Janeane Garofalo (1997 TV Special) User Reviews

Hilarious.

[Kirk Pedersen · 10/10 · 12 October 2002]

Now, before I saw this special, I'd figured she was just your average comedian who had transfered her career over to film, and that the comedy thing was on the back-burner.

Boy, was I wrong.

This special (which, admittedly, she wrote three hours before airtime) was an absolute riot. The stories (dogs, summer blockbuster-films, relationships, gay pride, etc) were very entertaining, as her razor-sharp wit and sarcasm is excellent for delivering jokes.

Not too many comedy specials are worth watching, as they are often just ego-trips for the comedians; but this effort is hilarious and seems very random and out of real life, which is the best kind of comedy.

The genius of Garofalo

[bkboiler · 9/10 · 17 November 2007]

I remember seeing this on cable, and being totally blown away by her perspective on life, such a far ranging view I seldom hear from either guys or women. Maybe a bit like Seinfeld, in that he says things that everyone sort of feels, but doesn't really articulate much. There's some book I was looking at a while back about how to cultivate one's "lateral thinking". I suppose it means looking at things in a way that doesn't follow logically from what went before, but is equally, if not superior in it's findings. I think that's what comics do to make us laugh so hard at their apparently simple musings on the mundane. Their views don't sound intellectual {informed, wordy, unintelligible}, but, unusual. Janeane summarizes an entire event, like the typical cliché of the summer blockbuster movie, gay pride parade, or dog show, into a few descriptive statements. George Carlin was also this direct, especially in his debut album, "take-offs and put-ons". We all think society is cruddy and could be much better, and these people are really adept at painting a picture of this place quite accurately through words. It can one -if nothing else- to pull away from the chaos and concentrate on what really matters (their own life).