Bad Comics Standing

I visited a comedy club last night and usually, isn't the emcee the one with the weakest act? He was the best one out there. Check out Mike Britt. Hilarious.

But the others: a pregnant white gal who couldn't stop badmouthing her husband, a white British dude who wasn't nearly as funny as he was knowledgeable about the World Cup, a black guy who was actually OK, especially with his Shaq-Kobe riff, and a big, hairy white dude with some R-rated material that was funny at first but eventually got tiresome.

The last guy was J.J. Ramirez, a Hispanic cat who clearly was called in on his day off because homeboy had nothing. Of course, his set was the longest -- at least 45 minutes but it felt like half a day. His entire schtick was asking patrons where they were from and then making stereotype references to those locations.

SIDE NOTE -- I'm not an expert on comedy, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, and I must say it's weird how the industry has transformed over the years. Nowadays, it seems the only group of the population of which it's OK to ridicule, if you're a comic, is white people and how they're all racist and so guilty of stereotyping.

Anyway, If you know me, you know I don't really get offended by much, but it was at times frustrating last night listening to these jackals bag on whitey but turn around and do the exact same thing for parts of their acts. Except Ramirez, who did it for his entire act.

Example:

Ramirez: "Where you from, gorgeous?"
Girl: "Guess."
Ramirez: "Japanese?"
Girl: "No, guess again."
Ramirez: "Fuck; I'm not guessing, I'm asking."
Girl: "Filipino."
Ramirez: "I knew you had the Asian thing going. Do you know karate?"

Is that offensive? Probably not, but I'm at a comedy club, paying $18 for two Budweisers, so please make me laugh.

And although I'll never claim to boast the hunky, leading-man look, I do know a thing or two about style. So for him to address me as Archie was just stupid. And then he made fun of one of my friends because he had reddish hair. All this while sporting an awful shirt with pineapples printed all over it, the top two buttons unfastened enough to reveal a darling gold chain, and what appeared to be a pair of loafers purchased on the same street table as a $15 Louie bag. Hooray Beer!

Even worse than Ramirez's act was the laughter he generated from an obviously forgiving crowd. I seriously couldn't believe people were laughing at his gameless effort. His best line didn't come until the end, when the lights came on and he said goodnight. The biggest laughs he got were when patrons got involved, like when Cedric, a skinny white kid visiting from Tennessee, was introduced, by Ramirez on the mic, to Frederick, a black dude from Brooklyn sitting in front of the Tennessee kid. Cedric, perhaps not accustomed to meeting black people, shook Frederick's hand and asked, "What's going down, man?" in his best DJ Qualls voice. Big laughs, but it hardly had anything to do with the comedian, who, by the way, on two occasions repeated the same joke. Just overall awful.