Gee, where to begin? Lewis Niles Black (born August 30, 1948 in Washington, DC) is best known as a loud, abrasive stand-up comic. He has No Indoor Voice . While the bulk of his work is based around political humor, including a recurring "Back in Black" segment on The Daily Show , he's also known for his angry observational humor . (Those shaking fingers? That's not palsy, he's just really really pissed.) He had a high profile role in the film Accepted , and has appeared in a number of other films and television shows, including a guest spot on (where else?) Law & Order: Special Victims Unit , and voicing the emotion of (who else?) Anger in Pixar 's Inside Out

In 2008, he got his own show on Comedy Central, Root of All Evil. While he takes a back seat to the episodes' guest comics, he still inserts his trademark angry rants. A number of his acts include bits of Self-Deprecation, about himself and his fellow Jewish people, sometimes edging on J Word Privileges.

And of course, Lewis Black is king of the Cluster F-Bomb, using, in his own words, the word "fuck" like a comma.

AcCENT upon the Wrong SylLABle: One of his criticisms with the 2000 Al Gore, who said he emphasized the wrong words, like THE! and AND! and BUT!

Alternative Character Interpretation: Invoked; in Stark Raving Black, Lewis mentioned how his father's always smiling, so he surmised he must be at peace with himself. But one of his friends once observed that Lewis's dad always looks like he's having perverted thoughts. It changed Lewis's outlook on his dad.

Angrish: Will often lapse into this as part of his act.

Animal Chick Magnet: As described in Nothing's Sacred, Lew tried to invoke this in college, when he adopted a cocker-terrier puppy named John-John.

Artistic License  Economics: Discussed in one stand-up bit, where he even said he took economics in college, but couldn't explain it because he failed that course... Lewis: It wasn't really my fault; they taught it at Eight O'clock in the morning. And there is absolutely nothing that you can learn out of one bloodshot eye. After I flunked the first two tests, It wasn't really my fault; they taught it at Eight O'clock in the morning. And there is absolutely nothing that you can learn out of one bloodshot eye. After I flunked the first two tests, I grabbed the professor by the throat and said, "LISTEN, YOU PRICK! WHY ARE YOU TEACHING THIS SHIT AT THIS UNGODLY HOUR?! ARE YOU TRYING TO KEEP THIS STUFF A SECRET?!

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Artistic License  Paleontology: Invoked. Referenced in his Red, White & Screwed special: Lewis: There are people who believe that humans and dinosaurs co-existed, that they roamed the Earth at the same time. There are museums that children go to, in which they build dioramas to show them this. And what this is, purely and simply, is a clinical psychotic reaction. They are crazy. They are stone-cold-fuck nuts. I can't be kind about this, because these people are watching There are people who believe that humans and dinosaurs co-existed, that they roamed the Earth at the same time. There are museums that children go to, in which they build dioramas to show them this. And what this is, purely and simply, is a clinical psychotic reaction. They are crazy. They are stone-cold-fuck nuts. I can't be kind about this, because these people are watching The Flintstones as if it were a documentary.

Ask a Stupid Question...: The cold open to his Black on Broadway special features this: Man: How are you doing?

Lewis: How the fuck do you think I'm doing?

Ass Shove: In the third Comedy Central Presents special, when discussing the 2001 Super Bowl Half Time show with *NSYNC, Aerosmith, and Britney Spears: Lewis: I happened to have a spoon handy, and I shoved it up my ass. Why, you might ask: to distract myself from the pain. Because if I'm going to hurt that much, I'm going to do it to myself. And you know what we call that: empowerment.

He also mentioned this in Black on Broadway when discussing how uncomfortable it is riding on an airplane for fourteen hours: Lewis: What they should do, I think, just take all the coach seats out of the planes, and give everybody a five-foot stick. That way, you can sit wherever you want. You just take it, shove it up your ass, spin around. When you get bored, then after twelve hours, you can just beat the shit out of each other.

In a third joke about this, he says it's the only practical use for a dreidel.

And then he does a fourth joke about this when he's talking about golfers. Lewis: Better yet, why don't you just take that ball and shove it up your ass? Then try to shoot it out your pee-pee hole. If we'd spent the last fifteen years doing that at least you'd have a SKILL today.

