Shark Bytes

Sorry, but I grew up with Tom Lehrer. No one who has heard Lehrer could think this Russell guy is funny, insightful, or talented.

To the previous poster:

Decaf is just a tasty as regular...look into it.

Mark Russell failed when he became an apologist of the slimy swine called the "republican party". This thieving, queer, pseudochristian bunch who slid their guy into the White House by perverting the electoral process first in Florida, then Ohio, then the entire nation. The United States has absolutely no right whatever in lecturing other countries about what "democracy" is until all the votes in Florida are counted, which of course they now never will. Yes, "PRESIDENT" bush--what a joke. Mark Russell should have used his ascerbic wit for all the above, instead by not doing so he became part of the corruption too.

July 3,2007
Mark Russell was very entertaining. Like his humor or not, I cannot understand the preceding vitriolic criticisms. Using such terms as sociopathic pervert when slamming President Clinton, stinks to high heaven.
Once in the public eye, politicians are fair game for genuine comedy style that really never gets old and tedious.

When he spent more air time on the stand up jokes, than on the songs, he lost his edge, to me.

It was PBS who jumped the shark when it cancelled the "Mark Russell Comedy Specials." Mark Russell was one of the few good PBS shows not interrupted by those infernal pledge breaks.

I had watched Mark Russell religiously since I was a kid. I always thought he was funny. I wished his piano playing was better, but only because I thought his brilliant songs deserved it. I think the reason for his fade was two-fold: 1) In his time, Russell was one of the few comedians who specialized in political humor. Nowadays, every late night talk show host is doing political humor, so Russell is no longer unique. 2) Russell had a gentle style of humor that never cut anyone off at the knees. Politics these days has sunk to a level of such outright corruption that Russell's respectful mockery would have all the sting of shooting spit balls at Godzilla.

Like a previous poster had said Mark Russell was very funny during the 1970's and 1980's, and I even saw him live at a Chicago Council on Foreign Relations show, and got his autograph (unfortunately I lost the paper since then.) But sometime in the early 1990's, though I cannot pinpoint a specific "jump the shark" moment, he lost whatever magic he once had and his act just kept falling flat each time.

You've got Mark Russell's debut postdated by at least ten years. Somewhere I have an audio cassette I taped off the TV speaker sometime in the late 70's where he's making fun of Jimmy Carter and James Schleshinger and Three Mile Island and being, I thought at the time, funny as all get-out. His act is still the same after 20+ years, but no act that's repeated that often can still be funny. It just depends when you first happened upon it and how old you get watching it

I'm really not sure when Mark Russell "jumped the shark", but I know that he did it. In the late eighties, Mark Russell was very funny. I still remember some of the songs he did: a theme song for the Teamsters union, to the tune of the Flintstones theme song ("Teamsters, we're the Teamsters / We're just one happy family / Gambino, and Salerno / Make that _two_ happy families..."); a silly ditty urging us to vote for Michael Dukakis in '88 because "he's the only one whose name is fun to say"; a song lampooning the Democrats' inability to talk straight about taxes ("At the Democrats' convention there was never any mention of the T-word, the T-word...") I quote these songs, not merely because they were funny and I still think they're funny (albeit dated), but also to show that Russell wasn't some kind of liberal fuddy-duddy; he'd make fun of the Democrats just as soon as the Republicans. But then I stopped watching the show for a time, and then a few years ago I caught it on public TV again...and Russell was dreadful. His songs were limp, his jokes fell flat; to quote Sick Boy, Russell "had it, lost it." But I don't know when the moment occurred.

The moment I heard "The Folk Song Army" and realized that this guy is to Tom Lehrer what a 10c package of stale margarine is to fresh home-churned butter. Come ON-- how many songs has Mark Russell written for kids' shows on public television?!? [And how fast would you change the channel if he DID?!?]

Phil Hartman *did do a take-off on Russell (during an episode of NewsRadio) and it was brilliant. Russell is fine if you are 103. Just very stale.

Absolutely right - this guy is not and never has been close to being funny. My friend's mom (she's 75) loves him, and we both wonder how this guy ever made it. Cheers to the above poster (a good reason for congress to pull the plug on PBS.)

If you want REAL political humor, get an old Lenny Bruce album. This dude and his outdated, bow-ties cause me to turn the channel every time I'm subjected to his bad Tom Lehrer ripoff of a program. Unfunny and outmoded, this show has the shark chewing on it's rotted carcass.

this show jumps every time this boring old fossil sits down at his overly large piano that PBS probably shelled out for, no doubt with some sucker's pledge money. He does his unfunny songs in a style that blatantly rips off a true comedian, Mr. Tom Lehrer. Political humor...what the hell's so funny about that? His monologue sucks as bad as his songs. Phil Hartman could've done a savage parody of this loser, now THAT would've been funny!