Everything has a dark side. The moon famously has one. Of course, The Force has a dark side. DC Comics has a misspelled one, but we’ll still accept a Darkseid or two. Vice TV has found other dark sides, as well. They’ve explored the dark sides of pro-wrestling, football, and even entire decades through their Dark Side Of The… franchise. Packed with stories, celebrity interviews, and the finest reenactments in business, The Dark Sides have been a major sell for Vice TV. Now they’re looking to take out their biggest competition: Podcasts.
Once the jewel of the podcasting kingdom, comedians sharing their legendary friends’ addiction stories can now be found on the new Vice TV docuseries Dark Side Of Comedy.
Not many people know this, but comedy isn’t always fun. Sometimes the clown trying to make us laugh goes home and cries. And so, like the other Vice Dark Sideshows, Dark Side Of Comedy will feature first-hand accounts from people in the industry, regaling viewers with the sad, sordid histories of comedy superheroes. Season one will focus on Andrew Dice Clay, Chris Farley, Freddie Prinze, Artie Lange, Roseanne Barr, Dustin Diamond, Greg Giraldo, Brett Butler, Richard Pryor, and Maria Bamford. Kids In The Hall member Dave Foley will narrate the series
Here’s the logline on the show:
Comedy has entered a new golden age. Podcasts, social media, and streaming services have all created new life and new laughs for comics living and dead — comics who were once relegated to smoky nightclubs and finite network TV time slots. Similarly, a new generation of comics and comedy fans are reassessing the legacy of legends, some who are even more culturally relevant today than in their prime.
Through first-person storytelling, incredible archival, and evocative recreations, ‘Dark Side of Comedy’ explores the intensely personal journeys of the world’s most beloved comics, and the struggles that they encounter behind the mask.
Somehow the show doesn’t have an episode on the greatest sad-sack comedian of all, Pagliacci. A world-famous depressed clown, Pagliacci sought treatment for his condition, when, ironically, his doctor prescribed him a ticket to see “the great clown Pagliacci.” The patient had to tell his doctor that he was, in fact, Pagliacci. Just brutal.
Dark Side Of Comedy premieres on Vice TV on August 16 at 9 p.m.