What I like about Lewis Black’s new Comedy Central show, Root of All Evil: It takes the Tough Crowd formula, stand-up comedians talking smack about issues of the day, and refines it with tight focus without watering down the concept. These planned bits, the mock trial arguments, work better in a 22-minute TV format than the spontaneous conversations from Tough Crowd, which were hit and miss precisely because they relied so much on the ad-lib chatter. We want the highlights. And when you give great social commentating comedic minds such as Greg Giraldo and Paul F. Tompkins some advance notice, you’re going to get highlights. Here’s one:
In related news, Comedy Central unleashed a "Weekly Evil" segment online that gives several stand-up comedians a chance to weigh in on a topic (in the style made famous by VH1’s Best Week Ever). This week’s evil? St. Patrick’s Day. (Psst: Can you find the typo?)
Questions:
So what about the 4-year old Comedy Against Evil tour? Will people think it copied the TV show, even though it didn’t? Hmmmm? And why would anyone sk such a self-centered, leading, & paranoid question?