Jerry Seinfeld has an internet-only video blog called "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee." He's a big name, so the video always starts with an ad from an automobile company. Which is fine; the ads pay the bills.
Seinfeld starts each episode by talking about the car he's driving that day -- it's always a different car. Then, on his way to the other comedian's house he calls them on his cell phone and says "Hey, this is Jerry Seinfeld. Do you want to go out for coffee?" Obviously this is set up ahead of time, so the other guy is expecting the call. Then the two of them drive somewhere, have a cup of coffee and talk about comedy. The length of the episodes varies a lot (8 or 10 or 16 minutes or longer). It's not a TV show, so the length of the video is flexible. Each episode lasts however long it needs to last.
A recent episode (16 minutes) featured the legendary Robert Klein. Click on this link to watch it:
Robert Klein (Opera Pimp)
If you have 16 minutes to spare, watch it now. I'll say more about it below the yummy twisted orange cronut.
I have several brilliant comments. Or maybe not so brilliant.
The first thing I have to say is that Jerry Seinfeld is doing a great thing. He's talking to famous comics about comedy. So he's acting as an historian who talks to comics before they die, recording their words on video. In this episode, Robert Klein mentions Johnny Carson, Jonathan Winters, Lenny Bruce, Nancy Reagan (!), Richard Pryor, Bette Midler, Rodney Dangerfield, Merv Griffin, Jay Leno (who apparently was working at a car dealership in Boston and prepped the Mercedes Benz car that Klein bought), Babe Ruth's widow (who once lived in the same building as Klein), Dustin Hoffman, Lucille Ball, Groucho Marx, and Yogi Berra's testicles.
The second thing is that Robert Klein's "opera pimp" bit is fucking hilarious (it starts at about 11:45 in the video). "Where's the money from Cosi Fan Tutti, bitch?" He's a pimp for an opera singer. He does the same bit as a black pimp and as a white pimp.
Third comment. Jerry Seinfeld asks, "Is there anything that's off limits for comedy?" Robert Klein says, "No, but if you do a cancer joke, it better be funny." If it's funny and the audience laughs, then the joke is working. Comedians can talk about anything as long as the audience laughs. This is an important rule.
I don't know if anyone remembers the angry discussions about rape jokes. Some people said "rape is never funny." But here's Louis CK doing a rape joke. I don't think it's offensive. It makes the audience laugh. Not offensive.
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Fourth comment. In the video, Jerry Seinfeld has to tell Robert Klein (twice) that being a standup comic is a noble profession. At one point, Klein mentions the New York Times columnists Russell Baker and Art Buchwald. Seinfeld says, "Yes, but you're going into a comedy club where the audience has been drinking." Making them laugh is good. Also, Klein says Richard Pryor didn't have a great movie career. Seinfeld points out that Richard Pryor's brilliant talent was stand-up, not acting in movies. Seinfeld is saying stand up comedy is good. It's not less valuable than working for a newspaper or acting in movies. If you do stand-up, laughter is the reward. It's not a sort of second-class job that's worse than acting or writing for the Times.
So that's my opinion. Does anyone agree? Or disagree?
By the way, some of the other episodes are quite tasty. I'd recommend the "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" with Patton Oswalt, Louis C.K., Don Rickles, Sarah Silverman, Alec Baldwin, and Larry David. But the others are really good, too.
Fri Jul 11, 2014 at 1:12 AM PT: Update: I saw something on the internet that "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" was nominated for an Emmy. Which is strange because I thought an Emmy was for a TV show (and this is a show only available on the web). But maybe the Emmy people have expanded to include internet shows.