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?

I've long had a love/hate relationship with Last Comic Standing, a show I like in theory but usually quit watching before the finals begin. This season managed to grab me, however, by featuring some really compelling comics in the auditions, including out comedian Sabrina Matthews (a longtime favorite who was, sadly, eliminated in the semi-finals) and some new discoveries like Gina Yashere and gay comic Richard Rider (who frustratingly didn't make it past the auditions).

Last night's episode featured a challenge titled "Speed Laughter" where each comic had to sit in a booth with a person and get them to laugh within a minute before moving to the next booth. While the comics were told to expect a Deal or No Deal model in each of the six booths, four of them were replaced with a drag queen (namely Jackie Beat), a nun, a children's party clown and... well, for some reason they didn't have time to show who the last surprise was.

Impressively, the show avoided portraying its drag queen twist as a freak to laugh at but as an unexpected point of view. In the last challenge, the comics were made to quickly come up with material for a Medieval Times audience and the three surprise guests turned out to be another challenge about adapting their humor for an audience they weren't expecting.

The first comic to go up, Ralph Harris bombed with the two models and burst into laughter at the sight of Beat. With Harris unable to stop laughing, Beat finally deadpanned "I'm glad you're laughing. I'm not." Harris, a comic who's material has struck me as pretty run-of-the-mill, is the only one who to be disrespectful to the surprise guests, later telling another comic that they're "the kind of people I normally make fun of."

Best Week Ever regular Doug Benson also seemed to flounder through the challenge, even though he manages to make me laugh from my couch. When Beat took out a banana to snack on, Benson started flirting with her -- only to get a rather funny cold stare in return. Heh, Benson and Beat weren't laughing but the uncomfortable glances worked on me. Benson got a similar reaction in the next room where he told the nun a sex joke. Again, funny if you're not in the room. Lavell Crawford turns out to be the only comic we see making Beat laugh -- as soon as he enters the room he reacts "I've got all your albums, Kiss."

The most amusing failure came from Gerry Dee who expected to repeat a routine about a girls' night out in each booth. Dee, apparently hoping that a drag queen would empathize with the experiences of straight women, bombed when he tried to repeat the routine with Beat. Dee's joke ends with a comment about how such events usually end up with one girl crying, with Dee yelling "Jennifer's down!" in a high pitched voice. While that got the Deal or No Deal models laughing, Beat reacted by asking, "Who's Jennifer?"

Unfortunately, by the episode's end I was back to feeling frustrated with the show. When Last Comic Standing got to its final ten, there were five comics I really enjoyed watching. Now, I've only got Amy Schumer to cheer for.

I thought Thursday was supposed to be the day when the networks put the DVR into overdrive, not Wednesday? I think I'll still be watching shows I record today when the weekend comes around.

As the World Turns (CBS) 1:00 PM EDT
According to today's show description, "Luke can't suppress his feelings for Noah" and yesterday's preview promised the scene where their hands accidentally touch (like I said, adorably retro.) And it only took them two and a half weeks to get to this point. And remember to vote for the storyline, if you haven't already! Or even if you have.

Screened Out: Gay Images in Film (Turner Classic Movies) starting at 5:00 PM EDT
Comedies are featured tonight, including Doris Roberts in 1931's Manhattan Parade, Katherine Hepburn in 1935's Sylvia Scarlett, Cary Grant and Doris Day in 1962's Touch of Mink, Mel Brooks' 1963 classic The Producers as well as Lauren Bacall's 1957 film, Designing Women.