Comedy records, S&D

I was also thinking Richard Pryor and possibly Neil Hamburger.

Rhino put out a Richard Pryor Box set a while ago. Very recommended

and Derek & Clive

Tell me more.

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I bought a relatively recent (pre-millennial) Firesign Theater album and it was good too.

And Derek & Clive reminds me that you might want to get some Monty Python. I had the Matching Tie and Handkerchief LP- it had three sides!

Start with Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers. If you like that, How Can You Be In Two Places At Once & Everything You Know Is Wrong, and if you like those, everything else (though things get really patchy after about 1976, the first wave of solo albums are all great).

dunno, you can pick it up in second hand shops in the UK; Music & Video Exchange in London always has some Bill Cosby in.

"Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers", "I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus", "Waiting For The Electrician (Or Someone Like Him)", and the selected "Dear Friends" album are also great. If you check AMG I believe our own Sean Crudders wrote the blurbs for those albums.

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how about crank calls? Just Farr A Laugh - highly recommended.

Also agreed on Bill Cosby. As annoying as he could be in his mid-80s phase, the early early stuff was fantastic. And I've got a thing for Carlin too, and of course his spiritual godfather Lenny Bruce.

If you're really looking for something to chew on, check out some Dick Gregory stuff. It's not funny haha in some cases, but it really does give some great food for thought on the state of race relations in this society, and how little some things have changed in 30 or 40 years. He's definitely one of the foundations for Pryor or Chris Rock.

by and large Destroy: that Cheech & Chong college radio record (save the bit where Mr T visits the studio)

If you're in the mood for something a bit more dry and intellectual, by all means also check out the early albums by Bob Newhart, and if you're really feeling generous to yr record store there's also the box set of Tom Lehrer stuff, but that can often be a bit too 60's-centric with the political stuff.

Another thought if you like musical comedy: Stan Freberg. He was kinda like the Weird Al of his day, doing parodies of hit songs, but he also did extended sketches and radio shows with some of the cast members that ended up on Hanna Barbera shows (June Foray and Daws Butler notably). A lot of his ire was aimed at the advertising industry, which is kind of funny considering he ended up being an award-winning ad writer...though his ads were somewhat subversive. There's a video included in the Freberg box set that has some of those ads, as well as a good chunk of great material, including a lot of songs and a good chunk of the Madison Ave Werewolf piece.

Very OTM. Pretty much up through Himself, the film/album that actually provided the blueprint for The Cosby Show, he was downright genius.

The original half-hour Nick Danger sketch by Firesign is a pinnacle of hilarity. ("I wonder where Ruth is?")

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I'm also rather fond of "I'm Sorry, I'll Read that Again" which was a late 60s BBC radio comedy with members of the Goodies and Python in it. Very silly stuff but great if you like that kind of humour.

While you are all here, let me ask a potential threadkiller- is it actually worth owning anything by Weird Al? Also any old National Lampoon stuff?

Ned OTM. Where IS Ruth? Maybe the dog can find her.

PATTON OSWALT CD = TOTALLY BRUTAL!!

(George),
Have you read a book called Brown Harvest, in which Encyclopedia Brown grows up to became a hard-boiled Dashiell Hammett type investigator, come back to his home town to uncover various levels of corruption and rot, including a gang war between computer companies in which one of the combatants is a certain YELLOW HAT software? If you haven't you should.

Ken L, your description makes it sound better than the blurbs at the Amazon listing. Is it really good?

http://www.sff.net/people/jrussell/

The book on tape version of America: The Book is pretty sweet as well (although I listened to it before the election) and David Sedaris is pretty dang funny on CD as well.

For Cosby recordings, I think I would recommend Wonderfulness first off. I'm pretty sure it's the one with the story about the game called "buck buck" and is one of the first appearances of the Fat Albert character in his work. GNARL.

http://www.coyleandsharpe.com/

See also: Bill Cosby, "For Russell, My Brother, Who I Slept With". If you EVER had to share a bed with either a sibling or cousin as a kid, then this is priceless.

Jordan I have this,
and four Firesign discs with me...
meet somewhere this week?

Of the above, I'd go for "Wonderfulness" Why is there Air" and "To Russell, ny brother..." as essential.

