So I Suppose This is Offensive Now - Review

The world of stand-up comedy has long provided a forum for pushing boundaries, and no one pushes them better, or to greater effect, than Brendon Burns. He is the aggressive, no holes barred, archduke of sublimely offensive comedy. No topic is off limits, and no touchy subject is shirked or tip-toed around. Burns is a comedic machine, barely catching his breath as he skillfully skips from one outrageous tirade to the next. In this latest DVD, he brings his if.comedy award winning show to the small screen with explosive results.

It should really go without saying that Burns is not for the faint of heart. His bleeding edge routine deals with topics as diverse as sexism, racism, nationalism, religion, and terrorism and routinely challenges the viewer's sense of morality and decency. With his audience halfway between affronted gasp and orgasmic guffaw Burns is in his element. The brief moments of sentimentality do almost nothing to temper the incredible onslaught of repugnant comic mastery, and often themselves devolve into raucous one-liners.

For any of you dejected by the overblown Brand/Ross affair, and the heightened state of moral protectionism that has been its outcome, So I Suppose This is Offensive Now is the perfect antidote. The laughs come thick and fast, Burns scattergun attack on matters of good taste affords no natural lull. Yet, for all its offensiveness, his material is consistently amusing and frequently hilarious.

As you might expect, Burns' no-holed-barred approach does not sit well with all of the night's ticket holders. His unrestrained banter with one particular member of the audience is a consistent highlight, and adds a sense of realism and bite which the show might otherwise have lacked. The pay-off with this particular audience member must be seen to be believed, but rest assured that it elevates the spectacle from a first-class comedy routine to something truly majestic.

As Burns makes clear in a DVD extra interview there is no real message to be taken from his performance. There are sporadic moments of high-brow philosophizing, but these, deliberately, fail to coalesce into any didactic theme or lesson. There is no point, no higher ground to be uncovered - just 73 minutes of immensely enjoyable comedy that strips away at our confused and contradictory preconceptions of morality and good taste.

Extras

As is often the case with stand-up DVDs, the extras are very limited. A short and amusing interview with the cast and crew actually proves to be remarkably interesting, with the behind the scenes information particularly engaging. Much more lackluster is the woeful commentary track, in which four comics (including Ed Byrne) "Take the ****" out of the show. Although there are pockets of funny material, they spend the vast majority of the time talking about things that have nothing to do with the DVD and, unforgivably, one of the gaggle hasn't even seen the show before.

Written by Joseph Ewens...