**
BUDDY WILLIAMS
My Bad (2001)
Interscope Records

"I was drivin' up on Fish Factory Road and I seen this boy comin' at me on a skateboard. I lean out the window and I says, 'Get off the dang road' but the kid, he jest looks at me and goes, 'Hey! You're that dude from the radio! You're cool, man!' and then I showed him how cool I was 'cause I hit the little nappy-headed Pollock with my truck."

The audience on this live recording of Buddy Williams' stand-up antics roars at that non-joke, but my own reaction has been more bewilderment than anything else. Williams' jokes, celebrating conformity, the values of the old world, and uninhibited chauvanism seem to be a strange new (?) breed of humor that defies all formulatic logic of what constitutes this type of comedy. His jokes have no punchlines, no setups, they're just random stories, and he emits them with the enthusiasm of Jerry Seinfeld on a did-ya-ever-notice kick.

Williams rose to fame with his daily interludes on the syndicated right-wing talk show "Dr. Sunshine's Morning News." His rambling filibusters complaining of misguided youth and working mothers made him a target for liberal pundits and a cult favorite among college students, who seemed to revel in the irony of it all, or maybe actually agreed with Buddy's exaggerated sentiments. Eiter way, when Buddy Williams embarked on his first U.S. tour in 1998 -- captured on the multi-platinum OH, MY ACHING HEAD -- ticket sales were oustanding, with no HBO or film career to help.

Unlike nearly every other comedy CD made today, MY BAD doesn't carry a parental advisory label. That's because Williams uses the phrase "nappy-headed Pollock" with the intensity, fervor, and frequency his peers reserve for "fuck," "asshole," "bitch," and the like. That questionable freedom from the usual doldrums ends there because the material is as boring as on any other stand-up comedian's wrongheaded bid for record sales.

Like so many others, he breaks out the piano, first to make fun of rap with the title cut ("Want somethin' for nothin' so I can buy new pants / I ain't no fad / I just robbed your house and raped your daughter / Oops, my bad!"), then to deliver a plea for "hick values" that sets the crowd howling like the audience on a MARRIED WITH CHILDREN episode. I do find it somewhat amusing to hear him crooning about the virtues of "ham hawks" and "turnips," but probably not for the reason Buddy intended.

Everything else here is (even) worse. Despite the undeniably abysmal quality of the humor, the 64 year-old is fast becoming one of the most famous comedians in the country. Maybe it's the novelty of a geezer ranting about his plans to "grab a beer and drive up to Jabbertown, talk to the black girls." Maybe it's the fact that, by performing strictly at county fairs and similarly humble venues, he's able to communicate directly with the ideal audience. Maybe it's just a natural reaction to the done-to-death Mars and Venus formulas in just about every modern stand-up comedian's act. It does beat Jeff Foxworthy, after all. Thing is, I don't know what a ten-minute explanation of "Jabbertown Road and Jabbertown Community" is, but "comedy" isn't the word.

Ultimately, Buddy's performance was futile. This album's unfortunate release date -- September 11, 2001 -- sealed its fate as a sign of the subsequent Death of Comedy that has since landed us in such a dire condition. In that sense, one can hardly help but cry at the degree to which the world of this album is gone for good.


Tracklist:
1. (What's So Funny 'Bout) Mullets?
2. Kids
3. Stay at Home
4. Drug Dealer
5. My Bad
6. Watchin' TV
7. Snuffy Smith
8. Coors Lite
9. Cigarette Fight
10. My Wife
11. Jabbertown
12. Germans
13. Europeans
14. Yankees
15. Canadians
16. Other Uneducated People
17. Skateboardin' Pollock
18. Ham Hawks an' Chitlins (Hick Values)
19. President Bush
20. Mud Pies
21. Outro