Carlos Mencia

[chonies]

Did Joe say that "Carlos" is half German?

According to Wikipedia, it very well could be true.

[Deleted]

Didn't George Lopez assault him or something? I vaguely remember hearing that.

[jenedreamer]

So...where does this half German thing come from? Wikipedia says his father is from Honduras and his mother is from Mexico.

[Deleted]

Yeah, George Lopez punched him - they talk about it towards the end of the Rogan-Mencia smackdown.

Joe Rogan is a tool, but he's less of a tool than Mencia, so I'm finding this very amusing.

As far as I can tell from some idle internet surfing, he may have been raised by relatives, not his birth parents, so maybe someone involved there was German and that's where the confusion comes from?

[Coffeecakes]

Hell naw, he stole material from George Lopez? Now his comedy is hilarious because it is so true to how Mexicans are in California.

[Deleted]

His father could well be from Honduras ("Carlos" was born there) and be 100% ethnically German. "Carlos" is a tricky son of a gun to pin down on facts, though. A thorough Googling shows sources that claim his birth father is German and birth mother (her name is Mencia) is Mexican, his father is Honduran and mother is Mexican, and that both his parents are Honduran. He claims that Mencia is his surname on his birth certificate and that he only used Holness out of respect for his birth father (he was informally adopted by his aunt and uncle Mencia). He seems to be vague on when he dropped using Holness.

His act is stale as heck. I watched "Mind of Mencia" once and couldn't find a joke in it. He's a hack and a thief and I hope Joe Rogan never lets up on the guy.

[chonies]

He briefly discusses the German thing here[/color] (sound file, I couldn't find a transcript). He has Caribbean and English heritage, says the name Holness is "of German extraction" but his dad was born in Honduras. Which does not really mean a whole lot, because Latin America is a lot more diverse than is portrayed in many books. I don't think anyone specifically cares that he's part German, or Honduran, or whatever, but in the totality of comic thievery, I think people are eager to pounce on anything that corroborates the claims of lying or plagiarism. Which is fine, especially since, in my brief encounters with Mencia, he seems to be clowning on stereotypical perceptions of Mexican-Americans, without using any insight or irony or anything elevating.

I like George Lopez's stuff a lot better, although lately I'm kind of down on the show and himself. But there's got to be another Hispanic comedian around, because I'm getting tired of both of them. I wonder if Gabriel Iglesias[/color] has anything beyond fat jokes.

[groovethang]

I remember Joe Rogan called out Denis Leary on the Howard Stern Show for stealing material from the late Bill Hicks.

I'm find it difficult to watch the video on his site because of the video-game music and sound effects in the background. But good for him. It's nice to see someone stand up to comedians who steal material from other comics.

[JDub]

I thought calling him out on being part German and his birth name being Ned was actually kind of lame. He's still a latino, his parents still immigrated here from Honduras, he was still raised in the projects. His dad being of German descent doesn't make him less latino, since latinos are white, black, etc. I don't think he's ever tried to hide that fact. I've seen bios before where his birth name and his father's being German is mentioned. He uses his mother's last name, which is fine and many latinos do this. I don't know---I suppose Joe's point was that all this goes along with him being a fake, but it can easily be misunderstood as "you're not as latino as you say you are". I assume Carlos took it that way too, since he pulled his green card out. I don't know where the use of Carlos comes from, but I thought I read somewhere that that's what the aunt and uncle who raised him called him after Carlos' parents gave him to them. I could be totally imagining that though. I don't have a problem with him using that as his stage name though---perhaps he used it as an easier way to work the latin comic circuit. Using the name Ned Holness was sure to cause confusion; I don't think he was ashamed of it though.

That's all beside the point anyway---I was interested in the stealing from people's acts confrontation. I think it's still up on youtube somewhere; MrD showed me the video there not too long ago. I wanted to hear more about George Lopez trying to strangle him. Now that's some interesting shit!

The comedy world is an interesting one indeed. I went to a Latin Kings of Comedy show last year thanks to being on friendly terms with one of the comedians, and got to hang out at the aftershow and later have some drinks with the comedian I was there to see and some local comics. I could not get enough of all the talk about how other comedians in the industry are behind the scenes. I also got to see Paul Rodriguez drunk and enjoying the attention of some ugly, old, frumpy groupie type chick. Good times.

[realitybug]

Indeed, Jdub. I was thinking the same thing. He may have German heritage, but so do I. But I consider myself American Indian. You ID with what you ID with.

Don't get me wrong, I think Carlos is a hack. lol. I thought he was pretty funny on his first Comedy Central special. however, Mind of Mencia is just.........stupid. Pointing out the obvious on racism.