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July 13, 2006

Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic - 4

This is basically a film version of Silverman's standup comedy routine, with a few vignettes that play out the joke just told, with various musical numbers. I found the whole thing pretty fragmented, and to tell you the truth - not very funny (And I'm only saying that because she's Jewish). She specializes in taking up topics (9/11, the Holocaust, AIDS, and rape) that are bound to be offensive, and then makes jokes that are half as offensive as you think they could be (like the one I made above). Her style is to say things very straight faced, and to leave silence in the middle of the joke, hoping that it will get a better pay off. The only good thing about her comedy is that you have to be paying attention because the punch-lines are often not next to the main part of the narrative. She has a common misconception- that being offensive is inherently funny (Wedding Crashers made this mistake, one not repeated by the much better The 40 Year-Old Virgin). The really unfortunate part is that it gives you very little material to quote in regular conversation (that is the beauty of Seinfeld and The Simpsons). I'm going to let the "Sarah Silverman is the best" train drive right on by.

1 comment:

Jason said...

"She has a common misconception- that being offensive is inherently funny..."

Along these lines, I would guess that the title "Jesus is Magic" was chosen as a purposefully-offensive hook...

Are there any good American stand-up comedians left?