Last Content Standing
Semi-finals round 2 of Last Comic Standing aired last night (I would link to my recap of round 1... but obviously the Sauna host server is still off-line, hence posting here), and the "reality show" is a freight train of bullshit. Unlike last week where I was incredibly annoyed by who they didn't pick, this week I'm incredibly annoyed by who they did.
Esther Ku is a cutesy, young, 20-something Korean American girl who plays up her cheekiness to the Nth degree and seems to have someone convinced that she has some sort of talent (maybe for giving BJs to the producers?) Her act is overly dependent on making painful "observations" about her Korean heritage, which essentially serve as mockery and perpetuation of stereotypes. Talking about her police officer brother she questions what's so intimidating about someone saying "Ricense and legislation preese"? "Celebrity Guest Panel" Richard Belzer and guy from Sopranos both praised her, even though it was obvious they weren't amused. I'm guessing some sort of producer edict said "we're putting her through, so don't say anything mean". Earlier in the show, Belzer chided a comic (Heath Hyche) whose act had him playing a 1940's Japanese pilot and speaking in Engrish, but said of Esther Ku that it's okay for people to poke fun at their own ethnicity. Sure it is, if there's something more than just perpetuating the same racist cliches for the sake of an easy laugh. There was nothing Esther Ku did that was funny or edgy in discussing her ethnicity, it was, instead, mockery and insulting. (The Japanese pilot bit... would have been fine if the "joke" wasn't so plain... "he fry rike Tom Cruise?" bleh).
It's a problem I have with a lot of LCS contestants and comedians in general, people who use their ethnicity as a crutch. We're not talking Dave Chappelle or Chris Rock or Margaret Cho here, people who are able to discuss their race intelligently and insightfully without resorting to denigrating their people. These are people who can use cliches against the audience to provoke humour, as opposed to Esther Ku who says, in essence, "I'm not white, isn't that funny?"
Oh and Esther Ku also makes fun of fat people (with lame jokes like, "Guys always wanna buy me dinner. Do I look hungry? I have a friend who's heavy, and nobody wants to buy her dinner. She looks like she's already full.") How does that work Belzer, can you make fun of fat people if you're not fat?
Then there's Papa CJ, a comic from India who doesn't denigrate his country or his people, but he spurts out joke after joke that reference the most basic elements of Indian culture (large population, belief in reincarnation, call centers). Indian-Canadian comics like Russell Peters and Shaun Majumder have something to say about themselves, about their upbringing, about their heritage... Papa CJ is trying to tell jokes that have nothing to do with himself.
Then there's Marcus. If you're going to have a singular name, make it something different, dude. Marcus? There's plenty of Marcus' out there, you're not talented enough to stand out. Talking about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for three minutes? Well, it would have been funny had I not already heard all those jokes on Futureama. I admit you have some damn good impersonations, and there hasn't been a prominent impersonator since Rich Little. There's a reason for that. Impersonators aren't funny. It's an "America's Got Talent" ability (that of a geek, and we can smell our own, who spent too much time in the mirror practicing these things instead of, you know, having friends), not "Last Comic Standing" worthy (although judging by the level of talent they have let through on this show, I'd say it is).
And then there's Louis Ramey, the man who the show has poised from the first episode to be the winner. Yes, it's that obvious. The man is pegged to be the top, full of bravado and the support of the producers behind him. Is he any good? Well, he's not bad, but he's not very creative either. Again, he's a comic that falls back on his race a lot, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but it seems too easy at times. Is he funny? Sort of, but it's far too obvious how highly he thinks of himself and arrogance is something I loathe in comedy. You should have to fight for your laughs, not demand them. Ramey received a standing ovation at the end of his three-minute set, a set that was far from worthy of it. Essentially, there were some plants in the audience who stood up, and like sheep, the rest of the crowd followed suit. I don't know this for sure, but judging by his act, and given the response time of the crowd, it seemed fairly certain to say that the producers are looking for any angle to make sure Ramey comes out on top.
You can tell watching this show how well someone's going to do early on by the amount of exposure they get on the "coming up" segments between commercial breaks and how often they're featured in behind-the-stage sequences. Audience manipulation is an art form and LCS seems to have it down pat.
The biggest surprise of the night was that they were selecting 7 contestants from this pool of 16, as opposed to the 5 from last week. This week was a much weaker selection of talent than last week (I only like three from this week as opposed to six last week) and they chose two female comics this week (as opposed to none last week, and both Erin Jackson and Andi Smith were better than the selected Esther Ku and Iliza Shlesinger... to be fair I missed much of Shlesinger's set though due to working a food processor at the time). It was some weird kind of weighting that the show's producers did and it all smacks of bullshit and favouratism. But we know that already and I should stop harping on it.
