Jay Mohr Stand-Up

What the bejesus has happened to television sitcoms? Attention: network executives, it’s not that complicated. Seinfeld and Frasier reruns are on every six minutes – so grab a pen and take some notes. All you do is take intelligent characters and give us a story that makes sense to the characters who live them. Pepper the story with jokes that fit their personalities, give them goals, and sprinkle in obstacles – and don’t write dialogue comprised of shifitzle that nobody with a brain in their head would ever say!

Last year’s crop of crap has accomplished the impossible – it’s made Jay Mohr unfunny. How is that even possible? I’ll tell you how it’s possible… it’s the writing! When Jay Mohr does his brilliant stand-up act, he takes real life situations and emphasizes the hilarious details. It was a unique observation he made a few years back that swimming with the dolphins can lead to inadvertently arousing them, and subsequently lead that swimmer to becoming one of the few people on earth who know the sensation of being assaulted by a dolphin cock. Outrageous? Yes. But smart and believable! As opposed to Gary Unmarried which wants us to believe that an overweight twelve-year old boy (not named Jack Osbourne) is getting laid by telling girls that he likes their hair. Please – save that sensibility for Hannah Montana and Zack and Cody and keep it off prime time. If you want funny, put Jay Mohr on stage for ten minutes let him give us his real opinion of Gary Unmarried.

“But wait,” you might say, “maybe it’s not the writing. Maybe Jay Mohr just isn’t delivering. After all, the late great stand-ups Richard Jeni and George Carlin (not to mention Chris Rock) have been understandably accused of flunking out of the actors studio.” No way, I answer back. Jay’s turns in Jerry McGuire and Go put to rest any rumors that he is anything less than charismatic and believable when armed with decent material.

Yes, Entourage, Family Guy and The Simpsons consistently give us the intelligent farce we crave… but how do you explain Do Not Disturb – on the heels of Carpool? I say the networks just aren’t trying! Either that, or when Jerry O’Connell sold his soul to the devil to wrest Rebecca Romaine away from John Stamos, he thought the devil could give him a sitcom career as well.