On Carlos Mencia
March 14th, 2006I’ve always been a big fan of what people like to call “politically incorrect” humor — I’ve always hated that tag, however, because it smacks of the early-90s hysteria that the Right whipped up that the Left was somehow trying to take away everyone’s freedom of speech and force everyone into sensitivity-training concentration camps. Right-wing whining aside, however, it is true that there isn’t a wide enough range of topics which people dare to speak about comically.
That range, however, is not as narrow as Carlos Mencia seems to think it is.
Mencia, a stand-up comic and host of Comedy Central’s Mind of Mencia, prides himself on being politically incorrect. Half his act is devoted to jokes about race, class, sexual orientation, and (his personal favorite) disability. Nothing wrong with that. The other half, however, is devoted to Carlos Mencia… how brave he is for making these jokes in defiance of the apparently-all-powerful PC police, and how little he cares what other people think of him.
Talk about protesting too much. I’ve never known anyone who legitimately doesn’t care what people think of him who spends anywhere near as much time as Mencia does making sure people know how little he cares what they think of him.
Watch a half-hour of Mencia’s comedy, you get the distinct impression he’s the first comic to tread this territory. Although he doesn’t explicitly say so, it’s clear he considers himself a groundbreaker as he slogs leadenly down paths cleared by Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Bill Hicks, and others. The only difference with Mencia is that he’s a beaner rather than a kike, nigger, or drug-loving hippie.
There’s one other difference. All of those other comics created edgy, raw comedy that ultimately came from a place of love and compassion, but they masked it with offensiveness. Mencia comes across as the other way around. He likes to talk about how it’s important that we be able to say what we like and that it’s empowering to people like the disabled that we treat them no differently than anyone else, which includes making fun of them… in this regard, he positions himself as a champion of the disabled. However, I get the feeling after watching his routine that really what it boils down to is he just enjoys making fun of retards.
I may be totally off base about his motivations. But it always makes me suspicious when people make an issue out of how “politically incorrect” they are. It usually means they don’t have anything else going on. Is that the case with Mencia? Well… part of his routine was a descent into a completely pointless anti-Arab rant punctuated with him screaming “Get Ahmed!” His thesis seems to be that the USA kicks ass. Which is nothing more than pandering at its worst.
I agree with Mencia that issues like race, gender, disability, etc. need to be talked about, and joked about, freely — but to cast himself as some kind of crusader is just as disingenuous as when Larry Flynt did it. He’s just going for a cheap laugh. And when you strip away his self-righteous bullshit, he just doesn’t have a lot of material there.
March 14th, 2006 at 8:25 pm
Yes! I’ve been trying to explain to friends and co-workers why Mencia sucks for MONTHS!
He’s not groundbreaking, he’s not “edgy”, he’s not “brave”, he’s just a loud lout with a dumb catchphrase. We’ll all be better off once this guy uses up his allotted time and fades away.
March 16th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
I’ve seen his show a few times. Occasional laughs. I just saw his “No Strings Attached” (or something like that) stand-up show on Comedy Central, and I definitely have to agree with you. Some of it was funny. Didn’t exactly have me rolling on the floor, but mildly funny.
But you might be on to something regarding large amount of time that he spends protesting that he doesn’t care what people think. It isn’t exactly new ground he’s covering.
I actually cringed during his “USA kicks ass” bit. While I firmly believe that any topic should be fair game for comedy, you’d better have some real class A material if the thrust of your joke is “My country has killed more people than your country, so you don’t scare me.”
March 29th, 2006 at 8:17 pm
I agree with you guys that Mencia is the atrocious. He has absolutely no concept of why something is funny, and I would have to say things are not “just funny” there has to be some rational. Even more so then that is, he in no way understands that obvious jokes are not only terribly unfunny but easy for absolutely everyone to make.
For example following Hurricane Katrina (mind you, it was almost a month prior) he made the observation that “when black people take things it’s looting and when white people take them they are feeding themselves” or something like that. The problem with this was not that it was not a true observation, but rather the fact that pretty much every single person in the entire continental United States who observed even the slightest bit of media’s coverage made that exact same observation, but most peoples comments were much much withy and well crafted.
The problem with him is pretty much anyone can make is same trite and obvious observation. This is precisely why he is popular and has a show, while Arrested Development gets canceled. Mind of Mencia’s simplicity makes it so everyone can relate with out having to use an ounce of there brain, which is not only a problem with him but is a rather damning indictment of a large portion of this country.
