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The Shark Deck. Originally this was going to run last Saturday, and then the Jimmy Fallon stuff broke, so I bumped it to this week. I’d been sitting on this for a while because normally Labor Day week is pretty quiet for news, But like I said, the Foulon thing came along and it gave me something else. So I’ve been sitting on this article from the av Club, the forty best comedy Albums of all Time ranked. If you were a long time listener, you know when I do article episodes, I don’t look at the article until I record.
I like to react in the moment because a lot of times I’m like whoa, So we’ll do that in a second. But I did put some thought into a list. Here. Let me give you a quick list. I’ll give you a top five.
At number five, some sort of Carlin album. If you’re of a certain age, Remember you’d go into record chains and they would have the nice price, and they’d be like a big barrel of cassettes and you’d go in there, and that’s how we all wound up with like Steve Miller’s Greatest hits and things like that. There would always be some Carlin Ones in there, and I had a bunch of Carlin ones that I used to listen to on a walkman commuting to high school in the eighties. I can’t tell you what albums they were, but one of those would be number five. At number four’ll give you a wildcard here, Trump versus Bernie Live for Brooklyn.
This is James Adomian as Bernie Sanders and Anthony it Samnowick as Donald Trump doing a debate. It is one of my favorite things. I play it on the Live one Slacker show as much as I can. Trump versus Bernie Live from Brooklyn. Fantastic.
Check that out. Next up, let me put Sam Kinnison’s Louder than Hell. I mean Sam when he first came along was so amazing, and some of his material about marriage is still holds up, which is fantastic. Number two I’ll put Mitch Hedberg’s Strategic Grill Locations. And number one I will put Eddie Murphy Delirious.
As I always say, some of the things haven’t aged so well, but if you were of a certain age like me, there was a time when you could probably do three quarters for this album off the top of your head. Gooney Gooho. As I’ve aged, do we understand that Eddie Murphy is just doing a Richard Pryor cover act? Yes? I do, but that’s my personal list.
Let’s look at the A V Club list. They made some good points. They said there were times when a concept one up being so strong and elevated a performer who wouldn’t otherwise be considered a candidate for the Comedy Hall of Fame. For example, The First Family. That’s Vaughn Mader’s nineteen sixty two album that made fun of the Kennedy’s, and they rate Vaughan Mader may not have had significant comedic skills, but as JFK impression was enough to fuel a landmark comedy record.
One of the best compliments I ever heard about that album is when you think in your mind of a JFK impression, you’re actually picturing Vaughn Mader and not what actual JFK actually sounded like. Davy Club ads. The passage of time inevitably alters the perception of the content. That’s the case with such a master’s of the forum as Bill Cosby and Woody Allen, comedians who recorded successful and influential albums at their prime, but those records may sound uncomfortable to a contemporary listener due to the scandals that have tarnished their legacies. We did not include those albums for that reason.
Okay, let’s take a look. It is a slide show number forty. Vaughan Mader just discussed it. Great pick. Thirty nine Jonathan Winters The Wonderful World of Jonathan Winters from nineteen sixty respect but personally I never got into Jonathan Winter’s comedy.
Thirty eight Lily Tomlins. This is recording from nineteen seventy two. Stan Freeberg presents the United States of America Volume one, The Early Years from nineteen sixty one. Thirty six Peter Sellers The Best of Sellers nineteen fifty eight, whoa They Write? Not a compilation.
The Best of Sellers nevertheless does feature Peter Sellers at a peak, rushing into the studio after his version of the old music hall standard Any Old Iron became an unexpected hit. Sellers crammed his mini LP with pop, rock and roll, folk and jazz parodies. Characters he did on the BBC’s show The Goon Show. The producer George Morton, you may know him from such bands as The Beatles. Wow, good pick.
Whoever did this knows what they’re talking about. Thirty five Bob and Doug McKenzie’s Great White North. I considered mentioning this at the top. There’s a couple tracks on there. Twelve Days of Christmas, an all time classic, another one I play every year at Christmas time on the Live one Slacker Show.
Interesting pick, I like it. That’s from nineteen eighty one. Thirty four Lenny Bruce The Carnegie Hall Concert. Lenny Bruce, you know, founded modern stand up comedy. But the material to me just feels a little dated.
Recordings aren’t that strong. But like I get a good pick, good pick, We’re doing great here. Thirty three Joan Rivers from nineteen eighty three. What becomes a semi legend? Most Joan one of the greats.
I worked with Joan for five years or so. I’ve got some stories. Won’t bobogg into that today? Like Joan a lot? Thirty two Alan Sherman’s My Son the Nut from nineteen sixty three.
