Now we beat up on Neil Hamburger

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Well we've crucified both Bill Hicks and A HREF="http://www.ilxor.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0093X9">George Carlin, now lets beat up on Neil Hamburger: The Worst Comic in the History of the Planet Earth. Or so says Mark Prindle.

― Lord Custos 2.0 beta, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Neil Hamburger live was pretty cool. I can't imagine spending money on any of his records though.

― adam, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Prindle's review mentions Negativland = Mark S will hunt and slay.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Neil Hamburger has my sympathy.

― J Blount, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Does anyone remember the annoying unfunny officer that was Adrian Kronauers (Robin Williams) Boss in Good Morning Vietnam?
I wonder if they based his "Frenchie" routine on Neil Hambugers "Exercises for the Colon" routine.

― Lord Custos 2.0 beta, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i think neil hamburger is great. you ever notice that all 711's look tha same?

― chaki, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

what's going on friday night??? CANCEL IT!!!!! Neeeeiiiiiilll Haaaammmmbuuurger's in town!!!

― Ron, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Neil is a good guy and deserves everyone's undying attention

― Sonicred, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Neil Hamburger also really likes the Bee Gees.

― Vic Funk, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

OH DEAR GOD! He's touring with Canned Hamm and Pleeseasaur!

Pleeseasaur is like... well, imagine Bill Murray's lounge singer character in a bunny suit in front of strange film projections all to a goofy MIDI soundtrack singing about things like THE BEEF FLAVORED ISLAND or Japan's favorite dish, the BOWL NOODLE HOT! Don't miss Neil AND the 'Saur together!

Canned Hamm, from Vancouver BC, is equally strange and wonderfully wretched.

― Brian MacDonald, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

the man's got the best Bert Convy anecdotes in the business.

― J Blount, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

"I'm a male stripper. I STRIP humor out of the air and present it to a MALE and female audience!"

Amarillo-era Neil was great, totally amazing comedy cutting edge "gee gaw" humor.

― gygax! (gygax!), Sunday, 9 November 2003 23:20 (twenty-one years ago)

METALLICA!!!!!

― Broheems (diamond), Sunday, 9 November 2003 23:25 (twenty-one years ago)

"Great Phone Calls" is so so so so classic

― Pablo Cruise (chaki), Sunday, 9 November 2003 23:52 (twenty-one years ago)

A true professional, but he should never have those nasty things about Woody Woodbury.

― Dinah Sore (Ian Christe), Sunday, 9 November 2003 23:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Are Neil Hamburger and Gregg Turkington one and the same?

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Monday, 10 November 2003 16:00 (twenty-one years ago)

yes

― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 10 November 2003 16:25 (twenty-one years ago)

yes

― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 10 November 2003 16:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Do I have to spell it out for you? I don't eat cooked flour.

re..si..sting...urge to..quote.......more!

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Monday, 10 November 2003 17:23 (twenty-one years ago)

The "moment of silence for Princess Diana" 7" (untouched vinyl, of course, packaged with a kleenex to wipe away your tears) is pure fucking gold.

― Ben Boyer (Ben Boyer), Monday, 10 November 2003 19:11 (twenty-one years ago)

perhaps one of the funniest shows i ever saw was the Zip Code Rapists with Greg Turkington assaulting a hippy there by throwing a plastic bottle at his head. gygax! right on about the Amarillo years. the hamburger schtick, though, has gotten old (but faxhead still rulez).

― jack cole (jackcole), Monday, 10 November 2003 19:16 (twenty-one years ago)

"... for people who've been smoking pot so long they've forgotten how to come up with their OWN mind-blowing "have you ever really looked at your hand/the government is like totally not cool maaaaan" observations"

Guess that doesn't apply to Neil Hamburger (who, wow, MAKES FUN OF BAD COMEDIANS, oh i get it now); for the other two, I'll buy it.

― chuck, Monday, 10 November 2003 19:26 (twenty-one years ago)

the Princess Di pressed on black "in mourning" vinyl.

