Three TUAW bloggers walk into a bar... a review of Comedy Sidekick

Yeah, you're the life of the party on New Year's Eve. You're the guy dancing in the corner with the lampshade on your head. Everybody thinks you're hilarious, but wouldn't you like to kick your amateur comic career into high gear?

With Comedy Sidekick [US$0.99, iTunes Link] on your iPhone or iPod touch, your career as the next Henny Youngman is a shoo-in! This wild and crazy app is basically a soundboard loaded with all the great sounds you'd associate with bad comedians... or good ones. Launching the app displays the screen seen at right. Tapping any one of the buttons ensures that before you can say "butter my butt and call me a biscuit,", an audio clip plays.

If you watched the December 30th edition of TUAW TV Live, you got to see this tremendously useful app in action. With a single tap, you can play a drum and cymbal rimshot to accentuate your bad jokes, play an intro to your impromptu comedy act, or even play applause if the real crowd is walking away from you in disgust. At least somebody will be laughing and clapping at your hilarious comedy routine!
But wait, there's more! Comedy Sidekick also gives you an opening act, with a recorded comedienne telling some bad jokes. On the plus side, you can add recordings of your own to the opening act. In fact, you can add your own recorded content to the introductions and catch phrases as well. I'd recommend adding your own catch phrases; playing the "butter my butt..." phrase more than once per stand-up stint might cause your audience to throw rotten vegetables at you.

The pre-recorded sound bites are really my biggest complaint. They sound like they were recorded on someone's Mac with GarageBand, and in terms of some of the information — introductions, opening acts, and catch phrases — there just aren't enough of them. Yes, you are given the ability to add your own, but this should have a lot more "professional" content in it.

All in all, Comedy Sidekick ranks right up there with the fart app genre, but it's worth having if you've ever had even the slightest inclination to do stand-up comedy. Check out the gallery below for screen shots, and while you're at it, please leave your best clean jokes (suitable for a family publication) in the comments.