Lewis Black – Red, White & Screwed DVD

Just when you think Lewis Black cannot possibly get angrier, funnier, and more incisive, he declares himself Red White and Screwed for his 2006 HBO special / stand-up comedy DVD.

Recorded the same year as the Comedy Central The Carnegie Hall Performance stand-up comedy CD set, this 75 minute rant on America, its people, and its politicians is not only superior to the Carnegie Hall show but Red White & Screwed is the best Lewis Black performance to date (2007).

Lewis Black always walks a dangerous line doing topical and political comedy in a world where events seem to move at lightning speed. Then again, as this stand-up comic points out in Red, White & Screwed, there is no journalism anymore, just competing talking head spinmeisters. How else can you explain no journalist ever picked up on the fact Dick Cheney shot his buddy while hunting in a gated community for animals?

This comedy DVD could have been filmed at the Kennedy Center but it has a 41 FPH limit (fucks per hour) limit and Black broke that limit in his last special. Interestingly, the Kennedy Center had no problem taking Black’s, HBO’s and the audience’s money if nobody mentioned where the show was taking place: this is exactly the kind of surrealist folly Lewis Black likes to point out and make fun of.

There are many superb, extremely funny, and very smart moments here. My favorite is Lewis Black’s explanation for creationists, “These are people who think The Flintstones is a documentary.”

Lewis Black Red, White and Screwed features some material available on The Carnegie Hall Performance but in a much funnier and tighter form. This is especially true of the routines on gay marriage, the congressional correspondent dinner, and Terry Schiavo. His George Bush barbs are also much more pointed and on target. Interesting what six more months can do to material.

This is a stand-up comedy DVD that should be put in a time capsule so people a hundred years from now can not only enjoy Lewis Black,  the best stand-up comic of the last twenty-five years, but also realize what a totally insane place and maddening times their ancestors lived in.

Red White & Screwed
Lewis Black
Stand-up Comedy DVD
HBO Video 2006
75 minutes + extras

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