I figured this could go here since he was on THE TONIGHT SHOW all the time and had some great specials on HBO back in the early 90s.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/11/comedian.dead.ap/index.html

Back in the '90s when seemingly every standup comic in America was getting his own sitcom (from Drew Carey to John Caponera, Ray Romano to John Mendoza), Jeni made 13 episodes of PLATYPUS MAN for the fledgling UPN, a network so little-viewed that it no longer exists. Unfortunately, Platypus Man was not a superhero, although a title like that probably would have drawn a couple of extra viewers if he had been.

I always held Jeni as a paragon of what great simple stand-up comedy should be like. He had general premises like many comics, but they never sounded hack or played-out because he came up with original angles and ideas about them. For example, I've heard hundreds of lame "BRADY BUNCH" jokes that hit all the same buttons - '70's, clothes and hair, "they're not really our sisters" - but he did the best routine because he zeroed in on the disconnect between the happy family life it presented and the average life of a kid like him who watched it. ("Notice, mom, how they're managing to raise six kids without beating the crap out of them?")

I am really shocked and sad at this. I'm gonna miss him.

Jeni had a funny routine about how being asked to choose his own lobster in a seafood restaurant made him feel like Nero presiding over the bread & circuses of the Roman Coliseum:

"Bring me the brown one... he amuses me."

Courtesy of YouTube, here's a poor copy of Jeni's hilarious bit about subjecting yourself to JAWS 4: THE REVENGE. "A bucket of popcorn and a spinal cord" is still one of my favorite phrases.

Very sad news. I don't know if I'd call him a favorite of mine, but he did make me laugh whenever I saw him.

The phrase "... because you think it's going to get better" is especially haunting in this context.

Hearing about Mr. Jeni's passing is so eerie because just last week I saw him in a documentary about the late cult comedian Bill Hicks--he was one of the commentators--and I also remember seeing him in THE MASK with Jim Carrey as well as a commercial--never heard of PLATYPUS MAN,though. I had been meaning to look him & his work up on the IMDB. BTW,the UPN channel was watched a lot back in the day because it carried decent T.V. dramas aimed at urban viewers like myself (even though I like to watch a lot of different types of programs on T.V.)

Not a favorite of mine either,but he always seemed to come off as a nice guy, and I do remember catching him on Leno now and then. How awful/sad.

I was watching Larry King last night with Bill Maher as the guest. As a contemporary, Maher was visibly upset about Jeni, but said some very profound words on fame, expectations of the levels of fame, and the effect it can have on a celebrity. If it pops up on youtube, I'll link it here.


marc

Oh...I wasn't sure who he was until you mentioned that. Wow.