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The Best Two Hours of Television...

You are all going to make fun of me. And frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn. I just finished watching the American Idol season finale...the two hour live episode with 80 baziollion performances of past contestants, winners and current performers promoting their new albums, and, oh yeah, they announced the winner (it was Taylor, by the way...and his single still sucks). And it was the best two hours of television, possibly, that I have ever seen...highlighted by 2 minutes of the funniest thing I have ever seen - live, taped, on TV, in person...any or all of the above - and there's no possibly about that.



If you have not seen the American Idol finale because you have it taped...then feel free to stop reading, go watch it, and come back and join me in my viewing afterglow. If you have not seen it, don't have it on tape, and are crying because you believe that you missed out on two of the greatest hours in American television entertainment, call me. I have it on tape and I will travel to show it to you. It was THAT good.

First, there were some amazing performers on this show tonight. From Dionne Warwick (who looks amazing and sounds absolutely fabulous, still) to Carrie Underwood (suck it up if you don't like country - her voice is unreal) to Live (with whom Chris Daughtry fit in with PERFECTLY) to MEATLOAF!! ("Paradise by the Dashboard Lights" may be one of the best songs EVER) to the final surprise guest coming out with 10 minutes left in the show...the granddaddy of all of them...the artist now known once again as Prince! And yes, he was wearing purple. In all of the mystery and amazingness that you would expect - he shows up out of nowhere, sings two incredible songs, and disappears, without speaking a word.

The Season Five finalists all sounded amazing (most of the time), the guest performers were incredible, and with the exception of subjecting us to yet another Bert Backarack montage (does that guy own part of the show?!?!), the entire show was absolutely incredible.

But here is where the funniest thing I have ever witnessed in my life came in...some crazy guy who tried out...you know the type - tried to imitate someone in their audition (in this case a former Idol runner-up), couldn't sing to save his life and looked like an idiot...was brought up on stage to win one of the fake Emmy-type awards they were giving out during the show that basically made fun of the people during auditions and the show.

So this guy is up there, having just won an award for best impersonation for his absolutely HORRID attempt to be the next Clay Aiken during the auditions...and Ryan Seacrest asks him if he wants to sing a song. Of course he said yes...and he goes into Elton John's "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me" - which Clay Aiken just absolutely crushed (in a good way) during his time on Idol. So Wacko Kid is getting into it, starting the song, and the screen behind him opens up - and out comes Clay Aiken (complete with a haircut from "The Shaggy DA"). But W.K. has NO CLUE. And Clay starts singing...and W.K. has no clue that he is not alone. Then all of a sudden he turns, and sees Clay, and almost dies right there on stage. I swear to everyone on this planet...the 2 minutes that followed were the absolute most hilarious 2 minutes of my life. I have NEVER laughed that hard, cried that hard, or choked on my laughter the way I did while those two were singing. It was absolutely amazing. And for the rest of the show, whenever I thought of it...I started crying - laughing.

I will forever stand by my assertion that these 120 minutes of television belong in the Hall of Fame. I just can't wait for my stupid VCR to stop taping (I didn't know what time Idol was on, and I wasn't sure I would be home in time so I just set it up to tape forever I think...and my damn VCR won't stop taping until the timer says "Time's Up!" Last time, I unplugged it.) so that I can rewind it and watch the Clay Aiken sequence 47 more times before I go to sleep.

posted by Steph @ 7:08 PM