Comedian

A short, fat gentleman goes to the psychiatrist. The doctor refers him to the examining table and asks what his problem is. The gentleman tells him that he feels sad, that he feels like the weight of the world has fallen on him, that he has no appetite for anything. The psychiatrist advises him that a circus has come to town, featuring the eminent clown Pagliacci, who has been bringing everyone to their knees with laughter, and that he should go and see it. The man on the couch bursts into tears: "But Doctor," he says through his tears, "I am Pagliacci."_____ It would have been such an excellent documentary if Jerry Seinfield and that asshole Orny had seemed like good comedians. That is, compared to the stand-up acts of, say, Bill Maher or Dylan Moran (who wouldn't dream of looking for the lost punchline of a joke on a piece of paper during a performance (God!) and repeating a thousand times that he just can't remember (maybe Moran would instead jump to a completely different topic at that point, as if he'd been talking about it for the past half hour). Plus, both of them (especially stand-up careerist Orny) are such awful, arrogant whiners that I just expected them to start comparing the value of their work to liberation army soldiers, astronauts, or those finding the cure for cancer. As such, the documentary is otherwise absolutely excellent, and doesn't adulate or take any kind of stand. (04/11/2012)