MovieChat Forums > Last Comic Standing (2003) Discussion > I didn't get the last guy, Clayton Engli...

I didn't get the last guy, Clayton English

posted 9 years ago by stacy0912
27 replies | jump to latest

I wanted to like him but I didn't get this 'best comic of the night' praise. The two male judges even said so, and yet, they didn't laugh once during his set. They laughed at other comics, but not him--yet he was the best?

I was hoping Norm was going to say something about his last joke. Unless it was edited, it didn't make sense:

"Cop pulled me over, and had the drug dog come out. He tapped on the trunk, and the dog jumped up there. 'He's telling me you have drugs in the car.'

I was like, what?

So I tapped on the trunk, and the dog jumped back up there, and he's telling me 'no there's not'."

What? When did the dog ever come off the trunk for the second part to work? I thought that was the worst joke of the night.

~Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable~

[–] gymdandy 9 years ago

I liked Clayton's choice of subject matter, but I didn't think his jokes were funny at all. The college girl made some great, biting social observations on race, when she apologized for "not describing what type of Asian she was." At the place where I work, there is a person who sits at our front desk and is of Hispanic descent. She says every day someone asks her "what she is." I can't believe people are that rude, but they are.

[–] stacy0912 9 years ago

My favorite was the woman with the joke of sitting behind the airline pilot. She wasn't picked, but Clayton was.

It's funny, Roseanne gave that woman advice saying how her layout of her jokes need to be inverted, since her strongest joke was first, rather than last. That's how I feel about this show this year.

Every week they put their strongest comic up first, and their weakest up last to close out the night--and the weakest usually gets passed through with unearned praise. I liked Clayton's persona, but he just isn't funny.

~Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable~

[–] chazzzer 9 years ago

I agree, I liked Jessi Campbell too (the one with the airplane jokes). I also liked Sierra Katow ("Sorry, no hablo Chingles"). They were both easily better than Harrison Greenbaum (he told the bible joke that Norm hated) and Clayton English (the last guy). For god's sake, they even put through the Big Fat Greek guy...his set was so unfunny that they only showed 10 seconds of it. The judging was weak this week.

[–] stacy0912 9 years ago

Yeah, those three comedians should never have made it through. It seems rather obvious the judges are metaphorically cuckolded by the producers, who have personal reasons of pushing those three in that we're not privy to see.

~Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable~

[–] Kasperman14 9 years ago

I was laughing quite a bit, but not at his act.

The girl from Harvard was A LOT better imo.

[–] Darkeoonz 9 years ago

The cop tapped the trunk and the dog jump up on the trunk, which puts the dog in eyesight with the officer. The dog then reacts to the to drugs in the trunk. The cop says that the dog is telling him there's drugs in the trunk. Now it's telling him by the way it is reacting, probaly by barking. But Clayton English plays it off as if the dog (being in eyesight with the officer) is having an ACTUAL conversation with the officer. So Clayton English does the same thing and claims it says something else.

It was kind of poorly executed but I think the joke was fairly obvious.

[–] stacy0912 9 years ago

I got the meaning of the joke straight away, but like you said, it wasn't executed well. But to be honest, it still wasn't funny either way.

My point though is he said the cop tapped on the trunk, and the dog jumped up there. Then Clayton tapped on it, and the dog jumped back up there. The problem here lies is that the dog never came down from the trunk in the first place, in order to jump back up.

~Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable~

[–] jill2045 9 years ago

I was shocked Norm didn't mention that. The joke wasn't built correctly and that is the thing that always gets under Norm's skin.

[–] stacy0912 9 years ago

I was shocked too. My guess is that the producers silenced the judges ahead of time on a few of the comedians that were promised a spot in the semi-finals.

I know favoritism will always exist. But for the love of God, favor some funny ones for a change. I get that if they were funny to begin with, they wouldn't need to pull the emergency 'connections' string. But at least write some of these guys a few good jokes for those that have to suffer through watching them. This is embarrassing.

~Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable~

[–] Dobbsysugarmuffin 9 years ago

Maybe he did and they edited it out. They seem to have edited out a lot of things Norm said and the host.

[–] nacham81 9 years ago

Even Jeselnick commented on how pained Roseanne looked saying his set was the best.

