Last night Jon Stewart brought it home. He nailed it for me last night. I laughed until I cried. It was so subtle. Did you catch it?
Paul Rudd, "I have a feeling that in the entire history of Comedy Central I’m the first person that’s ever said ‘pump out a Rene Auberjonois‘"
Jon Stewart, "There’s actually uh Carlos Mencia does it as a recurring bit."
Paul Rudd, "I knew I’d heard it before!"
So why’s it so funny? Read this exceptional article, Take the Funny and Run in full to really understand the joke. For those that don’t want to click over, here’s the brief:
Rogan, who refers to Mencia as "Carlos Menstealia," claims it’s common knowledge among his fellow funny men that Mencia takes bits from other comics and performs them as his own. [Source]
Anyone who has ever performed stand-up is familiar with the red light, the universal signal that warns dawdlers it’s time to wrap things up. In the ’80s, comics at the Hollywood Improv came up with a novel use for the light. When shining steadily, it had the conventional meaning. But if the bulb began sputtering, it was the comedic equivalent of an air-raid siren, warning performers to lock up their original material immediately unless they wanted to lose it to a master thief.
Robin Williams, comedy’s most notorious joke rustler, was in the house.
…the famed Comedy Store in Los Angeles has even instituted a Mencia early-detection signal similar to the Improv’s for Williams, though considerably less high-tech. "Every time he walks in, the guys in the cover booth just start yelling ‘Mencia’s here!’"
[Source]
That’s funny.
After reading on Joe Rogan’s blog, and watching videos of Menstealia’s bits… I refuse to watch or listen to him. Channels get turned and radios go off.
I relate to the joke theft. Right out of college I was waiting tables at Shoney’s. I taught a friend of mine using a routine I was developing. I told him I was going to perform it in our Old City (a part of our downtown with several restaurants and specialty shops) on Friday. On Thursday he went to the same spot, same corner, I had chosen and performed my routine word for word. It takes the wind out of you. Fortunately, the Friday night crowd was different and my performance went well. I juggled on that street corner for about 12 weeks for a couple of hours on Friday and Saturday nights. Made about $50 a night which was pretty cool at the time.
Content theft has a similar bad feeling. I worked on my post titled Whchall find winda leave da house for about a week before I felt it worthy to publish. Shortly afterwards about 3 sites stole the content verbatim. (of course, the post is so self-referential that the theft probably helped my search engine ranking more than hurting anything else).
Two things I despise more than most anything else are theft and vandalism.
i get the explanation, but why is it called to “pump out a Rene Auberjonois”?
whats got to do with Rene Auberjonois?
Paul Rudd came out wearing a tuxedo and tried to explain it by joking he was excited about the upcoming Tony’s. When it fell flat he kept going explaining he wanted to see Joseph Bologna win for Rappaport (which doesn’t appear on his credits) and when that fell flat he carried it further suggesting that he considered going with [instead of Joe Bologna] Rene Auberjonois for Orphans (which doesn’t appear on his credits). Very esoteric humor. I like it a lot!
[…] Hot. Paul Rudd & Jon Stewart. My laptop almost exploded from […]