Forget "edgy!" Give us "Inclusiveness!"

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on July 13th, 2005

We got a press release from the folks at Sierra Mist, the soft drink that would kill 7-Up if it had the chance. You may recall that, back in March, we ran something about their effort to find the “Next Great Comic” (Their phrase, not ours), by holding a contest. One thing caught our eye in the release:

…Once the contestant’s photo, bio and a two-minute MP3 of their standup routine were submitted, a panel of judges, including a representative from Comedy Central, reviewed all of the local comic winners and selected the top five finalists. The finalists were judge on creativity, delivery, humor, inclusiveness and originality. Then America had the opportunity to vote online for one of finalist’s to determine the Next Great Comic!

Huh? Inclusiveness?!? What the hell is that? Whenever we hear inclusiveness mentioned in the same breath as comedy, we get all Sierra Misty-eyed! (We hope this isn’t a trend. We hope we don’t start hearing emcees closing shows with, “Thank you for supporting inclusive comedy!”)

Anyway, Ryan Hamilton won and he’ll be pumped through the 23 Improvs along with Jim Gaffigan or Aries Spears. Mr. Hamilton, who only started doing comedy in spring of ’01, would do well to enjoy the middle spot and watch every one of Gaffigan’s shows. With a bit of work he should have an entirely new half-hour by the end of his Sierra Mist odyssey. And, for God’s sake, work on your inclusiveness!

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