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Rating: Country: USA Release Date: September 22, 2009 Distributor: Comedy Central Director: · n/a Cast: · Mitch Fatel Related Sites: · Mitch Fatel Official Website Grade: F

Recently I was listening to Howard Stern in the morning - as I have for the past 16 years - and the intern that preceded Stuttering John, Mitch Fatel, stopped by. Apparently he left the show many years ago to pursue his dream of becoming a comedian. And succeeded.

He was promoting his Comedy Central special, "Mitch Fatel is Magical", which was being released on DVD. Lo and behold a couple of weeks later, what shows up on my doorstep?

Boy, was I not the right match for this guy. Fatel's comic persona is either an immature teenager or a mentally-challenged adult. The affect he uses on his voice is unbelievably irritating. Now, maybe as part of a whole night of comedy you could stand a 7-minute set, but at 30 minutes, it's practically unbearable. At 60 minutes, like this DVD? Suicidal.

Now, if you liked Emo Phillips and Bobcat Goldthwait back in the day, then maybe you could stand him. But the difference here is that those successful comics told jokes. There's nary a joke to be found in his 60-minute set.

Actually, this is not wholly true. I did hear a joke at around 35 minutes in. He followed it up with something about having sex with an Asian girl and a dragon coming out of her vagina.

But then again, you could say similar things about Dane Cook, and that guy sells out stadiums, so who am I to talk? So if Dane's your guy, you might like Mitch Fatel. If you think that a 30-year old saying "I like breasts" in a stupid voice is hilarious, then by all means, follow this guy’s career.

I guess Fatel must serve some purpose or have some place in the comedy universe, but I’ll never be able to figure it out. I’m going to see Bill Cosby perform at Lincoln Center next week. I hope it gets the taste out of my mouth for this one. I mean, not only is his comedy bad. It’s dangerous because it’s misogynist, and he thinks it’s hidden underneath his baby voice.

I'm guessing the best thing about this CD is the great Dean Haspiel cover

Comedy Central’s model over the past 10 years or so seems to be based on those who like both sides of South Park. There’s Jon Stewart and Colbert for those intelligent enough to decode satire, and then there’s everything else, relegated to sexism and fart jokes. Way to go Comedy Central, for perpetuating the absolute worst in stand-up comedy. You’ll never find another Richard Pryor or George Carlin or Chris Rock this way.

In doing a little research, I discovered that he released a CD titled, "Super Retardo". Nuff said.