But I can't. I'm sad to see that the comics will still be put through their Big Brother-esque paces starting next week. The final episode of Extras says it all about how pathetic and demoralizing it is to be on of those shows, and I feel bad that some very talented comedians have to put themselves through it in hopes of greater exposure (especially given how obviously rigged the show is to settle on a predetermined champion). It would also seem that the opening rounds, the weeding down to the final 12, is pretty much a set-up for having the most interesting people in the Big Brother house that they can... at least half of these comedians are weak talent but either unique in personality or appearance and thus, in the producers eyes, should make for a more interesting dynamic when all in the same household.
Sean Cullen, my hopeful for top spot, made it through, performing his song "You've Got A Friend In Porn" to an unsuspecting Las Vegas audience. It wasn't his best performance, but then Sean is really a comedian who needs to hold the stage for at least 20 minutes to get the full sense of his genius. His songs are clever, his bits are clever, but when you get him going on a 45 minute improvisational tangent the man is incessantly brilliant. I should also point out that Sean was one of few comics that made it through this round that did not retrace his steps at all. He performed completely different material from his first round, which was different from his audition material. About half of the acts had already delivered the same material previously, leading me to believe that some of these people only have about 7 minutes worth of material they're banking upon.
Brit cellist Jim Tavare made it through, and I was glad about that, since he's got a unique shtick which is actually funny... and the man has performed for the Queen. That's crazy. No word on whether she laughed or not.
So that was the semi-finals, and now we ("we"? I don't even know if I can watch) watch as the final twelve embarrass themselves on national television for a few weeks before getting back to doing what they actually do best (well, what some of them do best at least...).
This show has me mixed-up and angry. I'm going to have to rethink my stance about how good it actually is for stand-up comedy.
Addendum
OH. MY. GAWD. Reading some of the comments on the NBC Last Comic Standing website, and I've come to the conclusion that America is thick. There are many, many comments on there talking about "clean" acts (that would be any act that didn't make mention of sex, people... wow, what an uptight culture... and every reference to the "clean" acts were a-ok with the Japanese pilot stereotype... so to summarize, in America: racism=funny, sex=bad). Also a lot of "I'm black and I didn't find it offensive" or "my wife's Chinese and she didn't find it offensive"... erm being black or Chinese doesn't make you capable of apologizing for mocking the Japanese. There seems to be some sort of understanding that, in America, if you're not white then you can get away with marginalizing any culture, simply because there's the possibility you might be marginalized yourself. That really doesn't make any sense at all.
Esther Ku is a cutesy, young, 20-something Korean American girl who plays up her cheekiness to the Nth degree and seems to have someone convinced that she has some sort of talent (maybe for giving BJs to the producers?) Her act is overly dependent on making painful "observations" about her Korean heritage, which essentially serve as mockery and perpetuation of stereotypes. Talking about her police officer brother she questions what's so intimidating about someone saying "Ricense and legislation preese"? "Celebrity Guest Panel" Richard Belzer and guy from Sopranos both praised her, even though it was obvious they weren't amused. I'm guessing some sort of producer edict said "we're putting her through, so don't say anything mean". Earlier in the show, Belzer chided a comic (Heath Hyche) whose act had him playing a 1940's Japanese pilot and speaking in Engrish, but said of Esther Ku that it's okay for people to poke fun at their own ethnicity. Sure it is, if there's something more than just perpetuating the same racist cliches for the sake of an easy laugh. There was nothing Esther Ku did that was funny or edgy in discussing her ethnicity, it was, instead, mockery and insulting. (The Japanese pilot bit... would have been fine if the "joke" wasn't so plain... "he fry rike Tom Cruise?" bleh).
It's a problem I have with a lot of LCS contestants and comedians in general, people who use their ethnicity as a crutch. We're not talking Dave Chappelle or Chris Rock or Margaret Cho here, people who are able to discuss their race intelligently and insightfully without resorting to denigrating their people. These are people who can use cliches against the audience to provoke humour, as opposed to Esther Ku who says, in essence, "I'm not white, isn't that funny?"
Oh and Esther Ku also makes fun of fat people (with lame jokes like, "Guys always wanna buy me dinner. Do I look hungry? I have a friend who's heavy, and nobody wants to buy her dinner. She looks like she's already full.") How does that work Belzer, can you make fun of fat people if you're not fat?
Then there's Papa CJ, a comic from India who doesn't denigrate his country or his people, but he spurts out joke after joke that reference the most basic elements of Indian culture (large population, belief in reincarnation, call centers). Indian-Canadian comics like Russell Peters and Shaun Majumder have something to say about themselves, about their upbringing, about their heritage... Papa CJ is trying to tell jokes that have nothing to do with himself.
