Boston's Most Wanted: Dane Cook

On Thursday night at the TD Garden the Boston One Fund benefit concert that raised charity funds to relief those affected by the Marathon bombings featured performers like Aerosmith, New Kids on the Block, the J. Geils Band, and the Dropkick Murphys. The event was a huge success, except for a controversial miscue from polarizing comedian Dane Cook that led to an outrage of fans on social media.

The concert was available for online streaming, but fans saw their screen go black just as Cook was about to go on stage and then the image reappeared when his skit was over. This was not a technical mishap but a controversial decision by Dane to not allow his set to be distributed across the web because he didn't want it to be released to the public yet.

After the concert, he sent out a couple tweets:



 

 

Basically, what he's saying here is that his jokes and his career is more important than the great cause to which he was contributing. Rather than mirror the selflessness that celebrities like Doug Flutie, Steven Tyler, and Mark Walberg displayed, he put his career first and put a damper on the night. Once people realized the reasons behind the blackout on the stream, there was an outrage demonizing the already controversial comedian.

 

Is the criticism fair? Dane Cook is a businessman and he has one product to sell: Dane Cook. It's easy to understand that he reached his peak five years ago and his career has been dwindling despite some pretty terrible movies (See: Employee of the Month. Actually, don't see it, it's awful.) So he saw this as a chance to rekindle the flame of sophomoric humor that won the hearts of highschool students across the country and chose not to reveal his new stuff.

 

However, this concert is in the wake of the worst terrorist attack in Boston history and Cook's selfishness really put a damper on an otherwise awesome night. Is he a bad person? Probably not. He had some other great tweets about how special the event was to him and how honored he was to be there. And despite the backlash against him, sometimes any press is good press. But here's a tip, Dane. You need this city more than this city needs you. Keep that in mind next time you put yourself ahead of everyone that was affected by these tragic events.

 

Where do you fall on this issue? Does Dane Cook deserve the hatred he's gotten?