Monday, March 31, 2008

#5 George Lopez




Don’t let his former-ABC sitcom fool you; George Lopez is funny as hell. Not to be confused with the unfunny Carlos Mencia (the only other “working” Latino comic”), Lopez has actual talent.

After being abandoned by his mother at the age of 10, the L.A. native turned his pain into laughter. In 2004 his comedy album Team Leader was nominated for a Grammy and his long running show (2002-2007) George Lopez ran on ABC and can now be seen in syndication on Nickelodeon’s Nick-at-Nite. Actually for some strange reason the show is actually funnier in syndication-go figure. The George Lopez show became the second longest running sit-com starring Latinos coming after I Love Lucy. Lopez’s show also succeeded in turning the spotlight on actress Constance Marie, one of the hottest Latinas on TV. With his star power, Lopez performed his greatest feat when he opened the door for Freddie Prinze Jr., helping to green-light Prinze’s poor excuse of a sit-com Freddie. In 2005 Time magazine named Lopez as one of their “25 Most Influential Hispanics in America” and believe us, getting young FPJ his own show takes a ton of influence.

But don’t be fooled, Lopez is no media darling; actually the Mexican comedian isn’t afraid of pissing off the mainstream. In 2007, Lopez went on record calling late-night talk show host Jay Leno “The biggest two-faced dude in TV.” But Jorge didn’t stop there; rumors have it that Lopez roughed up fellow comedian Carlos Mencia for stealing his material. And with his jokes on immigration, Latino culture and America’s screwed up politics George Lopez keeps it realer than most.

In his 2007 HBO special America’s Mexican Lopez criticized not only President George Bush for his immigration platform, but California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s as well for his anti-Latino, English only policy, “Governor Schwarzenegger is for English only. Ok that’s good, but the problem there is motherfucker you don’t speak English… I’ve had uncles who are drunk that I could understand better than Arnold Schwarzenegger,” joked Lopez.

Not since Cheech Marin has Latinos a funnier comedian. Long live El Rey de Comedy!

2 comments:

ElSoloMar said...

Anhhh! Most latin people do not talk much about this guy... but I guess Mexicans do... I think. But again, 60% all of the latin people in this country are from Mexico, so, I... guess you could say we do like George Lopez.

Anonymous said...

I think only Mexicans like this guy. I'm pretty sure everyone in my family thinks he's annoying, including myself.