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Monday, 10 November 2003 19:28 (twenty-one years ago)

when's gallagher going to be rediscovered? carrot top is but a shadow of the master.

― jack cole (jackcole), Monday, 10 November 2003 19:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Guess that doesn't apply to Neil Hamburger (who, wow, MAKES FUN OF BAD COMEDIANS, oh i get it now)

If anything it seems to be making fun of the conventions of comedy routines in general, bad or good -- why else all the audience cut-ups and the like?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 10 November 2003 19:31 (twenty-one years ago)

haha!

the "sounds of..." (international airports, san francisco adult bookstores, etc.) field recording 7"s are very in-line with the early neil aesthetic.

basically, search all neil hamburger 7"s (plus Great Phone Calls) and forget the rest.

― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 10 November 2003 19:32 (twenty-one years ago)

that haha! was a xp to andrew n.

i don't think neil's making fun of bad comedians.

― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 10 November 2003 19:33 (twenty-one years ago)

"Sounds of Fast Food Restaurants" was pretty funny. I think I have one of the other ones.

― Broheems (diamond), Monday, 10 November 2003 19:34 (twenty-one years ago)

off topic, slightly -- my girlfriend as this nutso cultist friend and she played for him my copy of Harvey Sid Fisher's Astrology Songs, which Greg reissued on Amarillo -- he was mesmerised by its Power and its astrological accuracy. Better yet, my girlfriend is completely annoyed that the song that describes her sign is "dead on" while the one that supposedly describes mine is "dead wrong."

ok, now im going to go into my room and cry in mourning for amarillo and the greg of yore.

― jack cole (jackcole), Monday, 10 November 2003 19:36 (twenty-one years ago)

haha jc, what are her and your signs? mine is not very good. my favorite hsf's are "moonchild", "lib lib a libra" and certainly the best of the best: "i am the ram".

all of this of course is almost as good as the zip code rapists' version of "ford trucks, the best never rest".

― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 10 November 2003 19:40 (twenty-one years ago)

>>making fun of the conventions of comedy routines in general<<

And picking one of the easiest and most obvious targets on earth makes him funny (and not merely smug) why?

― chuck, Monday, 10 November 2003 19:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Hell, Chuck, nothing automatically makes it funny. Me, I like what I've heard for all the awkward pauses and strange audience interjections. They make me laugh!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 10 November 2003 19:44 (twenty-one years ago)

her gemini, me aries. her astrological friend explains me away by saying im complicated -- ha ha ha.

― jack cole (jackcole), Monday, 10 November 2003 19:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I still need to scare up a copy of that Today's Sounds 45, with the cover of "Pac Man Fever". That was good fun. Also I always meant to get that Zip Code Rapists 45 that Kugelberg put out; you know, with "Good Ship Pablo Cruise" and "Che". Knee-slapping hilarity!

― Broheems (diamond), Monday, 10 November 2003 20:06 (twenty-one years ago)

"And picking one of the easiest and most obvious targets on earth makes him funny (and not merely smug) why? "

Chuck, please explain to us why *anything* is funny. (Also what constitutes a non-"obvious" target).

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 10 November 2003 20:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't understand why people think this dork, Bill Hicks, OR David Cross is all that funny. (And I admit I haven't spent all THAT much time on any of them, so maybe I'm missing something -- I just wish somebody would tell me what. Now, they all strike me as REALLY REALLY REALLY OBVIOUS.) But the second post on the Hicks thread gave me a clue that I hadn't considered before, which makes lots of sense:
"... for people who've been smoking pot so long they've forgotten how to come up with their OWN mind-blowing "have you ever really looked at your hand/the government is like totally not cool maaaaan" observations"
Guess that doesn't apply to Neil Hamburger (who, wow, MAKES FUN OF BAD COMEDIANS, oh i get it now); for the other two, I'll buy it.
-- chuck (cedd...), November 10th, 2003.

Well, Hicks and Cross may come off as obvious to us, but keep in mind, their acts are still hitting topics that most comedians wouldn't dare touch. And Cross's delivery is great.

