I have never been to a comedy show, so the “tosh.show” on Saturday was a whole new experience for me. As part of a special tour across several college campuses, Daniel Tosh is hosting multiple stand-up shows alongside many of the writers from his popular television show “Tosh.0”.

I arrived at 7 p.m. hoping to avoid having to climb over 40 people to get to my seat. It was a good call because, as it got closer to showtime, almost all of the lower deck filled up. In the time before the show, there were projection screens above the stage showing highlights of “Tosh.0,” assumedly to entertain the masses. I noticed that the clips also served to acclimate the crowd to what was to come. It seemed that at first, most people were not paying attention to the screens. As more people filed into the venue with nothing else to do but wait, they turned their attention to the screens. The chosen clips set the mood of the upcoming show and helped warm up the crowd. 

At the start of the show, it was very clear that the atmosphere in the room was more lighthearted than when I had first entered. It was also clear that Tosh had pandered appropriately to his audience with the chosen clips because many made fun of the University of Alabama.

The show was supposed to begin at 7:30 p.m., but strangely did not start until twenty minutes later. In between the end of the show clips and the start of the show, I found it very odd that the opening credits of an old BMX movie were played on the projection screens. I’m not sure what it was meant to achieve, as it was more confusing than funny, running on for almost five minutes.

As an intro before Tosh came on stage, his parody music video of Selena Gomez’s “Good For You” was played on the screens. It was a somewhat odd, yet still appropriate, opening to the show. After the end of the video, Tosh himself came onstage to thunderous applause. He was immediately hilarious and sarcastic, reaching down into the crowd to let people touch his hand because “this is a chance to touch someone who is on TV.” He was dressed from head to toe in Clemson garb. I’m unsure if this was provided to him by the school or he adopted it himself in order to fit in. Either way, it was humorous.

After he finished brushing hands with the crowd, Tosh gave a sort of disclaimer about what was to come in the rest of the show. To sum it up, he basically said that the show contains a lot of insensitive subject matter and if anyone was offended by it, he didn’t care and they could go “blog about it” later. He wasn’t kidding about the insensitive jokes either, following that statement up with multiple offensive jokes on subjects including but not limited to: abortion, suicide, racism and homophobia. 

In today’s society, it is nearly impossible to say anything without offending someone. The fact that Tosh is purposefully offensive for  humorous effect is refreshing; his brand of comedy was a relief from those who watch every single word they say to avoid hurting someone’s feelings. However, just because Tosh uses extremely politically incorrect humor that does not mean that those are his actual opinions. 

“I’m not a misogynistic and racist person … But I do find those jokes funny, so I say them,” he said.

After running through a couple of jokes, Tosh proceeded to alternate with the four other main acts of the night: Eddie Gossling, Ian Edwards, Todd Glass and Greg Hahn. Each of these people were slightly less offensive than Tosh himself, but still definitely colorful. 

I enjoyed each of the other acts, but I did not like Hahn’s style of humor. He essentially talked as fast as he could and jerked his arms around. The majority of his jokes were either not humorous or incomprehensible because of his sped up speech. The only semi-interesting part of his act was the end, where he chugged (but mostly sprayed all over himself) a beer on stage.

The tosh.show was a smash hit. It ran a bit long at close to two hours, but the audience was kept engaged with all of the humor that was thrown at them. The show was heavy on satire, but the method through which it was delivered made it work. Overall, I would give the tosh.show 4.5/5 stars.