DIE ACTOR DIE

I can’t decide if this is real, a prank or just stupid.

Apparently, one of the comedians featured in The Rolling Stone Comedy issue, was pissed at the other comedians because they were featured in The Rolling Stone Comedy Issue. Here’s the letter and then head over to Jossip to read more of the story.

Dear Editors,

I am one of the comedian featured in this year’s Comedy Issue. I won’t say which one, for reasons that will soon become apparent.

The issue made me sick. The majority of the people in it are, for the most part, the worst sort of comedy whores, and you, as a magazine, are a pimp. I don’t know a more polite or politic way to put it. They soulleslly perform what should be sacred rituals in return for sums of money. Whores.

Here is what comedy should do, what it needs to do: challenge assumptions about the society, about the planet, about the species, symbolically threaten those in power so that they always remember the powerless, refocus attention on human weakness as a way of restoring human strength. Great comedy is political by its very nature. These people are corporate. They work for NBC or CBS or HBO and so, it seems, do you. I don’t want to take a shot at anyone in particular, because the problem isn’t in the particulars. It’s in the general idea: a gutless world with gutless media chronically it gutlessly.

As I say, this isn’t sour grapes. I was in the issue. But it hurts me at my heart to see a bunch of effing stupid clowns carrying the torch for American comedy, which has the potential to be (and has been) one of the most powerful cultural, psychological, and (even) artistic forces on the planet. Albert Brooks (I’m not him — that should be a clue) says that the Internet is cripplign comedy because it doesn’t give performers time to develop their acts. I spread the blame to you, to them, to networks, to suits, to boardrooms, to peacocks, to pinheads. Comedy used to rock and roll, at least. It was about getting into everyone’s face, not showing your own.

Shame on you. I hope you rot. I mean that with all the love in the world. I doubt you’ll have the guts to print this. Remember? Gutless.

Sincerely,

Me

So, here are the comedians in the issue: Russell Brand, Dave Letterman, Tina Fey, Billy Crystal, Sarah Silverman, Robin Williams, Tracy Morgan, Don Rickles, Martin Short, Maragret Cho, Albert Brooks, Mindy Kaling, Steven Wright, Dane Cook, George Lopez, Larry David, Phyllis Diller, Bill Maher, Ray Romano, Richard Belzer, Steve Coogan, Amy Poehler, Craig Ferguson, David Cross, Cedric The Entertainer, Wanda Sykes, Gilbert Gottfried, Jimmy Fallon, Danny McBride, Zach Galifianakis, Susie Essman, Eric Idle, Julie Louis-Dreyfus, Katt Williams, Eddie Izzard, Matt walsh, Will Forte, Pasul Scheer, Robert B. Weide, Bill Lawrence, David Wain, Garry Shandling, Adam Herz and Mel Brooks.

Take your pick (HINT: It’s not Albert Brooks).