Cracking Up with Cook Popular Stand-Up Comic Takes the Stage at the Patriot Center

By John Powell, Asst. Sports Editor

Controversy is apparently wrapped in jeans and a t-shirt. When people look at comedian Dane Cook, he makes people laugh or people hate.

From his humble beginnings of performing in a laundromat for his first standup show, Cook has gained international acclaim after appearing on Comedy Central’s Premium Blend in 1998.

His standup has given him roles in more than 20 movies and TV shows going back to 1997. He has appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman, Comedy Central Presents, and has even hosted Saturday Night Live.

His five albums are consistently funny, and his second album, Retaliation, debuting at the number four spot in the Billboard 200, making it the most successful comedy album since the release of Steve Martin’s A Wild and Crazy Guy in 1978.

Adding to the Steve Martin and Dane Cook relationship is the fact that Martin’s comedy was what inspired Cook to get into comedy in the first place.

Cook’s fame and success has not come without criticism, though. Comedians such as Lewis Black have openly said they did not like Cook’s comedy. “[He] doesn’t make me laugh at all, in any way, shape or form,” said Black.

This criticism has made its way down to the fan level, as many college students either simply do not find him funny or take offense in the fact that his comedy comes from making other people in Cook’s life the subject, target or even victim of his jokes.

However, before Cook came on stage Saturday, up-and-coming comedian Robert Kelly pumped the crowd up with jokes about weight, even his own, as well as jokes of male-female interactions.

This readied the crowd for Cook, who ran to the stage between lines of massive security guards, as the near sell-out crowd of thousands screamed section by section for his arrival.

Cook came out with jokes about going to sports pits, comparing them to an extraordinarily aggressive church, complete with the praying and a cuss word sprinkled throughout.

He spoke of actions we all take, deleting people’s phone numbers from our cell phones as if we were deleting them from our world.

A fan of forensics shows, Cook came up with an ingenious means of committing a murder with a knife. After committing the murder, first wipe the knife off then simply break into a neighbor’s house and put it in their knife drawer. No one ever checks his own knives, according to this logic.

He went on to make fun of the awkward paparazzi pictures of people, specifically Britney Spears getting out of limousines. He refused to leave the sexual awkwardness out of the show, going on about “jerkin’ off on the top of the fridge,” and “sweating like Shaq at the foul line.”

After the show, as people were leaving, he came out again for an encore
appearance, humbly thanking the crowd for their support.

He read a hate letter from anonumous@yahoo.com, one that motivated him to give the best shows of his life.

After explaining how Anonymous e-mailed him back and apologized for the e-mail, he showed the audience the e-mail and how he responded with a cruel joke of his own.

The crowd erupted and just before he went off stage, Cook vowed, “Virginia, I will be back.”