His comic material is mostly observational humor. His recent routines include such diverse topics as car accident mayhem, Cook's time spent working at Burger King and assorted geek humor. Cook often refers to specific places or things using his own slang terms. For instance: Burger King is the "BK Lounge" (a phrase first used by De La Soul), Walgreens is "The Wall" , and a sandwich is a "sangwich". He also popularized the acronym BAMF, short for Bad Ass Mother Fucker, a slight variation on the more-common and widely-used "BMF", or "Bad Mother Fucker". Among Cook's numerous television credits are performances on Comedy Central Presents and Comedy Central Bar Mitzvah Bash.
He is often referred to as 'the most popular guy on MySpace' (next to Tom Anderson, the creator of the service), because at one time he approved every friend request he received -- recently hitting one million.
Career
When he was a teenager, Dane discovered his comedic talent when his father, former radio personality George Cook, gave him a tape recorder and microphone. He was inspired by watching and listening to a variety of comedians, including Bill Cosby, Johnny Carson, George Carlin and even Red Skelton. In seventh grade he watched Saturday Night Live one night and saw Martin Short performing his character Ed Grimley. He suddenly realized a goal in life: to be on the show.
He started performing stand-up comedy in 1990. By 1995, Cook was performing stand-up comedy every night, usually in Boston and, when he made it to Los Angeles, at The Laugh Factory. He stated in a 2005 interview with Entertainment Weekly that he "never walked toward a stage and felt heavy. Ever. Even in bad places, I always learned something." Also in 1995, Cook made his television debut as Kyle in five episodes of the short-lived ABC series Maybe This Time, starring Marie Osmond and Betty White.
In 1999, he made his first (albeit brief) appearance in a major motion picture as "The Waffler" (a superhero who uses a waffle iron and "truth syrup" to fight crime) in Mystery Men. A year earlier, he was featured on Comedy Central's stand-up comedy showcase Premium Blend and, the following year, Comics Come Home. It would begin a partnership with the cable channel that would help launch Cook's career to new heights. He made his own half-hour feature segment on Comedy Central Presents in 2000.
1999 also saw Cook starring in the straight-to-video Dennis Rodman vehicle, Simon Sez. Often thought to be a sequel to the mildly successful Jean Claude Van Damme film, Simon Sez actually has nothing to do with Double Team. In the film Cook plays Rodman's partner, Nick Miranda. The film was directed by Kevin Elders, previously known as the screenwriter for Aces: Iron Eagle III.
Two years later, Cook pooled $25,000 of his own money from savings and retirement accounts and launched DaneCook.com, his own interactive website to help further his career and help stay personally connected to his fans. Although other comics mocked him, his website, along with his MySpace account, turned out to be a success.
In 2003, Cook released his first comedy album, Harmful If Swallowed, which also included a DVD of his appearances on Comedy Central.
In 2003 Dane Cook also released the film 8 Guys, which he wrote, directed, and starred in.
2005 to present
In 2005, Cook launched a nationwide tour dubbed "Tourgasm" (highlights from which aired as "Dane Cook's Tourgasm." It debuted on HBO June 11, 2006) as a follow up to his second album Retaliation, which debuted at #4 on Billboard magazine's Top Albums chart, the most successful comedy album debut since Steve Martin's A Wild and Crazy Guy in 1979. Cook wore a T-shirt depicting Steve Martin and "A Wild And Crazy Guy" at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards.
The album's success launched a slew of public appearances and magazine articles that fall, including a three-minute routine on the MTV Video Music Awards on August 28. He also performed three sold-out shows in two nights at The Theater at Madison Square Garden, a 2,500 to 5,000 seat venue, in mid-September without any press but his own website.
During a May 2005 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Cook parodied Tom Cruise's "couch jumping" Oprah appearance and made a "tattoo" of Katie Holmes (actually a picture taped to his back), barging into the women's restroom to get her.
During a October 2005 appearance on The Tonight Show, he kissed Charlize Theron's butt after she allowed him to do so. Cook was re-enacting a previous joke/act in which Charlize kissed Shirley MacLaine's butt at a Premiere magazine tribute to women in Hollywood.
He also appeared and performed on Dave Attell's Insomniac Tour.
He finished his own television pilot called Cooked, which he is writing and starring in, soon afterwards.
On December 3, 2005, Cook finally realized his dream of hosting Saturday Night Live. His appearance was unique because he was one of the few stand-up comedians (as opposed to actors) to appear as guest host for the show. He performed the longest monologue in the show's history while using a handheld microphone, another rarity for SNL. The episode was one of the highest-rated SNLs of the season.
On January 13, 2006, after months of keeping a "BIG secret" from his fans, he announced via his website an April 15 gig at Boston's TD Banknorth Garden where his first HBO special was eventually filmed. A documentary series and a scripted program are also in the works for HBO. In the week prior to the televised gig, he performed at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas (April 8) and Allstate Arena in Chicago (April 13), the largest venues he's ever performed in those cities.
Sadly, his mother, Donna Cook passed away after a long bout with cancer on July 3rd.
