Let's Hear It For The Girls

Thursday night was a great one for funny women. The finale of "Last Comic Standing" was a huge surprise. Iliza won! It's the first time a woman has won the search for the best comedian. I'm delighted. I thought she was wonderful, her material always fresh and her delivery engaging.

Kathy Griffin was in great form on her show. The honesty she shows, particularly about her relationship with Steve Wozniak, is both amazing and endearing. My favorite moment of the night was when she was helping at an auction for a Humane Society fundraiser. The item being auctioned was tickets to "American Idol" and she quipped about how awesome a purchase it would be because the bidder would be able to see Paula's antics. I really think that helped push the bids up.

Finally, that silly reality spoof, "Reality Bites Back", took aim at "American Gladiators" with something called "Almost American Gladiators". For this, the goal was getting citizenship and there were several silly challengers where beefy border patrolers tried to keep the contestants from scoring. In one, they tried to prevent the contestants from putting green card applications into a 'mailbox' that was more like a barrel. Then they tossed dolls (representng their children) over a chainlink fence. Once all the dolls were oven, they had to climb the fence. The people who came in last had to face being sent home.

The final test was a quiz with questions from the citizenship test. It came down to Red and Amy in peril of being sent home. Whoever got the first right answer would stay. Red came first, and had what I thought was an easy question. "Who wrote the Star-Spangled Banner?" But, he didn't know. Amy's question was "Who said, 'Give me liberty or give me death?" Amy knew it was Patrick Henry. She's saved for another week. Yay!

On the down side was "America's Got Talent". They announced the final 40 by showing each act and a glimpse of what the judges told them. There is still a chance that one of the eliminated contestants will be on the show. On the NBC website, viewers are voting to fill a space left when one act had to pull out of the show due to injury. Unfortunately, my favorite, the woman from MySpace who had a great voice, wasn't on the ballot.

Now we have to wait till September 3 to see who wins the vote and begin seeing the acts the viewers will vote on. I'm not sure I want to keep watching, but I'll have to see how I feel about it next month.