Review of Doug Stanhope: Deadbeat Hero

Introduction

Doug Stanhope is a stand-up comedian and this is his routine, recorded earlier this year in Seattle. Comedy series depend on a writer or team of writers to come up with the gags, here a stand-up comedian usually writes their own material and bases it on any number of topics, current, old, anything they think they can get a laugh at. Some, like Stanhope, are topical and make social comment on anything from the Iraq war, to jokes about co-joined twins and molestation. Some will find it funny, some won`t.

Video

Presented with a 1.78:1 widescreen enhanced black & white video transfer, the quality of this `underground` digital production shows up well. Detail is fair and there`s no dirt to be seen anywhere. The extras are in colour and are a little over saturated, but it has a stylised look and isn`t bothersome.

Audio

This comes with a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack, and seeing/hearing that this is purely dialogue it`s not a problem at all and works well enough.

Features

Easy to navigate menus with a few extras:

• Street Rants (4:52) - Stanhope tells various jokes on the street to no one in particular. These are just rants against bureaucracy and against society`s ills. Totally uninteresting and, in my opinion, unamusing. I can rant and rave, but I`m not being paid to do it.

• Doug Stanhope: Behind the mullet (5:23) - This is old footage of Stanhope with various stages of mullet reciting various jokes.

• Screensaver - Select a widescreen or a fullscreen screensaver. Just what you need to pass away those hours while protecting your TV screen. Nearly as good as just turning off the television...

• Bonus CD - This DVD package comes with a bonus CD of the main show, so I suppose if you like the stand-up routine, you can listen to this in the car or stereo somewhere.

Conclusion

I really needed to laugh, I needed to smile, I felt the need to be entertained by a comedian. I didn`t get it with Doug Stanhope and this DVD. How do I rate a DVD where I don`t laugh? The American audience was clearly amused and plenty of laughter was had, but nothing came out of me; I was bored of Stanhope`s routine and found nothing remotely amusing. To make sure that I hadn`t lost it completely, I watched Eddie Izzard, Bill Bailey, Denis Leary and Chris Rock. I laughed, I almost cried, and I found my sense of humour somewhere deep inside. Sorry Doug, you don`t make me laugh. He raps and makes social comment about most things, from abortion, to Iraq, to priests molesting boys to vasectomies and more. It`s telling that these are things he really wants to get out in the open and under any other circumstance it might be funny, but the act of trying to make people laugh, in a comedy club seems to go against him. Well, that`s what I think as I really couldn`t care less about what he was talking about.

Everyone has a different opinion on comedy with a different perspective on what makes him or her laugh. Sadly, mine wasn`t aligned with anyone in Doug Stanhope`s audience. Stanhope stands on stage and rants a lot about America and while there`s common crossover, I keep saying, "so what". If you`ve seen Doug Stanhope`s stand-up before and enjoyed it, this may well be your brand of humour and something you should look into. I`m personally going to stick to those that work for me.