NEW YORK — Comic George Lopez says he plans to use the recent flap over his remark about San Antonio as fodder for his new comedy on TV Land, which is loosely based on his life.
Lopez has apologized for slurring the Texas city onstage during a March 19 performance of the Comedy Get Down tour in a Seattle arena. The remark was recorded and posted online without context, angering many Texans.
“There’s a lot of hate lying underneath,” Lopez said in an interview. “If this one thing that I apologized for can create that much negativity for me in San Antonio, maybe I don’t have the fans that I thought I did in San Antonio.”
Lopez said he was trying to deflect ridicule for a fellow comic, who had just mistakenly referred to being in San Antonio when he was onstage in Seattle. The comedy tour’s previous stop was in San Antonio.
Lopez tried to heap praise on Seattle by saying, “You guys have outdone San Antonio. F—- San Antonio.”
Once that clip was distributed, Lopez became the target of online critics. “George, you should have known better than to mess with Texas,” was one of the clean comments.
“It wasn’t even long,” Lopez said. “It wasn’t like I did a dissertation on what I don’t like about San Antonio. But what I’ve seen and read is vile. To create things that are so insensitive and personal. I’m hurt.”
There’s a larger issue about comedy, he said. “Everybody is so sensitive right now,” he said. “The political correctness is destroying comedy. We used to be the reporters of the absurd.”
Still, he recognizes the experience as prime material for a future episode of his show, to examine the idea of viral clips of a performance taking on a life of their own. He’ll disguise it by using a city other than San Antonio, he said. His show, “Lopez,” which debuted last week on TV Land, is reminiscent of HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” in that he plays himself and responds to odd things that happen in his life.
The show’s Lopez is a successful Mexican-American caught between old compadres who see him as moving beyond them and wealthy new associates not quite comfortable with a minority. He subverts stereotypes: In the first episode, Lopez absentmindedly hands a ticket to someone he thinks is a valet only to learn that it’s former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who flames him online for the mistake.
In the show, rapper Snoop Dogg tries to get Lopez to perform a comedy routine for his Latina maid.
That’s taken from real life — the number of people who ask him to be funny in social situations who wouldn’t necessarily think of asking a doctor they met at a cocktail party to take a look at a mysterious rash.
“It’s ridiculous,” he said. “You wouldn’t think that anyone would have the nerve to do that, but it happens more often than not.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
