Modified On May 29, 2007
On the Philadelphia City Paper website, under the heading of “Things That Matter To People Who Matter,” is the following:
Do you know why I love standup comedians? Because they’re not funny at all! What attracted me to go see standup comedy was the concept of a punch line. I thought a punch line was just that, a line you wait in to punch those rambling fools in the face. I was so pleased to find out that a night of standup comedy is far more evil than that. It brings me, Skeletor, the overlord of evil, such joy to see standups bore their audiences with their tales of pain and suffering. Their woeful accounts, of how they quit smoking or how they are forced to use their girlfriends’ scented soaps, are such a delight! The way they tell their tales with the bravado of a first-day substitute teacher couldn’t be more compelling. I, Skeletor, salute those who have truly perfected the art of torturing an audience! Hail evil!
The byline on this “essay” is “Skeletor, Evil Overlord, Lounge Singer.”
There are three other short essays– on a digeridoo performer, on a book and on Hefeweizen– all by creative types who populate the Philly arts scene. Then there’s this Skeletor douchebag.
Our question is why? Why did the editors deem this drivel worthy of their publication?
On the local PhillyComics newsgroup, a comedian identifying himself as Benny or ComedyLeper said that he was familiar with Skeletor as he had shared a bill with him on one occasion. He described the incident further:
He ate shit for 8 minutes and then shuffled offstage to heckle the rest of the comedians, tell disinterested patrons about his imaginary booking on the Conan O’Brian show, and subject both himself and his girlfriend to ridicule.
How does it enhance the reputation of the City Paper to run this crap? An obviously frustrated comic (who probably has a friend or two on the City Paper staff), sends in a couple hundred words of spiteful garbage and they run it under “Things That Matter To People Who Matter.”