Well, being an American, I’m now in that realm where I want some ENTERTAINMENT because, well, it’s discussion material for work, it passes time and causes endorphin flow in the brain. Of course, this is a problematic mind state to begin with as the receptiveness to “artistic quality” means that the mind must be empty enough so as to have a slot for such quality, but I guess that’s just my lot for now so we’ll roll with it.
Anyway, I think that deep down Hannibal Burress is probably a funny guy, and this might sound like a pro-drinking endorsement when it’s all said and done (I’m ok with that), but I believe I’ve just witnessed, in “Hannibal Burress’ Weird Kanye Acid Trip,” the absolute most appallingly un-funny stab at comedy ever, and the equally grotesque reaction of laughter out of the host, Jimmy Kimmel.
Now, in fairness to Kimmel I’ve never tried to host and imagine it’s hard and in fairness to Burress it was not an official comedy routine but rather an interview, so the standard should obviously be lowered, if still existent at all. Also, he’s probably used to people sucking up to him by now and just laughing at whatever he says to the point where even the impetus to actually be funny is lacking. I imagine he’s probably quite the heartthrob in his hometown of Chicago [1]. But literally, all Burress said was that he saw Kanye on TV while tripping on acid and realized that he was really tripping. It was supposed to be funny, apparently.
Actually the whole reason why I clicked on it in the first place was that I thought it was going to be about Kanye himself having taken too much acid (I have a theory that he thinks he’s like Jeff Spicoli or something with that blond do he’s got).
But anyway, Jesus, Kimmel is like a total fish, cracking up and everything and having no skill in spurring the conversation into any segues, or offering any of his own life experience that would bolster the discussion. It made me think of the Carson Daly roast that aired on MTV around 2002 or so that I got a chance to see (those roasts could be pretty funny, like when Ben Stiller said to Jason Alexander “I loved your work in Dunston Checks in”). Nelly was giving it to Daly for sounding black when he talked to black artists and then he comes to this clip of Chris Rock saying that what he’d get Mariah Carey for Christmas would be some “anti-crazy pills.” Really, it’s a pretty edge comment on Rock’s part… I mean by ‘90s standards it might not be significantly funny but in the realm of today that type of thing would definitely go viral on Facebook were it to surface on a major television show. Nelly, though, starts busting on Daly for his reaction of laughter, saying “That sh** wasn’t even that funny.”
Wow, careful what we ask for, eh? Now, obviously this is a complicated issue and like I said, the quest for entertainment itself is inherently flawed and I’m not sure that our current nation even has any right to comedy at all (our president himself tends to be funnier than all the “comedians” which try to lampoon him, whether it’s SNL, The New Yorker or whoever). Also, I remember when Daly had his really late night show which I believe was on Comedy Central, he had Ween on, which tiptoed through a stately but sonically full version of “Happy Colored Marbles.” Have you noticed how they haven’t put out an album in way too long? Maybe they’re seeing things more deeply than initially meets the eye.
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[1] Come to think of it, I heard one bit where he was making fun of a university for billing his performance as a “celebration in diversity,” or something like that, saying it must be some white-bread institution to think that having one black comic entails a significant lunge toward the “black” or “diverse.”
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[2] Maybe I’m bad but I find his “sh**hole” comment really hilarious and when he was like “Why can’t we get some immigrants from a nice country like Norway or something?” Actually, I saw the New Yorker comic of “Send Us Your Norwegians” and I was like, this is the New Yorker, isn’t it? Why is it funny? As it turns out, Trump’s comment had aired about 12 to 24 hours prior to its publication, making the Norway aspect of the discussion not their idea at all.