― David Allen, Monday, 10 November 2003 20:30 (twenty-one years ago)

this whole debate is stupid, humor cannot be explained, most of the time it barely even crosses cultural/language barriers. If it makes you laugh, it's funny. Comedy isn't like music in this respect, it doesn't lend itself to critical analysis or debate most of the time - ie, nothing ever gets funnier the more its "explained" to you.

TS: comedy "critics" vs. music "critics"...

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 10 November 2003 20:36 (twenty-one years ago)

So they're "daring". Wow.

>>Chuck, please explain to us why *anything* is funny<<

Read my books.

― chuck, Monday, 10 November 2003 20:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Humor CAN be explained, Shakey Mo. Read Frank Kogan on Tom Lehrer (or Eminem), or James Hannaham on Richard Pryor, if you doubt me.

― chuck, Monday, 10 November 2003 20:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I am definitely not buying the "it's not funny because the target is too broad" argument. Calling bullshit on that. Have you seen what "Mr. Show" did with "obvious targets" like bad stand-up comics (not to mention Marilyn Manson, MTV, etc.)? Lazy to write off something automatically for the concept. I mean, if it's funny, it's funny.

― Ben Boyer (Ben Boyer), Monday, 10 November 2003 20:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Comedy is all in the delivery. Bill Hicks could talk about, I dunno, baseball or something and it would still be funny to me because he is so full of raging anger and misanthropy.

― Broheems (diamond), Monday, 10 November 2003 20:39 (twenty-one years ago)

jack writes wrt: HSF upthread:
her gemini, me aries. her astrological friend explains me away by saying im complicated -- ha ha ha.

that is messed up because(!!!) i am a gemini and the gemini song does not apply much to me, whereas the aries song is not only the best song on the record but also it totally fits ALL aries (including you)!

― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 10 November 2003 20:40 (twenty-one years ago)

(and that's a good thing!!!)

― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 10 November 2003 20:40 (twenty-one years ago)

And actually, I'm sure some people have written even better things about Pryor than Hannaham did; he just came to the top of my head. If a writer can write about why the Ramones or Beastie Boys or Holy Modal Rounders or Kid Rock or Bob Dylan (or Lenny Bruce or Mark Twain or Cheech and Chong or Groucho Marx or Jack Black or ????) is funny, they can damn sure do the same for the three comedians mentioned above, who have VOICES, after all, not just words. If anybody has done this for Cross or Hamburger or Hicks, I'd love to read it. To say it can't be done makes no sense at all. Unless they're not funny.

― chuck, Monday, 10 November 2003 20:44 (twenty-one years ago)

So again, as I said above:

>>I admit I haven't spent all THAT much time on any of them, so maybe I'm missing something -- I just wish somebody would tell me what.<<<

And right -- obvious targets can be handled in a non-obvious way. Obviously. I've just yet to see where those three guys do that....

― chuck, Monday, 10 November 2003 20:46 (twenty-one years ago)

"Read my books.

-- chuck"

Super cop-out answer, so I'm glad it wasn't your final answer... as for the comedy "criticism" you mention, which one of those convinced you any of the listed performers (Groucho Marx, Cheech and Chong, whoever) was funny?

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 10 November 2003 20:47 (twenty-one years ago)

My point being that you can analyze and write (and read) about those comedians and they're acts all you want, but they won't make you laugh any more.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 10 November 2003 20:48 (twenty-one years ago)

here's a critical overview of neil hamburger's releases.

― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 10 November 2003 20:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, my own praise of Hamburger was abbreviated a bit, but to spell it out more thoroughly -- it's how what I've heard (and again that's mostly the earlier albums) is designed to trash typical comedy albums/routine expectations. I dunno if this review says as much on my part but I think it's key and I happen to think it works for that album at least.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 10 November 2003 20:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Anybody here rate Doug Stanhope? I find him funny as all git-out.

