‘Dad Jokes’ With A Side of Sleaze

Listening to Neil Hamburger’s First of Dismay is like spending a night on the town with your wildly inappropriate uncle. He makes sometimes anachronistic and silly (and often offensive) jokes that get a bit more ridiculous as the evening progresses. In between these jokes about French mime pioneer Marcel Marceau, bands and artists like Pearl Jam, Limp Bizkit and Eric Clapton, “Uncle” Neil breaks out into song, accompanied inexplicably by a talented country-rock band.

Hamburger punctuates his phrases with dramatic, wet throat-clearings and other related vocal ticks in his almost sing-songy Chicago-esque accent. He’s a nicer Tony Clifton in this way, but that doesn’t mean the barbs aren’t there. In one of the many jokes that is a bit stale for 2014, he asks at what point in a Julio Iglesias concert do most people throw up: “When he comes on stage!” In another moment he resorts to a “knock knock” joke. Knock knock. Who’s there? Layla. Layla who? “Lay the Eric Clapton records on the ground so the dog can shit on them.”

He also takes on Liza Minnelli, and why she doesn’t put her empty vodka bottles into the recycling bin: “Why, she’s passed out on the floor. It’s not a priority!”

U2, Somali refugees, bodily excrement and a slew of other topics also come up over the course of the album. The songs in between each skit are fine, but they pale in comparison to the jokes.

Hamburger, who is a character of punk-rock star and Amarillo Records founder Gregg Turkington, is a bit of an acquired taste in the age of Louis CK, but he has his glorious moments. These are the types of jokes that are great for a comedy album, as they are simple with a quick payoff. Even if they seem out of touch, overly perverse or riddled with cheese, there is almost always a laugh. Students of comedy (or just plain fans of comedy) should pay heed to the Marcel Marceau joke: It’s like an “Aristocrats” spawn told by a 12-year-old – and it’s fantastic.