Why am I not surprised
Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 4:34 am
New York Times TV Review
An Old Show Returns, With Just a Little News About Race and Sex
By PETER KEEPNEWS
Published: September 9, 2006
Four minutes into the first installment of the new season of Russell Simmons's Def Comedy Jam,? which returns to HBO tomorrow night after a nine-year hiatus, Mike Epps, the hyperactive host, spots a white guy in the audience, makes fun of him, and immediately segues into a routine about the difference between black people and white people. It takes the first comedian of the night, Tony Rock, about four minutes before he addresses the same subject.
And the second comedian, Sommore, has some news for the crowd: when it comes to sex, she explains, men and women are different.
A lot has changed since Def Comedy Jam was last on the air, but you wouldn't know it from the first two shows of its new incarnation. There is the occasional topical reference: three of the six performers have jokes about the high price of gas. But otherwise, the subject matter, the humor and the attitude are essentially the same as they were back in the day: usually irreverent, often vulgar and, as the euphemism has it, urban.
And yet amid the punch lines about sodomy and sagging breasts, amid the ritual repetition of 'bitch" and even ruder words, there are a few self-referential moments that suggest that something new is in the air.
For example, the funny and personable Adele Givens does a routine making liberal use of a colorful obscenity that was a mainstay of the series in its 1990?s heyday, when she was a frequent guest. Judging from the evidence at hand, it?s going to be a mainstay again.
What distinguishes Ms. Givens?s bit is that it doesn?t just use the word; it is actually about the word. Specifically, it is about a clergyman who chastises her for using the word onstage, and whose self-righteousness leads to a hilarious comeuppance. It?s dirty, it?s clever and it has something to say. What a concept.
A young comedian named Vince Morris provides an even bigger departure from the ?Def Comedy Jam? norm. Bespectacled and soft-spoken, he neither looks nor sounds like the stereotypical black comic, and that in a way is the point of his very smart act.
Though his primary target is the advertising industry, his beef is racial stereotyping, and though he himself doesn?t make the connection, it isn?t a stretch to hear some of his barbs as applicable to ?Def Comedy Jam? itself.
On the other hand, Mr. Morris also tells an O. J. Simpson joke. Some things, it seems, never change.
RUSSELL SIMMONS'S DEF COMEDY JAM
HBO, tomorrow night at 11, Eastern and Pacific times; 10, Central time.
Directed by Stan Lathan; created by Russell Simmons and Mr. Lathan; Mr. Lathan, Sandy Wernick and Kimber Rickabaugh, executive producers; Cisco Henson, executive in charge of production; Bob Summer, co-executive producer. Host, Mike Epps.
An Old Show Returns, With Just a Little News About Race and Sex
By PETER KEEPNEWS
Published: September 9, 2006
Four minutes into the first installment of the new season of Russell Simmons's Def Comedy Jam,? which returns to HBO tomorrow night after a nine-year hiatus, Mike Epps, the hyperactive host, spots a white guy in the audience, makes fun of him, and immediately segues into a routine about the difference between black people and white people. It takes the first comedian of the night, Tony Rock, about four minutes before he addresses the same subject.
And the second comedian, Sommore, has some news for the crowd: when it comes to sex, she explains, men and women are different.
A lot has changed since Def Comedy Jam was last on the air, but you wouldn't know it from the first two shows of its new incarnation. There is the occasional topical reference: three of the six performers have jokes about the high price of gas. But otherwise, the subject matter, the humor and the attitude are essentially the same as they were back in the day: usually irreverent, often vulgar and, as the euphemism has it, urban.
And yet amid the punch lines about sodomy and sagging breasts, amid the ritual repetition of 'bitch" and even ruder words, there are a few self-referential moments that suggest that something new is in the air.
For example, the funny and personable Adele Givens does a routine making liberal use of a colorful obscenity that was a mainstay of the series in its 1990?s heyday, when she was a frequent guest. Judging from the evidence at hand, it?s going to be a mainstay again.
What distinguishes Ms. Givens?s bit is that it doesn?t just use the word; it is actually about the word. Specifically, it is about a clergyman who chastises her for using the word onstage, and whose self-righteousness leads to a hilarious comeuppance. It?s dirty, it?s clever and it has something to say. What a concept.
A young comedian named Vince Morris provides an even bigger departure from the ?Def Comedy Jam? norm. Bespectacled and soft-spoken, he neither looks nor sounds like the stereotypical black comic, and that in a way is the point of his very smart act.
Though his primary target is the advertising industry, his beef is racial stereotyping, and though he himself doesn?t make the connection, it isn?t a stretch to hear some of his barbs as applicable to ?Def Comedy Jam? itself.
On the other hand, Mr. Morris also tells an O. J. Simpson joke. Some things, it seems, never change.
RUSSELL SIMMONS'S DEF COMEDY JAM
HBO, tomorrow night at 11, Eastern and Pacific times; 10, Central time.
Directed by Stan Lathan; created by Russell Simmons and Mr. Lathan; Mr. Lathan, Sandy Wernick and Kimber Rickabaugh, executive producers; Cisco Henson, executive in charge of production; Bob Summer, co-executive producer. Host, Mike Epps.