Last Comic Standing: Adam Carolla and a surprise

(S04E05) What the hell? I used to think that once the choice of who stays and who goes is put in the hands of the audience and not the producers -- who, let's face it, used other factors besides talent to see who made it in -- the choices would make more sense. I mean, everyone's tastes are different, but the audience in that "Last Comic Theater" can clearly tell who's funny and who's not, right?

I guess not.

Like last week, there wasn't a lot of time spent on house interaction or tension. We see the comedians talk a little amongst themselves and watch belly dancers perform during a Moroccan dinner. We see a game of football where Joey Gay is catching nothing, and Josh Blue -- who has CP, mind you -- catching everything. And we see Josh repeatedly kick a ball into Kristen's crotch (don't worry; she thought of the game. Hm, maybe I should worry).

They didn't even spend a lot of time on the challenge, for reasons that will become abundantly clear in a little bit. The challenge was to come up with one minute bits based on whatever boring magazine they were given and do the bit on Adam Carolla's morning show (*Sigh*, more Adam Carolla. He's starting to become the male Kathy Griffin, isn't he?), where he would vote for the winner.

Apparently traffic is so bad in L.A. that everyone had to be off the Queen Mary at 3:30 AM to get to the Free FM studios by 6; either that or they just wanted to make sure the comedians were good and tired. No matter; mostly everyone did a pretty bad job. Kristen was good, but she only went 47 seconds, so Adam eliminated her (asshole!). Bil (yes, Bil Dwyer spells it with only one "l") was good, but he came in second to Rebecca, who won the immunity. Wow. What were you thinking, Carolla? I could think of three other people that were funnier than she was. Jeez. Glad we get O&A over here instead of what I'm sure is Adam's "hilarious" radio show.

So they went to the vote, and -- surprise! -- there was a four-way tie at two: Joey, Bil, Michele, and Chris. The final vote was from Gabriel, who again picked names out of a hat (that was endearingly diplomatic last week, but for some reason, annoyingly wishy-washy this week), and he picked Chris. That's why the vote took place so early; they needed time to show four routines! Which is actually a good thing; I've always liked it better when the show concentrated on stand-up over reality bullshit.

Joey was decent; he had a nice joke about why no one will marry him: because they don't want to be "Mrs. Gay." Chris was really good; he acknowledged that he decided to use his "A" material so he wouldn't have any regrets if he was voted out, and it showed, especially with his condom jokes. Bil was pretty good; he had a joke about when people ask "who's watching your kids?" "Why do you care? It's obviously not you!" Michele, as usual, was lame, with jokes Dat Phan would have rejected for being too dumb. The only decent line was about bicycle cops bringing in suspects: "Get in the basket! Let's go!"

So, this is pretty clear-cut, right? Chris and Bil would stay, and Joey and Michele would leave. I mean, nothing else made sense. The audience would have the good sense to vote the right people back into the house...

Uh, no.

Bil got the lowest percentage, so he's gone. Double wow. I really thought that, due to his veteran status, he had staying power and would last at least until the final six. Don't know what the audience was seeing, but there's no way he had the worst set. Maybe it was the "DOS 1.2/punch cards" joke that threw the youngish audience. Oh, well, these things happen.

So, the audience decided to send back Chris and Joey then, right? Well, that's half-right. Chris was the audience favorite, but Michele came in second. Michele! A woman who made a joke about wanting to get saline implants because she's a contact lens user, which would have been a good line if she didn't have to fuggin' explain it after she said it! Christ! Did the producers cut out her good jokes? Because I have no idea how she's survived in two consecutive head-to-head competitions.

I'm starting to wonder if Michele is the new version of Phan; a mediocre comic that for some reason makes it farther than anyone expects. Yeesh. I'm losing more and more faith in this show every week. Oh, and here's a memo to Anthony Clark: could you talk off the cuff, just once? I mean, Jay Mohr was smug and arrogant, but at least he didn't look like a complete robot out there. Anthony, I've seen you be funny (yes, believe it or not, I have... remember Boston Common?); don't be afraid to show it.