stand up

The 2018 Grammy nominees for “Best Comedy Album” are as follows:

The Age Of Spin & Deep In The Heart Of Texas — Dave Chappelle
Cinco — Jim Gaffigan
Jerry Before Seinfeld — Jerry Seinfeld
A Speck Of Dust — Sarah Silverman
What Now? — Kevin Hart

It’s no secret that the Grammys have largely been a popularity contest for quite a long time. In music, there seems to be a whole world outside of what the Grammys pay attention to that gets as much, if not more, critical praise (and commercial success thanks to the Internet) than what charts and gets nominated. 

The same goes for the Grammys’ comedy category, which hardly pays attention to the plethora of brilliant of comedy albums released every year that don’t have the advantage of getting extra exposure beforehand with having been a special on a network or major streaming service. This year’s nomination made that dichotomy more glaringly clear than ever.  

Yes, there are many reasons that Chappelle, Gaffigan, Seinfeld, Silverman, and Hart are all household names in comedy and some of these hours are pretty good. Still, know that there were better albums released this year from Jackie Kashian, Shane Torres, and Myq Kaplan.

Unlike with music, there aren’t other, alternative, respected awards that other comedy albums made by people who haven’t had successful TV shows that bears their name can get in on. Sure, we and other comedy sites/blogs do our due diligence, but we can only reach so far.

So, with all of that said, please buy/listen/relisten to I Am Not the Hero of This Story, Established 1981, and No Kidding.