doug stanhope and the end of being offended

i paid money to see doug stanhope speak for the fourth time in my life last night. and if given the chance, i'll see him again and many more times if permitted. what stanhope does is hard to categorize and with good reason. i think the highest compliment you can give towards any artist is that their uniqueness is impossible to label. as soon as you're labeled, you're predictable which in no time at all will result in boredom. doug stanhope is many, many things, but boring is definitely not one of them.

i could ramble on about how hilarious doug stanhope is. but i won't. hilarious is subjective and you could go youtube something of his that won't make you laugh and call me a liar. but i'm not. i think he's hilarious. but even if you disagree, it's hard to argue with the numbers... three sold out shows, three nights in a row in new york city. you can see a shitload of comedy for a lot cheaper on any given night within spitting distance of the highline ballroom, and yet there we were, crammed to the extremities of the space provided.

and that's all well and good but for my money, the real shine of stanhope is his ability to push envelopes and forgo tiptoeing on sacred ground instead choosing to stomp mud holes through your most sacred patch of lawn. last time i saw him was only a year and a few months ago and yet here he was, with an hour or so of brand new material, all pushing the boundaries of what people probably find acceptable to talk about. you're not getting hack premises or light hearted guffawing. stanhope is real, raw, naked, crude, and somehow altogether ugly and beautiful all at once.

at some point or another, everyone will be offended by stanhope. that's no insult. i've heard the man say it himself. he's instructed audiences in the past to wait your turn because soon he'll move on to a topic that you'll find funny and someone else will be offended at. but that's stanhope, pulling no punches. and that's what keeps him fresh. comedy is filled with pulled punches and cosmetics applied to jokes that may be too rough for some people. too many people are willing to tell you what's taboo and untouchable. they make frantic lists of things you cannot say. but doug stanhope won't have any part of that conversation. he's the great, big middle finger looming over the whole silly debate.

being a fan of stanhope, even after he said words that offended me, i realized being offended is no big thing. we all get offended about something. but what's more offensive than anything else are those who think it's okay to bully you into being offended by what offends them. that's why the world needs doug stanhope. we've mutated into this society that runs around in circles pointing at all the things everyone should be offended at. doug stanhope's standing at the mountain top, hammered and belligerent, screaming from on high, "fuck that!" it's all nonsense and silly. and stanhope seems to be the only one hip to that notion.