The Show
As anyone who's read my review of Mo'nique's Platinum Comedy Series DVD can tell you, I don't particularly enjoy her brand of comedy. So it was with some hesitation that I popped this disc into my player. My hesitation was not without justification.

Mo'nique throws around profanities and the "N word" with the same ease as breathing. It's probably not just an act, as she does it right in front of her parents, who are sitting in the front row. After an opening set, she returns for more between the comics' performances, with the same filthy jokes she has become known for. Interestingly, she has no interaction with the comedians, a fact that seems to annoy at least one of the joke slingers. Before they hit the stage, actor Rodney Perry interviews the comedians on tape.

First up of the four comics is Sexy Marlo, whose fur-lined outfit helps her live up to her name. Like a Mo'Nique Jr., she falls back on the old stand-bys of profanity, sex and drugs, punctuating her jokes with "This is some bulls#!t!", again and again. She's not bad, but the jokes are hardly fresh. She saves some face with a silly physical joke that earns her her biggest laughs.

Rodman follows with a rather silly act that features him saying "Yeah" as if it was the period at the end of his sentences. Combining old-school standards like airplane jokes with race-centered jokes. His odd repetitive style gives him the kind of leeway audiences give to challenged characters like Ralph Wiggum. As a result, jokes that might not have worked end up drawing some laughs. Towards the end of his time, he garners some real laughs.

Vince Morris stands out as a sore thumb among the other comedians. Looking like Jamie Foxx's younger brother, he riffs on the ignorance he sees as prevalent in the black community, without the "urban" way of speaking heard from the comics leading up to his act. As a result, he gets the worst audience reaction of the night. With a very deliberate style that's full of dead-quiet pauses, Morris delivers more of a spoken-word performance than a comedy act, sharing some very thoughtful ideas on the subject of race.

Rounding out the show is Ralphie May, from "Last Comic Standing" and "Celebrity Fit Club." As he says, he's the big part, not the black side. Morris gets more vindication, as May goes into what's essentially a parody of black comics, and gets more laughs with one joke than Morris received in his entire act. Far from politically correct, he rips on the epidemic of hyphenated Americans, and fearless performs the same type of race-based jokes Mo'nique says only black people can get away with. His willingness to say just about anything, which is no shock considering his Southern heritage, leads to some very funny jokes that other comics might shy away from, including the best visual gag about Kobe Bryant I've ever seen.

The DVD
Packaged in a standard keepcase, "The Big Black Comedy Show 2" arrives on one DVD, with a static main menu. The menu has options to play the show, select segments, and adjust the audio options, which include an English 2.0 track and English and Spanish subtitles. The scene-selection menu allows you to select each of the comedians, and each of Mo'nique's interim introductions.

The Quality
The anamorphic widescreen video on this DVD is excellent, with bright vivid color and a sharp image. Shots from the main camera are about perfect, while the other angles, with the exception of the crane shots, can be a bit shaky, to the point of seasickness. While the video looks nice, without any dirt or grain, the black levels are a bit weak, making them look more like dark gray.

The audio is pretty simple 2.0, and is just about entirely center-focused. There's nothing to really say about the track, except that the comics' voices come across crystal clear, as the audience sound is toned down.

The Extras
Not a one.

The Bottom Line
Mo'nique sets a tone of filth and profanity that for the most part is carried through by the comedians she introduces. As a result, the disc can get very tiresome; a minstrel show dependent on the worst stereotypes of "urban" comedy. The reaction to Morris' diatribe on how negative black culture is, is just about the perfect proof of this. When he tears into the very essence of his fellow comedians' acts, the crowd sits on its hands and essentially shows him to be 100-percent correct. That makes this a somewhat depressing DVD, with a massive roadblock of truth smack in the middle and a funny burst at the end.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.