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Jim Gaffigan: King Baby
R1 - America - Paramount Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Adam Palcher (25th May 2009). |
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The Show
 I think it’s funny that the DVD case of "Jim Gaffigan: King Baby" warns you with a parental advisory stating that the program is "recommended for mature audiences" and there is "explicit content." If I remember correctly the closest thing Mr. Gaffigan had as far as explicit content was saying the word “ass” about an hour into his act. Now I have no problem with a comedian who has a clean act, I don’t need an irreverent amount of dirt to make me think a comedian is funny, but it most certainly helps. Stand-up comedy is a past time in this country that has been looked onto and adored as a form of entertainment into it’s own. The comedians that stand the test of time and make the greatest impact are one who truly have something to say or at very least have a unique edge to their routine, Jim Gaffigan has neither of these traits. "King Baby" is the follow up to Gaffigan’s platinum selling album "Beyond The Pale" so he obviously has a following and a great deal of people who think he is a funny man. With a pretty healthy history of acting in television and films under his belt he is one of those faces that is recognizable but it’s because he is in lots of small roles in many things, the ultimate “that guy”, if you will. With a routine generally based on how lazy he can be his routine got pretty old pretty fast. It was hard for me to sit through a 10-minute routine about bowling when it wasn’t really that funny in the first 2 minutes. Now, I did chuckle once or twice but the general consensus is that Gaffigan isn’t really bringing anything new to table of comedy, most of what he says is pretty generic and is written in a form that reflects what he talks about for 71 minutes, laziness. By far the biggest turn off for me during his act is his constant high-pitched voice. Using this voice to pretend to reference what he thinks the crowd is thinking of what he is saying on stage. I know that sounds confusing so let me give you an example. Jim Gaffigan states in an obnoxious high-pitched voice “Is he really telling more jokes about bacon, when is he going to stop? He’s being talking for ten minutes about bacon.” So Gaffigan is basically criticizing himself through his routine to the audience. Not only does this seem like a waste of time to me, it’s just plain annoying. I love bacon as much as the next guy but as far as stand-up comedy goes Jim Gaffigan does not sizzle.
Video
This DVD is presented in standard definition with a 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio. Being a product of Comedy Central this is shot as your basic one-hour stand up routine, nothing fancy and everything was cut and edited to a proper standard.
Audio
The audio track is presented in English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound and English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo. The 5.1 mix is even and standard with a mostly dialogue DVD on the front end and the audience laughter mostly on the back. Subtitles are not presented on this DVD.
Extras
Paramount has included a featurette, four shorts, two interviews and three promo spots. Below is a closer look. "Pale Force" is a featurette that was originally presented on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" (1993-2009), it’s basically three shorts of the superhero group "Pale Force" which both Jim and Conan fight crime by shooting lasers out of their nipples. The 3 shorts are named “Sidekicks”, “Land Of The Robots”, and “Pale Christmas”. I was really hoping this would be hilarious because I love Conan, but alas, relatively stupid and boring. Total run time is 14 minutes 2 seconds. "Our Massive Planet" these are four shorts that, apparently, became a huge internet cult hit where Gaffigan is interviewed as Professor Tergeon getting asked questions about the earth and animals and basically improving the answers purposely sounding like an idiot. This reminds me of something that Will Ferrell would do. Shorts are named “Credentials”, “Primates 2”, “Zebras”, and “Dogs” with a run time of 7 minutes and 25 seconds. Never-Aired British interview is a Comedy Central spot of a fake interview with a fake British news program with Jim giving history of his life and career and promoting his upcoming “Sexy Tour”, some funny moments. Run time of 6 minutes and 37 seconds. XM/Sirius interview, is an interview with Gaffigan on the XM/Sirius show "Unmasked." The host asks a series of breaking in questions about his life and career and then takes questions from the audience. He is actually an interesting guy who is naturally funny, but like I said above I just couldn’t get into his written material. 26 minute 33 seconds run time. "Atlanta Meet And Greet On Demand" promo spot, is an update of his touring schedule with “The Sexy Tour” including interviews with Jim and fans meeting him and taking pictures throughout the segment. This is a spot for Comcast's "On Demand" running for 9 minutes and 49 seconds. "The Sexy Tour Friday Night Stand=Up" promo spot is another Comedy Central spot for "Friday Night Stand-Up" with some of the same bits we get on above features with Jim behind-the-scenes of sets and photo shoots being his smarmy self for “The Sexy Tour”. Total run time 11 minutes and 20 seconds. "Beyond The Pale Tour Friday Night Stand-Up" promo spot, is yet another Comedy Central spot for "Friday Night Stand-Up" for his “Beyond The Pale” tour with Gaffigan trying to be Will Ferrell once again to promote the tour. Total run time 10 minutes and 17 seconds
Overall
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