hey grit! I'm willing to bet that the show did offer him the opportunity to back out but Ralphie felt it was important to go forward in tribute to his dad. According to the link above his father was ailing, so it seems likely that it was a true statement (it would be REALLLY bad karma to say his sick dad was dead).

From the beginning of the show I knew there was something wrong with Ralphie. Though he's not terribly gregarious, you could just see he wasn't himself even during the introductions. I definitely do not think he was making that up. I happen to think Ralphie's normal routines are sufficiently funny. No scam required. After his mini-routine, he made some comment about "the show must go on." I think that was his explanation for performing even under such grief.

I'm sure he got some sympathy votes. I actually hope he did because I'm looking forward to seeing more of his real material and seeing him whomp the lesser comics from both seasons.

I have to agree that I want the sympathy vote for Ralphie. I hated when Dat won, not that I think he's all that bad, I just think Ralphie's that much better.

Give him to day or two to recover and Watch out!!!!

Spandex: it's a privilege, not a right. (Cereal Killer-Hackers)

I found this on the nbc message board:

I dropped a quick email to Ant this morning, to wish him well and ask what happened with Ralphie getting picked at such a bad time... Here is his response...
Further comment from me follows...

==============================
In a message dated 8/31/2004 10:38:49 AM Eastern Standard Time, ANTcomic writes:
Julie-

We didn't know about Ralphie's dad because we shot the War Room votes the Day before. We were devasted for him when we heard the news. We offered to Re-vote (and give Ralphie the week off) but the legal people at NBC said no.

Words cannot say what my heart feels when I read emails like yours. Thank you so much again for the compliments! Tonight I am on Last Comic Standing 3 (August 31st). It's season 3 and once again, I am asking for you vote. Please tune in and let me know what you think.

All the best, and again many thanks!

ANT

==================================

To those of you that said such horrible things about Ralphie going onstage the day after losing his father just to gain sympathy votes, or picking on him for his 'lack' of performance, I hope you are all really proud of yourselves. How cold hearted some of you are here.

In the meantime, thoughts and prayers go out to Ralphie and his family.

http://www.nbc.com/boards/LastComicStanding3/thread-106074-1.html

~Carrie~

"Men aren't that complicated. They're kind of like plants."

Thanks for sharing Carrie. I hope Ralphie gets a chance to really show us what he can do.

And WELCOME to the boards!

Yep, me too. Can't imagine the difficulty of what he undertook last night. And as I said earlier, with his simple jokes, he was still funnier than Voss, Mordal, Kahaney, Jessica, & Glass. And I've not been a particular fan of his. I just hope he gets the votes he deserves in the end...nothing more and certainly nothing less.

I agree...Ralphie did say at the end "The show must go on" and I think he meant his father would have wanted him there to pursue his dream. I felt really bad for the guy!

LAST EDITED ON 08-31-04 AT 11:38 PM (EST)

Hey..and welcome aboard Cool...we love your name, very cool. Oh yea...sorry, I'm muttering. (Dog offering her paw) don't trust that dog, by the way! She licks and is slobbery!

Haha...thanks for the sloppy welcome!

I've heard that it's true that the war room was shot before Ralphie found out, but that it was his choice to stay, not the legal team's.

I'm not saying that ANT is wrong, but he was sure of an alliance in LCS2 that didn't exist. (Not meaning to bash him) I like him as a comedian, but let's face it, he's a drama queen. (Unfortunate pun)

I also find it just a little hard to believe that if he really wanted to leave, he wouldn't have just left.

Everyone says he got sympathy votes. I gotta tell ya, his timing was still pretty good in my humble opinion, even with the emotion he was fighting.

I just am uncomfortable with the fact the Ralphie May informed the audience that his dad died and continued to struggle through his comedy act.....before anyone bashes me PLEASE try to hear me out....

first off there is the obvious sympathy vote factor. How can he ever be voted out now? I think it is fairly obvious that he will probably win LCS 3 even if he isn't the most deserving AS A COMEDIAN. Also can you imagine if you were the comedian that had to go on and perform after Ralphie May? If I remember correctly, I believe they took a commercial break thank God.....but if they hadn't, that would've been horribly unfair to the performer immediately following Ralphie.