Then there's Marcus. If you're going to have a singular name, make it something different, dude. Marcus? There's plenty of Marcus' out there, you're not talented enough to stand out. Talking about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for three minutes? Well, it would have been funny had I not already heard all those jokes on Futureama. I admit you have some damn good impersonations, and there hasn't been a prominent impersonator since Rich Little. There's a reason for that. Impersonators aren't funny. It's an "America's Got Talent" ability (that of a geek, and we can smell our own, who spent too much time in the mirror practicing these things instead of, you know, having friends), not "Last Comic Standing" worthy (although judging by the level of talent they have let through on this show, I'd say it is).
And then there's Louis Ramey, the man who the show has poised from the first episode to be the winner. Yes, it's that obvious. The man is pegged to be the top, full of bravado and the support of the producers behind him. Is he any good? Well, he's not bad, but he's not very creative either. Again, he's a comic that falls back on his race a lot, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but it seems too easy at times. Is he funny? Sort of, but it's far too obvious how highly he thinks of himself and arrogance is something I loathe in comedy. You should have to fight for your laughs, not demand them. Ramey received a standing ovation at the end of his three-minute set, a set that was far from worthy of it. Essentially, there were some plants in the audience who stood up, and like sheep, the rest of the crowd followed suit. I don't know this for sure, but judging by his act, and given the response time of the crowd, it seemed fairly certain to say that the producers are looking for any angle to make sure Ramey comes out on top.
You can tell watching this show how well someone's going to do early on by the amount of exposure they get on the "coming up" segments between commercial breaks and how often they're featured in behind-the-stage sequences. Audience manipulation is an art form and LCS seems to have it down pat.
The biggest surprise of the night was that they were selecting 7 contestants from this pool of 16, as opposed to the 5 from last week. This week was a much weaker selection of talent than last week (I only like three from this week as opposed to six last week) and they chose two female comics this week (as opposed to none last week, and both Erin Jackson and Andi Smith were better than the selected Esther Ku and Iliza Shlesinger... to be fair I missed much of Shlesinger's set though due to working a food processor at the time). It was some weird kind of weighting that the show's producers did and it all smacks of bullshit and favouratism. But we know that already and I should stop harping on it.
But I can't. I'm sad to see that the comics will still be put through their Big Brother-esque paces starting next week. The final episode of Extras says it all about how pathetic and demoralizing it is to be on of those shows, and I feel bad that some very talented comedians have to put themselves through it in hopes of greater exposure (especially given how obviously rigged the show is to settle on a predetermined champion). It would also seem that the opening rounds, the weeding down to the final 12, is pretty much a set-up for having the most interesting people in the Big Brother house that they can... at least half of these comedians are weak talent but either unique in personality or appearance and thus, in the producers eyes, should make for a more interesting dynamic when all in the same household.
Sean Cullen, my hopeful for top spot, made it through, performing his song "You've Got A Friend In Porn" to an unsuspecting Las Vegas audience. It wasn't his best performance, but then Sean is really a comedian who needs to hold the stage for at least 20 minutes to get the full sense of his genius. His songs are clever, his bits are clever, but when you get him going on a 45 minute improvisational tangent the man is incessantly brilliant. I should also point out that Sean was one of few comics that made it through this round that did not retrace his steps at all. He performed completely different material from his first round, which was different from his audition material. About half of the acts had already delivered the same material previously, leading me to believe that some of these people only have about 7 minutes worth of material they're banking upon.
Brit cellist Jim Tavare made it through, and I was glad about that, since he's got a unique shtick which is actually funny... and the man has performed for the Queen. That's crazy. No word on whether she laughed or not.
So that was the semi-finals, and now we ("we"? I don't even know if I can watch) watch as the final twelve embarrass themselves on national television for a few weeks before getting back to doing what they actually do best (well, what some of them do best at least...).
This show has me mixed-up and angry. I'm going to have to rethink my stance about how good it actually is for stand-up comedy.
Addendum
OH. MY. GAWD. Reading some of the comments on the NBC Last Comic Standing website, and I've come to the conclusion that America is thick. There are many, many comments on there talking about "clean" acts (that would be any act that didn't make mention of sex, people... wow, what an uptight culture... and every reference to the "clean" acts were a-ok with the Japanese pilot stereotype... so to summarize, in America: racism=funny, sex=bad). Also a lot of "I'm black and I didn't find it offensive" or "my wife's Chinese and she didn't find it offensive"... erm being black or Chinese doesn't make you capable of apologizing for mocking the Japanese. There seems to be some sort of understanding that, in America, if you're not white then you can get away with marginalizing any culture, simply because there's the possibility you might be marginalized yourself. That really doesn't make any sense at all.