BiggerBoat posted:

I liked it. Thanks for letting me know it was out.

I somehow wound up in a YT rabbit hole that led me to an interview with Dice Clay and Marc Maron.

That led me to a VICE series called "The Dark Side of Comedy", which I'm going through now.

I know that Dice, Murphy, Kinison and others catch a lot of poo poo for some very dated and extremely bigoted material but, in Andrew's case, it always ALWAYS struck me that I was watching a parody of an idiot; a character that he was lampooning that I saw all over the place living in Philadelphia and was an act that I never took seriously. The problem starts, though, with the quick realization that his audience doesn't seem to be entirely in on the joke. I watched Dice Rules and the crowd reactions were unsettling, mean and angry.

Dice talks about this on his WTF Marc Maron podcast where he explains that the entire bit is a satirical takedown on lunk headed, stereotypical Brooklyn guido types, and that's how I always took his act. He speaks on how he never quite understood that a large segment of his fans didn't get this. But the lightning in a bottle he captured in the late 80's that rocketed him to rock star status was inseparable from the type of audience that thinks that AIDS jokes, misogyny, racism and gay people are topics in and of themselves. I'm a bisexual male and never took exception to Dice's jokes but of course I get why many people would.

It's a weird dichotomy because I honestly don't think that Andrew himself is really like this, based on the interviews I've listened to at least. Most comedians seemed to be aware that none of his poo poo was coming from a serious place. It just packed houses - filled with people seeking an outlet for their prejudice - and made him a fortune. He started out doing several characters and Diceman was the one that caught on.

Does this say more about the artist or the audience?

Reminded me of the time I went to a GWAR show in the early 90's. I was wearing a Fishbone t-shirt that said "gently caress racism" and the concert hall had a not insignificant number of actual skin head nazis who took the band's schtick seemingly at face value. GWAR was openly mocking from the stage in between songs but, like Clay's audience, they were too stupid to pick up on it. I was honestly concerned for my safety given my attire and stayed near the back but it was so weird seeing an act that's clearly a satirical art project, and who were basically filling a venue with idiots they despise.

Here's the VICE segment I watched

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igzQNEkznG4