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Monday, 10 November 2003 20:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Skipping 69 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

http://www.levinson.com/bsc/analyze/images/analyze.gif

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 April 2005 19:54 (twenty years ago)

(l-r: me, amateurist)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 April 2005 19:58 (twenty years ago)

Now that I've seen Neil Hamburger sincerely piss off about several hundred teens at a Pinback show in the last few months, I must now declare THAT to be his best show ever. Neil is not even hiding his fake chronic coughing anymore, but is now just rubbing it in.

― donut debonair (donut), Thursday, 28 April 2005 20:01 (twenty years ago)

Q: Why does E.T. like the taste of Reece's Pieces?

A: Because the taste reminds him of the taste of cum on his home planet!

― donut debonair (donut), Thursday, 28 April 2005 20:07 (twenty years ago)

Q: Which popular singing group masturbates before each show, ejaculating at exactly the same moment?

A: N'Sync

― space2k (space2k), Thursday, 28 April 2005 20:08 (twenty years ago)

Neil Hamburger is at least funnier than david Cross!

That's for damn sure. As the incidents quoted above indicate.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 28 April 2005 20:09 (twenty years ago)

NYT writes:

Ever since, Hamburger has been building a small but ferocious cult of fans. He has released a string of albums on the indie-rock label Drag City and once managed to get himself booked on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," where he told perhaps the most tasteless Michael Jackson joke ever heard on network television. (Quite a feat.)

What was the joke? Did anyone see this appearance?

― Matt Sab (Matt Sab), Thursday, 28 April 2005 20:10 (twenty years ago)

For what it's worth, I liked Kelefah's review a lot; it was exactly the kind of explanation I was looking for when I was spouting in all caps upthread. (Though I'm still not sure whether I'd think Neil Hamburger is funny, or even weird. I'm guessing, though, from what Kelefah wrote, that Neil would make me laugh more than Larry the Cable Guy. Though maybe not as much as Cledus T. Judd sometimes.)

― xhuxk, Thursday, 28 April 2005 20:10 (twenty years ago)

“Why did Michael Jackson dangle his infant son over his hotel balcony? He was punishing him for refusing to finish his plate of sperm.”

― space2k (space2k), Thursday, 28 April 2005 20:12 (twenty years ago)

do you ever sort of make a joke in public without thinking about it; like there was perhaps some kernel of humor there, but you didn't reflect on it for a second and just spouted it out and realized that it wasn't funny at all? like you realize what it is about the joke that would have made you thought it might have been funny, but it just was incontrovertible Not Funny? well most people have some kind of reflex that suppresses these jokes. i think neil hamburger is sort of "about" a guy who doesn't. have that reflex. it's like you can see the mechanics that should make the joke "funny," but it's not funny. which makes you question what it is that makes something truly funny.

i am being frightfully inarticulate.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 28 April 2005 20:20 (twenty years ago)

So anyway, I have a Bill Hicks question. I watched a special about him on Bravo a couple weeks ago (host: Janene Garafalo, apparently a fan), and the best thing I could say about him is that, okay, he had pretty decent politics. Not especially *funny* politics, near as I could tell, but whatever. But apparently he did less political stuff toward the end of his career. Does anybody think the anti-smoking-ban tirades (much dumber than Dennis Leary's same, though I realize Leary may have come later and improved on something Hicks started; who knows) and idiot "Goat Boy" perv shtick Hicks apparently evolved into toward the end were funny at all? Or do his fans basically think he'd started to suck by then? Because as iffy as the early stuff was, from what I could see (assuming the special was to be trusted, which maybe it shouldn't be), his later stuff just before he died was a lot worse.

― xhuxk, Thursday, 28 April 2005 20:22 (twenty years ago)

Re the last Amateurist post: There are characters on *The Office* (UK version) that totally crack me up with their inability to suppress such reflexes (and I've had a prejudice against British humor for years, too!). So I definitely get what you're talking about, though again, nothing I've heard by Hamburger made me think he pulled it off. Maybe I just haven't listened to the right things by him, though.

