Lacey Kanipe// Contributing writer
Emmy Award-winning TV personality, comedian and former Cash Cab host Ben Bailey performed at MTSU on Friday night and raised laughs as well as many other random noises throughout the show.
His routine was satirical and downright hilarious.
Bailey began by picking at Southern culture and how different it is from his daily northern life. He talked about how the south has some very strange phrases such as “all y’all,” and “do what now?” which he found to be confusing.
Bailey relayed a conversation he had earlier that day with a southern man.
“Why do you keep specifying that it’s now? It’s always now. It’s now again right now, now. Stop saying that it’s now … One more time and I’m gonna kill you!” he joked, which caused everyone in the room to laugh, along with a girl whom Bailey picked on until the end of his routine. All in good sport, of course.
After his “now” joke, the girl burst out laughing and made such an odd noise that it caught Bailey’s attention.
“What did that look like in your head before it shot out of your face?” Bailey asked the girl. “That’s pretty good man, that’s a real laugh noise right out of the gate.”
Bailey then went on to talk about “real laugh noises” and how we should all embrace our weird laughs. Everyone has a weird laugh sound we don’t choose to make, it just comes out. Some are snorters, others are goat gigglers — some are even shout laughers. Then there are those who make no noise at all. They just shake and convulse; they just smile and vibrate.
“That’s the whole point of a comedy show,” Bailey said. “To get to that ‘I just came a little’ laugh.”
This joke raised laughter from the entire audience. Apparently, college students love a good sexual joke.
During the latter part of the show, Bailey began to incorporate the audience into his routine. He caught one girl using her iPad during his show and singled her out.
“Just a word to the wise, if you’re looking at your phone or iPad it lights up your face,” Bailey said. “It does that Halloween scary face thing. There’s no hiding that.”
When Bailey asked the girl what she was reading, she said that she was talking to her College Republican Party friends.
“Why are you doing that right now?” Bailey asked in response. “You’re like, ‘Wow he’s so funny, I think I’ll write to my College Republican friends.'”
Cue giggles from the audience and a launch into a political tangent, in which Kanye West’s announcement for presidency was mentioned. This caught Bailey off guard. He didn’t know about West’s announcement to run in 2020.
“He really announced that?” Bailey asked the audience. “Well, then so am I. It’s Cash Cab versus Kanye West.”
For the 2020 presidential elections America will have Ben Bailey and Kanye West competing. Ben Bailey’s slogan: “I’m slightly more qualified than the other guy.”
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To contact Lifestyles editor Rhiannon Gilbert email [email protected]
