Dark Side Of Comedy to explore comedy’s supposed dark side
The first season will focus on Chris Farley, Andrew Dice Clay, Rosanne Barr, Richard Pryor, and more
Aux News Comedy
Everything has a dark side. The moon famously has one. Of course, The Force has a dark side. DC Comics has a misspelled one, but we’ll still accept a Darkseid or two. Vice TV has found other dark sides, as well. They’ve explored the dark sides of pro-wrestling, football, and even entire decades through their Dark Side Of The… franchise. Packed with stories, celebrity interviews, and the finest reenactments in business, The Dark Sides have been a major sell for Vice TV. Now they’re looking to take out their biggest competition: Podcasts.
Once the jewel of the podcasting kingdom, comedians sharing their legendary friends’ addiction stories can now be found on the new Vice TV docuseries Dark Side Of Comedy.
Not many people know this, but comedy isn’t always fun. Sometimes the clown trying to make us laugh goes home and cries. And so, like the other Vice Dark Sideshows, Dark Side Of Comedy will feature first-hand accounts from people in the industry, regaling viewers with the sad, sordid histories of comedy superheroes. Season one will focus on Andrew Dice Clay, Chris Farley, Freddie Prinze, Artie Lange, Roseanne Barr, Dustin Diamond, Greg Giraldo, Brett Butler, Richard Pryor, and Maria Bamford. Kids In The Hall member Dave Foley will narrate the series
Here’s the logline on the show:
Comedy has entered a new golden age. Podcasts, social media, and streaming services have all created new life and new laughs for comics living and dead — comics who were once relegated to smoky nightclubs and finite network TV time slots. Similarly, a new generation of comics and comedy fans are reassessing the legacy of legends, some who are even more culturally relevant today than in their prime.
Through first-person storytelling, incredible archival, and evocative recreations, ‘Dark Side of Comedy’ explores the intensely personal journeys of the world’s most beloved comics, and the struggles that they encounter behind the mask.
Somehow the show doesn’t have an episode on the greatest sad-sack comedian of all, Pagliacci. A world-famous depressed clown, Pagliacci sought treatment for his condition, when, ironically, his doctor prescribed him a ticket to see “the great clown Pagliacci.” The patient had to tell his doctor that he was, in fact, Pagliacci. Just brutal.
Dark Side Of Comedy premieres on Vice TV on August 16 at 9 p.m.
26 Comments
Foley should do it ala Tony Curtis in that Hollywood Babylon series. Expensive hairpiece, constantly rasping about being careful what you wish for because you JUST MIGHT GET IT.
Dustin Diamond?
“Comedy superheroes”? Really?
He had standup act. Apparently it was really, really, really bad.
The dark side of his comedy was that it wasn’t funny. Then he died.
He was an actor in a situation comedy TV series.
A world-famous depressed clown, Pagliacci sought treatment for his condition, when, ironically, his doctor
prescribed him a ticket to see “the great clown Pagliacci.” The patient
had to tell his doctor that he was, in fact, Pagliacci. Just brutal.
This made me laugh.
i refuse to believe dave foley has a dark side.
It’s the cute ones you always have to worry about.
… He’s still the cute one, right?… RIGHT?!
Oh man, does he ever. (Seriously)
Entertainers…using drugs? I don’t believe you.
The moon famously doesn’t have one – except in the same way the Earth does.
Are you saying that both Pink Floyd and the Transformers franchise lied to me?!
No, Pink Floyd explicitly told us “There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact, the moon is all dark.”
It’s ALL bloody dark!
Considering Vice essentially sold Dark Side of the Ring to WWE, can’t wait to see the season 2 episode of this show about how Louis CK is the true advocate for gender equity in comedy.
Really? Hadn’t heard this, and I’m a wrestling nerd. Then again, I’m not a very online wrestling nerd.
https://comicbook.com/wwe/news/wwe-reportedly-heavily-involved-vice-tv-new-wrestling-series/It probably also doesn’t help matters that some wrestling folks like JR got VERY grumpy after the plane ride from hell episode, as Naich’s sexual assault of that flight attendant wasn’t the fun Flair everybody loves telling stories about.
Wow, those campfire tales sound horrible. Don’t they already have that Table For Three anyway?
“Somehow the show doesn’t have an episode on the greatest sad-sack comedian of all, Pagliacci.”
Wait, so this isn’t a docuseries about FICTIONAL characters?
I hope it’s better than The Dark Side of Football. That was disappointing. I was hoping for some of the murder and mayhem by players covered in the Crime in Sports podcast.
I’m not sure why they went through the hassle of moving you guys to Los Angeles if all you’re going to do now is phone this shit in.
The view is nicer?
Please. As if anyone left here makes enough to afford a view.