― xhuxk, Thursday, 28 April 2005 20:26 (twenty years ago)

i really tire of those comics who seem really agitated all the time. even the good ones. i think there's been too many poor imitators, and i've just tired of it.

p.s. it's not the same as hamburger, but i think andy kaufman was sort of an anti-comic by the end, too.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 28 April 2005 20:30 (twenty years ago)

of course a lot of the hamburger schtick doesn't even have to do with jokes per se, it's the spaces in between the jokes, and here he's not defamiliarizing humor so much as the very act of performance. which is something else that i find pretty interesting.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 28 April 2005 20:31 (twenty years ago)

Xhuckchchcuck, if you ever happen upon a paper case Amarillo compilation CD called You Gan't Boar Like An Eabla When You Work With Turkrys, the original Neil Hamburger track "Looking For Laughs" is on that.

Otherwise, Neil is just best seen live.. preferrably opening for other rock bands.

― donut debonair (donut), Thursday, 28 April 2005 20:36 (twenty years ago)

i like to imagine him at real comedy clubs in places like toledo or buffalo new york, though. rather than at indie rock clubs.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 28 April 2005 20:37 (twenty years ago)

http://15min.org/images/2004-02-25_c1.jpg

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 28 April 2005 20:38 (twenty years ago)

Comedy Layhouse?

― donut debonair (donut), Thursday, 28 April 2005 20:41 (twenty years ago)

Most appropriate.

his later stuff just before he died was a lot worse

The even later stuff after he died flat out sucked.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 28 April 2005 20:46 (twenty years ago)

FWIW, Patton Oswalt is way better than anyone mentioned on this thread so far.

― darin (darin), Thursday, 28 April 2005 21:09 (twenty years ago)

The even later stuff after he died flat out sucked.

a joke worthy of neil hamburger himself!

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 28 April 2005 21:37 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

Saw him last night - live, he gets genuine laughs; the jokes themselves (and that's what it was: about an hour of q-and-a style jokes) were really obscene and either really funny or induce-dead-silence (about 75%/25% ratio there and pretty clearly scripted that way), but the timing & the, umm, incidental noises were funniest of all - his chronic throat-clearing, and this sort of panicked whine/moan he makes not just in between jokes but in between lines, which really does an amazing job of evoking what minute-to-minute fear of failure is like. xChuckx seems to have mellowed in this thread about demanding "why's that funny?" but to me anyhow it seems like what's funny is that a really uncomfortable subject (failure: total failure, personal and professional) is being personified and paraded in a way you wouldn't actually see if it were real - people hide their failures rather than trumpeting them, right, but Neil Hamburger stands up in front of you and loudly, brazenly fails on purpose in a lot of different ways. On top of this, Turkington has such total confidence now, and his timing is so perfect (in the live setting at least), that it's a really overwhelming presentation of this whole schtick - the dead-silence moments didn't get uncomfortable, they contributed to the pacing. I was quite surprised, actually, at how hard I laughed throughout the night; I thought it'd be more like a theatrical performance piece, but the level of audience engagement was really high and the energy was great.

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Sunday, 9 July 2006 13:41 (nineteen years ago)

what's funny is that a really uncomfortable subject (failure: total failure, personal and professional) is being personified and paraded in a way you wouldn't actually see if it were real - people hide their failures rather than trumpeting them, right, but Neil Hamburger stands up in front of you and loudly, brazenly fails on purpose in a lot of different ways.

This sums up what I've found funny about the stray bits of Hamburger I've heard.

― Zwan (miccio), Sunday, 9 July 2006 14:32 (nineteen years ago)

And as for Hicks and Cross, at their best it just reminds me of my friends getting together and ripping on stupid shit they've seen. Both can forget to make the self-satisfaction funny (Cross's second album is awful), and it can be incredibly obvious, but both of them, at their best, have a casual energy that makes their frustration, contempt or sardonic anger involving and conspiratorial. It's definitely not "a big deal" (especially if you can say "I do that in my book, so where's MY trophy?") and people who treat them like prophets are boneheaded, but it can be appealing for "like-minded hipsters" (a phrase I think Chuck threw out).

