Published on Jul 30, 1998
If you made a list of all the comedians that have succeeded, you
can probably split them into those that find comedy in real-life
and those that find comedy in the absurd. Sam Kinison was the type
of comedian that succesfully mingled both and found comedy in all
parts of life. (Can’t you tell I liked him?)
I don’t know of any comedians (OK, probably George Carlin) that
would find comedy in the birth of Jesus, but Kinison does. When he
jokes around with how Joseph must have felt with Mary’s pregnancy
(“He just said he was an angel and you guys went into the
garden??!!), he transceds any blasphemy and makes us connect with
Joseph’s feelings – which, if you’ve read the Bible, were not
always the purest. Not only that, but he also is able to reveal how
far apart some TV Evangelists got from Jesus (“I never said build a
water slide and use it as a tax write-off!!!”).
He also manages to poke holes into the anti-drunk driving
campaign (“I hope I slide into a family of six tonight!), safe sex
(“What’s the ski mask for, boss?”) and Jim Bakker’s fall (“Hey,
honey, it’s him!!! Hahaha!). His timing in moving from topic to
topic is incredible–though a bit undercut by the CD.
Above all, Kinison manages to sound very honest in all the
topics he tackles. When he speaks of his failed marriages, he sound
completely like the guy who knows what he’s talking about. When he
manages to rile up all of the guys into declaring their love for
their wives, he does it in the funniest of manners – by asking them
if they love their wives enough to sleep with another woman.
Finally, as he speaks of screwing the next guy whom your current
girlfriend might go out with – “be the nastiest, darkest, chapter
in her sexual diary” – or when he talks about homosexual
necrophilliacs (“It never ends!”), he infuses it with both an
impish sense of humor as well as a shock that someone might even
think of doing things like that.
To top it all of, there’s the classic rework of “Wild Thing.”
Though by now this type of music might sound outdated, the loud
scream of Kinison firmly cements the humourous/angry tone of the
song. As a girl in one of my classes said, it’s the guy’s version
of Alanis Morrissette’s “You Oughta Know.” (I think this is a MUCH
better song).
It’s so sad to know that someone with such talent ended so
tragically or that he found very little joy in his own life. But
Kinison would have liked us to laugh and not cry–and this CD will
do that. Like Sam says, “People at the back must be thinking,
‘Jesus, this is the sickest, most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard
in my life. WRONG! I can top it!!!!!”