Any yeah, "Wonderfulness" has the buck buck game.

As for Hicks - Dangerous is my least favourite. Relentless is probably the best way in. There was an interview with Rudy Ray Moore (Dolemite!) in Grand Royal #6 and he talks about Red Foxx in great detail. And that mag also covered Neil Hamburger if I recall correctly. Some of you guys have bound to have copies of that mag.

Was it ever released in its entirety? Just a double-cassette/CD of highlights, wasn't it? All the Lee/Herring material airbrushed out of history thanks to a certain celebrated playwright. I think I've probably downloaded the lot now (from people recording the 2003 reruns from Radio 7 and bunging them up on the web as MP3s - entirely justified in this case, I think).

check the cookd and bombd site and the soulseek room of theirs for a *mountain* of comedy genius (and some rubbish).

i still love that national lampoon lennon bit (harry shearer?). the magical misery tour one.

oh, and albert brooks records are really funny.

and i still listen to jonathan winters and nichols & may records. which is kinda quaint or something.

Paul said he hated Yoko
Tell me, why should Yoko have to take that kind of shit?
Shit from those fucking sons of bitches?
George said she gave off evil vibes
I should have beat the fucking shit right out of him,
Him with his fucking Hare Krishnas

Me auntie, she tore up me fucking poems
She just threw the bastards out
I can't forgive her, 'cause she didn't treat me like a fucking genius--

Look, you bastards, I'm a genius, like Shakespeare and Beethoven and Van Gogh! Don't you DARE criticize my work! Don't Worry Kyoko was one of the fucking BEST rock and roll records ever made! I'm a fucking ARTIST! I'm sensitive as shit! I throw up before I go onstage! I can make a guitar SPEAK! If I could be a fisherman I would, but I can't, because I'm a FUCKING GENIUS! I was the Walrus! PAUL wasn't the Walrus! I was just saying that to be nice, but I was actually the Walrus! Him and that RUBBISH he's been singing! Eastman was an ANIMAL!! A FUCKING STUPID MIDDLE-CLASS PIG!! I won't let fucking animals like that near me!! Yoko is a SUPREME INTELLECTUAL! I'll tell you why nobody likes her music--because she's a woman and she's Oriental, that's why! WHERE ARE YOU, MOTHER?! THEY'RE TRYING TO CRUCIFY ME!!

Genius is pain
GENIUS IS PAIN!!!
AAAAGGGGH!! AAAAAGGGHHHH!!!! YOKO!!! MOTHER!!!
FUCK! FUCK! AAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

(The dream is over)

i hope it sounds funnier than it reads.

Rant in E-Minor is the core Bill Hicks album, it's funny and angry and hippy.

it sounds like a john lennon song. it's just silly is all. maybe it was rad in 1972 to make fun of lennon, i dunno.

yeah, everyone needs to own that double woody standup album. it's godlike.

i like all the hicks records, but i never listen to them. maybe i have to forget them a little and they will sound fresh again. i wanna see the movie that is coming out of him live. i don't know how i feel about people making him the next lenny who died for our sins though. he was funny anyway. (and i only really like those old lenny records on fantasy. once the court stuff started showing up in his act is when i get bored.)

there are albert brooks records???

http://members.aol.com/shmuggs/cmo.html

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bill_hicks_live_satirist_social_critic_stand_up_comedian/

Very funny stuff. Speaking of which, has anyone seen The Comedians of Comedy? It's a documentary featuring Patton Oswalt, Maria Bamford, and Brian Posehm. Totally hilarious. I don't think it had much distribution, but it comes out on Netflix in November.

http://www.uprightcitizens.org/18/

i've never liked comedy records (tho i love stand up), but i love this disc, which i just got:

http://www.rdrop.com/~half/Personal/Hobbies/MusicReviews/Only.the.Truth.is.Funny.cover.jpg

it's rick reynolds, only the truth is funny. it's actually very sad and wrenching, for being a comedy disc.

Eugene Mirman is one of my favorites and he's got three albums out now, all of which are great imo

Gang Of Seven put out a great Andrei Codrescu tape, very funny in parts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFqZhadwvG0