Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Stand-up comedy
Likes: Richard Pryor, a good Jamaican accent
Dislikes:
Hates: Racist comedy, gangstas

The Show
Having mastered bad reality shows, mediocre street fashion and failed voter campaigns, the multi-named P.Diddy turned his attention to the oft-ignored world of black comedy, and, like he did in his earlier incarnations, took a successful product and repackaged it, ending up with the new "Def Comedy Jam." Somehow, HBO fell for it, and instead of rerunning their old episodes, with big stars like Chris Tucker and Cedric the Entertainer, they were duped into paying P.Diddy for half-hour bursts of unknowns, normally four per episode.

The episodes are shot in front of a rather large crowd, with bookend appearances by Diddy himself, who's screen time might total 30 seconds. The rest of the time, it's Doug E. Fresh handling the M.C. duties, with Mr. C on the turntables. The show moves very quick, keeping the energy up, filling approximately 20 minutes of show with four or five comics. That makes for little dead air, which might actually be a bad thing.

Since the time each act gets on the stage is limited, it would be hard to say much of anything, but even so, these performances are repetitive and empty. Here's a copy of the template used by 80-percent of the comics: "Wow, look at these [derogatory term for women]... they lookin' good. [Swear word]! [Boastful sexual statement]! [Swear word!] Where are all the [type of negatively-viewed people] at? Ain't [black or white people] [stereotypical statement about that race]? [Swear word]! ["N word"]["N word"]["N word"] Ain't [the opposite race from before] [stereotypical statement about that race]? [Swear word]!" Repeat for five minutes or so, call yourself a "bad boy", and keep a straight face as you're somehow compared to Richard Pryor and other legendary comics.

Truthfully, it's not all that bad. There are a handful of comics who are able to resist the desire to build their entire set around race, sex and profanity, and actually are pretty funny. Comics like Smokey, Alex Reymundo, Ronnie Jordan, Damon Williams, Kyle Grooms and Big Jay (a fat Dave Attell) would actually be worth watching more of, as they attempted to actually tell jokes and earned some real laughs, instead of asking where the "good coochie" is. But the majority stick close to the script, picking on Asians, Jews and gays, and the white folk who wandered into Brooklyn for a taping.

While much of the comedy is exceedingly boring, stupid and derogatory, nothing is worse than the sets by acts like Sauce, a skinny white guy who puts on a gangsta attitude and accent, tilts his baseball cap and proceeds to perform the modern-day equivalent of blackface. The predominantly black crowd doesn't seem to mind, which makes one think that perhaps they don't see the stereotypical performances of the other comics as the new minstrel shows they are. A quick viewing of Spike Lee's Bamboozled might change some minds, but considering how pervasive the misogynistic and ignorant "ghetto" attitudes on display here are, it's not very likely.

I applaud P.Diddy for trying something positive with his "Vote or Die!" campaign, and for espousing the positives of a live centered around God, but when he's producing derivative material like this, right down to James Hannah, a comic who does a ghetto version of "You Might Be a Redneck," as a chance to promote himself (every comic is wearing Sean John clothes, from the entrepreneur's clothing line), one has to question why he even bothers? He should just lay back on a big pile of money and enjoy life, instead of chipping away at his reputation, and providing Dave Chappelle with more material.

The DVDs
The nine episodes in the first season of "P.Diddy Presents The Bad Boys of Comedy" are spread over two DVDs, which come packaged in a standard-width keepcase that has a tray for the second disc and a promotional insert. The first disc holds six half-hour episodes, while the second has three. The discs have animated, anamorphic widescreen main menu with options to play all the episodes on a disc, select individual shows, set up the languages, and view either special features or previews.

The Quality
The anamorphic widescreen video is a bit soft, but decent overall. Color is solid, as is detail, especially in close-ups. During some of the more manic comics or more aggressive camera moves, some blurring and pixilation is evident, but the rest of the video is pretty good. The softness is likely a result of the lighting and filming, but its not going to affect your viewing experience much.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track is a bit more than this show really needed, but the effort is appreciated. Music and crowd noise gets pumped to the sides and rear, keeping the center channel free for the comics. There's nothing dynamic about the mix, but it is clear. Expecting much more from a stand-up DVD would be silly.

The Extras
There are two extras, both of which are found on the second disc. The two behind-the-scenes featurettes can be viewed separately, or together in one 55-minute block. Either way, you're going to see a bunch of material twice. There's a lot of backstage commotion, off-air prep and interviews with the cast and crew, but the only truly interesting thing seen here is one comic bombing, and the reaction to his plight. That was definitely worth a viewing.

The Bottom Line
You really have to be into the "urban" genre of comedy to get any enjoyment out of these discs, and even then you might get bored at the repetition. This is, for the most part, the "gangsta" version of stand-up, getting its kicks by playing to the prurient interests of the audience, and getting laughs the same way a grade-school child does on the playground. The discs are notable for the widescreen presentation and at least one non-fluff extra, but otherwise, you would be better off catching an episode on HBO every now and then.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.