WTF: Cook's violent misogyny shocks even fellow comics

• ‘Mark Twain was as brilliant as Ricky Gervais.’ Eddie Brill – who this week lost his job as David Letterman’s talent booker.

• American comics have rounded on stadium-filler Dane Cook – who was never all that popular on the circuit in the first place – after what appears to have been an appalling set at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles on Wednesday. Stand-up Ali Walker tweeted: ‘Glad Dane Cook stopped by the Improv tonight, otherwise I'd never hear the story about how he “chainsaw-fucked” a “disgusting whore's cunt”.’ Meanwhile TJ Miller gave a more detailed description of the ‘vicious, misogynistic, cruel, and arrogant’ act saying: ‘The hubris of this man unfortunately led to his fall, but I'm afraid he is a damaged man and well, that's about it. He [is] certainly not a comedian… Watching him try and work through his own shit on stage when he is saying, ‘“Go fuck a dirty whore. That's the best therapy.” He talked about not paying for an abortion. He talked about finding some whore to fuck to take out his anger at his ex-girlfriend. He talked about how girls would do anything for him “because I'm me”. He got mad when people were texting. “Dane Cook is onstage,” he said. “Have some fucking respect.” Cook himself hasn’t commented on the night, but retweeted the praise of three fans who were at the show.

• A round on BBC One’s daytime quiz Pointless this week revolved around famous comedy double acts. Well,we say ‘famous’: One contestant thought David Mitchell's double act partner was ‘Howard Webb’ and then the next said that Stephen Fry's was ‘Hugh Lloyd’.

• Comic Sanderson Jones became a world record holder this morning. He and his pal Mikey Lear – along with three other couples – have hugged for 24hrs 44 mins to earn their place in the record books, beating the previous record by ten minutes. Chortle caught up with them halfway thought their attempt at St Pancras station:
  

• The audience at Stephen Merchant’s stand-up gig in Los Angeles this week included Colin Firth, Kate Beckinsale and Emily Blunt. Hello, Ladies indeed...

• A newspaper columnist has called for pickets at Chris Addison’s shows – and for the audience to heckle him ‘without mercy’ – for his role in the Direct Line adverts. Writing in the Independent, financial journalist Simon English takes issue with ‘the annoying insurance salesman... who likes to dabble with jokes in his spare time’ after Direct Line (part of taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland) was fined £2.2million for forging documents. English argued: ‘There's a case for being told what [Addison] is paid by the bank and possibly demanding it back. At the very least, his gigs must be heckled without mercy. He's playing Milton Keynes next week. We should picket it. See if he's really got a sense of humour.’

• ‘I used to attend a lot of red carpet events until I realised you just end up cradling a glass of Vimto, talking to someone from EastEnders.’ Frank Skinner.

• To The Hospital, a private members club in Central London, this week for a rehearsed reading of Circuit, a new sitcom being hawked around TV companies by comedian Deborah Frances-White, best known for her touring show How To Get Almost Anyone To Want To Sleep With You. It’s set in the world of stand-up, with characters including a disillusioned fortysomething veteran (played in this run-through by Michael Legge), a good-looking, fiercely ambitious twentysomething newcomer (Ed Weeks) and a slightly aloof female comic who says jokes ‘aren’t her thing (Sara Pacoe). Oh, and one character is reviewer by the unlikely name of ‘Steve Bennett’ who works for a website called ‘Chortle’, played by Dan Mersh of The Trap, presumably because George Clooney wasn’t available. Unexpectedly, this entirely fictional character got a rather easy ride, simply fuelling the stand-ups’ neurosis as they feverishly press ‘refresh’ on their Chortle page. And in one scene Bennett forces the ambitious newbie to perform his set in a car park, after the comic corners him and begs for a review. Now that gives us an idea...

• Meanwhile Chortle held a soiree of its own this week – a screening of the Roman Polanski-directed comedy Carnage, starring Kate Winslet, among others, at the swanky Soho Hotel. Guests included Richard Herring, Morgana Robinson, Andi Osho and Ardal O’Hanlon – who should already be familiar with the film, since he starred in the stage version in Dublin last year.
  

• This was posted on YouTube as ‘Comedian FAIL, then handles a heckler.’ We’d probably agree with the first part. It’s all a bit dull...
  

• Tweets of the week:
  Dan (@ TwelveTens ): Germaine Greer seems a lot more placid than her sister Anne.
  Rob Delaney (@robdelaney ): This is embarrassing but with Wikipedia down, can any of you tell me where/what a "clitoris" is?
  Jason (@ NickMotown ): I was in a band called Arse once. I thought we had our own sound, but stupid people couldn't tell us apart from Elbow.

SOURCES: New York Times, The Onion AV Club, Pointless, Chortle, MailOnline, The Independent, YouTube, Sunday Mercury, Chortle, Chortle, Twitter

Published: 20 Jan 2012