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Not psyched about Wanda Sykes
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Wanda Sykes
“The Wanda Sykes Show” debuted Saturday night on FOX and I never thought I’d be missing “Mad TV” or “Talk Show with Spike Feresten” until this travesty hit the airwaves. The popular comedian looked awkward during the whole telecast, but not half as awkward as the guests appearing on her show.
For example, there was a remote segment in which Sykes wants to go green, and therefore does not want to bombard landfills with her used vibrators. She showed Julia Louis-Dreyfus the box full of sex toys and the “New Adventures of Old Christine” actress probably had the biggest cringe ever to appear on a face in television history. Her advice was to burn them even though that wasn’t environmentally correct. Then Sykes went to a few local adult toy stores and tried to pitch the idea to the retail workers to resell them. She actually achieved the impossible- provoking visible disgust and shock from the sex toy salespeople.
But wait, there’s more! She had a panel discussion segment with Mary Lynn Rajskub of “24” and “Mr. Show”, the host of “The Amazing Race”, and an actor from the show, “Brothers.” No, I’m not being lazy with the actor’s name; it’s just that when Wanda introduced him, I didn’t understand a word she said. I really tried, too. Now this panel took place while drinking alcoholic beverages and instead of interviewing the guests on their respective careers, Wanda tried a Chelsea Handler/Bill Maher-like discussion on topics such as child rearing. But it wasn’t fun and gossipy like Handler does or a comedic yet intelligent current event discussion like Maher.
After the topic of raising kids came and went quickly, Wanda introduced a segment for the guests referred to as “inappropriate games.” The night’s topic was “Know your Asian.” She showed the panel a picture and they had to guess which country in Asia the person was born out of three possible answers. When Mary Lynn’s turn came, I think she summed up the whole debacle with three simple words, “What is happening?”
Sykes’ co-host is her old friend, Keith Robinson. They actually attempted some sort of a conversation while standing up and leaning against an irrelevant table. They both looked completely uncomfortable, and Robinson was actually shifting his body weight left and right in a very nervous manor. Oh yeah, another regular on the show is a drag queen who I’m sure has a clever name, but again, I couldn’t hear what it was thanks to Sykes lack of any kind of enunciation. (Okay. It turns out his/her name is Portia.)
Was the show funny? With the exception of one or two minor laughs- no. I know I’m being a bit scathing here, but it wasn’t the controversial material that offended me. I can handle that just fine. What does offend me is poorly written and performed comedy. I haven’t cringed this much about something on television since I heard that the Octo-mom was getting a reality show.
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