David Cross – It’s Not Funny – Review

David Cross

It’s Not Funny (Sub Pop)
by Tim Den

Hints of David Cross‘ anti-authoritarian sentiments bubbled beneath the surface on his beloved Mr. Show, but it wasn’t until Sub Pop gave him a record contract that he opened the dam. On his second live stand-up disc (which he initially [jokingly] wanted to name “The New Fiona Apple CD”), Cross spews venom in all directions, be it trademark American laziness (“electric scissors!?”), Dubya’s whispery delivery of “freedom,” friends who talk incessantly about their babies, or redneck patriotism. And he does it in such an effortless, class clown sort of way that you almost laugh simply out of disbelief. “Did he just make me laugh about abortion?” Cross’ delivery – an everyman who’s smarter than the Average Joe but down-to-earth enough to “think and yap like one of the people” (as cliché as that sounds) – somehow gives his jokes and opinions a sort of validity… as if a very common fact, previously unknown to the audience, was just told to them by their “smart ass friend who’s a little crazy.” “What, you didn’t know that the government raises the terror alert level every time the Bush administration suffers bad publicity?” “Oh shit, you’re right”.

The home runs don’t stop comin’, even when the current pig-in-power isn’t in the crosshairs. Best lines: “Do you think, on Sept. 11th, that the people who worked at the New York, New York casino (in Las Vegas)… felt it a little deeper?” “I think the legal age of consent should be lowered to 15. Seriously, they’re fucking at 13: Don’t look at me like I’m some sort of monster. What, some 16 year-old kid with zits all over his face – who pops after 20 seconds – he gets a fuck? I’m a grown man with skills!”

If your stomach can take 73 minutes of such sharp, lethal hemorrhaging of The Establishment, the upper class, and the stupidity of humanity, then It’s Not Funny is going to be your best friend. Don’t be afraid to push pause when you’re laughing so hard you can’t even breathe.
(www.subpop.com)