You know this from the Hello muta Hello Fata song. Song in the voice of a kid writing home from summer camp. It spent two weeks on the top of the Billboard shorts, and achievement that no other comedy record matched until Weird Al released Mandatory Fun in twenty fourteen thirty one. They have Adam Sandler. If you’ve listened to this podcast at all, you have picked up on I don’t find Adam Sandler the least bit funny, Not at all.
Adam Sandlers They’re all going to laugh at You from nineteen ninety three. Let’s see what they wrote. They’re all Gonna laugh at You played at crucial port in building Adam Sandler’s popularity outside of SNL. A purposefully juvenile record filled with goofy grass out of humor. They’re all Gonna laugh at You became a word of mount sensation at middle schools and colleges alike, thanks in part to Sandler’s relentless focus on adolest and angst and pranks.
He’s a cartoon character caught on Vinyl m Okay thirty. Robert Klein, Child of the Fifties from nineteen seventy three. We all respect Robert Klein. You know that’s in I’m trying to get how you explain it. It’s like when you look at a I don’t know a ball player that played in nineteen ten.
You’re like, Hm, I get it, but I don’t get it. And that’s kind of how I feel about Klein. But sure it’s twenty nine Dennis Leary’s No Cure for Cancer Dennis Leary really interesting because if you’ve studied comedy, you hear the Bill Hicks influence with a capital I capital and capital fluence on Dennis Leary. But yeah, Ivy Club says Dennis Leary brought the underground rantings of Bill Hicks into the mainstream. I’ll leave it there, saying a more good album though.
Twenty eight Martin Mull’s Martin Mull and His Fabulous Furniture in Your living Room nineteen seventy three. I don’t even know what this is, a relic of it’s time. Martin Mull and His Fabulous Furniture in Your living Room finds the former folky setting up is Hippie Hubris who wrote that and hitting such easy but worthy targets as dueling tubes. Huh interesting. I don’t know a thing about it, so I kid say that it shouldn’t be there.
Twenty seven David tells Skanks for the Memories, what a great album. I really wish we had more out of David Tell in album format. He really hasn’t recorded too much, but that’s a fantastic album. David Tell skanks for the Memories. Twenty six Dick Gregory in Living Black and White from nineteen sixty one.
I’m unfamiliar with this album, Davy Club said. Recorded to Chicago’s Playboy Club, and Living Black and White preserves Gregory’s peak, finding him weaving between pointed racial commentary and observations about the state of international affairs at the height of the Cold War. I like this list a lot. These guys did a great job with this list. Twenty five Andrew Dice Clay The Day the Laughter Died from nineteen ninety Do you know this one?
This is not the good Andrew Dice Clay album that you’re thinking about. It’s Dice was such a public menace. He and producer Rick Rubin designed his debut album as a provocation, a double disc document not of Clay’s nursery, rhyme routines, but the danger he conveyed as a comic performing at a small club filled with unprepared listeners. It’s comedy as a weapon. The audience doesn’t laugh, They squirm in a fashion that’s even audible on record.
Interesting pick that is just an awkward, awkward, awkward Listen. Are we overgrading this? I don’t want to say overrated, but are we overgrading this because Rick Rubin is involved. I know when we would play this on Sirius XM and in later days when I played it on Slacker Slash Live one. That album does not do well because it’s a comedy album and no one’s laughing.
Next up, Cheech and Chong Los Cocinos from nineteen seventy three. That’s the one with Basketball Jones on it. I mean, Cheech and Chong are fun for what they are. You know, maybe back in nineteen seventy three as an album was fun. I’m not sure that has aged all that well, but okay, I won’t fight you in the squoyard about that one.
Twenty three Lewis Black’s The White Album. Okay, I mean, I gotta see what comes. Twenty three feels a little high for that one, but let’s see what’s coming. Twenty two Monty Python’s Flying Circus another Monty Python record from nineteen seventy one. There are so many Python compilations, recompilations re re re compilations.
You could take your pick of the Python records, but sure that one’s not bad. Twenty one Don Rickles, Hello Dummy from nineteen sixty eight, recorded live at the Sahara. Dummy is very much a product of its time, which means there are more than a few jokes that couldn’t fly in the twenty twenties. Don Rickles, fantastic, good pick.
All right, let’s take the break and then we’ll do the other twenty Continuing…
I’m trying to remember if I know this album. Maybe when we have the clean Channel, it serious used to play this one a little bit, you know the fine They’re fine. Like to see some more new Hart on here. If we’re going to do with some Mother’s brothers, let’s say nineteen Mitch Hedberg’s Strategic Grill Locations. Talked about that one on the top, and I still can’t believe that’s from nineteen ninety nine.
