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Comedy Album of the Year: Scharpling & Wurster - The Art of the Slap

As a (literally) card-carrying member of the Friends of Tom, I can't be entirely objective about 'Art of the Slap', but suffice to say, it's S&W's most expansive and best compilation yet. Although 'Andy from Newbridge' is a little too gimmicky, the rest of it is genius, including a very angry postal worker/James Blunt fan; extreme cinema's Trent L. Strauss (who you may remember for directing 'You're Soaking in Her'); Horse from Jock Squad, and culminating in an epic, two part installment of "Mother 13: First band to play Mount Everest". Buy it now, youse creeps.

Elsewhere, it was a strong year for comedy albums. I enjoyed Patton Oswalt's 'Werewolves and Lollipops' for his combination of political disgust, pop cultural disgust, nerdiness, and his handling of a heckler during an otherwise sweet story about abortion. Maria Bamford, the only Comedienne of Comedy who came off respectably when I saw the documentary, put out a solid album called 'How to Win!' where her insecurities and different voices came to the fore. Despite his presence on 'Best Week Ever', a show I can't stand, I really liked 'Impersonal' by Paul F. Tomkins. There's no intro or outro, and a great story about goths. What's not to love? Meanwhile, all three of the above, plus others were featured on the compilation, which was ace, particularly Andy Daly's bit where he doesn't really tell any jokes, and Mindy Kaling's story about retarded people. Comedy Death Ray. Finally, Michael Ian Black's album 'I Am A Wonderful Man' was funny, too, although he was involved in the weirdest part of 'The Ten', so he gets a slight scowl from me.

[download Scharpling & Wurster - Philly Boy Roy (excerpt)]
[download Maria Bamford - Alicia Keys]
[download Michael Ian Black - Gay?]


[The Best Show on WFMU myspace / official site]
[Patton Oswalt myspace / official site]
[Maria Bamford myspace / official site]
[Paul F. Tomkins myspace / official site]
[Comedy Death Ray myspace / official site]
[Michael Ian Black myspace / official site]

2 comments:

Jim said...
on

The half arsed Gimmie Back My Head list of stuff I liked this year is now complete! Come along and point & laugh as appropriate.
While you do so, I'll be celebrating New Year in the fine Scottish tradition of drinking till I fall over, drinking some more, than sleeping where I fell.

Jim said...
on

Oh and that bit on Patton's album about getting fired from Best Week Ever? By far the funniest thing I heard all year.

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