Carlos Mencia
Ned Arnel Mencía (born October 22, 1967), better known by his stage name Carlos Mencia, is an American comedian, writer, and actor. He is currently the host of his own show on Comedy Central, Mind of Mencia.
Biography
Mencia was born “Ned Arnel Mencía”, the seventeenth of eighteen children in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. His father, Roberto Holness, is from Honduras, and his mother, Magdelana Mencia, is from Mexico. He was raised in East Los Angeles, California by his aunt Consuelo and uncle Pablo Mencia. By his own admission, staying out of trouble was difficult growing up, but with the help of his family he excelled in school and stayed out of gangs. He majored in electrical engineering at California State University, Los Angeles, but left early to pursue a career in comedy after a successful performance at open mike night at The Laugh Factory. He also has a brother named Joseph Mencia which is the co-host of Mind of Mencia.
he was born in some place at some time i dont care
Comedy
Like many comedians, he focuses on race, sexual orientation, politics, religion, class and society, but in a style which intentionally violates rules of what is politically correct by, for example, making a point to use racial epithets or terms such as “retarded” rather than “disabled” or “mentally handicapped” and otherwise going out of his way to offend liberal sensibilities, such as by advocating capital punishment and sustaining a generally high level of raunchiness in his material. A staple of his material is diatribes denouncing the actions of people he considers to be stupid, often using his trademark “DEE-Dee-dee!.” He has stated that the phrase doesn’t refer to people “who were born retarded,” but rather people “who were born, and are now retarded.” He often advocates Social Darwinism “survival of the fittest” type solutions to this perceived problem of too much stupidity. Some consider his jokes to be intentionally provocative and racist, focusing on stereotypes for the sake of publicity or easy laughs. Mencia, however, says he does not focus on any one race, but that he creates comedy about all races, ethnicities and religions equally, without the desire to have his words taken too seriously. He has the opinion that life should be filled with comedy, as shown by his catchphrase "If you ain't laughin', you ain't livin'".
Criticism
In a 2005 interview with Howard Stern, comedian George Lopez claimed that he and Mencia were involved in a physical altercation at a comedy club. Lopez alleged that Mencia appropriated 13 minutes of Lopez's material, without permission, for Mencia's HBO comedy special. Lopez told Stern, “It's not really a feud, I mean, I think I won.”[1] Shortly afterwards, comedian Joe Rogan wrote a post on his website publicly accusing Mencia of being a plagiarist, alleging that Mencia stole jokes from a number of comedians.[2]
Mencia responded to the accusations while being interviewed on the Tucson, Arizona The Frank Show, stating that Joe Rogan had fabricated the plagiarism charge out of jealousy. On his own website, Mencia argued that the material in question was too generic to be attributed to any single comedian.
Maxim magazine recently named Mencia as the 12th-worst comedian of all time,[3] although television viewers themselves had voted him into 2nd place of the top 25 stand-up comics in Comedy Central's 2006 "Stand Up Showdown".[4] However, when the results of the 2007 "Stand Up Showdown" were released, Mencia had slumped to 14th place.
Filmography
- In Living Color (TV), playing a Valet in episode six of season two, October 28, 1990
- Moesha (TV), playing Carlos in the episode “Life Imitating Art,” February 9, 1999
- The Proud Family (TV), starring as Felix (voice) (2001-2005)
- The Shield (TV) playing Gabo in the episode “Two Days of Blood,” May 28, 2002
- Outta Time (2002), playing “Juancho”
- 29 Palms (2002), playing “The Comedian”
- Drawn Together (TV) playing the King of Mexico (voice) in the episode “Mexican't Buy Me Love”, November 8, 2006
- Farce of the Penguins (2007), playing Juan Sanchez (voice)
Not including his comedy specials for HBO and Comedy Central, Mencia has also appeared on Comic Relief, and hosted Loco Slam in 1994, Latino Laugh Festival in 1997, Funny is Funny! in 1998, and Uncensored Comedy: That's Not Funny in 2003.
Discography
- Take a Joke America (2001)
- America Rules (2002)
- Unmerciful (2003)
- Not for the Easily Offended (2003)
- Down to the Nitty Gritty (2004)
- Mind of Mencia (2005)
- No Strings Attached (2006)
References
- ^ "Lopez" (MP3). Redban.com. Retrieved 2006-09-05.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Mencia". JoeRogan.com. Retrieved 2006-09-05.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "The Worst Comedian of all time". Maxim Magazine. Retrieved 2006-09-05.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Mencia". Comedy Central. Retrieved 2006-09-05.
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