April 13th, 2006 at 10:37 pm
you ppl are stupid hes totally brave because he puts retards, beaners, mexicans, russians, indians(of both kinds) and americans all into his jokes. He brings everyone together he voices wat everyone thinks but won’t say…you guys are idiots. i cant believe u think he is “atrocious” fuck you! i think maybe u need to b open minded and stop stickin ur head up ur ass and last guy “Mind of Mencia’s simplicity makes it so everyone can relate with out having to use an ounce of there brain” there is not there its their jesus christ carlos menica at least can talk and u kno wat u guys are prolly racist fucks who think that not one mexican should make it like him and all should b deported but u kno wat u should b american u fucks!
April 13th, 2006 at 11:15 pm
For the record, Carlos Mencia isn’t Mexican. He’s from Honduras.
April 23rd, 2006 at 9:44 pm
Hm, different views. Can’t say that I agree, but I can’t say that I disagree either. As a youngin’ (Let’s say born of the 90’s) I can’t really remember the people you listed–but for myself Mencia was a breath of fresh air. I got tired of white people doin” white trash/hick jokes… I got tired of blacks doin’ nigga jokes AND makin’ fun of white people. I do agree on the fact that Mencia is right about making fun of everybody–and I do beleive he enjoys making fun of retards (I kinda do too). As for the America part, well–he has a view of what a place unlike America is. Me, being born and raised here see the fact that we can’t keep our nose out of anybody’s buisness (though that is what our forefathers tried to do in WWI and WWII), and that a place like Korea or China could kick our ass. My father, a Jamaican who immigrated here beleives the same as Mencia. America kicks ass, is the best in the world ect. ect. ect. What you have to realize is that the jokes are also his opinion, and as a comedian that is his way of getting his opinion upon things out.
Anywho, thats my say. And uh– dude two post before me. You sound 1) Really ignorant 2) Really illiterate 3) really annoying.
April 25th, 2006 at 10:07 pm
I think Carlos Mencia is cool. He is funny and I love his show on Comedy Central. He is never specific on one group of people, he talks about everybody. So what if you don’t agree with him, coming from another country, he has a different perspective on things. Why don’t you take your head out of the sand and lighten up.
April 30th, 2006 at 10:39 pm
Carlos Mencia wants desperately to be Dave Chappelle. However, whereas Chappelle is a fantastic comic actor, as well as an excellent writer (with excellent taste in co-writers) all Mencia has is how offensive he is. The typical Mencia sketch involves something happening, and then Mencia swaggering up and saying how stupid it is. He has completely missed the “comedy” part of insult comedy. There are few things worse than someone who tries to base a career around being “edgy” while managing to offend nobody. What takes it from lame to intolerable is how incredily cool and funny he thinks he is. Nothing he does is original, everything he does has been done before better, and he’s also a blatant and unabashed plaigerist. His defense to that was that “the material in question is too generic to be attributed to any one comedian.” If you have to say that your stuff sucks in order to defend yourself, you must be pretty weak. Can “Carlos Mencia: Health Inspector” be too far behind?”
June 1st, 2006 at 10:42 am
Mencia’s comedy is based on little more than tired old stereotypes that everyone’s heard a million times over from admittedly better comedians than him. He might as well be saying, “Retarded people suck, man. They’re all like, hur hur look at me I’m retarded hur. Isn’t that funny? Retarded people suck, man.” Or better yet, “Black people suck, man. They’re all stealin’ and eating fried chicken. Lolz!” “White people suck, man. They’re all racist crackers. I come up to a white man, and I say, ‘hey cracker! Screw you!”‘
Yeah, real funny.
September 1st, 2006 at 3:34 pm
oh give me a fuckign break you people, his shit is funny as hell, your tired masked PC way of trashing his comedic value is as lame as you claim what he is about. Give me a break. Obviously a “shit ton” or a majority of people think he is funny as hell, as he is employed by a network which covets “Comedy”. Try not to delve into the schematic breakdown of historical origins and enjoy the guy, for fucks sake….
September 4th, 2006 at 12:57 am
Heba, It’s not that anyone is “PC” for disliking Ned Mencia (His real name). It’s just that Ned isn’t funny. The entire “He makes fun of EVERYONE so its funny” excuse is really played out, and tired. I LOVE a good racist joke. Ari Shaffir(Amazing Racist)is one of the funniest people alive, and guess what? Ned ripped off most of his act (They toured together at one point) Ned Mencia just isn’t funny. I can handle racism and laugh, but he’s just not funny.
“You know how Black people do this? And then White people do THIS?! Well us Mexicans do (mumbles off into gibberish and starts screaming in Spanish until people laugh)”
Wow man….SO funny….
