“D.L. Hughley Breaks The News”

A decade ago, America was exposed to a talk show hosted by a comedian named Howie Mandel. And although the show was called “The Howie Mandel Show,” the show was far from his. The show had an excellent writing stuff, but the show was far from good. It lasted about a season, then was unceremoniously given the axe. America loves Howie Mandel, as evidenced by his enormously popular job hosting “Deal Or No Deal,” but his talk show was a failure from top to bottom. Why?

Paramount did not hire Howie Mandel to host “The Howie Mandel Show.” Instead, they hired Howie Mandel to host “The Rosie O’Donnell Show.” Rosie had a successful talk show at the time, and Paramount hoped that by mimicking the format and “vibe,” if you will, they might achieve some success with Howie. There were many problems with that idea, chief among them was that Howie was not Rosie. That is not to say that Howie was worse than Rosie, merely that Howie’s style of comedy was different from Rosie’s. Instead of allowing Howie to do what he’s best at, Paramount had him attempt to do what Rosie was best at.

Watching D.L. Hughley’s painful monologue on the premiere episode of “D.L. Hughley Breaks The News,” I was reminded of Howie’s talk show failure. Other people on CNN wear suits and ties. Other talk show hosts wear suits and ties. So, it follows that D.L. Hughley must wear a suit and tie, right? Wrong. From the first joke of the monologue, Hughley seemed uncomfortable. Elements of the show were borrowed from Leno, Stewart, and Letterman, but I didn’t sense any of Hughley’s personality in what was on the screen.

For the record, the show improved after the monologue, and portions of it were actually quite good. Hughley’s interview with the woman who beat out Sarah Palin for the coveted title of Miss Alaska was a unique “get” for a talk show. His interview with an astronomy expert regarding whether the election of a black president would lead to the world disaster similar to what happened to Morgan Freeman’s character in “Deep Impact” was smart and funny. Even the “Freddie Mack” comedy bit was good.

Missing from the show was Hughley being Hughley. Late night television has been missing a black voice for years. A few tried and failed (anyone remember “The Magic Hour”), but since Arsenio Hall called it a day, there has been a void. To be clear, I don’t feel Hughley, or any individual black man (or woman), represents the views of the entire black population, nor do I feel Jay Leno represents the views of the entire white population. But we are past due to have someone who is black telling jokes and satirizing politics on his own late night talk show.

To explain my views, I need to talk openly about what the pundits call race relations. I believe America is as close as we’ve ever been, but we’ve still hardly scratched the surface. Having had a black presidential candidate for the last two years, the nation has suffered by only having white talk show hosts. My reasoning: there are jokes white talk show hosts will not make about Barack Obama because they don’t want to be perceived as racist. We are still at the point in race relations where a white man cannot poke fun at a black man. I am not talking about jokes aimed at a black man’s race. I am taking about jokes aimed at a black man that have nothing to do with race. A black host would not feel that same reluctance.

If the current electoral math holds true, in ten days America will have its first black president. Not only would journalists have an obligation to report on that president the same as they would if he were a white man, but comedians have an obligation, too. D.L. Hughley is a good start, but he needs to break the chains (forgive the obvious ethnic implications of that phrase) of a mainstream talk show (and of CNN itself) and present a humorous black viewpoint (hopefully one of many to come). If he likes the suit and tie, let him wear it, but find a way for Hughley to appear more comfortable on his own show. He needs to be himself and tell the jokes he wants to tell, because if he tries to be somebody else, in ten years he’ll be hosting a mind numbing game show, and nobody wants to see that for the guy.