Don't forget really topical shit that doesn't hold up over 2 months.

Shit, this couldn't be more true.

SARS, the Michael Jackson trial, MySpace, with some tranny/hooker/AIDS references sprinkled in for good measure

I think one of the worst cases for this was his March of the Penguins bit from Despicable. Despicable came out in 2011. March of the Penguins... 2005.

That really made laugh.

If Colin Quinn ever found this out ...

thats the thing. Because Jims specials are all about news events, they are kind of a one and done when watching. Nobodies going to be watching it in a year going "oh i wonder what he has to say about Cosby"

Great standup specials have rewatchability because they dont age. It would be like binge watching seasons of the view

You hear about this thing with the LA clippers owner?

One thing he has been working into his sets that might be relatively timeless is a backlash against PC culture. The only problem with that is DiPaolo has been doing that bit much better and for way longer.

Also he lies a lot like Opie. I don't believe that he doesn't watch other comedians he put that out there so he looks more creative than he really is he's very limited intellectually

Do yourself a favour and Google the definitions of the words lie and speculation

Nice try with the hate though, jimmy sucks peckahs

I had a chance to see him perform a few months back in a small comedy club. He was pretty good and seemed comfortable on stage. He also did about 15 min of crowd work that went over well.

That being said, his big comedy specials just dont seem to work. He always looks uncomfortable on stage and the jokes just feel awkward in delivery. Lil Jimmy likely has a problem with performing under pressure in front of a big crowds. I do like him on the radio and I think he would do better if he focused on his work over the airways rather than on stage.

I didn't realise he worked for the airways. What did he do? A pilot? Ooh, an air hostess??

tsss

Jim is great when I see him at the Cellar. His topical shit is actually timely, crowd work is funny and he's comfortable doing the usual schtick. I can't defend his specials though, it's mediocre at best.

Honestly, I think if he did a standup special like Bobby just released where he's in a tiny club doing his act, I think if he did that he'd get a much better reception. He'd come off more comfortable and natural and it'd probably improve his delivery as well.

His pervert shtick sucks ass. It might have been edgy, interesting, and funny in the 90s, but it's 2015. Liking chicks with dicks is not that out of the ordinary, certainly not shocking. As a fetish, it's right up there along with other socially accepted fetishes like feet.

In the age of the internet, Norton just isn't that sexually deviant, and that's the source of much of his comedy. Hell, I remember Norton saying something like, "I would never get a girl drinks before sleeping with her. That is just so scummy!"

Jimmy's perv gags need to be put to rest.

It might have been edgy, interesting, and funny in the 90s

Nope. The "edgy" guys were already telling true(ish), long, detailed, first-person perv stories in the '80s, and that shtick was burnt before the '90s were out. Evidence: Stanhope's Sicko (the one with the tranny punch, the banana lady, and "I fucked a midget" on it—any one of them better than Jimmy's entire standup career) came out in '99, and that was Doug's farewell to material he'd been polishing for years. And it was polished. That album is the end of that kind of comedy, best possible example, perfect delivery, self-aware without irony or regret, trail of laughs to every punchline, etc. So Doug moved on.

I wish Jimmy was stuck in that past. But compare the "Monster Rain" bit from the special to the story we know from the show. On record he speeds over it like a footnote. I don't know how non-O&A fans can even make sense of it. And his tranny material is always a quick "not that there's anything wrong with that blink blink blink" instead of a story. He has great stories, better than Stanhope's. And he doesn't fucking tell them! Because he has to make room on his fucking permanent record for Duck Dynasty talk and Slayton retreads?

He's made a terrible mistake.

touché

Stanhope is the shit, the main difference I can think of, is that jim doesn't have very many life experiences out of touring,the radio, and sex addiction. Whereas Doug seems to really TRY to enjoy life, with Bingo, his close friends, Bisbee, drugs, airport pub crawls, and that's just a few. Although I think with the exact same pool to pull from Stanhope is a better story teller.

Jim has made me laugh harder than anyone though, Ted Sheckler, Steve from Yellowstone, Uncle Paul... it just seems like off the cuff he's blindingly funny but when he runs something through that obsessive head of his, it just loses something.

I have tried to like Jim's stand up, but I never found it funny.

Seen one of his specials you've seen them all.

Bingo. Being gay when he was a kid, getting ass raped, hitting rock bottom when he was 18 and Trannys.

