Tynan's Anger

Comedy Albums have always has had an awkward place in the annals of recorded music: George Carlin's records were a lot more influential to pop culture at large than most bands of the 1970s, but they won't be included in any list with "serious" artists. Lest that confusion dominate, here are my five favorite comedy albums of 2009:

5. Patton Oswalt My Weakness Is Strong

This album pretty much sealed the deal on Patton Oswalt being the best stand-up to come out of the alternative comedy movement. My Weakness is Strong applied Oswalt's vintage cynical dark wit to areas previously verboten to alt-comics: having kids (robot claw with murder spasms), his own mainstream success (Remy The Rat trick or treaters: you're inside me right now), and the plus sides of religion (for now on officially known as Sky Cake).

4. Jim Gaffigan - King Baby

It may be something of a victory lap after Beyond The Pale, but few standups ever get this kind of victory lap, much less ones doing jokes about beanbag chairs and catsup. Thanks to ridiculously inspired routines on bacon, camping, and Waffle House, Gaffigan pretty much avoided being known for one routine. Through good writing, he now is best known for roughly five routines.

3. Paul F. Tompkins - Freak Wharf

One of the most pure, hilarious standups ever to take the stage shows off his greatest strengths with a 3-part impromptu Riff Suite destined to go down as one of the all-time highlights of recorded comedy. Comedy nerds have heard most of the other jokes on the album before, but Tompkins' takes on smashed pennys, loud dogs, and horror movie cliches really don't get old.

2. John Mulaney - The Top Part

The best debut comedy album of 2009 is also a sign of things to come once stand-ups raised in the 90s start to enter the limelight. Mulaney's Simpsons and Seinfeld influences are clear in his takes on Donald Trump, Blackout Drinking, and Unwritten Driving Rules, but the post-P.C. era ethical streak of his take on math (Group 2!), playing youth basketball, queer culture ("why do drag queens get to be mean?") and the good/bad movie wars ("My favorite foods are Lobster, and Skittles.") are all essential documents of Generation Y humor. Even more essential is the best comedy track of the year: a jukebox prank to end all jukebox pranks in "The Salt and Pepper Diner."

1. Maria Bamford - Unwanted Thoughts Syndrome

What seemed to be an album where Bamford was consigning herself to obscurity may have in fact been her breakout success, as this may have been the best year of Maria Bamford's career. Unwanted Thoughts Syndrome found Bamford coming to terms with her instability, (I'm dirty on the inside!), her relationship with her family, and her ambitions (microwave: manifested!), all while still consistently staying funny, endearing, and no less edgy, disturbing, or socially conscious ("long sleeves, am I right, ladies?"). This album moved Bamford past being the weird female stand-up with the funny voices and moved her into considerations of the best stand-up in the world today.

Labels: Comedy albums, Jim Gaffigan, John Mulaney, lists, maria bamford, Patton Oswalt, Paul F Tompkins, stand-up comedy

I Wanna Be Your Dog from LEGS on Vimeo.

This video is getting a lot of attention in the film universe, and it's being called the most subversive cover song of the year. Very Short List describes it as such:

Have the words "I wanna be your dog" ever taken on such dark overtones as when each pretty face blends into the next, all in the hopes of pleasing a visibly bored casting director?

I don't know about that. I do know that this video caused an intense physical pain in my brain. Funny Games didn't even cause that kind of pain: it caused a lot of mental stress that paid off in the long term (much like exercise).

There's kind one glaring problem here: it is made from within the fashion industry, much like a TV show that tells you to turn off the TV as often at it tells you "don't touch that dial!". I am not sure whether Georgie Greville, the director, is (or identifies as) a man or women, and it doesn't matter. All I can say is that no matter how intense the image is, it never goes beyond "woah! hot models are like sex slaves!" This is the kind of video that even the most intelligent liberals can laugh at, acknowledge as "true," shake their heads at and move on. Or in other words, this is Dov Charney's business model.

You can dispute that. You can't dispute the pain it caused in my brain.

Here's a video that succeeds in doing what the above video tries to do:

Jokes.com

Maria Bamford - Makeup Commercial

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Labels: american apparel, fashion industry, feminism, i wanna be your dog, maria bamford, punk rock, Stooges