Media critic Virginia Heffernan wrote a column recently about rants in the New York Times, but she completely omitted the comedy rant as a category.

A funny rant is a great comedy technique. It was pioneered (I think) by Lenny Bruce and subsequently practiced by other (usually) angry (often) young (almost always) men including Sam Kinison, Bill Hicks (who actually had an album called Rant in E Minor), Chris Rock, Dennis Miller, George Carlin and Lewis Black. Roseanne did some ranting, but it's a harder form for women to pull off because, let's face it, our culture by and large still likes its women nice and easy, not rough.

The Un-Cabaret has featured some impressive comedy rants by brilliant boys like Patton Oswalt, Bob Odenkirk, Taylor Negron and others. (You can hear some great rants on the Un-Cabaret CDs.) It has also provided a forum for some great female ranters like Margaret Cho and Kathy Griffin. Here are two for your listening pleasure:

Sue Murphy rails about Hollywood hierarchy.

Beth Lapides gets political in this rant which was included in the ACLU Freedom Files. 

According to Wikipedia: A rant is a speech of text that does not present a well-researched and calm argument; rather, it is typically an attack on an idea, a person or an institution, and very often lacks proven claims. In some cases, rants are based on facts and concrete information, but the key ideas expressed are what the individual personally feels.

You can use a rant onstage to great effect in standup or spoken work, in a screenplay, tv script or stage play (just ask David Mamet, patron saint of stage ranters). In my opinion, these are the key components to a successful comedy rant:

1. A clear topic - If you aren't clear what you're talking about and you don't define it clearly for the audience, don't bother trying to get on a rant.

2. Passion - I've seen a lot of comedians aim too low throw passion at mis-guided topics like 'clothes for pets'. My advice: use your real passion for the thing you're really worked up about.

3. Attitude - Try to go beyond 'oh great' and find a comic attitude that underlies the emotion, but a rant is not the place to mitigate your attitude. In fact, it's the place to 'maxigate' it.

4. Point of View - Don't lose yourself and your particular situation. Why are you so worked up that you have to take this rant to the stage (or page, or internet)?

5. Rhythm - A rant is a great place to find your own personal rhythm because the passion and momentum help you transcend your 'logical' thinking and natural inhibitions. Heffernan, for some reason, decided that a rant can't rhyme, but I disagree. If it rhymes too much it's a poem, but a few well-chosen couplets can be a beautiful thing. A good rant almost always uses repetition of a word or phrase.

6. Momentum - A rant is a great place to practice fast-talking. Audiences love a rant because they know what ride they're on and their only job is to try to keep up with you. Your job, of course, is to try to keep up with yourself and not get derailed by your own momentum. A good rant is like a visceral mental high-wire act on speed.

7. Dynamics - A lot of people get loud fast and stay loud through their whole rant. A great rant is like a roller coaster with highs and lows, sections where you speed up and slow down, get louder and softer. Then, just when we think it's over... zoom, you're off again. Hopefully with a new angle or twist to keep us interested.

Use your rants to work on your ability to milk more laughs from a given word, phrase or topic. And for God's sake try to have some kind of recording device running so after a successful rant  you can go back, analyze what you did right and maybe transcribe some nuggets to re-use or re-perform.

Don't confuse a rant with a 'story' (a narrative with beginning, middle and, hopefully, an end), a 'skit' (a little play or fragment that includes characters) or a 'bit' (a chunk of comedy that sticks on one topic but lacks the passion and momentum of a rant). Those are all distinct forms.

One word of caution: a great rant is usually of the moment. Don't be surprised if when you go to re-create it you find yourself lacking the emotion that fueled you the first time.

Check out Beth's new show, "100% Happy 88% of the Time", for a couple of great rants that are fueled by love and passion, and manage to avoid anger and hate.

Rant on!