Comedy tonight!

I alluded to watching a Netflix series in a previous comment. It is true -- I watched Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. I like cars, I like comedy, have only had maybe two cups of coffee in my life, so that part didn't matter much to me, although the riffing about civet cat coffee was mildly amusing.

The show was put together by Jerry Seinfeld, who, although he is a leftist near-billionaire, doesn't really touch on politics that often. And since there are a ton of epis and they are very short you can skip any particular one that features an out-and-out anti-American comic, and if you see who his guests are you can figure out who I mean by that.

The cars are interesting, with too many German cars, and that strikes me as peculiar, but what are you going to do, eh? Jerry (can I call him Jerry?) is well known for his love of Porsches and how many of them he owns. The local fine art museum had a show that featured Porsches and several of them were from his collection, so I have seen them in person. And now I have seen them on television and that makes them more real, right? Ha!

Jerry drove a rusty VW dual cab pickup to meet Michael Richards, AKA Kramer. Michael was contrite, knew he screwed up royally, and they discussed it. Mr. Richards put it in terms of being selfish rather than selfless when he used a racial epithet toward a heckler. Some words can only be used by a minority of our population. He says now that the heckler was correct, his, Mr. Richards, material really did suck, and if he could have a redo he would have admitted that and walked off stage rather than attack the heckler and, in effect, kill his career in less than a minute. And kill it he did -- it is irretrievably deceased. That epithet was, as the locals mispronounce it, truly an epitaph.

Jerry was conciliatory and he said an interesting thing -- he wishes that Mr. Richards could use his "instrument" again, and by that he means his unbelievably excellent physical humor. He had a gift, that was always evident, but his ego ended any possibility that we will see him work ever again. So it goes.

Norm McDonald was very funny, too. He rode in a tiny '58 Porsche Speedster, in the rain, with no side curtains. He is a big guy and just wouldn't fit in that car. But he worked the room, as it were, and his interview stood out.

So did Bill Burr's -- he's a funny far up north Irishman from the Boston area. He touched on how people from that city are some of the funniest people in the country -- that has been my experience, too. 

There was obvious affection between Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jerry -- that was good to see. Garry Shandling was good, too. The irony, of course, was that they went to the Laugh Factory and walked around talking about their comedy friends that they had lost. Now Garry is gone as well. 

I mentioned Mel Brooks, he was in an epi with Carl Reiner - at that time those two had been friends for 62 years -- how awesome is that?

Bob Einstein told some good jokes, but Jerry pulled a joke on him. That was kind of odd, actually. 

I could go on and on, but I did get some good laughs from that show, I do like cars, and learned a few things about some obscure ones - for instance, don't take Steve Martin for a ride in a 1954 Siata 8V -- that sumbitch, the car that is, will break down.

I found Miranda Sings to be both troubling and brilliant - that's a sure sign of a good comedian.

That's it - I could go on and on, but I shall not. Check out an epi or two, see what you think.

Oh yeah, Jim Gaffigan opened for the pope - what a gig, eh? And another thing I noticed, Howard Stern ain't right.

Time does indeed pass, as do we all.

Ps -- it was 4 degrees this morning, it is now 17, but tomorrow -- 40! Yeehaw!