I gave up on the show when the Hemi guy won.
4 women?
Hell, he’s at least 15 times the size of his wife.
And, that petite woman has even given birth to two of Ralphie’s children.
(Their daughter is named April June May!)
. . . and, I do feel obligated to say that, although I never watched LCS and have no idea how Ralphie came across on the show, that I’ve spent time in his company and he is not only friendly but very sweet and very kind.
You seriously misunderstood the hate for Dat Phan. The older comics disliked Dat for a number of reasons, none of which had to do with him being new. They got along with Rob Cantrell just fine and I believe he was even newer to comedy than Dat. But they disliked Dat because:
[ol]
[li]He was using stand-up as a means to jump start an acting career. This is insulting to a group of people who are working in stand-up to become, you know, well known stand-ups.[/li][li]He treated stand-up as a product he was selling to an audience rather than an art form he was trying to perfect, right down to marketing reports on his jokes.[/li][li]His jokes mostly revolved around an impersonation of his mother, and these jokes were mostly just the funny accent. [/li][li]Audiences appreciate youth, energy and animation over substance, The Dane Cook Effect.*[/li][li]He was odd and uptight making him an easy target.[/li][/ol]He also just didn’t seem to get it. He at least once said, “I don’t have to prove I’m funny to anyone.” Mordal just stared at him blankly and said, “Your in a fucking comedy competition.”
I only watched Season 1 and Season 4, but started watching again this season because of Greg Giraldo. I’m disappointed. It seems like some of the comics are plants from the producers that have to get pushed through by the judges. With the funny comics they laugh, then say, “That’s enough, we’ll see you tonight.” Others they hem and haw on then push the guy through with 2 votes or based on something funny he says off the cuff. Then there are those that they don’t laugh at but say the same thing without any emotion, “I’m going to say yes because I think you’re very funny and I want to see you in front of an audience.”
I sympathize. Dat was cool in that he approached stand-up as a science. The other comics were dicks to him. I liked Rob Cantrell too. And Jay Mohr’s favoritism of the deeply unpleasant Ralphie May was a real turn-off.
I don’t remember disliking Vos, even though he was a dick to Dat as well.
[quote=“Crawlspace, post:23, topic:544501”]
[li]He was using stand-up as a means to jump start an acting career. This is insulting to a group of people who are working in stand-up to become, you know, well known stand-ups.[/li][/QUOTE]
I’ve known actors and standups - hell, my sister is an actor, and my brother in law has done five years with Second City - and don’t know any stand up comedian who DIDN’T see acting opportunities as one of the significant benefits of a successful stand-up career.
Al Pacino: You’re all out of order!
I don’t think Dat was all that funny, but, I think it was Dio that said when the show was on its first run, (paraphrasing), “I wouldn’t vote for him but I wouldn’t be angry if he won.”
A great potential benefit of a successful stand-up career. Their beef with Dat was that he really had no interest in having a long term stand-up career. It was just the most convenient means to an end.
It might be a foolish point for them to get upset about, but it seems that there are a number of comics who were raised on the comedy boom of the 80’s and 90’s when successful stand-ups were ‘given’ a deal for TV or movies. They view stand-up as a farm system for bigger and better things rather than an art-form worth perfecting for its own sake. I can see how that can get annoying for those who perform stand-up because they like stand-up. In their view, from what I remember, if you want to be an actor, take classes and join a comedy troupe to hone your acting skills.
As another example, take the whiny young comic in Jerry Seinfeld’s documentary. At one point he essentially calls Stephen Wright a failure because he’s never raised above the level of bit part actor in movies. Never mind the fact he’s one of the most successful stand-ups today, never mind the fact that he’s won an Oscar for short film, he’s not a movie/TV star so he failed.
I think Crawlspace hits the nail right on the head with all 5 points. And worse, as season 1 wore on everyone quickly discovered that Dat really only had one act. Look for his Comedy Central special (his prize for wining that season), and you’ll realize it’s every bit he did throughout the series. Every appearance I’ve even seen him in (which was several late night shows, right after he won), he’s still recycling the same material. Heck, around season 3 or 4 of LCS, they brought back prior winners for some event, and he was still using the same material.
All of this makes me wonder. What is Dat up to these days anyway? Is he still playing clubs? Did he ever get any sitcom or movie roles?
His Wikipedia page reveals…not very much.
