Maxim Online trashes comedians

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on August 21st, 2006

The people who cook up Maxim online put up a slide show (without a byline!) called “The 12 Worst Comedians of All Time” (“If laughter is the best medicine, then these comics are Dr. Kevorkian.” Hey! A 7-year-old reference! Maxim’s gotta write some new material!)

It’s juvenile; it’s unSHECKYlike. (We were hipped to it by a reader who sent us the link. Oddly, there’s not much evidence of the slide show anywhere else on the website- it’s not listed on the Home page, it’s not listed among the titles of the other slide shows. Hmmm…)

Regardless of whether you like or dislike the 12 comedians named, it’s a pointless exercise. And it’s doubly puzzling that Maxim would consider slinging something like this to its (online) readership considering that parent company Dennis Publishing (they also do Stuff and Blender) is currently co-sponsoring a multi-city standup comedy tour with Anheuser-Busch. Can you imagine the boys at A-B getting this in their inbox? Does it make sense for the elves at Maxim online to trash standup when their boss’s boss’s boss is lunching with the promo people at one of the largest breweries in the world for the purposes of setting up a high-profile standup tour starring Joe Rogan, Charlie Murphy and John Heffron?

Sinbad
Margaret Cho
Whoopie Goldberg
Yakov Smirnoff
Louie Anderson
Sandra Bernhard
Paula Poundstone
Gallagher/Gallagher II
Kathy Griffin
Judy Tenuta
Christopher Titus
Carlos Mencia

Were any of the comics on the Bud Light/Maxim Real Men of Comedy Tour named as one of the 12 worst? No. Does it matter? Not really. But, does trashing comedy in any way shape or form really help ticket sales for the tour? Some might argue that it does, but we would disagree. And the case could easily be made that engaging in such negativity might actually impede sales. A reader who isn’t very comedy savvy might only be familiar with, for example, Rogan, through Fear Factor. They then might see this list, spot one of the comedians on the list whom they feel is on a par with Rogan in terms of notoriety and conclude that neither one is worth the price of admission. The result: The paper route money goes to the OZZFest instead of the October 14 Real Men of Comedy show at the Taft Theater in Cincinatti.

Another thing: The list is varied. They have managed to assemble a list of twelve comics who have wildly different styles, who appeal to a wide range of comedy fans. So… if their goal was to offend the largest number of comedy consumers, they may have succeeded. And to what end? If they weren’t the co-sponsors of this fall’s largest comedy tour, it would it would be mildly annoying and yet another example of anonymous MSM weaselry. As it is, though it’s weasely and moronic.

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