IS THIS WHAT THEY MEAN BY "UNDERGROUND CHRISTIANITY"?

I work at a world music magazine. I get a lot of CDs in the mail. I get the occasional DVD, too, but usually it's a DVD that has something that has to do with, you know, world music. Not today. Today I got a DVD from "conservative" "comedian" Brad Stine. Here's the (slightly annotated) text of the accompanying letter:

Dear Journalist -

Hope this finds you well!

Indeed, I am well, Publicist. Thank you for your concern.

Enclosed you will find the newest DVD by comedian Brad Stine releasing March 23rd to coincide with his book release. This new release brings more of the modern stand-up comedy without the offensive language.

And who among us does not love the modern stand-up comedy?

Stine is as in-your-face as any modern stand-up comedian, but he never utters a curse word. He is an educated and challenging comic that strives to make people think and laugh about what life has to offer.

That's code. We'll come back to it.

Tolerate This!, the first Brad Stine project released by Warner Bros., is now available in Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and anywhere else comedy is sold. Brad Stine has brought side-splitting clean comedy to audiences across America and has been deemed "America's Conservative Comedian." From his candid profiles in the New Yorker and the New York Times to his TV appearances on Hannity and Colmes and Paula Zahn, Brad Stine is going where no other conservative comic has gone before,

Indeed, so few conservatives appear on Hannity and Colmes these days.

breaking new ground with his inspiring

Code, again.

in-your-face style that is seen full force with his latest DVD, Brad Stine...Tolerate This! Most contemporary comedy is from the left; Brad Stine is comedy for the OTHER half of America!

The half that enjoys pretending they're badass rebels, challenging the status quo...and yet wants their comedy profanity-free.

We will be contacting you for coverage, but in the meantime, sit back and laugh!

Oh, I'm laughin', all right...

In case you didn't pick it up from the very, very carefully coded references in the press release, Brad Stine is a fundamentalist Christian comedian. Check out the aforementioned New Yorker profile for the whole story. And this press release is a perfect example of trying to have it both ways. They play up his "liberal media" press clippings, emphasizing that he "works clean" like he's the next Seinfeld (who also never cursed on stage that I know of), and only hint in the most watered-down terms that he is, in fact, a foaming Bible-thumper. Too bad they had to include the actual product in the package. Track titles like "Eve Was A Shop-A-Holic," "Atheists Are Irrational" and "Christians & Southerners" pretty much give the game away.

I think I might actually take this thing home and watch it, if only because the guy's so damn weird-looking: he's like a cross between Denis Leary and Nick Zedd, and on the back of the box he's wearing what appears to be a leisure suit onstage. And who knows? The spectacle of a right-winger being intentionally funny could be diverting for a second or two.

EDIT: Upon examination of the cover of Brad's book, I have discovered that both I and his publicist have it all wrong. His name isn't Brad Stine, it's Brad St!ne. Just like P!nk!