TBS' "Lopez Tonight": Not very funny

After my foray through the new late night shows, one thing is pretty clear: it's not as easy as it looks.

I don't mean watching them (although that would apply), I mean hosting them. I should have appreciated Johnny Carson more. Letterman, and yes, even Leno -- you guys rock. Arsenio, kudos.

After having Mo'Nique yell at me for an hour (I've tuned in briefly again and either because of exhaustion or consult, she has gotten quieter) and seeing Wanda Sykes, start out pretty good and only to become an inconsistent muddle, I moved on, with high hopes, to "Lopez Tonight," with standup/actor George Lopez.

I think I laughed once.

Lopez, like Mo'Nique, seems to want to follow in the Arsenio mode: we're here to party. He's got the big modern studio setting and the crowd spent a lot of time on its feet. I'll give him this, he's got a great band.

But the thing is, if you have to keep telling us we're at a party, something ain't right. I mean, why the two go-go dancers? Do we need a prompt to feel like dancing?

Like Mo'Nique, George, though calmer, was awfully grateful to have his show. Yes, it's great that a Chicano has his own late night talk show. Still, it's like everyone wants to have an Obama moment. But you have to deal with the other side of that moment: if you don't accomplish something FAST, everybody starts attacking.

Instead of getting to work, Lopez brought out pal Eva Longoria Parker, in a blonde wig (?) to talk about her trip with husband Tony to the Maldives. That's fine, but she forget the part about bringing back funny anecdotes. Instead, we got pictures of them in their first-class cabin. So now we know what those look like. Thanks.

Kobe Bryant didn't yield much more yuks (my husband pointed out the LeBron is a lot more witty) although he did give Lopez a pair of his Nikes. (No grown man off the court should be in those clown-colored kicks.)

Musical guest Santana: fabulous.

If you didn't know, Lopez is Chicano, unlike other late night hosts. So that meant he had to tackle race. So, there was an audience participation skit, in the mode of Wanda Sykes' "Know Your Asians" piece. In Lopez's version, there were taped man-in-the-street interviews, where a person of color was asked a question that played off a stereotype. The young black guy, for instance, was asked if he had ever been in jail. Before he answered, the audience member had to guess the person's answer.

Both of these skits are an attempt, I presume, to be edgy, in your face, tackle the stuff the mainstream (read: white guys) could never do. I'm not sensitive about these things, but it's got to be funny. What's funny about the same old jokes about the same old stereotypes? The answer: not much. (The only laugh for me Lopez's remark about the toothless racist: 'he doesn't like black people, but he doesn't mind black teeth.')

My advice to Lopez: calm down. And stop being so self-consciously Latino. Just be focused on funny. Please.

From the promo, the show has booked some big names in future days; tonight there's Marc Anthony and Jaime Foxx, coming up is Justin Timberlake. (Saw Eva Mendes and Jessica Alba on the list too, slow your roll George, you'll run out of Latinos in the first two weeks!)

Folks are clearly pulling for him. Here's hoping he settles down and gets to the business of laughter.