Dane Cook fans will be disappointed in Cook’s latest special, for real humor is substituted with sexual innuendo (and blatant sexual references) that makes the audience uncomfortable and gives the network censor a run for his money.
The Beginning
Like almost every comedy special, Isolated Incident begins with a long, racist rant involving politics and our new president, Barack Obama. Though this seems to be going somewhere at first, the joke gets boring very quickly and the viewer loses interest. While his or her mind is wandering, they begin to wonder why Dane Cook is on such a small stage in a tiny nightclub, since most of his other specials take place on a large stage in front of (or in the middle of) thousands of people, but this is never explained.
Sad Story
The audience gives Cook a second chance when he begins telling jokes about cell phones, which are relatable to almost everyone. Then, before one has even stopped laughing from the previous joke, Cook switches to a monologue about his mother’s and father’s deaths, which leaves the audience unsure whether they should laugh or not. The uncomfortable feeling is left over after he finishes speaking about his parents’ deaths, and he then moves into jokes so obscene that one wonders how the special is even allowed to be aired on a the network.
Later on, Cook revisits the sadness in his life and attempts to make jokes about it, but again, it only makes the viewer uncomfortable. Interspersed with this is a myriad of jokes about porn, which make the viewer uncomfortable in a completely different way. A third type of discomfort is added when Cook begins to try to interact with the audience members. He asks them intensely personal questions and then goes on a rant with jokes that make not only the people he is directly talking to or about embarrassed, but make the viewer embarrassed for them.
Disappointed in Dane
While some of the jokes are humorous, most of them fall flat or come off as just sad. The Dane Cook in Isolated Incident seems like a much older, much bitterer man than the man from Vicious Circle and Rough Around the Edges. Perhaps Cook needs a bigger audience to be the great showman his fans know him to be, or perhaps he just needs to come up with a set of jokes that does not make the viewer wonder whether they should laugh or go get some Kleenex to get ready for a good cry.
Isolated Incident is available on DVD wherever movies are sold. It also reruns sporadically on Comedy Central. For more information, go to comedycentral.com.
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