Le, la, les, l'

While not writing papers yet again, I watched Eddie Izzard's Definite Article. I needed a laugh.

I liked it a lot better than Unrepeatable, maybe because the topics of his jokes were a little nerdier. In Definite Article he had bits dealing with Roman history (he mentioned Vercingetorix which, believe it or not, is my cousin's middle name), St. Paul's letters to the Corinthians, playing musical instruments, and learning languages. That was the fun part -- if you didn't know a little French and German, you didn't get any of that bit of the routine, which was hilarious. Half the time, his stream-of-consciousness routine seems so unplanned (and you can tell some parts are), but then he always gets back on track.

And the man casually used "lugubrious" in a sentence, not as a joke. Brilliant.

Also, I've noticed that of the few comedy shows on DVD I've been watching lately, many end with the comedian leaving the venue, getting into a car, and driving away. Is this some weird cultural reference I'm not getting? Where and how did this start? This could be yet another research question to prevent me from writing my end-of-term papers....