And remember, He’s not Mexican, and his name is “Ned”. He just calls himself “Carlos” so dumb-ass’s will assume he’s Mexican, and allow him the right to slander them.(It’s like saying “Well, I’m Black, so I can say “Nigger”)
Also keep in mind, the laughs you heard in his first season were all recordings from the Chappelle show.
I mean wow…the guys a fraud, a hack, and a rip-off. He’s just REALLY not funny.
January 12th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
A half German, half Honduran “comedian” who lacks intelligence and common sense. A “comedian” who fakes a Mexican background. A “comedian” who thinks it’s okay to steal George Lopez’s material, along with other comedian’s material without recourse. A “comedian” without an original bone in his body. An admitted word for word joke theif who thinks it’s okay to completely steal other REAL comedian’s bits because he thinks he has a better delivery, when really he comes off as obnoxious, hypocrtical, and ignorant (in the real sense of the word). A “comedian” who is really, really loud about things that he knows nothing about. A human loud mouth, trash bucket, asshole who thinks he’s controversial, when really the only controversial thing about him is where is gets his jokes and self proclaimed ethnicity. A “comedian” who accepts a fake last name because it sounds “more mexican”. A total ass clown who exposes the soft underbelly of stupid and ignorant television viewers. A “comedian” whom no one with over a 4th grade education should appreciate. A “comedian” who’s uneducated and immature followers have yet to be explained by evolution or science. A “comedian” who’s total lack or morals is only trumped by his total lack of class and brain power. To “Mencia” something would be to do something so crippling or horrible to any given craft. A “comedian” who is flat-lining comedy. A “comedian” who doesn’t realize that nicknames are earned and that you can’t just give them to yourself. A “comedian” who has stolen so much and is so loudly ignorant that changing the channel isn’t enough anymore. Someone who owes REAL Mexicans an apology for stealing their identity. Someone who talks as though he has been kicked in the head repeatedly. Someone who has no talent. Someone who deserves to be thrown in a hole with a tape recorder that has his own comedy on it, so that he can hear exactly how loud and ignorant he truly is, and then will forever step down from the stage. This way, people who know anything about the world or comedy will forever be saved from his annoying and uninformed voice. Someone who George Lopez should take a huge crap on. A “comedian” I wouldn’t even listen to on my way to a real and original comedy show. A total fraud.
January 23rd, 2007 at 2:55 pm
MrQuinn i was wondering if could quote your wonderful little speech there on a website of mine. would that be ok?
March 4th, 2007 at 5:01 am
To everyone bashing Carlos Ned or whatever his name is, you people need to quit being so closed minded. First off, if my name was Ned Holness, I would drop that and take my mother’s maiden name of Mencia also. I would not want to be called Mr. Holness. You need to actually watch his act before you make a comment like some of you people have. If you would watch his act you would know that he doesnt claim to be mexican, he clearly states he’s from Honduras. He only mentions being mexican in a joke on racial stereotypes: “I’m mexican in LA, Cuban in Miami and Puerto Rican in New York”. That is why he appreciates being an American so much because he actually knows what it is like to live in another country. We so-called natural born Americans dont appreciate being americans because we dont know any other life. We have always been given the right to freedom of speech, in many countries around the world if you speak your mind you are killed. So, Carlos isn’t that original- I will give you that, but there arent many comics in his position who actually push the envelope of polital correctness, Chris Rock does it and Ralphie May did in “Just Correct” but are there any other comics who do it? George Lopez talks about Hispanics and family and how white people dont understand “mexicans” he doesnt delve into the issues of being too PC. I have to say I disagree with MrQuinn on the issue that Carlos’ fans are uneducated, just because we dont share your simple minded opinion. And if you are a man, how can you say nicknames are earned? I bet at some point in your life you gave your “lil soldier” a nickname and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t “earned”. The world is big enough for many comics. There are many types of comedy not just joke telling that makes you laugh. There is dry humor as used by Woody Allen; there is self demoralizing humor as used by Richard Pryor in his early years and Sam Kennison-who if i remember correctly yelled at the top of his lungs much like Carlos; there is “you might be a redneck” by Jeff Foxworthy; drunken humor- Ron White; honky humor- Larry the Cable guy; family humor- Bill Cosby; making fun of mexicans - almost perfected by George Lopez and Paul Rodriguez; ventriliquist humor; please pardon this next phrase my black people-but “Nigga humor” used by just about every black comedian who has ever lived except Bill Cosby. And to Bostonian who stated “.(It’s like saying “Well, I’m Black, so I can say “Nigger”) you I assume are white because no black person would ever call someone Nigger maybe Nigga but never Nigger as there is a huge diferrence in the two words definitions. I’m Mexican and can say that I find it hilarious that Carlos did the Taco Bell dog bit, because it’s true how can the people of LULAC be so ignorant to actually say that a dog represent the hispanic people. They are just too closed minded that they cant appreciate a good commercial, Taco Bell hasn’t done anything near as funny since. Anyway, so all I’m saying is that as human beings, or homosapiens for all of us “uneducated people”, we need to respect that other people will have different sense of humor and that what makes you laugh won’t make someone else laugh. So just because we appreciate different comedy doesnt mean that what you like is less funny that what I like, we just like different things. Thats the beauty of being an American at least we have that option.
