(S04E04) The twelve finalists move into the "house", which this year is the dry-docked luxury liner the Queen Mary, and the sniping begins. Actually, they didn't show all that much "house" stuff in this episode, which is probably a good idea. I mean, to be honest, I watch this show to see comedy, not to see people form alliances and yell at each other. But I guess this phase is necessary, else the competition phase would only be three weeks long.

The comedians are thrown together on the ship in combinations that maximize explosiveness and hilarity; big ol' Gabriel Iglesias and tiny Josh Blue are put on twin beds two inches apart. Explosive Roz and hormonal pregnant "broad" Stella are put in the same room. Stand back and let the wacky sparks fly.

And fly they do. Stella pisses off everyone, especially Roz. That's to be expected; Stella probably knew she was lucky to be on that ship, and tries anything she can to stand out. Meantime, she's making enemies all over the place.

The "pros", like Bill Dwyer and Iglesias, are already being shown to be above reproach. Dwyer just interjects fatherly observations about "the tension in the room" that sound too over-rehearsed, and generally is handling this like he knows he's safe for a while. For instance, when he votes for who has to go to the head-to-head challenge, he goes "I know I'm funnier than... Ant!" Hahahahaha. Ant's a Season Two guy... get it? He's not there! What a riot Bill was there. Sure must have made the people who were actually sweating out the vote happy to see that.

No one's emerged yet as the guy or gal everybody likes and roots for, the role Todd Glass played in Season Two. Maybe it's Josh, but right now it's only because of his disability; people don't want to challenge him, else they look like a-holes. Also, no one's really being funny in the house just yet. What was great about Glass is that no matter the situation he could do something to relax everyone and make them and the viewers laugh. Right now, everyone's looking a little to tense to generate any funny.

Anyway, the immunity challenge this week was to see which of the comedians is the best heckler and which can handle heckling the best. The sad thing about this challenge is that most of the comedians were better at heckling than at performing comedy. Josh and Chris were especially good, as they both were able to handle each other's insults smoothly and with funny comeback lines; their heckles were also funny. Kristen and Michele were also good at handling each other's insults as well as with the insults themselves. Ty called a heckling Stella "Hosanne", which everyone saw on the promos, but is still a funny line. Roz was just loud.

The most interesting heckler was Joey Gay. He just sat there and watched April Macie's act and didn't say a word. He said he was too respectful of other people's acts to do such a thing. But I think it was just strategy. He makes April look like an idiot for heckling him and it also didn't give anyone a reason to vote against him for the head-to-head.

Roz was the best heckler, according to the audience on the ship that night. Fine, whatever. Chris was the best comedian, which was deserved, so they were immune.

Stella, Michele and April were sent to the head-to-head, and none of them were funny. Stella's act is geared towards women, and isn't particularly fresh or creative. Michele actually had a joke that said, "I was on my way out of NY to come here, and a guy passed me and said, 'Would you get out of my f--kin' way, ma'am?' and I said, 'Who are you calling ma'am?" Wow. The only thing more stale than that joke is the bread in my refrigerator. April wasn't much better, but at least she had some potential, with good physical skills. She's young and has room to improve.

Ultimately, April and Stella were voted out, with Stella getting the lowest percentage. Which is how it should be; once it gets in the hands of people that aren't the producers, usually the worst comics get cast aside (except for Dat Phan, that is). Next week we get two more eliminated. And maybe we'll see Anthony Clark talk off-script for once. Ah, probably not.

Oh yeah, go to the show's web site and vote for your favorite eliminated comic (my choice is Doug Benson). The winner of that vote will be put back on the show, likely when the final six are chosen and the choice is up to viewer vote. Maybe as an audience we can undo some of the mistakes made by the producers.