# Is David Cross an asshole?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-david-cross-an-asshole/352921
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 16, 2006, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-david-cross-an-asshole/352921 "2006-04-16T23:37:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2006, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-david-cross-an-asshole/352921/21 "2006-04-17T19:13:18Z")
> [@ftg](#):
>
> Criticizing DtK? That’s it. He’s an orifice.
I think Eddie Izzard is very funny, but you can’t really argue with what Cross is saying. Izzard’s stuff is very stream-of-consciousness and it’s definitely not about anything. I was unaware that comedy had to be about anything to be funny, but there you have it. :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2006, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-david-cross-an-asshole/352921/22 "2006-04-17T19:56:59Z")
Maybe.
So?
He may be an asshole, but he’s a funny asshole (and most of the time, IMHO, he’s an asshole to the people who deserve to be assholed at).
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### Author:  [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2006, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-david-cross-an-asshole/352921/23 "2006-04-17T21:15:14Z")
David Cross? Didn’t even know who he was till I googled his picture.
He did that comedic genius piece of work known as “Scary Movie 2” didn’t he?
And he thinks Wondershowzen is the greatest show on tv right now? (It has it’s moments but I got bored after 2 episodes, puppets on drugs get boring fast.)
Now I’m no Larry the Cable Guy fan but at least his 15 minutes of fame material was somewhat amusing.
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2006, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-david-cross-an-asshole/352921/24 "2006-04-17T23:30:02Z")
> [@Darkhold](#):
>
> Um I have some bad news for you.
> Mitch Hedberg (24 February 1968 - 29 March 2005)
>
> Unless of course you knew that and were speaking of him in past tense.
I did and I was. Sadly.
Anyone doubting David Cross’s talent and/or personality need only check out [Shut Up You F\*\*king Baby](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006YXH0/sr=8-1/qid=1145316428/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-3255860-0363814?%5Fencoding=UTF8). The track names alone are funnier than Dane “White guys drive like this, black guys drive like this” Cook’s entire album.
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### Author:  [@TommyTutone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TommyTutone)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2006, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-david-cross-an-asshole/352921/25 "2006-04-18T00:27:38Z")
> [@Hampshire](#):
>
> David Cross? Didn’t even know who he was till I googled his picture.
>
> He did that comedic genius piece of work known as “Scary Movie 2” didn’t he?
> And he thinks Wondershowzen is the greatest show on tv right now? (It has it’s moments but I got bored after 2 episodes, puppets on drugs get boring fast.)
>
> Now I’m no Larry the Cable Guy fan but at least his 15 minutes of fame material was somewhat amusing.
He was also in ‘Waiting for Guffman’, ‘Ghost World’, and ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’, not to mention ‘Arrested Development’ and of course ‘Mr. Show with Bob and David’.
Not everyone can make a hit every time, but he seems to enjoy what he does, and his track record is head and shoulders above Larry’s impressive cinematic debut.
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### Author:  [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2006, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-david-cross-an-asshole/352921/26 "2006-04-18T00:35:11Z")
I have all of his standup on my iPod and I howl with laughter every time he pops up. If you have a shred of conservativism or are sensitive about your religion or republicanism…then yes, you’ll think he’s an asshole.
I disagree with about…um…lets say 30% of his politics but I’m not hypersensitive enough to not laugh at it. His riff on Promise Keepers is gold.
But his stuff isn’t really “jokey” like Seinfeld…it’s more like long, spoken essays or opinions told in an extremely funny manner.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2006, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-david-cross-an-asshole/352921/27 "2006-04-18T00:42:22Z")
> [@Homebrew](#):
>
> It’s probably from Larry The Cable Guy fans. He’s had choice words about Dan, the man behind the character.
