Over exposure kills Cook’s credibility

By Jon Juliano
Collegian Staff
October 10, 2007

I am not afraid to admit it: I, Jonathan Juliano am a hater. I’m the type of person that if you like something, I will tell you I liked it five years ago. When you blast Dispatch’s “The General” in your dorm room, I’ll scowl in disgust because I have already liked Dispatch in high school, realized they were overrated and moved on to better music like Keller Williams or Michael Franti. When you say you like Fifty Cent I will laugh in your face and tell you to listen to hip-hop that matters.

When you talk about how great the last Entourage episode was, I’ll tell you that the earlier seasons were much better and tell you to move on to a better show like The Wire. Whether or not Entourage is great or terrible, it doesn’t matter.  I say it is, therefore it is true, because my opinions and opinions that validate my own are the only ones that matter.

I am not attempting to embrace the fact that I am an elitist snob like John Cusack in High Fidelity. All I’m trying to say is it’s just how I am wired.  When I was in third grade and got stuck with thousands of pogs, I learned the hard way not to follow what everyone else likes. It works with everything from Beanie Babies to music, from Magic cards to Pokemon, and from movies to comedians. This brings me to why I am writing this article.

Dane Cook is not a terrible comedian, he is a terrible actor, and he is getting so famous and oversaturated that he has alienated his core fans.

I loved Cook in high school and during freshman year. His joke about turning around in people’s driveways hit a little too close to home. Oh man, remember when he talked about the Kool Aid guy: That was great. His album was the highest selling comedy album of all time for a reason. But that reason may be because he steals material. And anyone who has seen his latest HBO special will tell you that he lost his magic, much like David Blaine did on his last special.

When I found out that Cook may or may not have stolen material from more accomplished but less famous comedian Louis C.K, I completely lost what little respect I had for him. C.K. is funny because he isn’t vulgar to be vulgar, he uses vulgar to push the limit. He is brutally honest about how much he hates his four-year-old daughter and wife. Four-year- old kids are obnoxious and get on parents nerves, who knew. People that get married stop having sex, how original. He is not saying anything new, but he takes the joke much further than any comedian has before. Watching his Emmy-winning show, or his HBO special Shameless, makes me cringe a little because it is a little more personal than I want my friends to be, let alone a fat balding comedian.

I’m sure Cook’s popularity will give him a lot of credit, but does he have credibility?  C.K. has written for Chris Rock, won an Emmy, co-wrote I Think I Love My Wife and directed Pootie Tang. OK, maybe that will hurt his credibility a little bit, but still, he goes where not even the Diceman dreamed of going when it comes to vulgarity and still sounds smart.

His smart yet depressing and vulgar portrayal of life was actually too much for HBO and they sadly cancelled the funniest show on the channel, Lucky Louis. The fat middle-aged comedian is a genius and I am glad his show got cancelled so C.K can stay as under the radar as possible.  

julianoj1@lasalle.edu