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The doubleDeath-RayCD, also released by Comedy Central, featured performers on Scott Aukerman and B.J.
Dalys set dynamited every assumption I had about what could work onstage.
Listen to Andy Daly now.
Todd Glass once said to me that Aukerman and PortersDeath-Rayaudience treated comedy like its opera.
Daly begins his set with what is ostensibly a question Hows everybody doing tonight?!
Dalys character sounds somehow like no specific comic and all of them at once.
Daly isnt just making fun of this style of stand-up hes nailing it.
I gotta tell ya, I dont know, I dont know, you know?
All this stuff thats going on in the world today, its like, Hello!
Skipping the part where an actual comic would give an example of whats bothering them, Daly presses on.
You got guys over here going, Hey whats the deal?
he says for his first applause break.
The audience recognizes the no specifics game hes set up and wants more.
You got guys over here going, Hey, what do you think?
And Im over here going, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!Knock it off!
Daly hits each whoa bigger than the last, selling Knock it off!
like its available on T-shirts, baby onesies, and beer cozies after the show.
Beyond nailing the hack comics forced cadence and transparent insincerity, Daly also perfectly encapsulates their worldview.
He serves up the additional merch-worthy catchphrases Okay, enough!
and Thank you very much, but no thank you!
to further laughter, and by the time he says I didnt get that memo!
earns a 15-second eruption of applause.
Its the closest he ever gets to winking at the audience and rewarding them for being onto his tricks.
Then Daly shouts, What is it, 1991?!
Finally Daly gives them an insanely specific detail that still manages to add no context whatsoever.
Two decades removed from its cultural context, alternative comedy is as meaningless a term as alternative music.
