Thursday's reality shows give new meaning to "Must see TV"

I had never seen So You Think You Can Dance until last night, and chances are, I won't be checking it out again. There was a nastiness in how the judges treated the contestants that negated any possible enjoyment for me.

Take, for instance, Jason Looney (or as he likes to be called, "Betty Wallace"). It's obvious that this guy's schtick is a put-on, and not even a good put-on. But the vitriol that comes out of the mouths of the judges is appalling, especially from the Simon Cowell of the group, Nigel Lythgoe, who calls the contestant "a disgrace to transvestites" and says "you are the reason why so many fathers don't want their sons dancing". It's a startling statement to make, and I can't figure out if Nigel realizes that this guy is just goofing around, or if he thinks it's serious (in which case, that comment is all the more disturbing).

You can see the clip after the break, and decide for yourself.

Meanwhile, over on NBC's Last Comic Standing, the Houston auditions brought a few gender-bending hopefuls (who knew Houston was a hotbed of bizarre queer-ish performance art?), including a competitor who calls himself "American Doll" and a bizarre full-body puppet woman creation. To the credit of the judges (Alfonso Ribeiro and the Janitor from Scrubs), they dismiss the acts relatively painlessly and with far more sensitivity than the SYTYCD judges, but they're clearly only being included as an object of ridicule, which is never nice.

Aside from these quickly-dismissed acts, there was an abundance of gay jokes (most of them inoffensive or actually funny) in the acts that made it to the audition rounds, though none of the contestants appeared to be gay themselves. Which makes perfect sense, right? We certainly don't know any funny gay people.

Meanwhile, out comic ANT provides video commentary on the show's website, which is nice to see ... although what's with the comment he makes in the first episode about being fired as a judge? Anyway, it'll be interesting to see what ANT has to say about last night's episode. Anyone catch it?