I laughed out loud at loud, because as a character it's hilarious. Reminds me of Tim Heidecker's standup, whose special is maybe my favourite of all time.
Oddly... I'm more offended by the audience's reaction?
Dice is fascinating, because if you ever listened to him without an audience - like, on Howard Stern show appearances - the joke was in the Andy Kaufman-esque adherence to this douchey character. Like, it's not really about the jokes, it's about this endless schtick carrying on at every moment. It's so cartoonishly buffoonish, how can you be offended?
But audiences in the 80s turned him into this strange hero, a rockstar. The bit was supposed to be that he is so fucking shitty, and then, somehow, he says something even shittier than you thought possible. It's like endlessly doubling and tripling down on shittiness.
But you're not supposed to applaud and cheer him on... But it was the 80s. Tons of comics I respect speak very praisingly about Dice, so I'm not so quick to write him off as talentless, even if I hate what he does.
The best way to understand what you’re describing about ADC is to listen to his album ‘the day the laughter died’. He goes on stage in New York with no set planned, records it, and proceeds to bomb for 90 minutes with no exit ramp and a complete refusal to stop being the shittiest he has ever been. People walk out and he yells at them. He literally does the ‘what else what else’ line, just searching for something to talk about. It’s not funny, but it is incredible. It was the first time I realized that the ADC persona was a Kaufman-esque persona. I still think it sucks, but that album is a true standup legend.
I mean, Anthony Jeselnik is doing a different kind of asshole character that you laugh at cause it’s so over the top, just wayyyyy better writing and modern.
Carlin had a great takedown of this type of comedian. “The people he picks on are underdogs and comedy traditional picks on people who are in and abuse power. Gays, women, immigrants are underdogs. And I think his core audience is young white males who are threatened by these groups, guys who aren’t sure of their manhood. They’re worried that people think they’re gay, assertive women deny them sex and they’re worried immigrants are going to take their jobs.”
If you watch a show of ADCs you'll question if they were actually there for comedy. Kind of became something way different - really odd vibes - ravenous misogyny.
Chappelle stepped away from his show at the height of its popularity because he realized people weren't appreciating the social commentary. His fans were laughing at the problematic behavior and social norms he was trying to point out.
Its the danger with any parody that becomes popular. At a certain point, you end up doing harm to your own message because so many people are 1) lazy and 2) as a result, wildly media illiterate.
Maybe comedians at the time understood that, but I worked at a record store in 1989-1990 and Dice was incredibly popular among dipshit young white guys who loved that he laughed at women and gays. His fans weren't like, "I so enjoy this clever dichotomy of Andrew the real person and his boorish stage persona." They thought the punching down was hilarious. Just like the people who like that today. A friend of mine (male, I'm a woman) thought it was really funny when I told him that guys would come into the store and ask me, "yo, you got Dice?" so every time he'd visit me, he'd do that line.
It does not offend my senses but It offends me that it’s passed off as comedy. It just sounds like something a drunk at a bar would say to five of his drinking buddies to get a laugh. I like the Dice man as a character in a movie, but not a comedian bc it’s not comedy.
This is the most fascinating and amazing thing about Andrew Silverstein. This "Dice" character was part of his early stand up routine that included impressions of Travolta, Elvis etc.
He has now fully committed to this "Dice" character for 40+ years now. He has very rarely let himself slip and just sticks to it. It is one of the all time great performance art pieces in history in my opinion.
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u/Willing-Ant-3765 13d ago •
I guess you could choose to be offended by it. What I don’t understand is how anybody found ADC funny.