I’m not even going to abbreviate this: What the Fuck?!!
Early in the week I saw that Christopher Titus was had a stand-up special scheduled for this Sunday night on the Comedy Channel. I used to love his show Titus on FOX. He was great at that character. I thought Zach Ward was great as his brother. I had a crush on Cynthia Watros as his girlfriend. And Stacy Keach as his father was comic brilliance. And as government-certified trailer trash, I identified with the theme of the show. So I’ve been looking forward to his special tonight.
So the first thing I notice tonight in the first couple of minutes (okay, the second—the first thing I noticed was a guy in the opening credits wearing a flame shirt like his character used to wear on his titular show) was that the shirt he’s wearing on stage still has the original manufacturer’s fold creases; like he just bought the shirt at JC Penney and barely had time to rip the plastic off of it before going on stage. Okay, superficial I know, but I notice these things. I’ll forgive him.
The second thing I notice is that his routine seems VERY rehearsed. Like he’s just going through the motions on stage and doesn’t care about making contact with the audience. The audience is laughing, but he doesn’t have a rapport with them.
Then I realized that there is no audience. They don’t show any audience at all. He’s just being filmed doing a routine “on stage” (possibly in his grandmother’s basement as far as I can tell) with a laugh track added after the fact.
Again I say: What the Fuck!??
Is this common with Comedy Central? I’ve never noticed this before with any comedian’s stand-up routine I’ve seen on CC. What’s the deal with this? As judgmental as it seems on my part, I can’t even find his material funny because I feel like I’ve been betrayed. What’s up with this?
I saw a lot of it on Showtime too, and I wondered how Comedy Central would handle it. It felt more like a one-man show than a standup routine, but I liked it. It was pretty intense to say the least.
Are you talking about Norman Rockwell is bleeding? At the end they show him bowing and you see the audience giving him a standing ovation in the same frame. It does appear to be a small audience though but I’m looking at a freeze frame right now.
Which also explains why Brain Glutton thought there were only two seasons. Season three was bounced around the schedule and prempted enough times in that oh so special way fox reserves for its favorite kicking boys.
Truth is I think Fox saw it as another lowbrow show like Married with Children. They were never proud of these shows. Yes I realize that sounds odd considering they are also the network of the worlds most (blankiest) (Blanks).
Titus was brilliant. I own Season 1 and 2 on DVD and forgot just how truly funny the show was. The fact it is based on truth makes it that much better. I’d like to see Norman Rockwell is bleeding.
Thanks, Fern. I guess I just didn’t give it enough of a chance. The first half hour or so just seemed so fake to me. I’ll try to catch it again since it will be in CC another 1000 times or so. As I said in the OP, I loved the show, so I’m familiar with the material. I guess I was just in a judgmental mood last night. Sorry about that.