Shut Up You F**king Baby! Music

Average Rating:

Here, Cross has a more free-form rambling style than in his HBO special that occasionally dips into a self-indulgent one man show vibe. There's also a shrill cynicism that can be draining at times. However, these sets weren't performed in traditional comedy venues. Nor do I think it was intended for these to be anything less than what they appear to be, for in the liner notes Cross lets listeners know what to expect.

Two CDs makes for a lot of material and a lot of laughter. David Cross is extremely funny and right on target with much of his comedy. This album is welcome relief and counterpoint to the backwash of banal comedy and infotainment news pumped out by the mass media these days. Pointed commentary and brutal honesty about uncomfortable truths is what great social satire is all about. But as a professional stand-up comedian and fan of comedy I'm probably more than a bit biased. The tea may be bitter, but chances are you'll be doing a Danny Thomas spit take from lauging so hard.

Keep up the good work.

Much of the humor is extremely edgy -- his bits about the child victims of the bombing in Afghanistan and about Bush's executions of mentally retarded criminals can be difficult to listen to not bcause they contain "language" (which they do), but because the topics which they address very bluntly are so horrifying. When Cross, imitating an Afghani child receiving food aid, says "I got a pudding cup for every member of my family killed by American bombs, and now I have seven pudding cups!" the revulsion arrives from the truth at the heart of the matter -- the real obscenity of civilian deaths in war.

Cross deserves major kudos for having the cojones to use his humor to spread Truth. This is a wonderful CD.