"Insomniac" never fails to make me laugh out loud!
Much of the humor of "Insomniac" comes from the unintended absurdity of the situations that Dave Attell encounters during his nocturnal adventures: big hairy men in blue jeans and leather harnesses whipping each other with a cat o'nine tails in a Boise gay bar; a group of women celebrating a batchelorette party walking down the street with a 6-foot tall inflatable penis; the sometimes incoherent, often nonsensical ramblings of the various street people he meets, etc. "Insomniac" gives credence to the phrase that "you just can't make this stuff up", and this show is proof that reality is often funnier - much funnier - than fiction.
Dave always keeps things moving for the viewer with his great wisecracks and observations. I love the time he was at the Bunnyland Ranch in Nevada - a legal brothel. The house "madam" was giving Dave a tour of the place, including all the "role-playing" rooms (ex., one with a giant crib for people into that sort of thing), when they walk by the business office. Dave says something like, "Is this a real office or part of someone's fantasy" - funny because after seeing the role-playing rooms, now it's plausible that customers could come to live out an office-based sexual fantasy, and Dave's comment articulates the humor of this "anything goes" environment. Dave's follow-up comment: "Could I have sex on the fax machine?" Hostess: "We can arrange just about anything for you".
"Insomniac" is definitely in-the-moment humor that you have to watch firsthand to appreciate. Many of the situations are sexually suggestive...or just downright sexually explicit (images of taboo body parts are screened out)...but this isn't exploitation, because it's all just part of the everyday (everynight?) human behavior that Dave brings us to see. But don't get the wrong idea - "Insomniac" is not just a survey of sexual fetishes. Dave also introduces us to the people who work through the night to keep the world running: sewage plant workers, coal miners, police officers, firemen, among others. While cracking jokes about the jobs these folks have to do and the environments they work in, Dave also helps us appreciate just what these people actually do for a living, often toiling away in anonymity while the rest of us sleep. In that sense, "Insomniac" is more of an urban athropology study (with sarcastic commentary) than a comedy show.
There's a reason this show is on late at nite, but if you're not uptight and can appreciate the humor in the absurdity of human behavior, you won't be disappointed!