March 21st, 2007 at 3:16 pm
I’ve been watching the Mind of Mencia randomly for the past few months and the man is just funny. Period. Does he make fun of everyone, absolutely, including himself. Yes, he says what he thinks, he says what most people think. The man has a gift for pointing out the obvious in this politically correct world. Does he offend people? Absolutely. People need to be offended from time to time, that way we get to see what self-righteous idiots they are. As for making fun of the “dee-dee-dee”s of the world, he’s not picking on the truly mentally handicapped, just the people that have smoked/drunk and blamed on everyone else their way into their chosen path to stupidity. Are some people disadvantaged? Sure, and have some of those disadvantaged people *MADE* opportunties to better their lives? Absolutely. But do the “dee-dee-dee”’s of the world use them as an example to follow? No, they don’t. Instead they’re content to blame everyone else for their “misfortune”, for their “lack of opportunity”.
For what it’s worth, I’m one of those “disavantaged” people who actually made something worthwhile of their lives. I come from the poorest family in four blocks, and now I’m a software engineer making a damned good living and helping others to boot.
For those of you who condemn Carlos Mencia for what he does, you’re showing your stupidity because being American means that people like Carlos Mencia can do exactly what he does without worry. Just like being an American means that you can condemn Carlos and those like him, except that your condemnation is nothing more than hot air and noise.
Something to think about: It’s idiots like you that provide the examples for his act.
More power to him I say.
March 21st, 2007 at 3:29 pm
[...] I first discussed Carlos Mencia on this blog, my main objection to him was that he was a self-aggrandizing douche. But lately, [...]
June 9th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
NED Holness who is half honduran and half german uses his supposed Mexican background so he can ride on mostly beaner jokes and hispanic bits and skits. The fact that he makes fun of everyone doesn’t make him some innovative comedian who is bringing new light to the entertainment business. It just means that he can’t make jokes out of anything outside of the blatantly obvious.
And the fact that he so openly boasts that he is so courageous about not being afraid to offend people just means he is relying on another gimick to create controversy. Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, and every single pulp comic or volunteer comedian at some cafe does ethnic routines.
Fans of Ned Mencia accuse people who think Mencia has no talent of simply being shocked and offended. Nobody is offended by “Carlos self-promoting-psudonym Mencia”. At the end of Mind of Mencia, he reads hate mail that is carefully selected so that the mail he reads specifically pertains to him being offensive so he can rant about how he is being a great fighter of free speech. The fact is that people hate Carlos Mencia because he is not funny and rose to the top by stealing jokes and riding on shock value controversy and cheap gimicks.
The ethnic stereotypical bits that he is so well known for are not creative and nothing but recycled jokes that comics have been using for fifty years. The worst part is his dee-dee-dee gimick. He makes fun of our general society for being predominately impulsive and have a lack of reason when he can never take any logical high ground over anybody. I quote one of his supposidly original bits “I hate it how when I tell white people that the FDA allows cereal to be produced and marketed with rat feces and they ask ‘well how much’…there is fecal matter in our cereal, Why would it matter how much?!…..DEE-DEE-DEE!!!” When he did that joke, he could not look any more retarded. There is about 50mg of feces per KG of cereal mass. That is a ratio of 1:20,000. There is no way to make the cereal with less feces unless it was made at some factory in outer space. We are inhaling more animal waste as we sit in our homes.
This next rant doesn’t say how Carlos has no talent but it does make fun of him in the most direct of ways. I think it is incredibly ironic whenever he makes fun of retards when he looks like some retard who walked into someone else’s closet and started dressing himself. All he has to do to pass off as someone clinically proven to be mentally retarded is wear a helmet.
July 30th, 2007 at 9:31 am
mencia > you. Ownt. DEEEEE DEEEEEE DEEEEEEE. DERRRRRRRRRRRRR.
get a life you people who write an essay to comment to this shit. just waste your lives away, good job guys. a handful of people might care, but that’s probably a great exaggeration. like daniel, you = loser. that is all.
October 4th, 2008 at 12:37 am
Круто! Все бы так писали