The Colin Quinn Show

Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn was the name of the Comedy Central show and at times it was a tough crowd. Quite a few jokes bombed, mostly from Colin. Nick usually had the better jokes than the other comedian guests. Jerry Seinfeld and Sarah Silverman stopped by as guests. His Ethnic Countdown was the best idea on the show.

The NBC version was much better. Live, from SNL's studio, along with Tina Fey as a writer. Sort sketch, and a variety of comedians telling them what's on their mind. Filled with a variety of great ethnic jokes. This version would be better suited for Comedy Central.

Why didn't NBC pick this up, i'll never know. Cos it wasn't that bad. Colin Quinn is not extremely funny or anything, but he's ok, and the show was pretty good. But it looks like he's doing well on Comedy Central now, so its all good.

NBC never promoted this show, just as Comedy Central never promoted Tough Crowd and it truly is a shame. This show was really funny. After September 11, it was the first show to really openly talk about racial diversity and did it in a crude way that made it hilarious. Now, you look at Chappelles Show and how hilarious that turned out to be and I wonder if this show could have been that good. But we'll never know, because if Colin were to attempt another show like this one, he'll seem like a hack trying to copy Chappelle like one particular unfunny latino comic on Comedy Central known only as Carlos Mencia.

Also, in my opinion Tough Crowd was fantastic, but would only gain the support of viewers if it was on only once a week because the episodes were so inconsistent. If they had the right panel, it was the best show on TV, if it had hacks like Greg Proops on it, it was god-awful.

The Colin Quinn show provided a glimpse into what is wrong with political correctness, making fun of other people is funny.

Now before we all start getting up in arms about how horrible racism is, let me explain, the show generally opened with Colin's monologue talking about topical issues of the day.

Following that came the most hilarious round table discussion. Several comedians of different ethnicities would sit around on a stoop like set and would talk about different topics as Colin would call them out, moderate, and add his own spin.

Sadly this type of show would probably be more welcomed in the 1970's than the new millennium.

After the 1st episode I knew that NBC was not going to keep it on the air, it was insulting, thought inspiring and hilariously funny, and quite honestly I think if more shows had the same subject manner dealt with honesty and humor, I do not think race relations would be so turbulent as they are today.

After 3 very fresh and inventive episodes it was sadly canceled.

I never saw the original NBC show, but Comedy Central's two-week reincarnation of the show to see how it fared was not wildly successful, in my opinion. Quinn's humor gets repetitive quickly, and he doesn't hold a candle to Jon Stewart and the Daily Show. Perhaps that was Quinn's problem - having to follow such a great show was bound to make his own seem mediocre at best.

I doubt we'll see this returning.