About.com Rating

Here's the thing about reviewing comedy: it's almost impossible. Any critic worth a damn recognizes that the merits of art in whatever medium he or she is reviewing are subjective, but comedy is more subjective than most. That's because what makes each of us laugh is very, very different, and what is hilariously funny to me is not to you and vice versa. There is a growing expectation that critics' jobs are to reflect the tastes of the masses -- thank the democratization of the internet for that one -- but that's never been a critic's role.


All I can do is report what makes me laugh, and if you read enough of my reviews and see that what I find funny lines up with your tastes, you can begin to trust my opinion. If we don't like the same stuff, it's time to find another critic against which you can weigh your comedy options.

I mention all of this up front as a way of saying that Contextually Inadequate, the new hourlong stand-up special from comedian and SIRIUS XM radio host Jim Norton, didn't make me laugh more than a handful of times, and yet I think it's a very good hour of comedy. It's the kind of special that had me nodding my head in agreement more than cracking up, and that's ok. Like so many of the great stand-up comics (names like George Carlin and Chris Rock come to mind), Norton has evolved into a sharp social critic. On his new special, he devotes a lot of time to what he sees as being wrong in the country today. And he makes a lot of sense.

Norton has become incredibly prolific in recent years, releasing new specials and albums at roughly the rate of one a year.

In just the four years since his album Despicable, Norton has released three more hour-long specials (all through EPIX) and another album. Not only does this productivity allow himself to refine his voice as a comic, but also changes the shape of his stand-up. He can be much more topical when he's releasing new material this quickly, which is exactly what he does on Contextually Inadequate. He covers the Bill Cosby rape allegations, Paula Deen, Donald Sterling, the death of Joan Rivers (to whom he pays the dirtiest of high compliments) and even the firing of his friend and radio co-host Anthony Cumia.

But Norton isn't just name dropping current events the way, say, Kathy Griffin might on one of her bi-annual specials. Each of the stories he references speak to a larger point he's trying to make about society today, whether it's our hypocrisy in expressing fake outrage or, in the case of a routine on disgraced L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling, our willingness to invade one another's privacy just to be able to look down our noses at those on whom we find some dirt. There is genuine passion and frustration in the ideas Norton is expressing, and that's my favorite kind of stand-up -- it's funny, but there's a real point behind it, too. It's no small compliment when I compare Contextually Inadequate to some of George Carlin's best stuff.

Jim Norton has been on this path for much of his career, but this special finds him sharper and more critical than I've seen him in the past. The world needs more comics like him and more stand-up specials like this one.