BET's Comicview

When Comicview began, it was a wonderful showcase of up-and-coming Black comedians strutting their stuff. In the early years, they were clever, quick-witted, and tackled many different issues. It was also a competition. Celebrity judges voted for the winner and the winner had his own 1-hour special.

Nowadays, Comicview has become a display of buffoonery and sex talk in poor taste. I am sure that much of Black America is more diverse and sophisticated than this. In an article in a Black magazine, the show's co-host, Reynaldo Rey, admitted that the buffoonery even annoys him, at times. There are some Black people who wish to enjoy "intelligent" comedy. You don't get that on BET. That is because Comicview is primarily targeted for teenagers up to those in their late 20's. At this stage, the target audience welcomes talk of raunchy sex with a hip-hop appeal. That's all! I sometimes tune in hoping to get something other than the sex jokes, but that will be a topic by at least one of the comics during the hour-long program. Much of the comedy isn't funny. However, some of the audience laughs anyway, to relieve the tension of if being unfunny. Many of the comics have been on several times, probably because they are desperate for a gig to earn a buck.

Another thing I find obvious, is how the beautiful Black women are overemphasized. Granted, the Black women in the audience are beautiful. However, there is no need to always have the camera on them to draw the attention of your male viewers. A few of these beautiful women sit on benches and seats strategically placed onstage to further accentuate the appeal of the new set. They are there only to look cute. Some may call it exploiting the women in the same way they are exploited in the music videos on the same network.

One thing that is very stale is the audience. It is not necessary for the audience members to give a standing ovation to every comedian when he is introduced and another standing ovation after he completes his performance. They do this even though many of them are not familiar with the comics, and whether they were good or not. That is very tiring to have to see every time.

One bright thing about this season is the party theme music by Buckwheat Zydeco. That southern flavor is jammin'. Since this season being done in New Orleans, it is totally appropriate.

Even though buffoonery and modeling beautiful Black women are the norm, and this makes money for the network, it will continue.

Many people who watch this show don't understand it. That's why they don't like it. My mum and my sister hate it. I just love it!! It always makes me laugh. I've been watching it for about two years and the comedians, male and female always seem to make me laugh. Sometimes the jokes are not even funny but do you know what cracks me up? I laugh at the way the audience reacts to them. It is so funny that they laugh at some jokes which make no sense. Also the comedians constantly talk about the subject of sex. I am only 16 years young. These people know how to light up my day. The things they talk about makes me laugh so much! My mother and sister think that I'm crazy! That's the point. They don't understand! I love the hosts of the show too, especially Bruce Bruce and Arnez J! I don't care what anyone else says about this show. It is always funny! I love it! It is the best stand-up comedy show since Def Jam. Everynight I look forward to watching this show. I like to watch it alone so I could laugh as loud as I want. If you're a fan of comedy, you'll love this show!! It will crack you up, trust me.

Hi the one who hosted the show, I have always thought he was funny. I support his movies and always thought he was a funny guy. But this joke is not, he said if you're 60 you should not be licked and you might taste the medicine and the fat joke. I felt like that was offensive to beautiful women who are 60 and over. There are so many young women who are over weight and trying to change Out there. Just because you have the license to do comedy it doesn't mean you have to be so disgusting and disrespectful. It made me give a thumbs down to the first episode but I'm not going to stop watching comic view because I love a good joke.

When Comicview first exploded onto the scene in the fall of 1992,it was a wonderful showcase of up-and coming Black comedians strutting their stuff onto the stage with a brand of unadulterated humor that has at the time the show premiered,never before seen. During the show's early years,it was a mixture of cleverness alongside quickwitted and tackling issues that were the order of the day. During that time when Comicview first came out it was the only comedy show to showcase rising black comedians other than that was Def Comedy Jam,which was a bit raunchy and straight up adult-oriented material,and so was Comicview which at the time was very funny and very humorous,and it was always coming on cable's BET Network at 10:00 hour when most adult-oriented shows to come on. However,Comicview showcased a lot of bright and promising talent as well which brought to the stage the like of comedians who were just starting out at the time this show premiered,comedians like Bernie Mac,Martin Lawrence,Chris Tucker,Cedric The Entertainer,Monique, DL Hughley,and so much more with comedian Don "DC" Curry was not only one of the comedians,but the show's host during the first two seasons.