Beat: In the Red, White, and Screwed special, Lewis talked about the Old Testament, and how that book apparently wasn't good enough for Christians (who also have the New Testament). His sentence features a long beat, though in fairness largely due to the audience reaction: Lewis: But that book, wasn't good enough, for you Christians... [audience laughs/applauds] ..........Was it? [audience laughs again]

Berserk Button: It's long since become his schtick, it occurs in every special, and some are more intense than others. A particularly memorable one was in Red, White & Screwed when he derided the people who claimed George W. Bush was "involved" in Hurricane Katrina. Lewis: YOU JUST CAN'T FUCKING SAY THAT! YOU CAN'T! YOU CAN'T! And it's just- and there HAS to come a point, where Republicans and Democrats, where we see a piece of footage and we just agree on what the fuck reality is! And the fact is- (audience applauds) You can't show footage of a Land Rover running over a cat and then say the cat was trying to kill itself. I'm gonna need at least three days to find the note that he left.

Black Comedy: Frequently used in his specials. In Black on Broadway, he told anyone who was thinking of traveling to New Zealand in coach to kill themselves.

Blatant Lies: In the Red, White, and Screwed special, he didn't believe the universe was created in seven days, claiming that the Jews (who wrote the Bible) are good at bullshit: Lewis: This was a wonderful story told to the people in the desert, to distract them from the fact that they didn't have air conditioning.

In Black on Broadway, Lewis is annoyed that the smallpox vaccine eventually wore off over time: Lewis: I can't believe it wore off and they didn't tell us, because that means my whole life has been a delusion. Because every day, I'd wake up, and I'd go, "Well, it's gonna suck today, BUT AT LEAST I'M NOT GETTIN' smallpox!"

Bowdlerize: One of his routines is about how frustrating it was that he wasn't allowed to swear when he did the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner.

Also true of his performances at the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal, which are broadcast on network TV in Canada.

Brick Joke: At least the first half of his Madness Mantra, "If it wasn't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year at college" tends to pop up again later in his act at the end of a different, unrelated story.

After ranting about the cold, he switches to explaining how the economy could be improved by a public works project. His suggestion: a wall across the entire border of Canada. "Because that's where the cold air comes from!"

Broken Record: In Red, White & Screwed, he mentioned all the movers and shakers at the White House Correspondent's Dinner (where he did his act), which included "lobbyists, lobbyists, lobbyists, lobbyists, lobbyists, lobbyists..."

Brown Note: "If it weren't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college." Thinking about that sentence for more than three minutes will cause your brain to violently shut down or blood to shoot out your nose.

When discussing the Super Bowl Halftime Show 2001 (which featured *NSYNC, Aerosmith, and Britney Spears): Lewis: What they played was not music. What you heard was the sound of chaos. I know that sounds strange, but it's true. Because I could hear the sounds of pigs being slaughtered! And women were weeping, and men were gnashing their teeth! I heard sounds that were so horrible, if I were to repeat them to you, you would flee from this room in horror!

Call-Back: In the second Comedy Central Presents special, Lewis said that 2000 was the worst New Year's ever, because everyone was convinced Y2K would destroy the world: "Don't go outside! We don't know what's gonna happen! We don't know! There could be giant ticks everywhere!" Later, in "Black on Broadway", he mentioned the "giant ticks" again in relation to Tom Ridge talking about the terror alert levels soon after 9/11.

Character Development: Lewis claims this was the case with God. Lewis: Now, there is a big difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament, and that is the New Testament God is really kind of a great guy. He is, especially when we compare Him to the Old Testament God, who is a prick. I don't know what happened to God over time, how He matured, if He went to an anger-management class, or maybe just the birth of His son calmed Him down. But before He had the kid, HOLY SHIT, He was out of control!

Cluster F-Bomb: "I don't know if you realize, but I use the word "Fuck," so that I can think of other stuff."

[while at the Congressional Correspondents' Dinner in D.C., he says this went through his head while onstage] "Say FUCK! Say FUCK! [to the tune of Jingle Bells] Fuck fuck fuck! Fuck fuck fuck! Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck! Don't say fuck! He said fuck! You can say fuck too!"

