Mind of Mencia: Season Four. Out today. (**2/10)
Paramount Home Entertainment is releasing another Carlos Mencia DVD today. A couple of weeks ago, they released a DVD of his stand-up, Carlos Mencia: Performance Enhanced. At the time, I said that it sucked. And that Carlos Mencia sucks. Now, a few weeks later, with the release of Mind of Mencia, Season Four, I can put an exclamation point on my earlier statements. Carlos Mencia is terrible. He is probably not the worst comic working today, but he is certainly the worst comic with his own TV show. He makes Dane Cook look like Jerry Seinfeld. How bad is he? Let’s examine the fourth season of his show to find out.
Who is the comic most people mock, more often than any other, the world over? I am going to go out on a very short limb in saying that it is Carrot-Top. Carrot-Top has become the standard punch-line in every non-comic’s jokes about bad comics. There is a moment, in the fourth episode of Season Four of Mind Of Mencia, where Carlos Mencia does a bit involving a briefcase that looks like a muffler, and other props, that really made me think I would rather be watching Carrot-Top. It’s one thing to do a “crazy John McCain” bit that smacks of lazy and terrible Jon Stewart. Or a “who has it worse” bit that is like a crappy, unclever, lazy Bill Maher. The stupid alien-ass-probe bit that was done way better by South Park, the unfunny Indiana Jones bit that was done far better by The Simpsons, and dozens of others. It is quite another thing to do a bit that makes CARROT-TOP look good. That is unfortunate.
What I think this show needs, more than anything else, is some co-stars. Every stand-up bit, every skit, every spoof, stars Carlos Mencia. Since Carlos Mencia is not funny, this is way too much Carlos Mencia. And maybe, just maybe, Mencia could find a co-star who is actually funny, and that would improve this show immeasurably. However, I think the problem may be that Carlos Mencia has no friends. During the stand-up portions of his sketch comedy show, he is constantly mentioning other people. Like, he’ll say “people are always coming up to me and saying ‘Carlos, my life is rough’”. Or some such thing. Now, this seems suspect to me. No one has ever come up to me and said anything like that. Not strangers, not acquaintances, and certainly not friends. I’m not a stand-up comic, so perhaps people approach me with different questions or statements than they do Carlos Mencia. But I find this unlikely.
And he will then, on stage, have a conversation with himself in the guise of “other people”. He will respond to this anonymous “other person”, as Carlos Mencia, and then respond again as the “other person”. This creates a bizarre, schizophrenic-style dialogue that really appears as though it never took place. And when he finishes his bit, very often he laughs way too hard at his own jokes. Which makes me feel like I’m watching an unfunny and vaguely creepy wannabe comic rehearsing his own routine in front of his bathroom mirror while he is off his meds. At the end of an episode, he says “that’s the show, and if you don’t like it, you can choose not to watch”. This is about the most insightful thing he has ever said on his program. But what he really means is “if you are offended, change the channel”. I am not offended, I am bored. I don’t like his show. And I choose not to watch.