Last Comic Standing 5, Episode 9: Middle Ages, Middle Fingers

A couple of notes before we head into the second week of challenges for LCS5:

First off, news this past week came out that NBC has picked up Last Comic Standing for a sixth season. The ratings have just been too solid for the program, [Associate Editor’s Note: and considering the lack of NBC-owned crappy animated shows to shove down our throats…] with the program giving NBC their highest rating in the 9-10 Wednesday time-period in six month, with an average of 2/8 and an 8 share in the 18-49 demo and close to seven million viewers.

Second, for those missing Jay Mohr – the creator and host of the first three seasons of LCS – he is now doing a regular online column for FOXSports.com. You can see his first article here as well as his most recent offering here. Jay’s never been one to avoid controversy, and anyone reading the feedbacks on those pages can see that Jay is already making some people without a sense of humor break their crayons in anger. Means he must be doing something right [Associate Editor’s Note: More importantly, hitting a nerve BECAUSE he’s right] and even more fun to have him back, I know I’ll be checking the column out!

As for the show this week, after seeing a brief clip of Lavell Crawford performing at the Just for Laughs Festival – a gig he got as the winner of the first challenge – the viewers are reminded that Gina Yashere and Dante lost the first Head-to-Head and the ten finalists in this season of LCS have been reduced to eight:

• Ralph Harris
• Debra DiGiovanni
• Doug Benson
• Gerry Dee
• Lavell Crawford
• Jon Reep
• Amy Schumer
• Matt Kirshen

Backstage at the Alex, the remaining seven comics watchs the first Head-to-Head competition only for the television feed to cut out before the winner was announced. Because of this, none of them knows who will be coming back to greet them until Ralph Harris arrives. Everyone appears happy to have Ralph back, while he mentions getting 62% of the votes. Yet with the remaining contestants’ happiness comes the realization that two of them are gone and that more will be leaving in the days to come. As Doug mentions, the comics are getting a little nervous because they don’t know what will be thrown at them next.

Which leads us into seeing the comics on their short-bus taking a ride out to a restaurant called Medieval Times. This is one of those theme restaurants where you sit on hard seats in a freezing warehouse, so you can eat bad food while watching out-of-work actors trying to act like knights of old and spouting poor Shakespearian (yes, a different time-period, I know, but that’s the problem) sayings. Or so I assume. I’ve never eaten there. Yet, every time I see footage of one of these places it looks to be as much fun as eating cafeteria food at a college lecture. [Associate Editor’s Note: Or as a former boss once put it, “I paid $40 to eat with my hands.”]

But enough of my being a poor sport.

The comics begin walking towards the restaurant, arriving in front of a suit of armor that comes to life and cause half of the comics to jump back in surprise. It turns out that Bill Bellamy is in the suit of armor and he is there to guide the comics into the restaurant. No, I’m not going to do the obvious “black knight” gag here, thank you. And you can take that one about the size of his spear with you as well!

Going inside, Doug hopes “no one gets medieval on my ass,” while Bill directs them to a feast before clunking away and probably feeling pretty silly about his get-up. After the comics eat and play around a little, Bill returns to tell them that they will be participating in the second challenge, which is called “The Last Jester Standing.” Each of them will have to do a 90-second set in front of the paying customers seated around the restaurant that is specifically geared towards the medieval setting of the place. The comics go off to work on material, with Amy a bit worried as she feels that she is an easy target, since she is not as experienced as the rest of the comics.

The first two comics, Lavell and Doug, soon head out to perform for the audience and they are dressed in goofy jester outfits. Lavell notes that he looks like a beach-ball in his outfit, while Doug believes himself to look like a “court jester-tranny.” Both are fairly good from what we see of them, but the audience votes for Lavell over Doug and Doug is taken away by an executioner while Lavell moves on to the second round of the challenge. Doug is not happy with losing, but seems calm with the idea that he may have to go to a Head-to-Head.

Jon and Ralph are next, with Jon saying he looked like a redneck pimp. Jon is okay, but Ralph seems to have hit off on a flat note and can never get the audience back on his side for the rest of his 90-seconds, even when the jokes are amusing. Ralph gets only a few votes from the audience and so Jon moves on to the next round.