Eugene Mirman: God Is A Twelve-Year-Old Boy With Asperger’s
Eugene Mirman (Flight Of The Conchords, the book The Will To Whatevs) has always been at the forefront of the so-called “indie comedy” movement—an unabashedly geeky gang unencumbered by “I’m just like you!” jokes. Mirman’s stories are frequently fueled by a desire to call the world out on its shenanigans, and just as often coated with a thick layer of absurdism. His third stand-up album, God Is A Twelve-Year-Old Boy With Asperger’s, continues the tradition, finding him poking fun at silly online ads, vaguely racist Russian online polls, and ridiculous survey questions at Classmates.com (a choice for relationship status: “I plead the fifth!”). Though largely outward-focused and computer-related, the material occasionally dips into personal territory, like when Mirman shares the story of landing in special-ed class as a kid. The album’s self-referential humor doesn’t always work, though. The last two tracks are devoted to a retelling of Mirman’s run-in with a bleeped-out airline: Part one is a dramatic reenactment of his calls to customer service, and part two is an angry letter Mirman wrote to the airline, a shtick not only employed to better effect earlier in the album, but one that, in the absence of new information for the joke, drags a bit. But for the most part, Mirman plays to his strengths, and his keen eye for nuanced ridiculousness continues to find hilarious targets.