Cook was in Santa Fe, New Mexico working on a movie called Employee of the Month, a comedy co-starring Jessica Simpson (who he's been linked to romantically by the tabloid press), Dax Shepard, Efren Ramirez and Harland Williams.
He is also currently filming the psychological thriller Mr. Brooks in Shreveport, Louisiana with Kevin Costner. In 2006, he was named in Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of 2006.
Cook plans on touring the country with other comedians including Steve Carell.
While shooting a movie in Vancouver, Dane Cook made the local papers for his behavior in a comedy club. His actions were called "very immature". Dane Cook has yet to make comment on this event.
The Super Finger
The Super Finger or Su-Fi is a hand gesture. It was not created by Dane Cook, although he has adopted as such. It consists of raising the middle finger, ring finger, and thumb on the same hand while lowering (or curling) the index and pinky fingers. Cook's website explains his idea behind the Su-Fi:
"One night I did a bit on stage about 5 years ago at the Laugh Factory. I was talking about how the finger is lame now and it's lost its pizzazz. I said I wanted to upgrade the finger and so from now on people should use both the ring finger coupled with the middle finger. I called it the SUPERFINGER (or SU-FI)."
Cook is considered to be double-jointed.
In 2005, Cook started his own company to produce his albums and videos, which he named Superfinger Entertainment.
Material controversy
After the release of his immensely successful CD / DVD Retaliation, many fans of comedy took note of three bits on Cook's CD. On June 10, 1999, comedian Louis C.K. performed stand-up on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, one of the bits being about naming kids and wanting to name his kid with one letter repeated many times. On CK's debut CD, Louis CK: Live in Houston, which was released in 2000, CK had a bit called "Itchy Asshole". CK has also performed a routine on both his CD, Late Night, and other television programs called "Guy on a Bike", which was a routine about witnessing someone struck by a car and wondering how quickly to warn someone before the accident. In 2005, Dane Cook performed and released three similar routines on Retaliation. CK commented on the similarities, noting what he considered clear examples of cribbing material, but said that he did not intend to act on these findings. For his part, Cook has yet to respond.
Vancouver Yuk-Yuk's
On Saturday, July 22, 2006, Dane Cook was played off the stage at Yuk Yuk's comedy club in Vancouver. Cook was in town for six weeks shooting a film with Jessica Alba and his agent had requested a slot for him, after that night's headliner.
When he arrived Cook wanted an earlier set, so he was given the slot before the headliner with the understanding that he do less time. He either could not see or ignored the red light so the club's manager cut his mic and tried to play him off with music. Cook was quite surprised by this but continued his act, until the manager cut his mic and tried to play him off again; this time it was successful, resulting in Cook dropping his mic in a fit of anger and walking off the stage.
Nightmare
Dane Cook Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And yanno how you like have a nightmare and it's so intense,
even your leg tries to wake you up.
Your leg's like,
"GET UP!"
Your leg kicks awake. And you wake up.
I- this was the dream right. I was being chase by a giant crab.
It's not funny. This huge like 50 foot crab.
crab run where he was like... and snapping at me with his little snappers.
And he was all night long... he was trucking.
He was doing like 100 miles an hour.
You know like when you're bring chased by a killer or a beast?
In the dream they can run as fast as they want but you can't fucking-
you're like AH COME ON I CAN'T MOVE.
But the fucking crab is like eh... and his eyes were up here and there
was lighting shooting out of its eyes and he was wearing little loafers or
something. I dunno. Oh my leg just fucking went "GET UP!"
And I woke up for like a second and they I went right back into the fucking
dream. Which only happens witha nightmare.
You never like wake up like yanno it's like if you're having sex with
Cindy Crawford. Yyou know how you like wake up and you pretend
you're not awake? Yanno? Try to trick yourself.
Oh no! I'm not awake I'm in Cancun with Cindy. NOOO.
But I fell back into the into the dream and the crab was like waiting for me.
He was like UGH.... And i was like NOT AGAIN! All night long.
And then I woke up and I called my buddy Mike.
Yanoo I had to tell somebody like he picks up the phone...
I'm like "Dude I had the weirdest dream last night."
And he goes all concerned, "What was you dream?"
I go,
"I was being chased by a giant crab."
"What?! Dude What?!"
All the sudden he's like hold on and I hear like pages.
*flip flip*
OK I go dude what are you doing? I have a dream book.
I'm looking up crabs to see what they represent in my dream book.
Right so all the sudden he goes like this,
"Dude, Crabs! Hold on Crabs. Uh crab...um uh it represents...
Dude you're gay! That's why you were running away cuz a crab
represents sexuality cuz it doesnt know which way you fucking-
and that's why you ran away. You were running away from your gayness!"
I said what about the lightning? Uh emphasizes the gay!
That's what it says if there's lighting around the crab you're super gay
that's what it says here. Super gay. He wasn't wearing loafers was he?
OH NO! Cuz that would mean you were mega ultron gay like a super
hero gay!
