Once again, Last Comic Standing has managed to impress, being far funnier than I had come to expect. There are so many different ways the show could have screwed up the weirdly artificial Comedy Central-style neo-roast, but Thursday’s episode ended up being one of the best of the season, with a near ideal jokes/bullshit ratio.
Gilbert Gottfried is pretty much the perfect target for this sort of thing, but the comics started at a significant disadvantage given that the audience was unlikely to know who any of them were. Luckily, pretty much everyone rose to the challenge, successfully skewering both the honoree and their competitors in a way that would appeal to even a newcomer to the series.
Pretty much the only joke that didn’t land was Rocky LaPorte’s Cloris Leachman jab at Lachlan Patterson (which, while on point, admittedly took me a second to register), but I’d still give his time at the podium a solid 3.5 out of 5. As to who won the challenge, my vote goes to the unsinkable Joe Machi, then Lachlan, then Nikki Carr. Carr’s Friars-esque stylings were pretty much perfect for the venue, but at times I found her jokes a little too traditional, resulting in some overly predictable punchlines.
Last night’s face off wasn’t as amazing as last week’s (although how could it be), with Karlous delivering a subdued performance that failed to connect with the audience and Machi clearly working with untested material. If Karlous had a bit more energy and told a few fewer country-fried jokes to the L.A. crowd I definitely think he could have beaten Machi and his depleted joke reserves. In any case, almost all the most talented contestants have now made it to the finals, which hopefully will result in a very funny finale for this inconsistent show.