Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn

This is a great Show. Colin Quinn to me was okay as an anchor of Weekend Update, but this showcases his talent in a great way.

Some people have already compared it to "Politically Incorrect" which by first looks it is sort of. A group of 4 that talk about the issues right? But keep looking and you will find that there are no Experts, No Politicians and authors telling America How it should be run. Just Comedians that talk about how issues effect them. Then they add in for some flavor and insult each other, but all in good fun, cause the group members are all friends to each other (And Quinn).

They normally Do 2 topics of debate, then Colin does what he calls the "3rd Act" which he does a bit of his act or something fun with the Headlining guest. The 4th act is a group activity in which they make up their own comments to a topic earlier in the show.

It Follows "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central Every Mon-Thurs night. Great for everyone (that is if you don't like being Politically Correct.)

This show was very politically incorrect, which made it not only one of the most entertaining shows on the air, but also one of the healthiest. The ideological repression of Liberalism, especially the extreme California variety, is unhealthier than Victorian culture and life under the Taliban combined, and along the same lines.

And one symptom would be that this clever show was pulled despite its success. If you want to see how good it was, just do a search for the title on Google, and see how many pages turn up with Liberals saying it's the most dangerous, harmful TV since Limbaugh got yanked. Remember, negative comments are the best indicator that a show is successful.

On this show, little or nothing was taboo, which is how normal human conversation itself should be. The guests constantly mocked stereotypes, insulted anyone famous they could think of, and destroyed every socio-political event and idea that they came across, good or bad. It was a more entertaining...and informative...version of the McLaughlin Group. It was everything Bill Maher ever told himself Politically Incorrect could be -- Maher being SO politically correct that he was never able to come close, himself. One can only patronize female guests over how tough it is to be a woman in a sexist society, whine about how evil capitalists are destroying the environment, et cetera /so/ many times before you lose your non-PC credentials.

That final segment they did each day, with the contrived sketches, was horrible, though. A total waste of precious time they could have spent battering some conventional wisdom.

If this ever comes out on DVD, I'm there. If Quinn, or any of several regular guests, or anyone else with gonads, ever makes another show like this, I'll follow it with stalker-like enthusiasm.

Finally we've got something to watch at 11:30. This is, usually, a very funny show. I say usually, because the success of the show is based greatly on who they have on the show every day. Because, quite frankly, Colin Quinn is not funny, and he's the only one on the show every night. He doesn't have anything funny to say, and when he does have a good comment, he messes up the delivery and stutters into his obligatory apology.

Anywho, when they have their best on the show (i.e. Greg Giraldo, Jim Norton, Nick DiPaulo, etc.) it's one of the funniest on TV. And when Jon Stewart was on, I almost p***ed myself I was laughing so hard. And the surprising part is, these guys actually have intelligent things to say. The only thing I think they should cut out is the "third act", where Colin takes over with some truly awful pre-written material that makes me cringe more than laugh. They should just let the comedians rip each other apart for an extra 7 minutes every episode.

When I first started watching this show, my impression was that it was getting off to a creaky start, the format was unwieldy, and Colin didn't seem to control it very well. I couldn't write it off, however, because I kept getting huge, healthy belly-laughs from it, and you've got to be grateful for that. Every evening I would look at the clock, think it's getting late and that I would not stay tuned, but always wound up doing so. I've built up a great affection for this show since then, and I'm glad to see that Comedy Central seems to be giving it a good chance to build a following. The post-"Daily Show" timeslot doesn't hurt, either.

It's not always easy to read whether an opinion expressed there is genuine or something said just for comedic effect, which to me is part of the fun. On the whole, and with some exceptions, the comedians on Colin's panel don't seem the sort of self-righteous windbags you'd see on a typical "Politically Correct with Bill Maher" show, a program to which this has been compared. Stupidity stated with conviction is usually just stupid, not funny. But even the most ill-informed of Colin's panelist can make me laugh while simultaneously p***ing me off, and there's always someone there to lob it right back at them to good effect.

Colin himself always appears to be incredibly ill at east, struggling with the prepared material on the show, and often seems to apologize in advance for the likelihood of some particular bit of comedy bombing. I'm not sure if there's any calculation in that, to get the crowd on his side, but I can't help liking Colin and rooting for him. If I'm being manipulated, so what? To quote John Belushi in "Animal House," it don't cost nothin'. Actually, I don't see any great need for including the troublesome prepared material in the so-called "third act," and would just as soon see the panel continue riffing on various topics during that time. I'd keep the various prepared closing rants each panelist delivers at the end, though, as they're often very funny and inventive, and give a good idea of the typical style of each comedian.

I really enjoy the vulgar camaraderie of these unruly comedic road warriors, and Colin's sometimes frustrated efforts to preside over them. To me, he's the perfect man for the job.

For so long I had watched a similar format of this show which was great called "Politically Incorrect" with Bill Maher. Bill was articulate, informed and made valid arguments for his opinions yet let the panel speak their minds as well and so the show was balanced, fair and funny. Colin Quinn for "Tough Crowd" just can't cut it and is quite the opposite of Bill Maher. Colin doesn't take the time or have the intelligence to stay informed of key political and social issues. Whenever he does "try" to bring up an issue through his babbling of fragmented sentences and incomplete thoughts, the comic panel's eyes dart back and forth to each other, as they scramble to put together a comment to cover Colin's butt because he never really asked a question throughout his ramblings in the first place. Colin then gets flustered and either brings up the race card or lashes out at one of the comedians. Colin is as articulate and eloquent as a man with Turrets Syndrome without the expletives. It seems as if Colin has to "cram" 30 minutes before the show to try once more to sound informed. I think Colin graduated "Sum Cum Laude" at "Take it in the Brown" University, hence his habit of "cramming", which is probably how he got the gig at "Tough Crowd" in the first place. Has anyone seen Bill Maher? We all miss him.