Funny Stuff

I've dubbed Thursday comedy night. NBC airs "Last Comic Standing" and "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List" is on Bravo. I enjoyed both and found myself laughing a lot. Less at Kathy Griffin's show, but that was because it was touching and showed a side of Kathy we don't see enough. It's one of her best episodes, for my tastes, at least.

First, though, there was the massacre on "Last Comic Standing". The challenge to win immunity was prop comedy. Who else but Carrot Top could be the guest judge? The comics had an hour at Bed, Bath and Beyond to collect items and put together their acts. I'm not a fan of this sort of comedy, but I found myself enjoying the thematic routines. Louis Ramey, who is one of my favorites, did a 'green' routine that was both current and clever. I love movies and Jeff Dye's recreation of a number of films was hilarious. Carrot Top chose him as the winner.

Then came the 'I know I'm funnier than...' vote, which takes place in a graveyard. The votes were spread all over the place, but Paul Foot and Papa CJ both received 3 votes. They both went on to the comedy showdown and had to choose the third comic between themselves. After debating on several possibities, they made the foolish decision of selecting Iliza Shlesinger, last week's victor. She creamed the two guys, getting more than 60% of the audience vote.

As I predicted, Papa CJ's routine got stale and seemed almost offensive last night. Paul Foot reminds me of Rowan Atkinson, whose type of comedy I don't like. I think the big problem for Foot was that American's don't really get his humor, but he also sort of fell apart in the middle. I like hearing the other comics evaluate the performances and guess who will win. The pressure is increasing as more go home. Two more will be voted off next week, then the rest will go to Las Vegas to perform.

Kathy Griffin did some traveling on her show. Mixing a vacation with a publicity gimmick, she took her staff to Puerto Vayarta, Mexico, and spent most of three days fixing up a library at a school in a nearby community. In "No Time for Siestas!", the attempt to grab publicity gave way to some genuine interest in the children at the school. They actually did a great job of cleaning up, decorating and stocking the library building. Kathy even managed to get then boyfriend Steve Wozniak to donate 4 Apple computers to the school.

There were, of course, funny moments, not all intentional. Kathy managed to fall asleep in the sun and get a horrible burn on her face. That didn't keep her from working on her project, and she found ways to joke about her appearance. Near the end of the episode, her staff revealed a Kathy-shaped piñata with bright red hair. After the kids broke it to get the candy inside, the staff took out their aggressions on the remains of the piñata. For once, I felt good about the show, rather than conflicted.

I once cried during a Jerry Lewis movie. Comedy can be poignant. It can challenge us to be better people. Whether it was going green or doing charitable work, the messages were there, meaningful and funny all at once.