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Comedian insults crowd at SUB and proves entirely unprepared
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When I go to see a comedian, or any performer, I expect them to be prepared with a routine appropriate for the audience and long enough to last at least a couple of hours.
I expect it especially from those who have been recognized on national television.
Roy Wood, Jr. had a few funny jokes for his audience in the Hatch Ballroom of the Student Union Building on Monday, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. but most of them were racially inappropriate or just not right for a college student audience.
Wood has appeared on The David Letterman Show and BET, generally known for his prank call jokes.
His resume also includes many notorious discharges from the stage including a time when he told future high school graduates something along the lines of “somebody had to do the yard work and flip the burgers.”
The only joke that really got the attention and approval from a large part of the audience was when he acted out a time when he got pulled over by the police with a large portion of illegal drugs in the car.
What revoked the audience’s approval of this joke was that he went on to inform those present that the joke was a “true story” and he received probation after the event.
Wood did not do any of his “prank call” jokes that gave him a name.
The material that dominated most of the night was denigrating and racially inappropriate.
He joked about how Latinos are the “modern slaves” and every new culture that comes to the United States goes through a “hazing period.”
Although he’s a comedian, it seemed serious when he said later that the current treatment of Latinos could be justified by saying that Native Americans and African Americans went through the “hazing period” as well.
Another joke he made was that one of his African American friends recently exclaimed that the only reason Latinos are getting rights in this country are because “we [the African American community] fought for them first.”
He did go back and say that the reason for the civil rights movement was for all races, not just African Americans.
Every few jokes, Wood would ask the audience if they found them funny because only a few were laughing.
About an hour into the show, he ran out of material and even took a suggestion from a member of the audience to do the police joke again.
After re-performing the police joke, Wood kept looking at the members of the Student Programs Board, the group who set up the performance, to gain approval to end the show.
He ended the show talking about some of the prank calls he made for radio stations across the country.
Standing out among these was a prank call he made to a cruise ship line, Carnival, saying that his “great-granddaddy” left his wallet on one of their ships when he was forced to come to America to become a slave.
Most of the audience was revolted by his racial jokes and by the fact that he was not prepared for more than an hour’s worth of comedy.
Wood even acknowledged his failure at the end of the show by saying “I shouldn’t have done these racial jokes, should I? I should’ve done something more along the lines of dorm parties and frat houses.”
For a comedian that graduated from Florida A&M University with a Bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism, I expected more.
He should have been prepared for the show and used appropriate material.
MATTHEW BOYLE
Culture Writer