Alt Comedy

Ever wonder why Sub Pop keeps snagging some of the world's finest alt-comedy albums — from the post-Mr. Show masterworks of David Cross to the razor-sharp folk/joke routines of New Zealand's HBO-approved Flight of the Conchords? The answer is easy: While Mariah Carey fans might not necessarily worship Larry the Cable Guy, indie rock audiences can't seem to get enough of cynical, sarcasm-slinging comedians like Sarah Silverman, Lewis Black, and such State alums as Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, and David Wain. We'd like to propose a new breed of monologue maestro, then: that of the hipster comedian.

The show's just begun — we've quite a few more punch lines to plow through in our Next Steps.

Brian Posehn's devil horn-raising, guitar-grinding "Metal By Numbers" is, indeed, a stab at the clichéd characteristics of extreme music, from mosh-ready breakdowns to the "pretty chorus" parts of your typical metalcore band. That's right: Posehn can't keep his love-hate relationship with heavy metal out of his comedy writing. He's not the only one looking to music for inspiration, either — "Tribute" is a Jack Black-led paean to "the best song in the world," "Beelzeboss (The Final Showdown)" suggests a "rock off" with Satan himself, and "Hip Hop Animosity" is Mike Birbiglia's brilliant take on the turf wars and chest-puffing posturing of today's "arbitrarily aggressive" rap stars.

If you think all of the above is a little off — a little crazy, if you will — wait 'til you hear the segments that make up our Deep Cuts.

If you know Patton Oswalt only as the voice of the lead rat in, well, Ratatouille, click "At Midnight I Will Kill George Lucas With a Shovel" right . . . about . . . now. Yep, that's him tearing the Star Wars creator apart like a light saber-wielding Jedi. Other silver/small-screen stars more than happy to dig into their stand-up backgrounds are Andy Dick (the acoustic-guided dementia of "Squirrels"), Sarah Silverman ("Porn Song," a full-on pop song in the tradition of Adam Sandler's classic comedy albums), Bobcat Goldthwait (a howling, cackling look at Screech, Katie Couric, and "alcoholic clowns"), and England's own Steve Coogan (the slurred Python-isms of "Paul Calf").

Here's something to mull over this evening: Bobcat Goldthwait was one of the first true alt-comedy acts, a slovenly antihero caught somewhere between the slacker generation and the nuthouse. Of course, we can't blame you if you think a chain-smoking Bill Hicks started it all, and that's the beauty of our Alt Comedy set — it's a rare overview of the oft-overlooked wise guys and gals who constantly offer us some of the most cutting-edge routines in comedy. That includes a perpetually cranky (and perpetually on-point) David Cross, a glam-channeling Eddie Izzard, an X-rated Margaret Cho, Aziz Ansari of the popular sketch collective Human Giant, and the delightfully deadpan delivery of Eugene Mirman, Demetri Martin, and Michael Showalter. Cue it up — laugh it up.