All that would change since there were a lot of comedians that did not become famous,but were also extremely hilarious like Simply Precious, Ricky Smiley,Bruce Bruce,J. Arnaz,and Sammora. Not to forget on that same bill Miss Laura. Not only they were comedians,but the did double duty as guest hosts. Nowadays,Comicview has become a display of outlandish buffoonery and sex jokes that are in very poor taste which most of the hour of the show is nothing but straight up humor that has gone "ghetto" to just total stupidity which network executives think that is the way viewers look at the show,in which one comment was made that Black America is way more diverse and more sophisticated than this. There is a article in Black magazine the reflected on this show in which one of the show's co-host,Reynaldo Rey,also from the 80's sitcom "227",admitted that even the buffoonery that is displayed on the show annoys him,at times. The same can said from another co-host who nowadays doesn't want nothing to do with the show. Do you blame them? Comicview has gone from brilliant to worst to pathetic to just toward the boundary of ghetto fabulous to boost ratings.

By the way,there are some individuals who like "intelligent" comedy,but you won't see any of that on BET,and let me explain why. If you want to enjoy good intelligent "black" comedy,look no further to either Bill Cosby or for than manner Dick Gregory or Sinbad,or to an extent Damon Wayans to some excellent laughs,since BET is no longer the intelligent network of choice,since most of BET's programming consists of nothing but music videos running all hours of the day and so forth. Comicview's primarily targeted audience consists of nothing of the teenagers up to there late 20's-early 30's which the target audience that welcomes nothing but raunchy talk which most of the hour consists of sex and toilet humor and the dissing of someone's parents since most of it is not funny at all period especially with the topic is nothing but gay humor and references to someone's private parts of their body. And all of this is in a hip-hop appeal setting. That's all for 60 minutes!

This was a great show in the beginning until corporate media giant Viacom brought it changing the overall landscape of BET's programming. When Viacom brought BET,the network lost its independent voice and nowadays the only independent voice out there for cable that is for Black Americans is the MBC Channel(Mutual Broadcasting Company)run by an independent black enterprise system. But getting back to Comicview on BET,the show nowadays is an excuse to showcase the same dancers in every segment and the same dancers gets tiredsome afterwhile along with the musical guests which are nothing more than rap videos and lame ass R&B singers instead of showcasing comedians and that is so sad to see. The changing of the hosts has done this show in too,since comedians Bruce-Bruce,and Ricky Smiley tried to be fair but too much of a product for a corporate image is overdoing it,and just recently the show is being hosted by radio personality J. Anthony Brown(for The Tom Joyner Morning Show)and in some segments actress Kim Coles(from the TV series Living Single)and this is why I don't watch the show anymore,period. It's gone totally ghetto from the get-go.

Comicview is a showcase for African-American comics on the Black Entertainment cable network. Some of the humor can be raunchy, but because BET is a basic cable network, the comedians can't get as raw as they did on HBO's Def Comedy Jam. Each season a new host takes over the MC duties (after having won a contest for the best Comicview comedian of that year), and usually, that person goes on to better things once their stint is over. D.L. Hughley, Steve Harvey, Bernie Mac and Cedric The Entertainer are all now famous comics who have made appearances on this show. Early on, Comicview used to also show an outrageous soap opera called "Ain't Nothin' But A Woman" about Miss Laura (Laura Haynes) who ran a hotel filled with crazy employees and guests, as well as numerous filmed skits that were shown before the commercial breaks. These days, R&B, hip-hop and rap acts appear frequently at the end of the episodes.