Rating:
Genre:
Comedy
Release Date: 08/26/2008
A regular guest of
Bob & Tom's syndicated radio show, comedian/author/history nerd
Scott Dunn is known for his historical and hypothetical roasts which owe as much to
Stan Freberg and his 1961 album
Presents the United States of America as they do NYC's Friars Club. In
Dunn's world, the founding fathers of America and even the son of God get roasted by their peers with insult jokes and innuendo. He doesn't try to do impressions and there are rarely any sound effects or other supportive devices. On these appearances ripped right from
Bob & Tom's show,
Dunn just reads his jokes off the paper as if he was trying to sell a script, but the script is very clever and this cue card delivery at a rapid pace is very reminiscent of the Friars Club or
Dean Martin roast style. "Sam Adams could bring the beers, Ethan Allen could bring the chairs" goes the roast of Betsy Ross, who was apparently a "frisky woman" ("I don't want to say she gets around but the Liberty Bell has a smaller crack"). Thomas Jefferson liked "his women like his coffee, hand picked from a field" while the audience at Jesus' roast stuck around because they knew their savior "would encore, they just didn't know when." Offering relief from these roasts are some history quizzes plus a couple of ads, like one for Crazy Ghandi Chevrolet and one with the Pope on erectile dysfunction ("Fellas, does every night in bed feel like Passover? Have you been denied 3 times or more by your Peter?"). History professors and
Bob & Tom fans will fall hard for the release, but
Dunn's one-note act makes
Absolutely Historical a tedious end-to-end listen for the everyday Joe. Divide the album into thirds or fourths and there are plenty of chuckles.
~David Jeffries, All Music Guide
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