All Music Guide

Stephen Thomas Erlewine, dope-fetcher columnist, confers sainthood on comedian David Cross's first album, Shut Up You F**king Baby!:

It would be hyperbole to say that it revitalizes the genre -- one album can't do that...but it is no stretch to say that it's one of the greatest albums in recorded comedy history...When everybody else treats George W. Bush with kid gloves, Cross tears into him with savage humor and logic, dissecting everything from the war on terrorism and Bush's reaction to 9-11...The Catholic Church and John Ashcroft are subject to similar rants, but the key isn't that Cross is preaching to the converted or just reciting "liberal" lines -- he offers biting, informed criticism that only a comedian could possibly deliver. It's not all religion and politics, though: just as funny are Cross' reading of a story from the Promise Keepers handbook, recounting a night of debauchery with Harlow, and exposing the absurdities in Cosi's marketing plan for Squaggels, their square bagel.

[November 5, 2002]