Is Anthony Jeselnik the new Dice Man?

It’s been 20 years since Anthony Jeselnik murdered his brother for the first time, saw his father’s penis, and molested some children from his neighborhood in all the depraved ways that no one wants to imagine. And in his most recent Netflix special, “Bones And All” , the most shamelessly, dark, perverse, white, and good-looking comedian of the entire American comedy scene celebrates his two decades of career by again murdering his brother, his cousin, dropping babies from a third floor, watching porn with his other cousin, a 15-year-old kid, and showing that he continues to look for what is funny in the trash can of the most grotesque, objectionable, horrible, and disgusting themes. If Jeselnik managed to do it before, well, after 20 years, he continues to do it. The difference is, now we see it coming.

This Netflix special is, in a way, a tour of Jeselnik’s nearly satanic career, yet it’s difficult to differentiate between old and new jokes because he’s created a formula that no longer is surprising, despite continuing to generate caustic laughter. There’s no evolution in his craft, but rather a search for more shocking punchlines. But after 20 years of knowing what his show is about, it turns out to be not so shocking but… repetitive; it does not surprise or disconcert. On the contrary: the audience expects  the “shock” and they know the exact moment when it is about to take place. That’s not good.

As a shock jock, Anthony Jeselnik has built a career based on one-liners that end in a punchline that borders on the sadistic. And this has been the great triumph and non-secret of his success , but when watching this special something happened to me. I don’t want to say I felt disappointed, but it certainly bored me. I already knew what his possible punchlines would be, and there is nothing worse for a comedian than for the audience to know his repertoire almost line by line.

At the end of each one liner some member of his family would be mutilated, murdered (by him); a child would also be abused or killed, a girlfriend or ex-girlfriend would also suffer some similar tragedy, or a fellow comedian would be accused of something, in this case not Joe Rogan but his audience, and, as he practically said it, he had to make a joke about the trans community. That reminded me of the last days of Andrew Dice Clay, when we already knew what he was going to say… Dice is or was (although he is still alive as a human being) a comedian from the 80s that I know no young person remembers. And that is the point.

Does comedy have a race?

Would Dave Chappelle have had success or even a career if he had built a routine based on abusing children, giving his girlfriend AIDS, having incest, abandoning his mother with Alzheimer’s, or killing anyone in his family? And I’m not talking about doing it to white people but to people of his own race. The answer, I dare say, would be: Not a chance!

Now, I also don’t want to say that the atrocities that Jeselnik uncorks in such a brilliant way are a portrait of the American white man. But there has never been a real scandal regarding his routine as a comedian. No one has tried to “cancel” him, not even trans people. This leads to a question that’s even more terrifying than Jeselnik’s own jokes: Is there white privilege in American comedy? God, I really don’t want to open this Pandora’s box.

But I think if Chris Rock had said something like “And Jada saw when I killed my cousin by putting poison in the salmon he ate,” Will Smith would have decapitated him.

Just remember when Jeselnik was part of the Roast of President Donald Trump…that was a massacre. It was so brutal that I even thought: will this guy get out of there alive? And of course it was infinitely fun. Jeselnik acted as a hitman, unloading all the deadly artillery he had and even taking out weapons of mass destruction. And nothing happened. That is to say, nothing bad… Everything that happened to him was good for his career. Would the same have happened if he were a black comedian?

The truth is I don’t even care, it’s just a question, a consideration about the strange and peculiar lines that divide humor. Because when it comes to what is fun or not, there is not just one dividing line, but many, and they are all complex these days. However, for Anthony Jeselnik, these lines do not exist and have not existed. Which is another of his great triumphs. Perhaps Jeselnik is the Enterprise of comedy: he has gone where no comedian has dared.

Exposed Bones

But the main thing is the “Bones And All” special and this feeling, very real, of having witnessed all this from the first time I saw Anthony Jeselnik. At some point during these two decades, I asked myself wow, what will this guy dare to do in a few years, where will he aim his goals as a comedian? But Anthony decided to stay in a very dark, very radical comfort zone. In fact, it’s so radical and dark that there is no way to move forward and do something innovative because even the most questionable, the most–apparently–horrible thing to say, has a limit.

There is nothing that surpasses murders, incest, child abuse, misogyny, anti-trans humor…and that is when the show becomes a return, a circle, certainly fun, in that comfort zone where he plays this vile and arrogant character.  Jeselnik has paved this area based on talent. But today, after 20 years of following the same road, I feel that I already know too well where the tunnel leads and the light that waits at the end of the tunnel is a punchline that stopped making me laugh a while ago.

By the way, Anthony, don’t keep saying that people ask you why you make humor about murder and child abuse. If, after 20 years, they haven’t understood that it’s a joke, maybe we should change the joke.