The serious was hilarious and enjoyable, but now I feel stupid, thinking that the viewers actually had a stake in who won.
I think Dat Phan is a nice guy, but he was not the funniest comic of the 5 finalists--he wasn't even funnier than all 10 of the original comics in the house. The show's producers hand-picked him because he is nice, Vietnamese, and his material wasn't controversial. He used variations of the same jokes in every performance!!! Hearing him impersonate his mother was funny for the first 3 times I heard it. Most comics have more in their reprotoire than jokes about their race and their mothers.

Ralphie should have won. I am very ani-war, but his finale performance had me on the floor with laughter. He knows how to work a crowd, and he make his political views funny, even though I disagreed with him completely. Every performance he gave was original and funny. He will go far in his career.

• RE: The whole show was fixed,sbeck, 10:33 AM, 08-06-03
  • RE: The whole show was fixed,surreality, 11:02 PM, 08-06-03
    • RE: The whole show was fixed,sbeck, 11:29 PM, 08-06-03

I don't know that Ralphie May's material was original. All I heard were fat jokes, until his final performance, which I did not think was funny at all. Tess, too, just jokes about being fat. Dat's jokes were all related to his being Vietnamese. Cory's jokes all related to her daughter's generation. As far as being able to sustain an entire show, I think Rich Vos and Dave Mordal can do this best, but I doubt I'd pay to see it.

And besides, look at the network's point of view: how do reach across all of our viewers? I don't think that the results are the product of an election rigged Florida-style, but in using editing to get us to like Dat Phan. How many shows about Asian-Americans are there on tv? None. Yet they make up about 10 percent of the country. The time has come where networks realize that they need to have programming that represents all cultures because our country is fast-becoming a minority-majority.

>I don't know that Ralphie May's
>material was original. All
>I heard were fat jokes,
>until his final performance, which
>I did not think was
>funny at all.

Yes, Ralphie told fat jokes, but he did more than that. Most of the time the fat stuff was an opener or to bring the audience back to the opener. Ralphie is enormous. No doubt about that, so he makes the joke and moves on to other topics like being from Duh Hood or being tired of insincere protestors who cut down trees to make big signs protesting "no war for oil" Are you familiar with irony?

Cory's >jokes all related to her >daughter's generation.

Cory joked about her kid and her husband, being a woman, what she liked about being a comic-the hours. She made jokes about her life.

>And besides, look at the network's
>point of view: how do
>reach across all of our
>viewers? I don't think that
>the results are the product
>of an election rigged Florida-style,
>but in using editing to
>get us to like Dat
>Phan. How many shows
>about Asian-Americans are there on
>tv? None. Yet
>they make up about 10
>percent of the country.
>The time has come where
>networks realize that they need
>to have programming that represents
>all cultures because our country
>is fast-becoming a minority-majority.

Margaret Cho had a show, yes, I know she is Korean. It didn't last. I watched it a few times but after the first few episodes, it didn't really make me laugh. If the producers cared about the country's demographics the way you suggest, there would be more than the George Lopez show on the networks to represent the fastest growing minority in this country-Hispanics. Check out the results of the 2000 census.

>Yes, Ralphie told fat jokes, but
>he did more than that.
>Most of the time the
>fat stuff was an opener
>or to bring the audience
>back to the opener. Ralphie
>is enormous. No doubt about
>that, so he makes the
>joke and moves on to
>other topics like being from
>Duh Hood or being tired
>of insincere protestors who cut
>down trees to make big
>signs protesting "no war for
>oil" Are you familiar with
>irony?

Yes, I am familiar with irony. Are you? What about his ragging on thin girls, even though he has a skinny girlfriend. I will agree that his sets flowed better than Dat Phan's, but from what I heard, they were all essentially about being fat.

>Margaret Cho had a show, yes,
>I know she is Korean.
>It didn't last. I watched
>it a few times but
>after the first few episodes,
>it didn't really make me
>laugh. If the producers cared
>about the country's demographics the
>way you suggest, there would
>be more than the George
>Lopez show on the networks
>to represent the fastest growing
>minority in this country-Hispanics. Check
>out the results of the
>2000 census.

I whole-heartedly agree with you. In fact, if you go back and read my original posting, you'll see that I said networks need to pay attention to ALL cultures as we're quickly becoming a minrity-majority. Not just Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians, but everyone. And as the product of an interracial marriage, I'd sure as heck like to see that, too. And FYI, I am MORE than familiar with the 2000 census. . .