It's a brand name for a type of comedy - or more accurately, a type of comic - that you may have assumed no longer existed. Just because stand-up - like the rest of the entertainment industry - seems to have turned into hollow and tepid birdshit, doesn't mean that raw and progressive comics don't exist. It's just that most of it is never seen. "Alternative" comedy bred some fantastic comics that brought an unheard voice to the forefront of the artform. It also built a fanbase for that genre of comedy. The Unbookables is a third party genre of comedian that lives in the cracks, that may or may not be drunks, do drugs, be insane, paranoid, nihilistic, verbose or violent, unprofessional, anti-social or just roundly misunderstood. Too uncool to be alternative, too unique to be mainstream, too unmarketable to be bookable, too unstable to be invited to the party. Fuck-ups, in short. Brilliant, ingenious fuck-ups who don't get or do not even attempt to get the recognition they deserve. Comedians for people who probably gave up on stand-up comedy by the time the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, Last Comic Standing and Tourgasm hit the stands. There is still a subversive adreneline in stand-up. You just have to look for it.