LCS has a long history of being directed by producer dictated mandates rather than the judges opinions on talent and execution. (Season 2 being the most obvious with Brett Butler and Drew Carey actually confronting them) Like most of these reality programs, there is a disclaimer in the credits that producers took part in the outcome. It has never once been a straight competition where 20 of the best comics go head to head. Outside factors, multiple hands in the pot and biases based upon industry favors have been well documented.

That alone proves this show has yet to successfully bridge acquisition of talent to actual competition. The first 6 seasons had multiple long time, established comedians and many (you could argue most) had at least a CC half hour and/or an HBO half hour. Some have had successful hour long DVD's and have toured nationally for years or even decades. Even seasons 7 and 8 had a few guys who were on TV as far back as the 1980's.

This season appears to have very little if any of that kind of comic. The problem is, the people I'm watching don't have that kind of talent, either.

Look over the list of top 10s on this show and every season save 6 (because Iliza Shlesinger is hysterical and deserved to win) and 8 (because of how new it is) the runners up from 2-10 began this show more successful and continue to be more successful than the "winners".

[–] stacy0912 9 years ago

Great post, Nacham. Well thought out and written.

I haven't followed the seasons as closely as you have, but I do remember a few seasons--and you're right. I have noticed in seasons past, some of the long working comics used old material that was repeated from either their specials or stand-ups. You can go on YouTube and catch the same tired act from club to club.

The funny thing is, these are the same comics in their interview that wonder why they haven't 'made it' after ten or twenty years. They wonder why they can't break through that seemingly impenetrable 'comedy success' ceiling.

Do comics have that little faith in themselves as writers?

It's like they're too afraid to try something new, so they only go with what worked in the past. That's not what funny is. That's getting lucky the first time around and holding onto it like its their last lifeline. And these are the type of comics LCS likes to promote---and I simply don't get it.

Give the twenty year old chabling girl a chance...the washed up Friar's guy sucked. Clayton sucked. The Greek guy doing a joke based on a movie from thirteen years ago sucked. You know he was taking that joke out for a ride in 2002.

This season, I find myself mentally fixing many of their jokes, rather than being entertained by them. Especially with Clayton, he seemed too high on his subject matter to even execute his jokes properly--not that they would've been funny anyways. Just pisses me off he took a spot that he really didn't deserve.

But there were several bright spots in the heap the other night. Unfortunately only one or two made it through, and the other's lost their place to politics.

~Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable~

[–] blondiebear_17 9 years ago

His delivery was good and he had one pretty good joke but otherwise he was very lame.

RIP Cory Monteith your fans miss you dearly

[–] stacy0912 9 years ago

Would've been funnier if he forwent the applesauce joke, and implemented a box of white castle craves he likes to eat when high. It's a double bonus, because if he gets pulled over, he can stick the pot in one of those burgers and eat it.

So by the time the cop joke came at the end, instead of Clayton tapping on the trunk, he'd just throw one of those marijuana laced hamburgers out the window, and comment on the dog chasing after it and eating the evidence.

But that's just what I find funny. The visualization of it all.

~Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable~

[–] academas-177-729004 9 years ago

I liked you idea about giving the dog a burger. That's great!

[–] someone123456 9 years ago

Good thing you're not joke writer, because just making up random nonsense like that is not funny.

[–] Crotchsplitter 9 years ago

The joke was fine. Maybe you would have thought it was funnier if you've ever had experience with a police dog?

[–] Dorian_Gray_Jokes_Never_Get_Old 9 years ago

I think only dogs should be able to tell dog jokes.

[–] wrightinchicago 9 years ago

He was much better last week. I think his set this time was fragmented.

[–] stacy0912 9 years ago

I have yet to catch this week's episode. I probably won't be able to get around to it until this weekend. How were the comics?

~Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable~

[–] bonsai-superstar 9 years ago

I saw it, and it looks like you are still correct: this guy must be only getting promoted because of some sort of connections. His stuff is (comparatively) weak. It's a shame, and only adds to the empty padding of this (already) boring show. Only about 10-15 minutes of this show are comedy-related and/or watchable. Enough with the teasers and recaps already! You've got (supposedly) some of the best new/top comics in the country - why not show us some of their material? Even some behind the scenes stuff would be more interesting than the bland background stuff they show.

[–] 9 years ago

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