I am going to assume that you know who Dane Cook is. You know that he is one of the hottest stand-up comedians at the moment, that he made Time Magazine’s 2005 list of the 100 most influential people, that he had his own HBO series Tourgasm and that he is starting to do movies. But did you know that there is a lot of backlash towards him in the comedy industry? Jack Coyle, writing for the AP back in November 2006, took note of the backlash that Dane Cook is receiving:

‘Everyone kills this guy,” says Jim Breuer, a standup veteran and former ”SNL” cast member who hosts a Sirius Satellite Radio show that often includes comedians as guests. ”Not one comedian comes on [my show] and says ‘I’m so happy for him,’ which is weird. … They can’t stand this poor guy.”

Breuer acknowledges Cook is a ”tremendous performer,” but says a lot of comedians ”are upset because they really feel this guy has snatched a lot of material” — the ultimate sin among comics.

Cook has been particularly hounded by accusations that some of his material on his second album, ”Retaliation,” which debuted last year at No. 4 on the Billboard pop chart, bears similarities to earlier jokes by Louis CK. Cook has denied any plagiarism.

Cook generally brushes aside criticism or even welcomes it by soliciting feedback from his fans and altering his material accordingly. Still, the backlash appears to be mounting, with recent slams from Rolling Stone, Slate.com and Salon.com, and a spoof of Cook by the Fox sketch comedy show ”Mad TV.”

Overall I find Dane Cook to be quite funny. Although I should qualify this with the mention that I like his earlier, up and coming, material and delivery significantly better. I saw brief moments of his new comedy show DVD Vicious Circle and found his delivery to be over zealous (even for him) and ill executed. In essence he took on the grandeur of the size of the Fleet Center and neglected to give his performance the small feel that comedy requires. Want an example of how that is properly done? See Eddy Murphy’s Raw. The man performed at Madison Square Garden, but made it seem as if the audience was the size of a club. Everyone knows that delivery is key in comedy - Cook may be starting to blow that. With his earlier work you can see the hungry comedian at work. One thing that you cannot take away from him, even now, is how much he does interact and give back to his fans.

Here is a clip from MadTV that not only lampoons Dane, as done by Ike Barenholtz, but also takes a shot at Dane, calling him a bad comedian: