Dane Cook Outrages the Internet
Image Credit: Collin Harvey via Flickr
Comedian Dane Cook performed a stand-up set at Thursday night’s Boston Strong concert, but he tweeted that he pulled his set from the livestream because he wasn’t ready to debut his material more broadly.
Hey everyone sorry my set was not a part of the live stream or televised! I didn’t want any of the new material to hit the airwaves yet!
— Dane Cook (@DaneCook) May 31, 2013
This has prompted a poo-storm of outrage from the internet. The general gripe, we surmise, is that Cook is selfishly hoarding his material to use it for commercial gain at some later date when he should be contributing to the city’s sense of community and healing by sharing his funny, funny jokes with the live-streaming masses. Here is a sample of the nice things people are saying about him on the web:
@danecook You don’t deserve to be in Boston or wear that Boston Strong shit, you egotistical douche. Unfunny douche, I should say.
— Karen Springer (@SpringerKM) May 31, 2013
@danecook Are you really that disconnected from reality? I’m pretty sure you’ve lost enough fans to hurt your wallet today. Ass.
— Ryan Roberts (@unclefister) May 31, 2013
@danecook you used to be my favorite comedian back in the day but after that stunt last night,you don’t deserve to play another show #douche
— Shaun Vigeant(@bigvig10) May 31, 2013
I wish I could have used my voice to help the Marathon victims like @danecook. Instead, the washed-up comic uses it to kick his new career.
— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) May 31, 2013
(Jeff Howe was really annoyed. Seriously, someone should check on him this morning.)
There seem to be two arguments for convincing everyone to rein in the outrage. The first being that Dane Cook might be a loser and a bad comedian, but why should that prompt such upset?
People are complaining about *not* watching Dane Cook?
— Paul Flannery (@Pflanns) May 31, 2013
Apparently we didn’t miss much:
Dick move on the part of @danecook with the non-streaming tonight. The good news for those at home is that he wasn’t that funny. #PoopJokes
— Marc Bertrand (@Marc_Bertrand) May 31, 2013
He said that Jeff Bauman was a straight fastball guy and that Arredondo was more of a knuckleballer. ZERO reaction from crowd.
— Marc Bertrand (@Marc_Bertrand) May 31, 2013
Indeed, the last time he performed a set in the wake of national tragedy, he came up with a line about the Batman movie being so bad, the people in that Aurora, Colorado movie theater probably hoped someone would shoot them.
Then there’s the more earnest Cook defense, which points out that he isn’t harming victims, financially speaking, by keeping his material offline. The whole point is that he’d offered his name on the lineup which prompted people to buy tickets, proceeds from which went to the One Fund. Comedians can only write (or “borrow” if you’re Dane Cook) so many jokes, and sometimes they aren’t ready to show them to the broader masses.
Wherever you come down, Dane Cook seems to be prompting strong emotions. We haven’t seen Twitter mobilized into outrage against Dane Cook since … the last time everyone was annoyed with Dane Cook.