Hurrah for this OP! I LOL’d so thoroughly that someone at work said “You’re having too much fun over there again.” Two things:
This totally made me think of him having four vaginas.
A+
I actually like Rich Vos, but quality rant, nonetheless. It’s even funnier *because *it’s so late.
I remember that season. I had “Dat Phan Sucks” as one of my LiveJournal interests. I don’t know from comedians’ politics, but I recall thinking to myself … golly, that is one unfunny motherfucker you got right there. The whole – here’s yet another impression of my mother – schtick was lame.
I couldn’t stand that unfunny little shit, and I just about kicked my TeeVee in when Dave Mordal didn’t win.
I missed season 1, except for the last episode or two. I remember not understanding the Dat hate, and really disliking Ralphie.
I watched season 2, which I thought was great, and… was it S3 that was basically the cast of S1 vs. S2? And S2 mopped the floor with them?
The last season I watched – and I don’t remember if it was the one with the celebrity judges or not – I stopped watching after all the tryouts because inevitably they were giving passes to the least funny comedians, IMO. I remember one guy who’s act was – I’m not kidding – impressions of Jack Nicholson and Christopher Lloyd as Reverend Jim! Like it was 1984 or something! And they picked him. I stopped watching after that.
See, I didn’t look at so much as Hemi guy won as Lavell “I’m black! I’m fat! I’m black! I’m fat!” Crawford lost.
Jon Reep (the Hemi guy) is hilarious. So there.
Though I saw clips of him on LCS. I think LCS can suck the funny out of anyone.
I don’t remember that exchange. Maybe Dat was talking about proving to the other comics. I think Dat focused, rightly so, on the audience and not on those other guys.
Still, I can’t hate him too much for wanting to get into acting. Maybe I would if I didn’t hate the other comics so much. Instead of being annoyed and angry, maybe Vos and his freak cult could have sat Dat down and explained why comedy meant so much to them. But instead, they messed with him and demeaned him at every turn, so I cannot feel too badly about their motives. I’m glad Dat took a shit on all of them collectively when he beat them at their own game.
Even if you don’t like his pimping of comedy, at least on the surface, he seemed to want it more and worked at it harder than any of the other guys. I don’t know how comedians get their material, maybe they are naturally funny, maybe they get into wacky situations, maybe they have funny friends who they steal jokes off of, but I didn’t see any of them rehearse or run their lines before they went on stage. Dat Phan did. He wrote down a freaking book of his routine in great detail. He may not have been a pure comic; doing the art for the sake of comedy, but he was at least as detailed, meticulous, and hard-working as any of them.
If Vos and the rest of those bitter donkey fuckers can disrespect a guy because he doesn’t like comedy for comedy’s sake, then I can disrespect them for acting like shit-eating pus bags at a guy who obviously worked hard to get to where he was at. More than that, I hope Tess Cuntface dies in a fire.
Most stand-up comics want to get into acting. A sitcom deal or feature films is the endgame for the majority of them. Few turn those things down if offered. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s where the money is, it’s where the big fame is, and it gets them off the road.
I think the main problem with it is that it’s rare to see a good standup really be able to translate his persona and the sensibilities of his act to TV or movies and stay funny. A few have been successful (Seinfeld, Cosby), but most of the sitcoms and movies end up being crap. I’m befuddled by it sometimes when it’s a standup who I know can be funny. Chris Rock, for instance, is a great standup, but his movies are always crap. Can’t he tell the scripts aren’t funny? What’s up with that?
Speaking of standups getting sitcom deals, the new Louis CK show premiering tomorrow looks pretty good. He’s currently one of my favorite comics and has a sensibility that is the most like my own. His descriptions of his kids and family sound like he’s been watching my house on a webcam.
The only thing I watched of the show was youtube clips, so I probably missed a lot of what goes on. What you’re bitching about sounds like they tried to work in a Real World reality show type angle, which sounds like utter shit. I dunno if they cut that in later seasons, but I never saw any of the comics living together, and if they’re still doing it they should cut that shit. Reality shows showcasing how idiots fight when they live with other idiots are among the stupidest things on the planet.
But Josh Blue in season 4 was some funny shit. I think one of my favorite aspects of the show is when they comedians are supposed to heckle the other comedians while they’re performing. They should have more stuff like that on the show and not try to integrate MTV-style shit.
He’s still doing clubs–I saw him just two months ago at Cobb’s Comedy Club in San Francisco.