'RHOA' Claudia Jordan Has Tried Standup Before

She's been one of the comedic standouts on this season of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, but is Claudia Jordan a standup comedian? We heard her talking with her cohost on The Rickey Smiley Show , Gary with the Tea about how that's always been one of her dreams. She expressed frustration at the idea that she always has to play the straight man when she'd rather be the shocking one. I have to say, Gary had a mix of good work advice and retrograde ideas about comedy. He's 100 percent right that you can't just change the role you were hired to do. If Claudia started busting out the jokes in the middle of a show, Rickey would be furious, because you can't redefine the comedic sensibilities of a previously established show. That is absolutely true.

But I did think for a friend, he could have been a little more supportive in her comedy dreams, and didn't acknowledge that women can be super successful comedians. Maybe he's been subjected to Claudia's terrible sense of humor every day at work or something, and dreads having to sit through an excruciating open mic. Or, maybe there aren't any comedy clubs near his apartment. Perhaps he's just dreading staying out late to watch her perform and then having to get up for work at 5AM.

Later on, Claudia sought advice from a professional, who similarly didn't sugar coat a things. Standup veteran Luenell didn't make any two ways about it: standup is hard, and Claudia shouldn't expect to become amazing at this just from a list of bullet points. And when she attempted to try out her jokes on an audience of just Demetria, every single one fell flat and she described it as "humiliating." Well, you might have picked someone with a more effusive personality, Claudia. Demetria may be black, bust she sure sounds more like she's be at home in Luenell's white audience — she's a polite chuckler, not a loud laugher.

Okay, beyond the episode, though: has Claudia performed live since? Actually, she has a somewhat infamous comedy video from 2013 where she once again makes borderline offensive jokes about black people. What the hay, girl? This, after another video from a few years ago where she was caught joking about dark skinned black people while hosting a video? Now she's making more jokes about how black people make really great monkeys and orangutans?

Wow, Claudia is an incredible disappointment. She sure talks a great game on the show, playing along with the idea that she's just a fun girl who loves a good dirty joke, but in practice, every time she tries to make a joke, she ends up going in a terrible direction. Stereotypes can be dismantled by joking, but they can also be reinforced when the jokes are bad.

So far, Claudia has not responded to the controversy with an apology. And while comedians do have a right to try potentially controversial material, they also have a responsibility to improve... and it sure seems like Claudia's jokes haven't gotten much funnier. Maybe it's time for her to either spend way more time joke writing, or hang up that standup comedy dream.

Image: Alex Martinez/Bravo