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GUEST BLOG #62: Diane Holloway Says Yikes to Sykes
[Bianculli here: Contributing Critic Diane Holloway was, to quote from Rocky Horror, restless with antici...pation about the premiere of Fox's The Wanda Sykes Show. Now that she's seen it, Diane is singing a slightly different tune...]
Hey, I Wanda Who's Liking Her Now
By Diane Holloway
Loyal readers, and maybe even a few bored TV enthusiasts surfing the web, may recall that a couple of weeks ago I wrote an over-the-moon anticipation blog about Wanda Sykes' upcoming Saturday night show.
I went on and on about how hilarious Sykes is, and how much I was looking forward to her new Fox adventure. I also promised to return to the subject after the show's debut, to see if my excitement had been warranted.
Well, the answer is an unequivocal... yes and no. Maybe. The Wanda Sykes Show arrived Saturday night with decidedly mixed results. Anyone who ever voted Republican or who finds salty language and sex jokes offensive should stay away. But the problems ran deeper.
Her opening-night monologue, sticking up for President Obama and bashing his right-wing critics, went on too long and had all the rhythm of a child's first violin recital.
Bragging that she was the first person on Fox "not to pick on President Obama," Sykes set herself up as the comic defender of all things Obama -- a shtick destined to get real old real quick, even for ardent Democrats. Plus, she's hardly the first person on Fox to stick up for the president. Even Homer Simpson has done that. Double-plus, Sykes ignores the fact that Fox News is a whole different animal than the entertainment network. Bill O'Reilly rants on Fox News, not on the broadcast home of House and Glee.
Anyone who thought Sykes might temper her typically bawdy humor for network TV should have known better. And actually, some of the bawdy stuff was the funniest, although I'll grant that more tasteful viewers probably didn't laugh as hard at the bit on environmentally-friendly sex toys as I did. I'm sorry, but a solar-powered vibrator struck me as hilarious. No apologies.
A panel of not-very-funny guests in the Wanda Bar segment (yes, they really were drinking adult beverages but it didn't help) proved to be a groaner. The only person remotely funny was Daryl "Chill" Mitchell. Mary Lynn Rajskub (24) and Phil Keoghan (Amazing Race) were painfully dull, as were the topics (private space travel, modern parenting) the group discussed.
Sadly the show ended its hour with an excruciating segment, dubbed "Inappropriate Games: Know Your Asians," that required panelists to name the country of origin of several Asian celebrities. Tasteless and racist...and definitely not amusing. The late Richard Pryor could get away with racially-themed humor; apparently Sykes cannot.
Sykes is much smarter and funnier than her show, which was greeted with tepid applause, even by her tiny studio audience. She needs good guest stars -- Julia Louis-Dreyfus' 15-second appearance was a breath of fresh air, but we needed more. And the awful panel has got to go.
My fervent hope is that the first show was wobbly because it's still finding its legs. My fear is that it's as good as it will get. I have enough respect for Sykes as a performer and as a human being to think it will get better. If not, well, I'm sorry I brought it up. And never mind.
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Diane Holloway was the TV critic for the Austin American Statesman for 30 years, until the downturn in the newspaper business prompted her to take a buyout. She's now sniffing out other possibilities. Before newspapers, she worked in Washington for the Library of Congress, the American Film Institute and the National Endowment for the Arts. Maybe something entirely different is next. Or not.
I think if a viewer doesn't find the idea of a solar powered vibrator funny, he/she should just hang his/her remote control and seek entertainment elsewhere.
I thought Sykes's jokes were funny and that she held nice conversation with the other people on the show. Because it's her first show I don't think everything has to be perfect. Compared to Jimmy Fallon's first month of shows (on a network with now 4 late night talk shows) where he could not deliver a monologue and talked through his guests answers in the interview portion of his show; Wanda Sykes was great. Fox is still trying to establish one talk show and for that I think there is a lot of promise in The Wanda Sykes show.
The first thing I noticed was that Wanda kept talking to the TV camera instead of the studio audience. And was probably reading (or at least getting cues) from a teleprompter. So she came off as stiff, nervous and unfunny, with lousy timing.
When she did her HBO stand-up special last month, she spoke to the audience and the cameras followed her. It gave her a much more natural rhythm, and she was at times hilarious.
I only stuck through the first half hour (SNL was a welcome relief), but I don't think I laughed out loud even once. Maybe a chuckle or two, but that was it. Really, really pathetic.
If this show is to have any chance, they need to rebuild it around Wanda's strengths, not some impulse to make her into a starched-underwear version of Bill Maher.
She was not as good as i thought she was going to be.