February 18, 2004

"HE CLEANS UP AFTER HIMSELF

"HE CLEANS UP AFTER HIMSELF WITH A SOCK": Now we're on to Phase Two of the Triumph the Insult Comic Dog vs. Canada feud. While the original anger over the anti-Quebec bit by Triumph -who is, for those who seem to have forgotten, a puppet- has begun to subside, a whole other set of Canadians has a beef with America's Foremost Insult Comic Dog: fans of a Canadian sock puppet known as "Ed the Sock," who also holds a cigar in his mouth and taunts celebrities with off-color insults, contend that the Triumph character is a mere ripoff.
True, Ed was around quite a while before Triumph. But a couple of holes in the theory: 1) Triumph is a dog, Ed is a, uh, sock. 2) The Triumph-interviewing-celebrities part didn't come up until two or three years into the evolution of the character; prior to that he was a one-joke character who said "for me to poop on" and went to the dog show every year, 3) Triumph follows every joke with "I Keed," whereas Ed gets into actual shouting matches with his "adversaries," 4) Triumph, with his Russian accent and old-school sensibility, is a homage to the Yiddish theater and Borscht Belt comics of the early 20th century, whereas Ed is, as Jim Treacher says, humor "for people who feel threatened by the understated wit of 'The Man Show.'" And 5) (most importantly), Triumph is funny, and Ed is not.
I just want to see Ed and his backers pick a fight with Conan/Smigel/Triumph, and thus be left in Triumph's dust (poop?) like Eminem, the Pets.com dog, and Quebec before them.

Posted by Stephen Silver at February 18, 2004 11:56 AM
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