Almost any one of his shows is a series of Carpet F Bombings.

If you ask him, it's environmental: "I'll tell ya, in New York City where I've lived far too long, 'fuck' isn't even a word, it's a comma."

According to one of his routines, it kept him from being allowed to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. because someone had bothered to count the usage of the word 'fuck' in his act and determined that forty-two was too many. So he performed at the Warner Theater instead, which "has an eighty 'fuck' limit." Lewis: Forty-two fucks is too many. I wonder what the line is. Forty would've been fine, and then 'Oh, no, he's gone crazy!'

While performing at Carnegie Hall: "I'm only allowed to say 'fuck' twelve times." He ends up using the word and its variants around 75 times over two hours.

Comical Overreacting: His act is him being in constant overreaction mode.

Crappy Holidays: In his third Comedy Central Presents special, he had a whole section on how he's disgusted at the amount of time the Christmas season gets every year, starting as early as Halloween. Nevertheless, he wanted to celebrate it as a kid, because as a Jew, he got Hanukkah instead. Lewis: First night, you get socks. Second night, an eraser, a notebook. We took the marvelous festival of giving that is Christmas and turned it into a Back-to-School holiday!

Crawl: A pet peeve of his, as mentioned during his interview with Larry King and during Red, White & Screwed, when he said the news ticker is distracting while the newscaster is trying to talk to you: "What the fuck is that about? What the fuck is that about? What the fuck is that about?"

The Cynic: In Stark Raving Black, he noted how many people voted for Obama because he filled them with hope. Lewis: But, I'm sixty. Fuck hope. Hope has passed me by.

Dada Ad: What he thinks of Super Bowl ads - they're like mystery stories because you don't even know what they're selling until the end. Example: three rabbits are on a log, and one goes home and hangs himself. Buy a bike.

A Date with Rosie Palms: In one of the "Indecision 2000" sketches for The Daily Show, he mentioned that the only thing he ever got done in a college dorm room was masturbating.

In the Stark Raving Black special, he claimed humans were the idiots while primates are intelligent; while we humans built a concrete jungle for ourselves, and go to a monotonous 9-to-5 job, and in general deal with bills and all the idiocies of modern life, all primates have to worry about is "shitting and masturbating".

In Black on Broadway: Lewis: The second [rule of health] is: If you masturbate twenty times a day, you'll never make it out your front door. You might make it to the door, but when you squeeze the handle, you'll pass out. Let me just say that I did that experiment in my own lab wearing a white lab coat with a rectal thermometer in my pocket. Now, for women, my belief is it's probably thirty times a day, but I can't find a woman to come to my lab!

In Old Yeller, he claims that anybody who works from home masturbates. It's not a sexual thing; it's just that it's the only way someone can feel like they've accomplished something for the day.

Deliberately Monochrome: He had a routine about how North Koreans are the most evil people on the planet. He knows this because whenever we get footage from that country, it's in black and white. "It's not the film. These people are so evil, they have no color."

Department of Redundancy Department: In Stark Raving Black, Lewis said about Vince Gill and Amy Grant, "You fucking fucks."

Disproportionate Retribution: In Red, White and Screwed, he said we should put the loudest pro-abortion and anti-abortion activists in a room together and tell them to figure out when life begins and when it ends, and not to come out until they reach an agreement. If they don't, "we will kill you."

Eagleland: Rails against the obnoxious "Greatest Country in the World" attitude with the following analogy : "If you were in an office, and there was someone there who came in everyday and said, 'I'M THE GREATEST FUCKER HERE AND ALL YOU SNIVELING SHITS WOULD DIE WITHOUT ME! AHAHA!' I can guarantee by the end of the week, you would have killed him. And eaten him...just to try to possess his power."

Early Installment Weirdness: Those used to his albums and hour-long HBO/direct-to-video stand-up specials might be thrown by his three Comedy Central Presents specials, since he doesn't use any strong language (the hardest words used are "son of a bitch" and "ass").

