TVSquad

This story hits a little too close to home for me since I'm a native New Orleanian and have spent more time at Mardi Gras parades than most of the floats in the parade. So forgive my impertinence if things get a little too personal in this post.

The Krewe of Orpheus should be given the Nobel Peace Prize for pulling their invitation to Carlos Mencia to ride in this year's parade. Then it should be immediately stripped for not having the decency to not invite him in the first place.

Here's how it works. Three of the biggest Mardi Gras parades called "Super Krewes" invite big name celebrities to ride in their parades the weekend before Fat Tuesday. No, Fat Tuesday is not the nickname people have for your mother's birthday. It's the actual Mardi Gras day.

Super Krewes like Endymion have offered invitations to celebrities like Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Fred Savage, Chuck Norris and David Schwimmer as Grand Marshals, an honor that loses all distinction when you realize they've also invited former beer spokesdog Spuds MacKenzie. I was there, and the sheer insanity of his presence made it the greatest moment of my life, greater even than the birth of my unborn child.

So Orpheus announced their list of celebrity trinket chuckers, and they actually had some pretty interesting and tasteful names like Mad Men's Bryan Batt and the entire cast of Reno 911!, ensuring a glimmer of hope that we might finally get to see Clementine's, er, floats. But far at the other end of that spectrum, farther even than an appearance by According to Jim's Jim Belushi, sat Mencia, which measured in feet would be somewhere at the bottom of Lake Pontchartrain.

Some in the blogosphere thought Mencia's presence at a Mardi Gras parade was a little tasteless, given the fact that he's joked about Hurricane Katrina and the effects it had on New Orleans WHERE MARDI GRAS IS HELD. It's like letting Michael Richards anywhere near the NAACP Image awards.

The jokes in question, according to a recent Times Picayune report, were made on his Comedy Central show, Mind of Mencia. The news was quite shocking because we didn't know anybody still watched Mind of Mencia.



Now whether or not you were offended by the jokes or whether or not you are from New Orleans really doesn't matter much to me. Offensiveness is a matter of taste, and it's impossible to please everyone's perspective. If he had to tailor his show to prevent anyone from being offended, it would make it and him even more unfunny than they already are.

The issue to me is the simple fact the Krewe even considered him. He's like an unfunny Don Rickles but without the jokes, charm or looks. If I were lucky enough to go back to my hometown and attend a parade and he was riding a float, I would immediately demand my money back, which is even more meaningful when you realize that Mardi Gras parades don't charge for admission.