That goes back about a year – [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David\_Cross:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Cross:)
> [@](#):
>
> In April 2005, Cross criticized stand-up comedian Larry the Cable Guy in a Rolling Stone interview, saying “It’s a lot of anti-gay, racist humor — which people like in America — all couched in ‘I’m telling it like it is.’ He’s in the right place at the right time for that gee-shucks, proud-to-be-a-redneck, I’m-just-a -straight-shooter-multimillionaire-in-cutoff-flannel-selling-ring-tones act. That’s where we are as a nation now.” This caused Larry to devote a chapter to Cross and the “P.C. left” in his book GIT-R-DONE, saying that Cross had “screwed with my fans, it was time for me to say something.” Cross responded with an Open Letter to Larry the Cable Guy posted on his website.
So this is one of those situations where whether you consider X or Y an asshole probably depends on whether your politics jibe with his, not on his actual personality characteristics.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2006, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-david-cross-an-asshole/352921/28 "2006-04-18T00:48:40Z")
> [@tiny ham](#):
>
> I have all of his standup on my iPod and I howl with laughter every time he pops up. If you have a shred of conservativism or are sensitive about your religion or republicanism…then yes, you’ll think he’s an asshole.
It’s not about his politics. That’s a red herring. I have all four seasons of Mr. Show on DVD and have listened to all the commentary tracks. He’s in this little in-crowd of comics who diss other comedians the way the goth/poets in high school winge about the more popular kids. That’s the general tenor of these commentaries, but Cross is the most vocally snotty of them all. The fact is that I think they’re right. They are smarter and funnier than most other comics out there. But I find their self-congratulation and mutual masturbation a bit grating.
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### Author:  [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2006, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-david-cross-an-asshole/352921/29 "2006-04-18T00:54:39Z")
> [@Johnny Angel](#):
>
> It’s not about his politics. That’s a red herring. I have all four seasons of Mr. Show on DVD and have listened to all the commentary tracks. He’s in this little in-crowd of comics who diss other comedians the way the goth/poets in high school winge about the more popular kids. That’s the general tenor of these commentaries, but Cross is the most vocally snotty of them all. The fact is that I think they’re right. They are smarter and funnier than most other comics out there. But I find their self-congratulation and mutual masturbation a bit grating.
Well, I only have the stand up comedy and I don’t notice too much of that…except some dissing of Dennis Miller.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2006, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-david-cross-an-asshole/352921/30 "2006-04-18T00:56:24Z")
> [@tiny ham](#):
>
> Well, I only have the stand up comedy and I don’t notice too much of that…except some dissing of Dennis Miller.
What’s his beef with Miller?
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2006, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-david-cross-an-asshole/352921/31 "2006-04-18T00:58:34Z")
> [@Johnny Angel](#):
>
> But I find their self-congratulation and mutual masturbation a bit grating.
You are holding comedians to a highly unfair and unrealistic standard. 😉
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### Author:  [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2006, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-david-cross-an-asshole/352921/32 "2006-04-18T00:59:49Z")
> [@Johnny Angel](#):
>
> What’s his beef with Miller?
Since 9/11 Miller has pretty much gone batshit ultraconservative. Cross makes a joke about him being George Bush’s court jester. “Oh ho ho ho Dennis Miller! You truly are the king of references!”
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### Author:  [@lobstermobster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobstermobster)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2006, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-david-cross-an-asshole/352921/33 "2006-04-18T01:02:07Z")
> [@Johnny Angel](#):
>
> It’s not about his politics. That’s a red herring. I have all four seasons of Mr. Show on DVD and have listened to all the commentary tracks. He’s in this little in-crowd of comics who diss other comedians the way the goth/poets in high school winge about the more popular kids. That’s the general tenor of these commentaries, but Cross is the most vocally snotty of them all. The fact is that I think they’re right. They are smarter and funnier than most other comics out there. But I find their self-congratulation and mutual masturbation a bit grating.
THANK YOU for being the first person to answer my post relevantly. That is exactly what i’ve heard about him. I don’t care about his political opinions or material, I was wondering if he was a pretentious prick. I wish people could answer simple questions more like you! Johnny angel…how I love you…
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### Author:  [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2006, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-david-cross-an-asshole/352921/34 "2006-04-18T01:11:03Z")
David Cross can also be a little tough on people wo think they are his fans when they’re really fans of a character he’s played. He had a semi-recurring role on the David Spade “vehicle” _Just Shoot Me_ as Enrico Colantoni’s brother, who pretended to be brain damaged to avoid adult responsibility. The character sung a song about chicken pot pies. Cross has been vocally unhappy with fans who have showed up wanting him to be the “Chicken Pot Pie Guy”.
