Brennan AngelShuffling feet, lulled voices and nervous laughter filled the Rec Center Sunday night as everyone waited for the show to start. One of the country’s most controversial comedians, Carlos Mencia was about to stand in front of the audience and prove that he did have the ability to make any kind of person laugh.
After four opening acts, including Carlos’ brother Joseph Mencia, Cristela Alonzo, Jo Koy and Brad Williams, Mencia finally came onto the stage with loud music and bright lights and lots of screaming from the audience. In the beginning of his skit, Mencia noted that people weren’t laughing at some of his jokes because they weren’t politically correct and suggested laughing anyway, which lightened the tone for the rest of the show.
“Political correctness destroys,” Mencia said. This was the main message of his show. “People don’t say what they feel anymore,” he said.
Recently, Mencia has become prominent and very controversial. He makes jokes about every kind of person ranging from Latinos to the handicapped and everyone in between. He goes by the motto every person is fair game.
Mencia was born Ned Mencia and his parents gave him to his aunt and uncle because they couldn’t have children of their own, he said in an interview with the San Jose Mercury News.
Mencia was the 17th out of 18 children and always “regarded family to be of the utmost importance,” according to his biography on his official Web site, www.carlosmencia.com.
He attended California State University at Los Angeles but left to follow a career in comedy, according to his site. He released his first and only album called “Take a Joke America,” in 2000.
In 2005, he began his show on Comedy Central called “Mind of Mencia.” The show has averaged 1.4 million viewers since its debut, according to his Web site. On the show, Mencia does sketches, videos and questioning people on the street. The motto for the show is “You think it, he says it.”
The students received the show on Sunday very well despite some controversial topics.
“My sides are still hurting,” said mechanical engineering junior Erick Serrano. “I think he’s way funny, you just have to go with it,” he said.
“He’s funny as hell,” said political science junior Torie McGehee. “Even though he uses race jokes, he has good taste,” she said.
At the end of the show, people waited in line to get pictures and autographs from Mencia. People shouted out things like “that was amazing” and “I love you Carlos.” The crowd stayed until he had left.
Though his show may be perceived in many negative ways, Mencia makes a point to tell his audience that people should laugh. Throughout the show he mentioned the guilt of “white people” and how they don’t laugh at racial jokes because they might offend someone. Mencia said that laughter and feelings should be released in every situation.
“Say what you feel and the world will be a better place,” he said. “Everything is guilt now,” said Mencia.
The show came to a close with Brad Williams, one of the opening acts who is also a dwarf, doing the Oompa Loompa dance from “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and giving an audience member a lap-dance.
Everything about the show was entertaining. Even when Mencia told jokes that were not necessarily “politically correct,” the audience roared with laughter. When the audience refrained from laughing at a joke Mencia knew was funny, he just proclaimed, “you all know you want to laugh,” and the whole room began to do it.
The critics may perceive Mencia’s humor as inappropriate, but there is no doubt that he has something worth listening to. Even the jokes about how it “sucks to be white in America today,” and hurricane Katrina got a huge reaction from the audience.
If there is any possibility to see this show, go see it. It will be the one day to laugh without regrets or judgments. Everyone is equally allowed to find the jokes funny and no body takes it personally. At the end of the show, everyone comes out with a smile on their face and nothing to say but, “It was awesome.”