrictions because they’re on the bird. Liberating? Not really.

Mr. Zaslow seems painfully embarassed that he’s listening to comedy in the first place. In the lede, he refers to us comedians as “neurotic, cranky, potty-mouthed attention-seekers.” (Hey, we figure it’s for comic effect… Somehow, though, we aren’t laughing.) He seems preoccupied with making excuses for his habit. Get a spine, man! You work for the WSJ, not the national headquarters for the Baptist Church USA! It’s a joke! And it’s okay to laugh at jokes, no matter how “politically incorrect.” At least it was until about 1990 or so.

Zaslow can’t get over the fact that some of the material he hears on XMRadio’s Channel 150 is scatological or describes bodily functions or is graphic. We’d bet a thousand dollars, however, that Mr. Zaslow has seen “The Cook, The Theif, His Wife and Her Lover” at least six times, owns a DVD copy, and will tell anyone who’ll listen that it’s pure genius. I smell a double standard. Once again, comedians are held to some sort of ridiculous set of rules. The critics will go on and on about any other artist’s freedom to express himself. But when we do it, we’re neurotic, cranky, potty-mouthed attention seekers. Have we not been told, thousands of times daily, that the purpose of art is to shock? Except, of course, when the primary purpose is to amuse.

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