Papa CJ, in a column on British comedy site Chortle entitled “Why Britain Is Best For Comedy,” says this:

In the UK comedy is a bit more like fine dining and in the US it is very much like McDonald’s: Here’s a joke. Here’s a joke. Here’s a joke. Also in the US, you have to give it to them on a plate. You can’t expect the audience to work for it. You have to play by their rules and cater to their viewpoint. And beyond two and half minutes, they really can’t laugh at themselves.

And he’s just getting warmed up in the stupid department.

He seems to view U.S. standup through 1980’s-colored glasses.

The third difference is that in the UK you can actually make a living doing live stand up comedy. A 20-minute set at a club can fetch you in the region of £200 whereas often a headliner doing 45 minutes at a club in the US would get maybe $150. The only money in the US is in the college circuit or the corporate circuit.

He also seems to relate to women as though it were the 1960’s, as evidenced by his treatment of his Last Comic Standing, Season 6, co-contestant (and eventual winner!) Eliza Shlesinger. From our coverage:

How condescending could Papa CJ be? We thought he was kidding when, in the beginning of the show, he said, “Welcome to the big leagues, Sweetheart!” We thought maybe he was employing irony… it was quite apparent in his followup statements that he was not. Papa CJ, perhaps the weakest comedian ever to make it into the finals of this sorry show, just might be the most arrogant. The more he spoke about his chances (and the more he spoke about what he perceived to be the bleak chances of Eliza Shlesinger), the more it became apparent that he’s trapped in a mysterious isolation bubble– he wouldn’t know reality if it came up and licked his face and kicked him in the balls.

“Welcome to the big leagues, Sweetheart?”

The column is full of nonsense observations like this one:

The US on the other hand, while being a lot more flexible on race (often to a level that I find most uncomfortable), is a lot more PC. They like their comedy cleaner. It is still Bill Hicks versus the Christians in many places.

Dude: It wasn’t even “Bill Hicks versus the Christians” when Bill Hicks was alive. And exactly what is your problem with “flexibility?” One comic’s flexibility is another comic’s “open-mindedness.” Or so we’re constantly told.

This notion that comics are somehow freer to speak their minds in countries outside the U.S. is a favorite of many comics who fancy themselve “truth-tellers.” The big problem is that it’s a total falsehood, perpetuated mainly by comedians who never venture outside the protective bubbles of New York, Los Angeles and other major cosmopolitan areas. “The joy of performing in Britain,” says CJ, “is the freedom to do intelligent comedy. Political comedy.” Yeah, yeah. You’re smarter than everyone else and your audiences are smarter than ours.

We suppose he’s suffering from an unseemly desire to engage in such trans-national trashtalk to pump himself up for his upcoming battles on the stages of Edinburgh.

UPDATE: A Dutch reader called to our attention a “live review” that appeared on the same Chortle site. Here’s a sample:

As he ploughs (sic) through his material he excuses the lack of laughs by pointing out that we are not getting the jokes. We are getting them fine, they’re just not funny. The performance is hindered further when a few well intentioned heckles leave Papa CJ at a loss for words, freely admitting that the biggest laugh of the show is provided by a young man in the front row.

Shall we pile on? Oh, heck… why not?

There is a pomposity about this man that jars the nerves, a smug self-satisfaction that dominates his writing and leads to material that is derogatory and in some instances cruel.

From what we can tell, the author of the review, Corry Shaw, is also a producer of shows, having produced at least one show at the Fringe. COI? Maybe.