"Damning with faint praise."

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on June 8th, 2006

The Male Half of the Staff remembers his Old Man explaining to him the meaning of this phrase once. Not sure what the occasion was. It stuck with him. It popped into the front of the brain upon reading the following from the Philadelphia City Paper, a listing in their Ultimate Summer Fun ’06 cover story:

The sketches on Comedy Central’s Mind of Mencia only look good when they run those redneck blue-collar guys right before it, but Carlos Mencia’s a pretty sharp standup. I mean, he’s a race-baiting, close-minded dick, but he’s funny. 8 p.m., $49.50-$59.50, Borgata Event Center, 1 Borgata Way, Atlantic City, N.J., www.gotickets.com.

Hey! Whaddya know! A two-fer! (Or, if you count the “redneck blue-collar guys” as four distinct individuals, it’s a five-fer! Good luck asking these folks to regard any comedians as distinct individuals. We’re all boorish nitwits.)

If nothing else, it is an exquisite example of the intense hatred with which the Antique Media, particularly the prissy “alternative” media, regards standup comics. (And, they are soooo conflicted. What would Jason and Hortense and the guys at the co-op think if they saw me… laughing?! And at something so… so… vulgar?!?! Better to guffaw at something that just seems humorous. Where is my Prairie Home Companion CD, dammit?!)

Who is the “close-minded dick” here? The answer is obvious.

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