Album Review: Manolis Zontanos, The Internet Took it

Some history lessons for you: some of first comedy records were called “party records”. They were X-rated records sold under the counter, containing jokes that were as shocking as they were funny, starting as early as 1920s. Another history lesson: the Greeks invented everything. 

Manolis Zontanos’ The Internet Took It is a contemporary party record casually recorded with home court advantage at the iconic Levity Comedy Club in Hamilton, Ontario. 

Now Manolis himself is the absolute heart of the scene there, in a city that does not always give up laughs. To see him headline a show, he makes killing with a long set look easy. Hamilton is proud of its working class roots but contemporary Hamilton comedy audiences are composed of another unique comedy population, educated people who work in the medical sector. This has greatly influenced the conversational style and sexual corridors comedy audiences are willing to go down. 

All of this to say, this record is not clean. It builds appropriately and never feels malicious or shocking. Its sidesplittingly funny but Zontanos definitely goes there. 

With material that runs from group shower etiquette to who gets the dildo in a breakup to the finer points of a blow job tap, everything translates to recording extremely well, even riffs from the audience. The storytelling is vivid and lively. His recount of the day the sauna caught fire is the type of bit that will have you laughing for days and reminds us funny things really do happen to funny people. 

The albums namesake track “The Internet Took It” comes from a bit involving the late great George Zontanos, Manolis' father whom we lost to COVID. 

That is the best thing about this record. The resilience of Manolis to laugh off mourning and put together a truly wild party record. 

The Internet Took It was released March 11, 2022.
Listen to it here.