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Doug Stanhope (born March 25, 1967) is a stand-up
comedy|stand-up comedian.

Stanhope's career began in 1990 in Las Vegas,
Nevada.  He was the host of Comedy Central's The
Man Show for the two final seasons and has
appeared on American Broadcasting Company|ABC's
The View. He has also produced and starred in 
"Invasion of the Hidden Cameras" (a project for
the Fox Broadcasting network).  Stanhope has made
appearances at several major comedy festivals,
including the Montreal Just For Laughs, Aspen US
Comedy Arts festival, the Chicago Comedy Festival
and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland,
where he won the Strathmore Press Award in 2002.

Stanhope was the winner of the San Francisco
Comedy Competition.  He has released several CDs,
Sicko, A Little Something to Take the Edge Off,
and Die Laughing.  His DVD Word of Mouth was
released in 2003 and his most recent DVD/CD is
Deadbeat Hero, released in 2004. 

He claims that his appearance on the BBC
television show, "Floor Show Live" , was fueled by
"ecstacy (drug)|ecstacy".

Stanhope's material is often described as
offensive, yet critics also note that Stanhope's
continually invoked dedication to personal freedom
and libertarian politics set him apart from mere
entertainers. He is a self-confident atheist and
alcoholic, and his humor can border on nihilism,
despite an evident life-celebrating enthusiasm. 
With his irate opposition to American puritanical
hysteria, Stanhope's work frequently invites
comparison with the late Bill Hicks.  He frankly
describes 'deviant' sexual activity and sometimes
gruesome personal stories gleefully, blurring the
lines between an "adventurous spirit" and
full-blown "sicko".  Stanhope violently opposes
the gradual erosion of American civil liberties,
particularly in his recent performances such as
'Deadbeat Hero'.

Often subject to large-scale walk-outs by his
American audiences, Stanhope admits "People will
leave. I go on stage, it's like I'm leading you
into battle -- you're not all going to be here at
the end."

Critics of Stanhope say that his on-stage persona
conflicts with his side-projects like Girls Gone
Wild and The Man Show.  These mainstream "jock"
products play to the horny everyman, while
Stanhope on-stage defines himself not just as the
"crazy" drunk, but a full-blown social outsider
art|outsider.  Stanhope himself has claimed that
the shows attract the wrong audiences for his
comic fare.  In a show in Houston, Texas Stanhope
described one of the Juggies on the Man Show as a
transvestite and not caring if she was really a
man because he would just "want to fuck|poon her
in the ass anyway."  This was followed by a
stereotypical reaction by jocks in the audience.

Others suggest his comedy is base at best, or even
self-justifyingly iconoclastic for shock effect --
similar to charges against Bill Hicks and many
other comedians and writers, whose work was
initially considered less for meaning and value
than for superficial "offensiveness."  

He is currently working to establish a tour of
little-known but talented, socially relevant and
edgy comics called The Unbookables featuring
artists such as Andy Andrist, Sean Rouse, Brett
Erickson, Travis Lipski and Norman Wilkerson with
Father Luke serving as the official journalist and
documentarian. 

In 2005, frontally nude photos of Stanhope at a
bachelor party were posted on the gay website
hunkvideo.com.  They were originally posted on
Stanhope's own website.

==External links==
* http://www.dougstanhope.com Doug Stanhope's
official website
* http://www.sacredcow.com Sacred Cow Productions
*
http://www.ciao.co.uk/Doug_Stanhope_Word_of_Mouth_
_Review_5469233 Review of Word of Mouth DVD
* http://www.theunbookables.com The Unbookables
* http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0970268/ Doug
Stanhope on IMDb