I don't offend easily. Especially when it comes to humour. Tell me an off-colour joke, whether it be racist, sexist, homophobic, religious, or just plain filthy, so long as the punchline is clever, chances are that I'll laugh at it.
And what if those same jokes happen to be told by a moderately-attractive, innocent-looking, seemingly-sweet, young, jewish girl?
Well, ladies and gentlemen, that is how Lady Crushes are born.
Sure, the formula is simple: A pretty girl with a dirty mouth. On paper it seems relatively juvenile and maybe even a little gimmicky. And maybe for some it is. But I've laughed too many times as a result of Ms. Silverman's lewd tongue to do her the disservice of keeping her off of this prestigious list.
So how does she do it? Well, even though you know going into it that most of her humour thrives on being offensive, you still let your guard down. And not just because she's a girl and seems so bubbly and sweet, but because she doesn't embellish the punchlines. Her delivery is deceivingly deadpan (not Leslie Nielsen deadpan, but deadpan none-the-less). So, once your guard is down and you think you're just listening to a normal story, she'll use her well-honed comedic timing to slide in something excessively vulgar, and yet still, you won't always catch it at first. You sort of listen for a couple more beats before you could practically cue the clichéd record scratch sound effect and go: 'Wait a second, did she just say what I think she did?'
It's called Shock Value kids, and she wields it like a hammer.
Sure, it's kind of gimmicky. Sure, sometimes it seems like a bit of 'shock over substance'. But most of the time - when she's really 'on' - and finds that perfect balance, there's few people that can do what she does. And do it so damned well.
Unfortunately she's never found a proper vehicle for her humour outside of stand up. Her run on Saturday Night Live ended after one season (via a fax no less) when none of her sketches made it past dress rehearsal. Then, for some reason, they had her and Eugene Levy play the straight roles on Greg the Bunny, which, when a show squanders it's two biggest comedic talents like that, it's pretty much doomed to fail. And finally, although it came the closest to bringing her brand of humour to television, The Sarah Silverman Program was still cancelled despite a desperate campaign to keep it alive.
Which all just goes to show that she's definitely not for everyone. Television executives in particular. Obviously when your entire style of comedy is predicated on trying to offend people, that tends to be the case. But I'm not a television executive, I don't offend easily. I do however, develop Lady Crushes. And I've developed a pretty decent one on Sarah Silverman.
Proof of Awesomeness:
moderately-attractive...pretty generous don't you think?
ReplyDeleteFar be it for me to criticize the writer of this blog. However, this chosen "proof of awesomeness" clip, is a perfect example of how her shtick isn't funny at all, it's just wasted life watching her stumble for lines. I might suggest that her humor is for the...how shall I say? Simple man.