Carlos Mencia (1967- )

Best Known For: Take a Joke America (comedy album), The Three Amigos (comedy tour), 'Carlos Mencia: Not For The Easily Offended' (DVD), Mind of Mencia (TV), Carlos Mencia: No Strings Attached (DVD) 'The Heartbreak Kid' (Film).

Themes: Racial Issues, Immigration, Religion, Relationship, Hispanic Humor

(Rebecca Heath)

Lewis Black

Lewis Black, the son of Jeannette, a teacher, and Sam Black, an artist and mechanical engineer was raised in Springfield, MD. During his Undergraduate degree he was a member of Student Congress and did some playwriting and went on to get his Masters in Fine Arts afterwards. After leaving the theater he began working as a comedian and now is a Grammy award winning comedian. His Back in Black comedic segment on the Daily Show addresses many current issues. His comedy is one full of sarcasm and of an educated man dealing with the absurdities of the news or politics. In this segment called Coming Out he discusses the difficulty Alan Keyes has had in now being succumbed to the same hardships of Dick Cheney and Newt Gingric. Mr. Keyes a right-winged conservative must overcome having a gay relative. Lewis Black pokes fun at Keyes difficulty in overcoming this as he shouts and portrays these absurdities to his viewers: mostly white, American audience. He is trying to reach out to a conservative audience in showing them that homosexuals should have equal rights.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Back In Black - Coming Out
comedycentral.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

Black, Lewis. "Back in Black-Coming out." 24 Feb. 2005. The Daily Show. .

Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job

Heidecker, Tim, and Eric Wareheim. "Hair." Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job. Adult Swim. 29 Mar. 2009.

Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job is a live action TV show with animated elements. The show always begins with a short skit, the theme song and then an introduction to the show by its creators. Each episode's introduction puts Tim and Eric into a different style of television. The humor comes from the way Tim and Eric parody styles like talk shows, public access or popular teen television. In one episode the entire show is cut and animated like a low rent MTV show with absurd product placement and a reality segment of Tim buying a bong. The show is cut in a very erratic nature, with "story" lines being revealed only 1 minute at a time. This seemingly random nature of the show fits in perfectly with the ridiculous transitions which utilize computer animation. The show has been known to feature many different comedians including Patton Oswald, Maria Bamford, John C. Reilly, Michael Ian Black, David Wain and many more. The show also utlizes music to great effect; creating original songs with crazy, sometimes disturbing lyrics and also remixed sounds from the show along with animation creating trippy techno songs. The overall absurdness of the show coupled with great guests, funny songs and awesome animation creates one hilarious package.

Below is the most recent Tim and Eric Awesome Show featuring special guests John C. Reilly and David Wain. Enjoy!

http://www.adultswim.com/video/?episodeID=8a2505952057d6e9012057f966580054

The Funniest moment of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air—Wil Smith

This two minute segment is a recording of Will Smith in his 1990’s hit show, "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air". Will Smith plays himself-- an adolescent from Philadelphia, who is sent to Bel-Air by his mother to live with his uncle and his family. Will Smith is a well-known stand-up comedian from Philly. He is also a rapper, film producer, and actor. Not only has he starred in his own t.v. show, but he has played in several movies such as: "Independence Day", "Men and Black I and II", "Bad Boys II", and "I, Robot", just to name a few. "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" still airs on the Nickelodeon Network, Black Entertainment Television, and The CW network. In this clip, Will “plays the dozens” with a girl that he likes, but supposedly can not stand. “Playing the Dozens” derives from city life; it is when two people battle each other by insulting their opponent (i.e. their mothers, fathers, or someone dear to them) in order to outwit and make them look foolish. This usually takes place in front of a crowd. The purpose of this piece is sheer entertainment. Smith is not looking to persuade or instruct the audience. The audience is predominantly black youths although adults do watch it too.




Smith, Will. "The Funniest Moments of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. YouTube. 6.21.2008. 4.1.09.

Scrubs: "My Identity Crisis"

Scrubs is a very funny show on USA about a group of young doctors living, loving, and learning lessons from each other. The cast is a diverse group. The main characters are a man called J.D., his African American best friend Turk, his other best friend and sometimes girlfriend Elliot, and Turk's Dominican wife Carla. In this particular episode, "My Identity Crisis", Carla for the first time dreams in English, and begins to worry that she is losing her identity and is especially worried about this because she has a new baby daughter and she wants to pass her Dominican heritage on. But throughout the show, her friends help her to see that she is still "A proud Latin woman with an upside-down exclamation point". One of the main issues of the show is the constant clashing of her culture with her husband's, and their constant bantering is very funny because it's a reflection of a touchy subject like war, and touchy subject are often funny because they shock us.
Lawrence, Bill. "My Identity Crisis." Scrubs. USA. 15 Nov. 2007.
Here is a link to the episode

“How the Test was Won.” The Simpsons, Season 20. Hulu. March 1, 2009. March 30, 2009.

In this episode of Fox’s popular animated series “The Simpsons,” the time comes for the Vice President’s Assessment Tests to take place in Springfield Elementary School. Nervous about the school achieving an excellent overall performance in these exams, Principle Skinner and other school staff make the decision to cheat. To do so, they give the students the answer to the test ahead of time and they also make sure that the worst students like Bart Simpson never make it to the exam. Common themes referred in this episode are childhood, standardize testing, money, and education. In particular, dishonesty, which is seen in the amount of cheating that takes place during the tests, is the main theme in this episode. This episode intends to make fun of the importance that American society gives to standardized testing and how Americans measure the academic performance of their students based on these tests. This show is also poking fun at the fact that teachers and parents sometimes wrongly encourage their children. The Simpsons appeals mostly to a white American audience by reflecting a stereotypical American society.

American Dad: Stan Of Arabia 1&2

Stan of Arabia is a two-part episode of Seth McFarland's American Dad. Seth McFarland is also the creator of hit series Family Guy, which he is more famous for. In this particular episode, the family on the show is relocated to Saudi Arabia, and is forced to blend in with the culture, which they have a hard time doing. The hilarity of the episode comes from how ridiculous the two cultures look right next to each other. The show's main issues are racism and sexism. The father treats the mother and all other women like garbage, and he never trusts foreigners, often laughing at them and fearing them; which makes me wonder if a lot of the time when we laugh at something it is because we are slightly afraid of it or intimidated by it. I believe that the aim of these two episodes is to point out and laugh at how hard it is for people to switch cultures, or even blend them.

McFarland, Seth. "Stan of Arabia." American Dad. Adult Swim. 6 Nov. 2005.

Here are both of the episodes:
Stan of Arabia #1
Stan of Arabia #2