The lyrics of Dane Cook's "Nightmare" describe a vivid dream that the singer had in which he was being chased by a giant crab. The dream was so intense that even when his leg tried to wake him up, he fell back into the same dream. He described how he felt powerless and could not move as fast as the crab despite the fear he felt. He even woke up in the middle of the night and called his friend to tell him about the dream. The friend tried to interpret the dream by looking up "crab" in his dream book, and he found out that the crab represented the singer's suppressed homosexuality. The more lightning there was, the more gay the singer was according to the book.
The lyrics of this song use exaggeration and humor to describe the nightmare, making the subject matter more lighthearted and less serious than actual nightmares. The song speaks to the common experience of having vivid dreams or nightmares that seem entirely real and induce a feeling of powerlessness or fear. The humor of the song also lies in the way the singer's friend tries to interpret the dream using a dream book.
Line by Line Meaning
I had this weird dream man.
I had an unusual dream that was worth sharing.
And yanno how you like have a nightmare and it's so intense,
even your leg tries to wake you up.
Sometimes nightmares can be so intense that your body physically responds in an attempt to wake you up from them.
I- this was the dream right. I was being chase by a giant crab.
In the dream, I was being chased by a massive crab.
He was chasing me down a beach and he was doing that
crab run where he was like... and snapping at me with his little snappers.
The crab was pursuing me on the beach, using its unique sideways run and trying to snap at me with its claws.
And he was all night long... he was trucking.
The crab was persistently chasing me all night long in the dream.
You know like when you're bring chased by a killer or a beast?
In the dream they can run as fast as they want but you can't fucking-
you're like AH COME ON I CAN'T MOVE.
In the dream, when you're being chased by a threat like a killer or a beast, they seem to be able to move quickly while you are slow and struggling to run away.
But the fucking crab is like eh... and his eyes were up here and there
was lighting shooting out of its eyes and he was wearing little loafers or
something.
In the dream, the bizarre crab was unaffected by being chased and had lightning shooting out of its eyes while somehow wearing shoes that looked like loafers.
Oh my leg just fucking went "GET UP!"
My body physically reacted to the nightmare, urging me to wake up and end the dream.
And I woke up for like a second and they I went right back into the fucking
dream. Which only happens witha nightmare.
After briefly waking up from the nightmare, I quickly fell back asleep and returned to the same dream, which is a common experience with nightmares.
You never like wake up like yanno it's like if you're having sex with
Cindy Crawford. Yyou know how you like wake up and you pretend
you're not awake? Yanno? Try to trick yourself.
When having a pleasant dream, you do not want to wake up from it, so you try to deceive yourself into thinking you are still dreaming.
But I fell back into the into the dream and the crab was like waiting for me.
He was like UGH.... And i was like NOT AGAIN! All night long.
Upon falling back asleep, I returned to the nightmare to find the crab eagerly waiting for me, leading to another long night of being chased.
And then I woke up and I called my buddy Mike.
Yanoo I had to tell somebody like he picks up the phone...
After waking up from the nightmare, I called my friend Mike to share the experience with him.
I go, "I was being chased by a giant crab."
"What?! Dude What?!"
I told Mike about the nightmare of being chased by a giant crab and he was stunned by the strange and frightening dream.
All the sudden he's like hold on and I hear like pages.
*flip flip*
OK I go dude what are you doing? I have a dream book.
Mike quickly began to research the meaning of crab in dreams, looking it up in his library of dream interpretation books.
Dude you're gay! That's why you were running away cuz a crab
represents sexuality cuz it doesnt know which way you fucking-
and that's why you ran away from your gayness!
According to the dream book, running from a crab chase may represent running from your sexuality, which is why I was trying to escape from it in the dream, and Mike jokingly suggests that the dream means I must be gay.
I said what about the lightning? Uh emphasizes the gay!
That's what it says if there's lighting around the crab you're super gay
that's what it says here. Super gay. He wasn't wearing loafers was he?
OH NO! Cuz that would mean you were mega ultron gay like a super
hero gay!
Mike comically and sarcastically explains that the presence of lightning around the crab in the dream further emphasizes the theory of the dream book, suggesting that I am "super gay." He amusingly suggests that if the crab was wearing loafers in the dream it would elevate me to an even higher level of gayness.
Contributed by Samantha D. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
tha1ne
I dont know why people hate dane, he's super hero funny!
reggie elumogo
because his fans say super hero funny lol
kawii potato
tha1ne true
erin
This is SO true. Whenever something chases you in a dream, you're really sow, but the monster is extremely fast... and yet somehow it doesn't catch up.
Jesus Tafoya
"He wasn't wearing loafers was he?"
Stormtrooper2178
OH NO
pupest
dude, bruh... your, ULTA MEGA SUPER GAY!
neighbor next door
Jesus Tafoya ANYTHING BUT THE LOAFERS OF DOOOOOOOOOM!!!!! NUUUU!!!!
Meme Lord
SaviChan Aru Like a superhero gay
Youtuberman
Jesus Tafoya he got the loaferavirus!