Penny Thoughts ‘12—Brian Regan: The Epitome of Hyperbole (2008) **

NR, 45 min.

Director: Troy Miller

Writer/Star: Brian Regan

I like Brian Regan’s comedy. He’s been popular long enough that my appreciation could allow some to categorize me as ‘lame.’ What’s up with that trend in comedian popularity? As soon as a comic hits a certain realm of popularity, he becomes unfunny to many people. Brian Regan’s Comedy Central stand-up special “The Epitome of Hyperbole” might explain that phenomenon to some degree. It just isn’t as good as he is.

“Epitome” is Regan’s second Comedy Central hour-long special. I haven’t seen his first. I have enjoyed his clean comedy for several years, however. The material presented in “Epitome” is not his best. It doesn’t seem as fresh as some of his earlier material.

Regan gained his popularity by presenting himself as a moron with anecdotes centering a great deal on his childhood schooling and other stupid behavior that seems to follow us all into adulthood. In this comedy special, he really reaches for the moronic persona. In fact, there really aren’t a whole lot of jokes for the time span. He makes a lot of faces and dances around like an idiot as much as he actually delivers set ups and punch lines.

Another problem with this special in its video format is the fact that the producers have left in the commercial intros and outros, which consists of the same musical notes repeated every time and the title of the special flashed on the screen over and over. I understand this is useful during its Comedy Central airings, when commercials actually break up the running time of the special, but why weren’t these removed for its video release? Did they think the audience needed to be reminded what they were watching even without commercials breaking in every five minutes?