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Not-So-Funny Funny Asian

By: Elise Shin, Jul 17, 2008
Tags: Arts & Entertainment, Asian 'Reality' Check |

My enthusiasm was short-lived. Last week on Last Comic Standing, funny girl Esther Ku was deemed, well, not so funny. Or really, her laugh wasn’t so funny.

It all started when she and eleven other comic finalists shacked up in the Casa de Comedy mansion, where all were privy to the raucous hee-hawing of her high-pitched guffaws. In their first challenge, they had to inflict blows of yo-mama jokes in a boxing ring. Esther’s one- trick pony schtick of self-inflicted racial jokes wasn’t versatile enough to get through to the you’re-such-a-hack round, so she found herself at the mercy of the older, jaded comedians who had perfected the art of mean.

Case in point was the other female comedian of the group, Iliza Schlesinger, who told Esther she would not vote to eliminate her. Esther pledged the same. But when it came down to elimination, Esther was blindsided with a windfall of I-know-I’m-funnier-than-Esther-Ku votes. Iliza joined the bashing and added, “I think everyone knows they’re funnier than Esther Ku.” Ouch.

In turn, Esther selected “lame and judgmental” Iliza and comic duo God’s Pottery to compete in the second half of elimination, where they performed for a live audience to decide who would be eliminated. Esther went bye-bye, in tow her ear-splitting but memorable laughter.

Last week on America’s Best Dance Crew, seven teams took the “speed up” challenge, where the song started slowly but then ramped up to a super fast second half. Boogie Bots was strong but needed to step it up; Super Cr3w was original but wasn’t blowing the judges away; SoReal Crew was sloppy with their lightning section — and they were top four. This season is flat lining, the fanfare a dull whisper to last season’s appreciative roar. And the judges know, desperately trying to revive appeal by pushing the human interest factor, highlighting Josar’s comatose father and A.S.I.I.D’s deaf dancer. The one real warm reception was for the Benetton look-alike group Fanny Pak, who set up an ‘80s Prom Night where a punk rock chick spiked the punch. Phresh Select ended up taking their final bow.

So You Think You Can Dance
’s Katee is edging out her very popular partner Joshua, strutting her stuff in the Viennese Waltz and a Bollywood routine; judge Mia Michaels said that she was “a gift to dance.” Mark, on the other hand, is still running strong, but less on dance technique and more on his ability to get into character. The budding double threat sailed through with a salsa and a Broadway routine.

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Funny Asian

Comments

  1. she’s lucky Tough Crowd is off the air (where Dat Phan’s big plans got the coup de grace)

    –eggy on Jul 17, 2008

  2. Well my only viewing of Last Comic Standing was unfortunately seeing Esther Ku say jokes at the expense of Asian men that only a racist would love. Interesting that the other few Asian women I’ve seen appear on other reality shows, like Big Brother and America’s Top Model strangely have said the exact same things verbatim about Asian men. To Esther Ku by the remote chance that her self-hating low self-esteem would allow her to read Asianweek… Good riddance. If the kind of men you date are the ones that fantasize dating little girls without fear of being arrested so you have to act and dress like one, then it’s great to have our garbage taken out for free.

    –Jammer on Jul 18, 2008

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