Jim Gaffigan has mastered the art of the food joke. Jokes about food, you say?! We want to belly laugh about deep shit. Dark shit. The stuff of nightmares. Stuff we'll still be crying to our shrinks about in ten years. The kind of jokes we can never, ever get over. Never. We want deep sad laughter. Well, if that alone is your cup of tea, then good thing you weren't at Jim Gaffigan's show last night at Seminole Casino Coconut Creek. The comedian remains direct, funny, and easy to laugh at with no politics, no secrets, and nothing dark.
You may know him by his Hot Pockets bit, one that, honestly made me weep with laughter when I first heard it. I thought, why does my face hurt? Why can't I breathe? it's cause Gaffigan is hilarious. He takes the mundane and pulls it apart in a way that is wholly relatable, especially to someone obsessed with eating and talking about eating and thinking about eating. Last night, he spent about five minutes riffing on McDonald's fries. It's the stuff of genius. Great big fat genius.
When a man understands that there is no way to eat enough McDonald's fries, ("Did you ever eat too many? Of course not") that's a man I want to tell me jokes. Gaffigan also has a sense of real humor about the stuff people feel a little weird about. He noted the embarrassment of running into someone at that fast food chain, something we can all -- honestly, be honest -- remember happening to us. I made me laugh in a way that made snot run from my nose.
Speaking of mucus, Gaffigan didn't stop there with the food chatter. He called oysters snot in a rock. His extended bit on seafood was something that someday should be a classic. On lobsters, "I like butter too," he said. About going to Maryland, he pointed out correctly that everyone there tries to force you to eat the crab. Fortune cookies? They weren't left out of the discussion, and neither was Kobe beef, the hot dog, nor the act of breast feeding.
When talking about the Waffle House, he said, "Just imagine a gas station bathroom that sells waffles." And upon first entering one, "I owe IHOP an enormous apology."
Though Gaffigan doesn't offend with positions, nor does he spark philosophical discussion on anything heavy, he does make you think profoundly about what you're munching on. Someone like me is usually munching on something, something I enjoy contemplating.
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