Ned “The Honduran Hack” Holness

Today’s Hater Hall of Shame inductee hosts the worst show on Comedy Central (to be fair, I haven’t watched Krod Mandoon yet), and is a well-known joke thief in the comedic community:

Ned Holness aka “Carlos Mencía”,  Born October 22, 1967

Ned was born in San Pedro Sula, Honduras – which is part of Central America, not Mexico – and was the seventeenth of eighteen children.  His Wikipedia page says his mom was Mexican and his father was Honduran; but his mom was actually Honduran, while his father’s heritage was a mixture of Honduran and German.  He was raised in a predominantly Hispanic city, East Los Angeles, and it’s likely that he crafted his persona through interactions with people who had real ties to Mexico.

Ned stayed away from gangs and excelled in school growing up, probably because he stole his smarter classmates’ answers during the tests.  After high school, he enrolled at California State University and majored in electrical engineering.  He would eventually drop out before earning his degree and focus on a career in stand-up comedy.  After a memorable performance – in the sense that the audience had no doubt heard the same material from other comedians - at The Laugh Factory’s open mic night, Ned quickly got a taste of success.  It is also rumored that the Laugh Factory’s owner came up with his current stage name, Carlos, because it sounded ”more ethnic”.  In 1994 he was asked to host HBO’s Loco Slam, which was basically a Hispanic version of Def Comedy Jam.  Ten years later, he was chosen to host another cheap knockoff, but this time it was in the form of “his own” series.

Mind of Mencía was a result of Viacom (who owns Comedy Central) panicking when Chappelle’s Show ended prematurely, and Ned’s uncanny knack for copying other comedians’ ideas.  The first episode debuted on July 6, 2005, and it was clear from the start that the show should have been called something like Mencía’s Show, Mind of Chappelle, or Please Come Back Dave, Look How Low We Have Sunk…PLEASE?!?  If you need proof, here are a couple of Mencía’s skits that were a lot funnier when Dave Chappelle did them.  Although there’s a little twist in each skit, it’s not hard to spot the similarities. The big difference is that Mencía’s skits are longer, but in this case, it doesn’t make them any better: 

(Comedy Central apparently has something against letting me center-align their videos too)

Somehow, Mind of Menstealia is still on the air, and Ned now makes tons of money off of other comedian’s hard work.  As blogger D.H. Miller once said ,  ”It is one thing to be offensive, I have no problem with people being offensive…Ned “Carlos Mencía” Holness is offensive for the sake of being offensive and never seems to back it up with any decent jokes or observations.”  This is is just one of the many reasons why you suck, welcome to the Hater Hall of Shame Ned.

This is an example of how original Ned’s jokes are; not sure where I have heard this anecdote before, but I know he ripped it from someone else:

He was also accused of stealing the funniest joke ever, which involves fishsticks:

Mencía goes toe-to-toe with fellow comedian Joe Rogan, and fails miserably:

Thanks to fellow hater Timmy B. for bringing this ass clown to my attention…