Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Carlos Mencia Is Damn Funny - And Latino

As I said last year, I think Carlos Mencia is funny as shit, watched him back when he did Loco Slam. And his comedy show on Comedy Central Mind of Mencia, has become much better this year, his monologues and skits are hilarious and topical.

On the handicapped, Way Un-PC, but dropped dead hilarious, and even sneaks in a point or two



Mencia on Terrorism, Jingoistic?? Yeah, But Funny as Hell


On People's Music Tastes

I dig everything....all types of music...and I don't mean that I'm like one of those stupid people that say..."I LOVE ALL TYPES OF MUSIC EXCEPT RAP AND COUNTRY MUSIC..." Well guess what???? YOU DON'T LOVE ALL TYPES OF MUSIC SO STOP SAYING THAT YOU DO!!! That's like saying..."I love neopolitan ice cream...BUT I HATE CHOCOLATE AND STRAWBERRY...


Not Mexican?
What is funny, is that comedian Joe Rogan called Mencia out for "not being Mexican" (in addition to stealing material).

He sells himself as being mexican, but the reality is his real name is Ned Holness, and he's actually half German and half Honduran. The mexican hook is something he did to ingratiate himself with the local Mexican population of LA where he started.

Since I can remember Carlos has always said he was born in Honduras, that his mom was Mexican and that he was raised in East LA. As this Washington Post article says: He was born in Honduras as Ned Mencia, son of Magdalena Mencia, a Mexican, and Roberto Holness, a Honduran. When he was 7 months old, his family moved to Los Angeles, where he was raised by his mother's sister and her husband in East L.A.. He also lived in Honduras as a teenager.
Carlos himself inhis blog
My birth father’s name is Roberto Holness. When I was born, my mother was pissed off at my father and decided not give me his last name. She had a brother who was married but unable to have children. (Her brother is the one in my family that came to America first and then went back to Honduras to get the rest of his family). My mother did the most amazing thing a parent could do; she gave me to her brother and his wife to be raised as their own. I grew up with my biological mother and father, brothers and sisters living just next door. Out of respect for my birth father, my mom and dad decided I should still use his name even though my legal name (the one on my birth certificate) is Ned Arnel Mencia. All through school I was known as Ned Holness. I’ve never try to hide this, but only people who know me personally or have heard and or read all of my interviews and articles would know this.

So the guy's dad has a German last name, or maybe even is German.BFD, still makes Carlos/Ned, Honduran by birth. Heck, my maternal last name is Irish, doesn't make my moms family any less Nicaraguan. If anything Mencia's origins, represents what Andres Oppenheimer has called the trans-national identity of some Latino immigrants. We move back and forth across borders, might have parents of different nationalities. We navigate fairly seamlessly between different cultures and nationalities as a matter of everyday life; culture surfing as a friend once referred to it. If anything, it probably helped to turn Carlos Mencia into such a sharp observer of everyday life among the different groups that make up the American - and Latin American fabric of life.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Beautifully Said