Saturday, June 03, 2006
Best Comics Are Women
The way I see it the best three stand-up comics in the country right now are women.
Margaret Cho took the crown from a mellowing Chris Rock years ago. Enough said.
Sarah Silverman stole the all star comic documentary about a joke, "The Aristocrats," when she i-think-joked that Joe Franklin raped her, and her solo feature documentary "Jesus Is Magic" is more outrageous than the best episodes of "Curb Your Enthusiasm." The former SNL cast member never got to do much on the late night NBC show, as she did on Gary Shandling's "Larry Sanders Show" years ago (24 alumnus Mary Lynn Rajskub who plays Chloe and Penny Johnson who wickedly played the late President Palmer's late wife also did well-spent time on "Larry Sanders"), and she's now finally getting some of the recognition that she deserves (not near enough, though).
Speaking of Curb, Larry David's periodic showdowns with Wanda Sykes are always the best parts of the show. A recent episode had Sykes admonishing David for taking in a dog named "Sheriff" that appeared to hate black people, and her mostly-improvised reactions were classic (the dog was looking at her like she was a t-bone steak, she cracked). Sykes, who used to work for the NSA (National Security Agency) first attracted notice on "The Chris Rock Show," and she made the little-seen-in-theaters "Pootie Tang" memorable with her bizarre gyrations and come-ons so much so that it became a cult classic.
Profiled in Friday's Washington Post, Sykes told Jen Chaney that one of her dreams was to host Saturday Night Live.
This bit on "Pootie Tang" is a riot:
"It was kind of hard to see 'Pootie Tang' in the theater [with them] because it wasn't there that long," she says, referring to the largely unseen 2001 comedy in which she co-starred with Chris Rock. " 'Come on, baby, we're going to go to the 3 o'clock show.' Then you show up and 'Hey, what happened to the movie?'"
Memo to Lorne Michaels: Margaret Cho, Sarah Silverman and Wanda Sykes should all be included in your upcoming fall line-up if you still have a trigger on what's funny these days. America can do without another Lindsay Lohan or duplicate hosted show. Cho, Silverman and Sykes would really spruce things up, especially if head writer and Weekend Update anchor Tina Fey's not around anymore.
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