One of my favorites. Number eighteen, National Lampoons Lemmings Lemmings was a stage show National Lampoons, staged off Broadway nineteen seventy three that spoofed Woodstock. The production was spun off into a cast recording. The LP served as an introduction to John Belushi, who performed the majority of the stage announcements and his Joe Cocker impression.
Also Chevy Chase and Christopher Guest on that one interesting, all right?
Number seventeen Stephen Wrights, I have a pony. Yeah, what an influential album. Now the challenge I have with Stephen Wright. And I’ve seen him live and this is why I say this. Stephen Wright in five minute clips amazing.
Stephen Wright in longer form, your brain goes numb. I went to see him. He was hilarious, but like an hour into it, I felt like I was hallucinating just that non change of speed for an extended amount of time. It’s really so Yeah. Good pick for the individual tracks In terms of an album, I don’t know, not the worst pick sixteen Bill Hicks ranton E Minor Okay, we’ve done justice to the earlier Dennis Leary pick.
Okay, that’s a very good album if you’ve never heard it. From nineteen ninety seven. Fifteen What is This? Mike Nichols and Elane May’s and Evening with Mike Nichols and Elane May from nineteen sixty Educate Me one of the defining comic d he was in the nineteen sixties. Mike Nichols and Elaine May had an elegance to the rapport that still sparkles, capturing highlights from their Broadway show, not at all famarial with it.
Fourteen Patton Oswalt’s Werewolves and Lollipops. When I did the episode last weekend, I mentioned I have trouble remembering which Patton Oswalt album is which, but sure his recording material is very strong. Thirteen Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks The two thousand year Old Man from nineteen sixty one. Okay, one of those things that I’m not sure has aged all that well, but respect. Twelve Sam Kinison Louder than Hell Fantastic album number eleven.
Red Fox unsensed from nineteen eighty Ncensor is filled with the kind of raunchy humor that couldn’t be heard in public in the sixties. In nineteen eighty it one Fox a Grammy for Comedy Album of the Year. All right, Top ten, what do you think is gonna be here? I haven’t mentioned Carlin yet, I haven’t mentioned Priory yet. I’m sure they’re gonna come up.
And are we overwaiting and only picking one from each artist? Because I can make a case for several Priors and several Carlin’s on here. Let’s see number ten Albert Brooks Comedy Minus One from nineteen seventy three. I mean, if you want to have it unless but top ten. Number nine Chris Rock Bigger and Blacker from nineteen ninety nine.
Good pick good, pick good. Pick eight Steve Morton’s Let’s Get Small from nineteen seventy seven. Steve Morton has been coming up a lot lately on the podcast Again back in the day was a monster, monster, huge comedian, but such a shooting star. I’ve actually been playing this on the Slacker Live one show recently. It has aged pretty well.
Okay, let’s do it. Number eight Steve Martin shre seven Roddy Dangerfield’s No Respect nineteen eighty Good Pick six David Cross shut up you fffing baby. Wow. Wow. It’s six wow, and there’s only five left, so I’m guessing we’re not going to give multiples to Carlin Or prior.
But okay, let’s go the top five. Number five Eddie Murphy comedian, Yeah, comedian, the album Delirious, the TV special, that’s the one I was talking about before. Great. Pick four Robin Williams A Night at the met This comes up a lot. I don’t think it’s aged that well.
The Robin Williams mafia is going to start writing me letters. It’s good, but four seems really high. I’d have it on this list, but not at four. Three Bob Newhart, The button Down Mind of Bob Newhart. The New Heart stuff is very funny.
It runs at a different speed if you’ve grown up watching Fast Got Avenjuran movies, but in twenty twenty three might feel a little slow for you. But it earned New Heart the Grammy for Best New Artist in nineteen sixty. Number two George Carlin’s Class Clown. That’s the one that has seven words you can never say on television, all right, and that means they’re gonna have a prior. I’m going to guess Sunset Strip at number one.
Let me look click Richard Bryer live of the Sunset Strip from nineteen eighty two Bryer’s returned to the stage after nearly burning himself in a free base accident, remains the ideal marriage of revelation and craft, a dark knight of the soul that is riotlessly funny. Now, keep in mind a lot of artists have not released album albums in recent years, although some have. I’m surprised there’s no Gaffigan on here. I’m surprise there’s no Dane Cook on here. Those are two that come to mind.
Or how about Jeff Foxworthy who has sold more comedy albums than anybody that alone, he should be on here. But pretty good list by the Avy Club. It would be curious as your thoughts. You can always join in the Facebook group which is Daily Comedy News Podcast group. Would love to hear from you.
And that’s your show for today. Follow this podcast for free on Apple, podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your shows. See tomorrow