He came out by me a few months ago in a small club setting "to work on some things" and I thought he was great live..very loose and comfortable joking with the audience. I do agree with some of the posters here, his specials don't do anything for me. He is the exact opposite of what he is in an intimate setting: blinky, nervous, loud...not nearly as comfortable. One of his specials a few years ago was right after the Sandusky Scandal and it was incredibly dated then. No one would get the references a few years from now.

CK and Burr's specials are light years better.

I'm looking forward to some great material on how the March of the Penguins movie stinks in his new special.

I can't wait to hear about the Charlie Hebdo attack in his 2017 special.

To get good at anything, you have to invest a lot of time into it. Doesn't matter if you're trying to get good at math, drawing, or doing stand up comedy.

Jim has spent a lot of time getting good at improvisational comedy. That's what he's best at, and he's literally one of the best.

Jim has NOT spent a lot of time writing comedy. Between performing stand up, doing twenty hours of radio a week, sitting on airplanes, and (trying to) sleep, the dude literally has no time to write. Or get good at writing.

It's probably not a coincidence that his best stand up was in the era of 2003 and 2004. That was when he had a lot of time off work to write.

TLDR: Jimmy isn't a bad comedian. He's simply a busy dude that doesn't have time to write new material. So he recycles the same six jokes over and over again. He needs to hire some writers, like Amy Schumer has.

Number 2(tsssss) Always bothered me for some reason. Like... its one of those things you feel douchy attacking because everyone has their own experiences with substance abuse - but I've always found it silly that his "rock bottom" wasn't as bad as what most high school cheerleaders experience after a bottle of Bicardi on a Junior year cheerleading trip.

I agree, I liked him back in the early 2000s when he was always angry and would rip people apart, wish people death, make fun of people's appearance.

This to me is why American Degenerate wasn't that good. I felt like I've seen it all before and I don't particularly care for his joke delivery. It feels way over rehearsed.

It's his stage presence I can't get over. It's almost like his body movements and where he walks on stage are rehearsed. He just doesn't have natural organic movements on stage and each joke it delivered like they're gonna be capped with a "ta daaa"

Yes and the topics in his act are already dated by the time he films his specials

Are you saying that you're not looking forward to the completely still relevant Donald Sterling jokes?

I think of the "full retard" scene in Tropic Thunder, except with comedians. Ie, lots of comedians self deprecate, but Jim goes FULL fucking self deprecation. In his weird, awkward, forced stage voice. With a lot of material I feel like he would have audibly groaned at if someone else said it on the show.

I think a lot of it, now, is jealousy of his peers. Besides Vos and Bob Kelly, who let's face it, are about as far as they will go in entertainment, EVERYONE has passed Jimmy.

Amy, Louie, Patrice definitely would have. Kevin Hart. Colin Quinn doesn't even seem to care as much about financial success, but he TOWERS above Norton in comedic talent. And you can tell he LOVES Norton and wants him to do better, but Jim is just going to talk about how much he hates things, how he hates himself, and doing the weird ironic "Ohhh I'm a lucky boy!" schtick.

I find Jimmy's best work is when he tells stories about shit that's happened to him on stage. Like imagine if he did a 20 minute chunk on his teenage antics that he used to talk about on O&A.

The nuts thing about 90% of the O&A comics is the entitlement. If you're not doing the same unfunny material they are you're a sellout who is scared of being "edgey." If you get popular doing material they dont understand it's only because you're pandering to the liberals. It's why they're the same 10 guys doing the same 10 bits in the same 10 clubs getting their asses kicked in by guys half their age.

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Lol.

When did he start doing material on hypocritical censorship? That isn't a sarcastic question. I actually want to know when he started doing material on censorship.

Have you seen his stand up? I've never seen the touring "set" but I've seen him pop up here and there around New York at least ten times and he's always hyper topical, which is what the Comedy Cellar guys tend to do. It's always solid. If anything is holding him back it's that he (and several other comics on the show) can rely on half their audience being O&A fans

Good point. While the fact remains he will always have the rabod OnA fanbase that will support him...his fan base has probably not grown one iota beyond that base. He is probably in the same place he was 10 years ago...comfortable but wil never get beyond that.

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Dane Cook would qualify as a more successful and talented stand-up comedian

More successful? Certainly. More talented? Dane Cook doesn't make me laugh, so either he isn't talented or I don't appreciate his talent.

Spoken as someone who had clearly never seen his act