Is The Internet Making Us More Stupider?

Fairly frequently, a TV executive in search of some cheap filler turns to the internet to cobble some viral clips and funny pictures together, not caring that a lot of the target audience has probably already seen the very same matetial online.

This is David Schneider’s live version of the idea (if that word doesn’t suggest a creativity that’s absent). He presents ‘found comedy’ from the web, strung along with some unenlightening commentary about how on the one hand the internet is good for us, and on the other hand it isn’t, and a suggestion of how social media leads us all to believe our every thought is important, when it probably isn’t. There’s the occasional joke of his own along the way, but most of the chuckles come second-hand from the screen grabs.

‘I’m obsessed by the internet,’ he says. ‘I’m on Twitter all the time’ – admitting it comes to the detriment of his work. Maybe he should have spent a little more time on his script here. and less time web-surfing. He could certainly do with applying more of the judicious editing which makes his own Twitter feed so entertaining to his stage work, for this monologue is verbose.

One of his points is that Facebook and Twitter is full of tedious pictures of people’s food or vacuous comments on the minutiae of daily life, but isn’t he guilty of the same – or possibly worst – by making a show of it, and demonstrating on a big screen to a tent full of strangers how boring and futile these things are.

He adds a few pretentious quotes to back up his points either that the internet is the new reality, allowing us to live a second life better than our real one – or that we are all becoming zombie-like slaves to the net. But it doesn’t amount to much.

Certainly, on the basis of this talk, the virtual David Schneider avatar who posts witticisms on Twitter is far more entertaining than the real thing. This show will likely be a disappointment for those who love his fine back catalogue as a comedy actor.

Review date: 22 Jul 2013
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Latitude