“Last Comic” Stood Up

According to Jay Mohr‘s web site, NBC has dumped the final episode of Last Comic Standing which would crown the third season victor. The winner instead will be announced at some point during a Father of the Pride marathon. The rambling note on Jay Mohr’s homepage was riddled with misspellings (including ‘thge’), so I felt the need to check my TiVo and, yep, no Last Comic Standings are scheduled. NBC also confirms the announcement of the winner during Father here.

I don’t feel the loss of the last episode… it’s filler anyway, with the finalists performing yet again with standard reality recap footage intercut to prolong what takes ten seconds to do. I’ve never been enamored with Last Comic Standing... the show has never been about being funny, but instead about showcasing personalities (or whatever passes for that) just like all reality TV does. This last version of this show naturally failed, because it ran away from why people tune in in the first place. An all stand-up version gets rather old fast because we get to know these performers’ acts and style so well, there’s no more surprise. No more surprise = not funny. The immediate followup after season 2 certainly didn’t help matters.

Season 1 and 3 contestant Ralphie May also recently claimed the show has “jumped the shark” (groan), claiming that stand-up isn’t necessarily about getting laughs but about pushing boundaries. While Ralphie May has since claimed he was misquoted, the question of how you measure good comedy (laughs vs. art) is something I’m gonna try and take up at some point in the near future.

Updated: Apparently, NBC has taken down the previous statement on the Last Comic page, promising a winner to be announced on Tuesday. According to a story on realitynewsonline, Last Comic will get a half-hour show to annnouce a winner (which again, is probably enough… who wants to draw this out including, apparently, NBC).