Patrice O'Neal: Killing Is Easy

Died too soon.

Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn was an underrated talk show.

I didn't pay enough attention to Tough Crowd when it was on but it was awesome. Knowing he made Lisa Lampanelli, who SUCKED, cry is awesome.

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Tough Crowd

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Comedy Central’s Wednesday night line-up in 2004 was epic

South Park, Drawn Together, Chappelle Show, The Daily Show, and Tough Crowd.

Would love to hear his thoughts on today’s world and that group of comedians that came from Boston is incredible

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I knew the hacks of his friend group would turn half of his doc into a dick suck fest over them sitting at the cellar table telling each other "nice shirt, stupid"

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It's a running thing, how certain comedians are more interested in how they do with other comedians than how they do with the crowd. It's an interesting clique kind of thing. As weird and anti-social as some of them seem to be, they absolutely LOVE to talk about each other.

Patrice was a good stand up comedian, But he was in no way as funny or as big of a star as you would think by the way Jim Norton, Bill Burr, and others make him out to be. If you only went by what they say now, you'd think you were missed someone on the level of Richard Pryor, Chappelle, and Chris Rock all rolled into one... Which he wasn't.

He has had the good fortune of friends that kept his name around. But for those who never saw him or weren't around in that time, he is kind of the opposite of Chris Farley. Farley was bigger and funnier and more of a sensation than you can understand. He was a force of nature... and Patrice was way, way, way less known than you'd think hearing people talk today.

Patrice was kind of an undsrappreciated mid-carder on the old celebrity Comedy central roasts. He was there with Greg Giraldo, Nick Dipoalo, Dave Attell, and the like. They were pretty good, raw, vulgar, angry, un-PC comics. He also made some great mid-00s Opie and Anthony regular comic appearances. Hez like many others who appeared on the show, were actually better off the cuff and in those segments than during their stand up routines. Burr was also one of those guys, but like he has said before, he just outlived many of his contemporaries (which is kind of true.)

Patrice - dead
Giraldo - dead
Mitch Hedberg - dead
Artie Lange - should be dead
Nick Dipoalo - killed by mainstream censorship
Etc, etc.


Patrice was in that crew. But, whether it was actually warranted or not,most of those guys were actually outshined on roasts by the likes of Lisa Lampanelli, Jeff Ross, and Sarah Silverman. None of those people were funnier than the Patrice crew, but they stood out more to Hollywood, for whatever reasons.

Patrice's real gift to comedy and probably what he is remembered for most, is the old Tough Crowd stuff. He was always the token black dude and took many of the so-called "black" positions, but he also hated political correctness and could take a jab just as much as he could dish it out. He was one of the pillars of that show and they often just turned into insult fests among the comics.

His stand up was solid (his highlights were really telling women shite they didn't want to hear, but it was the absolute truth) but he really had great wit, along with many other guys from that era.

Should he be considered some legendary comic? Probay not. But he will absolutely be remembered. His post death PR campaign by the Cear crowd has been quite the propoganda success.

I was never much into stand up but when one of my college roommates showed me Patrice bits on the tube, that was easily the hardest I’d ever laughed in my life.

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Patrice was in that crew. But, whether it was actually warranted or not,most of those guys were actually outshined on roasts by the likes of Lisa Lampanelli, Jeff Ross, and Sarah Silverman. None of those people were funnier than the Patrice crew, but they stood out more to Hollywood, for whatever reasons

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I don't think I agree with most of that. Those were all good comics but I think anyone who watched the ten or so roasts from comedy central would see different quality from the different comedians. Giraldo was the most outstanding as a whole and killed consistently. You can make a strong case for Ross as number two.

Wherever you rank Patrice his biggest problem in getting to the next level was he just refused to kiss the ring of the people who could give him opportunity at the next level. He made this refusal into a type of virtue. He would attack comedians "sold out" and praise those who he perceived as biting the hands that could feed them.
Notice him praising Charlie in the Sheen roast? That was the only praise, even though it was just coke fueled self destruction.

Yeah the only CC roast I think Patrice was in was Sheen and he was easily the show stopper. And Geraldo always killed. Lamponelli definitely outshined everyone with her 10 years of "I like black dicks to frick my pussy?!" routine though right.

Norton was on the Saget roast and Norm Macdonald made fun of him so bad he clearly didn't even understand the jokes.

I remember them talking on o&a about Norton asking Colin in a crowded elevator about his Saget roast jokes that Kurt Metzger wrote for him and Colin cut him off and said I don't know, I don't have other people write my jokes you hack.

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and he should count himself lucky that the joke went over Mike Tyson’s head (because he would have killed him)

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I don’t know. I think you may underestimate how well Tyson can laugh at himself. And a joke like that at a Roast is expected. It’s a great joke too.

But the “dad rape” joke in your clip is terrible. Like ten year old unfunny terrible. and Jeselnik can do far better than that. And had he been allowed to tell that joke I don’t think Tyson would’ve cared. And I don’t think many people would’ve laughed (outside of courtesy laughs).