new to DVD: The Comedian

Dirty jokes can be funny -- but they are almost never funny simply by their virtue of being dirty.

I whole-heartedly believe the above statement to be true, but I'll admit that humor is subjective, and many people would disagree with that statement. The makers of comedy-drama The Comedian would certainly be some of those people. Between the fictional comedian who is the main character of the film, and the many actual comics who appear in cameos, there is a lot of stand-up comedy in this movie. Every single joke is either aggressive, vulgar, or both. But while some of the jokes are borderline clever, almost none of them are actually funny to any degree.

The Comedian tells the story of the personal and professional struggles of Jackie Burke, a vulgar insult comic who, both onstage and off, never knows (or perhaps simply doesn't care) when his insults and vulgarity have gone too far. This guy doesn't just push the envelope, he tears the envelope to shreds and sets a match to the confetti. You can tell that, beneath the lewd and seemingly insensitive exterior, there's a good heart underneath, but he's not an easy character to like. I'm sure that's intentional on the part of the filmmakers. But the fact that he's an allegedly talented comic whose routines in this film are squirmingly unfunny certainly doesn't help his likability -- and that part I'm not so sure is intentional. Some of Jackie's performances are clearly supposed to be unsuccessful, but others . . . well, you can tell when the filmmakers want you to understand that Jackie is being "funny" this time because the onstage audience is laughing. The problem with these scenes is obvious: The stand-up here is no better, neither in content nor in delivery, than the routines in the "Jackie's not being funny" scenes.

Many critics have compared the character of Jackie Burke to Rupert Pupkin, the main character of The King of Comedy. Both are sorta-funny-sorta-not stand-up comedians played by Robert DeNiro, albeit decades apart, but I've noticed that such comparisons tend to overlook major differences between the characters. Rupert cared so much about mainstream success, that his material wasn't exactly unfunny, but it was overly safe, to the point of mediocrity. It wasn't that bad, but it wasn't that good. It lacked personality, and his punch-lines had humor but lacked punch. Jackie wants mainstream success too, but he cares much more about expressing himself, and his punch-lines often have more punch than humor. He's the kind of guy who uses alleged humor as both a weapon and an excuse for verbal abuse, the "hey, I was just kidding" defense of insults, when everyone knows damn well he wasn't really kidding. This repeatedly gets him in trouble. Jackie insults everybody -- people who deserve it, people who don't, and people who he really needs on his side, like family members, studio executives, and the chairman of the membership committee of the club he desperately wants to join. Nobody likes him, and nobody should, because yes, he does have a good heart under it all -- but he doesn't give most people any reason to look for it.

Take, for example, Mac Schlitz, a supporting character played by Harvey Keitel. Mac is a big fan of the sitcom that was Jackie's claim to fame, and when the two characters meet, it goes very well at first, and you get the feeling that they could easily become good friends. But Jackie is unnecessarily antagonistic to Mac, and they part as enemies. The whole time during their first encounter, you keep hoping that one or both of these two guys will stop being such a dick. But they'd rather trade insults than thoughts. It's all so pointless, both for the characters and, arguably, for the viewer.

I'd like to address one particular scene late in the film. It's one of the very few comedy scenes that worked for me, but it worked in a way that really emphasized why so few of the other scenes worked. Jackie enters a comedy club at one point, and his intention is to just watch the show as an anonymous member of the crowd. But the comic on stage spots him and calls him out. The two trade insults, some of them vulgar. Now at this point in the film, many insults have been traded between Jackie and other characters, and much of it has been even more vulgar than this. But this time, for the first time, the scene is actually enjoyable to watch. Why? Because this time, you can sense that Jackie and the woman on stage have some degree of affection for one another. They're enjoying their banter, and also taking joy in the comedy itself.

That's a joy that's sorely missing from the rest of the film. Look, I'm not saying you can't make a drama about comedy. It's been done. But while The Comedian is allegedly about comedy, it's got a nasty cynicism about comedy itself. Even Billy Crystal's cameo devolves into a brief war of insults traded between Crystal and Jackie, and once again, the jokes ain't funny, because the insult/ jokes are more insult than joke. It's the kind of comedy that makes Shakespeare's tragedies seem light-hearted by comparison. The characters and their relationships are well written, I suppose, as are certain scenes, but what's the ultimate point? What's the point about making an entire movie about allegedly funny, kind-hearted people consistently failing to be funny or kind in any way whatsoever? What's the point of stripping the humor from comedy itself? If the filmmakers' next movie is about the ugly, bitter side of rainbows, I wouldn't be a bit surprised.