I’m not totally unsympathetic with this attitude though. I understand Alec Guiness was totally pissed off at people who insisted on talking to him about Obi Wan Kenobi like it was the zenith of his career.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2006, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-david-cross-an-asshole/352921/35 "2006-04-18T01:22:53Z")
> [@Bill Door](#):
>
> I’m not totally unsympathetic with this attitude though. I understand Alec Guiness was totally pissed off at people who insisted on talking to him about Obi Wan Kenobi like it was the zenith of his career.
I saw a piece he wrote about it. It appeared in Harpers, I belive, about the time of his death. The way he put it, he was increasingly disturbed at having been part of a phenomenon that amounted to an unhealthy obsession with banality. He described an encounter with a young fan who claimed to have seen Star Wars twenty times. He saw (I’m relating this from memory) “little motes of madness already forming in his eyes.” He told the kid he’d give him an autograph if he promised never to watch Star Wars again. Predictably, the child broke out crying.
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2006, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-david-cross-an-asshole/352921/36 "2006-04-18T01:32:39Z")
> [@tiny ham](#):
>
> I have all of his standup on my iPod and I howl with laughter every time he pops up. If you have a shred of conservativism or are sensitive about your religion or republicanism…then yes, you’ll think he’s an asshole.
Maybe, but you can also be an atheistic liberal queer and still think he’s a bit of a dick in person. And I like his acting pretty well. I’m a big fan of _Mr. Show_ and _Arrested Development_. Not so much his stand-up, which is more like a lecture than a comedy routine. I mean, fair point that Eddie Izzard doesn’t have a lot of political relevance, but his act is still a lot more impressive than getting up in front of a bunch of San Franciscan college students and saying, “Bush sucks, am I right?” over and over.
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2006, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-david-cross-an-asshole/352921/37 "2006-04-18T01:54:10Z")
This was also pretty funny
[Excerpts From the Galley Copy of James Frey’s Latest Memoir: "Lesson Learned](http://www.bobanddavid.com/david.asp?artId=191)
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### Author:  [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2006, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-david-cross-an-asshole/352921/38 "2006-04-18T01:59:01Z")
> [@Johnny Angel](#):
>
> He’s in this little in-crowd of comics who diss other comedians the way the goth/poets in high school winge about the more popular kids.
I’ve read intervies or essays where he’s said things like that all current music is insipid and lame except for Fiery Furnaces or something like that. I have to say he even sounded pretentious to me. So that’s exactly the image I have of him too.
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### Author:  [@edwino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwino)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2006, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-david-cross-an-asshole/352921/39 "2006-04-18T02:06:17Z")
In my experience, I would be surprised if he isn’t a complete dickhead. I grew up in a suburban Southern Jewish community, both his humor and his personality hits close to home for me.
David Cross seems like one of those people who is a dickhead who can get away with it (DWCGAWI) because he is so funny the 90% of the time he is not going after you. The 10% of the time he is, you can forgive him for it because the 90% is so good. The problem shifts when the proto-David-Cross is not funny enough 90% of the time or is going after you more than 10% of the time. Then he shifts from DWCGAWI to regular old dickhead. I know tons of regular old dickheads and just a few DWCGAWI – hyperintelligent smartasses who could get themselves into and then out of a world of problems.
The problem, of course, is that the last thing you want to do is to feed a DWCGAWI’s ego. It just makes them lazy when they know they don’t have to work as hard to get forgiven for the 10%.
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### Author:  [@Stentor\_2.5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stentor_2.5)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2006, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-david-cross-an-asshole/352921/40 "2006-04-18T02:10:43Z")
The guy sound like an asshole and probably is an asshole. I imagine he’s quite nice to the people he loves but otherwise an asshole. I like my comedians to be assholes. Hell, I don’t have to live with them.
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