Fridge Logic: Invoked. During the Black on Broadway special, he pointed out the illogical '50s educational film strips about hiding under school desks to be "safe" from a nuclear bomb: Lewis: ...And I'm sitting there thinking, the adults in the community have said that I could protect myself from A FIRE-FUCK-BALL ...And I'm sitting there thinking, the adults in the community have said that I could protect myself from A FIRE-FUCK-BALL by hiding under wood . I'm hiding under kindling. Maybe I can get some sticks so I can burn faster!

Played with in Stark Raving Black when discussing Barack Obama being elected: Lewis: When President Obama was elected, I'll never forget the next day. Everyone everywhere said, "I can't believe this could possibly have ever happened in my lifetime," which made me wonder, who voted for him??

Good News, Bad News: Played with. In the first Comedy Central Presents special, he discussed the Monica Lewinsky scandal: Lewis: It was announced that the president of the United States may, or may not, have had oral sex with a 21-year old in the White House, and that that, and now I'm quoting, "wasn't the bad news". (audience laughs) What was the bad news?? The bad news was, he might have made her lie. (sarcastically) Ooooooh.

Gosh Dang It to Heck!: In Red, White and Screwed, he derides people who claim that cursing is a debasing of the English language, arguing that curse words are what adults use to express anger and frustration. He doubts someone who's fired sits around all day going, "Oh, pussy-feathers. Sassafras, sassafras, sassafras!"

Grumpy Old Man: Lewis keeps getting older and he isn't getting any less grumpy.

Hearing Voices: In the first Comedy Central Presents special, he ranted about Bill Clinton's denial that he had sex with Monica Lewinsky: Lewis: "Can you define the word "alone"?" HE'S GOTTA KNOW WHAT THE WORD "ALONE" MEANS, HE'S THE PRESIDENT! If he doesn't know what the word "alone" means, that must mean he thinks the voices in his head are other people.

Hope Spot: Lewis Black hates candy corn. Nevertheless, every year he tries it in the vain hope that it'll taste better. It never does. Lewis: Candy corn! Corn, that tastes like candy! I can't wait! (eats it) SON OF A BITCH!!!

Ho Yay: Invoked: In "Red, White & Screwed", he admitted that he felt like a whore after he went through the White House Correspondent's Dinner speech without cursing once. He thought it would've been more patriotic to dress up like a woman and blow all the sailors who were shipping off to battle. Lewis: And they wouldn't have been happy, but neither would I!!!

Hypocritical Humor: In Stark Raving Black, Lewis told the audience, "And if you're on Twitter, fuck you." Kinda hypocritical, considering Lewis has a Twitter account of his own. In his defense, he says he's only on there because his Platonic Life Partner Kathleen Madigan guilted him into it.

If I Wanted X, I Would Y: Lewis has a pretty dim view of American taxes. Lewis: [on the tax code] If I wanted to be bored by 6,000 pages of unreadable dreck, I'd read [on the tax code] If I wanted to be bored by 6,000 pages of unreadable dreck, I'd read War and Peace four times.

Ink-Suit Actor: Anger from Inside Out may not look like him, just being a red brick with features, but many of his mannerisms are incorporated into the animation.

Insistent Terminology: In Red, White & Screwed, he claimed "quail hunting" is the wrong term, because they're so defenseless to begin with, and thought "quail tracking" was more appropriate.

Interspecies Romance: In Red, White & Screwed, he said that the Old Testament was designed to get the Jews to straighten up and fly right, because they were out of control: Lewis: They needed to know that marriage takes place between a man and a woman, because they were wandering into camp with camels going, "I'm in love!" I don't give a fuck WHAT you are! You can't marry a snapping turtle, asshole!

Is Nothing Sacred?: Lewis's first book is a largely autobiographical work entitled Nothing's Sacred.

J Word Privileges: He takes full advantage of his ability to mock Judaism. "If you have any questions about the Old Testament, there are Jews who walk among you. And they, I promise you this, will take time out of their Jewy, Jewy day to answer any questions you may have... and we will do this if, of course, the price is right."

Large Ham: Even when you can't see him—he's the voice of the unseen Mister E on Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.

Long-Lived: He's gotten naturally increasing mileage about how both his parents are still living despite his own advanced age, including how their making a living will has turned out to be quite a good decision. "They've lived longer than many tortoises!"