I have just watched the last episode of Last Comic Standing, in which the final folks were picked. This episode made it clear how the choices were actually made.

The funniest comic was, by far, Gabriel Iglesias. He was selected and was voted the audience fav to boot. The second funniest was Nikki Payne, a chick with a severe lithp, who went for it in the most extreme of ways, from showing her black-braed boobies to wrapping herself up in duct tape, all in a minute. Nikki Payne, friends, is what you call “the real deal.” Her off-the-cuff responses to judges were not just hillarious, they were perfect.

Unfortunately, the show had already selected its ”challenged” comic. CP comic Josh Blue had been chosen previously. I believe the producers decided that the “comics-with-impediments” roster had been filled. What can I say. It’s television. So it has to make compromises to preserve its own artificiality. I have loved and hated television since I was 6. Before that, I only loved it. But I am well aware that television did not make the correct choice, if it was truly concerned with comedy. But it did provide me with a new person to adore.

Nikki Payne. I speak your name.