I think a better alternative would have been to let Ralpie May mourn without a camera on him and just have 2 teams of nine so that we would've never had to see Jennifer-what's-her-name.

You know, Amazon, I tend to agree with you on one hand, but on the other, I would hope that he is able to pull it up and do his best later on. And on the third hand (uhhh) shut up dog, you know what I mean...I felt most of the season 1 comics were not funny, so he could outshine them legitimately. Then on the 4th hand....so sue me...In the end there can be no sympathy. Needs to be real, but will it? Who knows. You are right tho, it would be awful to follow him in any competition! And in a vote? Cripes!

If I had four hands I would agree with vix, Seriously though, he will probably get some sympathy votes, but I would be surprised if it carried him until the end. Unless, like vixie said, it is legit. But I could be wro...nah!

*Courtesy of IceCat*

(Apu Accent) By the many arms of Vishnu, I think that you are both right (/Apu accent)

(You said Apu, apu) Oh good grief!

Hello everyone. I am new here and want to thank you all for 2 things. (1) answering my questions about who was tossed from the show on Season 3 (I work nights and don't get to see it) and (2) for being one of the few message boards I have ever read through that doesn't resort to nastiness and unrelated subject matter. It was refreshing to see opposing points of view where no one called names and questioned your parentage just because you have different opinions. Good job, all.

Let me be first to welcome you aboard (No me) hey quit pushing! (let go) Get off my keyboard! Crap, now I have to wipe the slobber off...again.
Sorry about that. So welcome aboard. Yes, I absolutely love the camaradarie around here. There are very few who find the need to snap at one another, and I love that. I love intelligent banter (oh..here she goes again) and I love to have my point of view challanged by smart minded (or smark alec) thinkers. And yes, dog is right, I love sarcasm above all! Yahooo!

Thanks for the welcome, Vixie. I, too suffer froma malady I refer to as CWOK (cat walking on keyboard) but at least there's no slobbering going on. Except for me when I get home from work at 3 am. I will be sure to return here to get my updates from now on. I felt really bad for Ralphie, but must admit, I also wondered for a few if it was an "act". However, I do not beleive it was. If that was his way of paying tribute to his Dad, who am I to judge? After all, it is known that his tv appearance was responsible for bringing him and his dad closer, so what better was to say good-bye?
"Some people would rather die than think. In fact, they often do." ~Bertrand Russell~

I admit to being one of those who thought at first that it was all an act. I guess I just can't imagine being that devastated and having something so awful happen and still be willing to perform comedy in front of millions of people. Then, when I realized it wasn't an act, not only did I feel really sad for Ralphie, but I was silently amazed that we as a society had gotten to that point where we would assume it was a device used to manipulate people in order to advance in a competition. Like many others, I'm sure, I immediately thought of Johnny Fairplay. For anybody who thinks reality TV has gone too far, I think that may be a prime example.

Amen.

XCLNT point Joools.

Thank you. I have my moments.

Hi, I'm new here and just thought I'd give my take on Ralphie's situation.

I too thought he might be maliciously exploiting people with soft hearts until I looked at his eyes and his face. There I saw what I must have looked like each time my parents died. It wasn't anything that could be "made up" on the spot for phony ephemeric sympathy. He was truly grieving.

I just hope Ralphie finds a safe personal place (within himself or just for the show) to gain some closure on his situation.

Actually, I think Ralphie "going on with the show" in the face of all of that grief WAS closure. Especially given that his dad had scorned him for so long because of Ralpie's career choice and then was able to reconcile because of his success on LCS1. Telling his dad's favorite old jokes allowed Ralphie to reveal parts of himself past and present. I thought it was a beautiful yet terribly tragic wake.

I really admire Ralphie for being able to deliver the jokes at all. I'm getting all choked up just imagining being in his situation.

At first I thought it was an act too! I kept waiting for the punch line...but it never came. Then when he said "The show must go on." I knew it was serious. I wouldn't give him a sympathy vote for it, just for the fact that I had heard those jokes before (even though they are funny) so it wasn't his own material to begin with.

I see people wanting to give him a bye for the first round, but how fair is it to everyone else? Do you delay it, or restructure it for one person? No, and NBC was right on this call. Life happens, and we have to roll with it.

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