My Powers Are Beyond Your Understanding

I'd meant to have actual *content* for you guys, today, but things took a turn for the nutzoid.  That's okay!  Because Jake Johanssen was on Letterman last week, which made me happy because (a) it's good to know he's still alive and (b) I realized that his 1991 HBO comedy special "This'll Take About an Hour" was probably on YouTube.

It is!  Lucky us.

Johanssen's hilarious, but he's definitely the sort of comedian who benefits from long sets.  His routines are anecdotes with weird tangents, and it can take a little while to settle in to his sensibility.  Bob Newhart school.  The laughs are cumulative.

When a friend taped this show for me back in college, he screwed up and missed the first five minutes.  My roommates and I were laughing so hard by the end that, had the beginning been intact, we would have died.  Swear.  A lot of comedy doesn't age well, but this obscure special still turned up on TV Guide's 1999 list of "The 50 Funniest TV Moments of All Time."  Despite that, it's actually funny.

I still quote from it.  If you've ever been with me during an inexplicably long wait, you've heard me sigh, "And there's no ride!"  "I'm peein' right now" is for special occasions.

Anyway, enjoy.  The framing segments - like those of from every single HBO comedy special ever made - aren't any good.

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