― Zwan (miccio), Sunday, 9 July 2006 14:41 (nineteen years ago)

The strange thing about Hamburger, to me, is the way in which, while he's playing a "bad stand-up comic", it's not at all clear what sort of bad stand-up comic his act is alluding to. Visually, he's doing a sort of Catskills thing, but the clearest influence on the actual content of his act are late-night-TV monologue jokes, with the added element of shock humor -- which is "genuine"? As Tallis says, his fans seem to enjoy many of the bits on some kind of legitimate level. (Not at all my kind of thing, but fair enough.)

Which I guess is why he infuriates me so much -- aside from the blatant cheapness of his jokes, there's a sense of inaccurate mockery to his act -- like he's making a stupid face, pointing at stand-up comics, and saying "this is you", when a) it's actually him, and b) it's not them. Or, rather, it has elements of (some of the worst of) them, but skewed in a way which makes it unfair and inaccurate even by the standards of bullying.

Not that I'd like him if he were an accurate bully, mind you -- but he probably wouldn't upset me quite as much as he does.

Though I guess the context in which he's presented matters? -- I've never seen him at rock concerts, only at comedy shows. Fairly "alternative" (I hate that word; it's so imprecise) shows at that; whatever criticisms can be leveled against the comics at those shows, Hamburger isn't making any of them. But he has a rabid -- almost cultish -- fan base, which tends to fill up many of the shows he's on. A lot of those guys are not there to see (and have no real appreciation for?) stand-up comedy; I've never been to a show where he's been there and the other comics (legitimately funny people who do well -- and deserve to do well -- on a regular basis) didn't struggle a lot more than they usually do.

But I guess that's it -- Hamburger's act seems to me very reductivist, very negative about the possibilities inherent in comedy, while at the same time exposing a naivete if not an outright ignorance concerning those possibilities. I mean, really? You're going to put this guy next to a Richard Pryor, or a Woody Allen, or a Louis CK, and act like he has anything to say to them? It's disrespect, mostly.

― Pessimist (Pessimist), Sunday, 9 July 2006 15:09 (nineteen years ago)

(btw: chabela burrito (sic: it's chabela mexican restaurant) is very, very good and inexpensive AND located two doors down from amoeba (which, at the time, was the rock and bowl)).

-- gygax! (gygax0...), November 10th, 2003 2:11 PM. (gygax!)

RIP dudes!

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Sunday, 9 July 2006 17:11 (nineteen years ago)

i saw the zip code rapists recently, it was pretty funny.

― M@tt He1geson, Rendolent Ding-Dong (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 10 July 2006 15:08 (nineteen years ago)

q: what's wet, sticky, and splattered...all over the coffin of deceased president ronald wilson reagan?

a: the tears of a nation.

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Monday, 10 July 2006 17:47 (nineteen years ago)

Having threads about Neil Hamburger on "I Love Music" (even to trash him) is playing by his game plan. It's not like anyone is going to complain about Carrot Top here? How about C/D comedians on "indie" music labels? The stuff I've heard by Hamburger (not much) has made me chuckle but I find standup comedy to be mostly crap.

Now Eugene Mirman (aka, in the words of the Onion," 'the indie rock comedian' who's opened for Modest Mouse, The Shins, and Yo La Tengo") is truly deserving of hatred.

― Jacobo Rock (jacobo rock), Monday, 10 July 2006 17:59 (nineteen years ago)

Having threads about Neil Hamburger on "I Love Music" (even to trash him) is playing by his game plan. I

is there anything wrong or shameful in "playing by his game plan"?

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Monday, 10 July 2006 19:21 (nineteen years ago)

zip code rapists are "music"

― M@tt He1geson, Rendolent Ding-Dong (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 10 July 2006 19:22 (nineteen years ago)

xpost - Thomas, Nothing wrong with it. I just think it's a bit odd. This whole "I don't do the stand-up comedy circuit, I do indie rock venues" thing intrinsically rubs me the wrong way. Not because I like stand-up. Probably just the opposite.

― Jacobo Rock (jacobo rock), Monday, 10 July 2006 19:58 (nineteen years ago)

What do customers ultimately buy after viewing items like this?
91% buy
Sonic Nurse ~ Sonic Youth $12.98
7% buy
Great Phone Calls Featuring Neil Hamburger ~ Neil Hamburger $16.98
3% buy the item featured on this page:
Raw Hamburger ~ Neil Hamburger $15.98

― Marmot 4-Tay: You are beautiful, and you are alone. (marmotwolof), Monday, 10 July 2006 23:13 (nineteen years ago)

zip code rapists are "music"
-- M@tt He1geson, Rendolent Ding-Dong (matt@game[remove]informer.com), Today 1:22 PM.

neil hamburger /= zip code rapists

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Monday, 10 July 2006 23:34 (nineteen years ago)

two months pass...

In this story about Tom Green's net show:

Although most of his viewers tune in through ManiaTV, Green is enlisting friends such as red-carpet interviewer Melissa Rivers and comedian Neil Hamburger to host their own live shows, which he plans to broadcast on TomGreen.com.

Oh my.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 24 September 2006 14:50 (nineteen years ago)

i saw neil hamburger once. i'd never heard, and still haven't heard, and of his cd's. he opened by coughing loudly into the mic and saying, first words out of his mouth, "how am i doing for time?" that won me completely over and he owned me for the night. i never saw any need to hear any of this on record, but it was a damn entertaining night out.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 25 September 2006 06:16 (nineteen years ago)

one year passes...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdU3RIcTg6M

― am0n, Monday, 17 December 2007 17:29 (seventeen years ago)

two years pass...

http://twitpic.com/26pik9

― del griffith, Tuesday, 20 July 2010 15:19 (fifteen years ago)

three months pass...

Neil_Hamburger

Drunk? RT @paulaabdul: OMG you guys wanna know what I'm gonna be for Halloween?

about 18 minutes ago

― i love you but i have chosen snarkness (Steve Shasta), Saturday, 30 October 2010 06:17 (fourteen years ago)

Hero.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 30 October 2010 06:46 (fourteen years ago)

I heard he was forced to end his set early at the Reading Festival "for his own personal safety."

― Maltodextrin, Saturday, 30 October 2010 15:51 (fourteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdlnkgOa8Ic

"pig people"

― like an ant to a crumb (DavidM), Saturday, 30 October 2010 16:24 (fourteen years ago)

Sterling work by the patrons of Reading Festival singing "you're shit and you know you are" at Neil, this being the entire premise of his act

― I can't wait to get home and climb aboard... GROCERY GROIN (DJ Mencap), Saturday, 30 October 2010 17:12 (fourteen years ago)

one month passes...

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shaky-advice-from-neil-hamburger/id409059508?mt=8

― i love you but i have chosen snarkness (Steve Shasta), Saturday, 18 December 2010 01:06 (fourteen years ago)

ten months pass...

his twitter feed is really something. he had a lot of Britney Spears fans riled up for a good while

― frogbs, Wednesday, 2 November 2011 21:56 (thirteen years ago)

i love the AXE-baiting (they deserve it) but i kind of wish he'd pick some new targets every once in awhile

― vitameatawalloginavegamin (donna rouge), Wednesday, 2 November 2011 22:03 (thirteen years ago)

check out the "On Cinema" podcasts with Tim Heidecker if you haven't already.

― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 2 November 2011 22:15 (thirteen years ago)

the fact that he always has the same 4 tired subjects is what makes it extra funny

― Youth Ya Goon (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 2 November 2011 22:19 (thirteen years ago)

YES. i've been reading these incessantly for the past few days. love when he blends his vitriol with self-deprecation.

example:
I used it as a blanket. @Brillo: Did you see our ad featuring Brillo products in your Sunday newspaper this weekend? RT if you did!

― obster lob, Wednesday, 2 November 2011 23:46 (thirteen years ago)

seven months pass...

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t297/albrislin/5-4-2007-10.jpg

― am0n, Friday, 15 June 2012 20:14 (thirteen years ago)

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