'America's Got Talent' Season 15: Ex-military man Ty Barnett tickles with his hilariously relatable humor
'America's Got Talent' kicked off with another episode on Tuesday night on NBC. This time around, we were treated to yet another showcase of superlative talent from singers, dancers, comedians, magicians and more. Unfortunately, AGT judge Heidi Klum was feeling under the weather, so the show started with just the three judges — Simon Cowell, Sofia Vergara and Howie Mandel. Thankfully, one of Sofia's good friends and co-stars from TVs 'Modern Family', Eric Stonestreet, stepped in to take Heidi's place on a temporary basis and was sent to the hot seat straight away as soon as he joined.
One of the standout comedians from this episode was Ty Barnett, a 45-year-old dad of three who had quit his job at the pharmacy, determined to prove that he had the comedic chops to make anyone in the audience laugh. The former military man revealed that his inspiration came from the late great Richard Pryor, and his ability to make people from every walk of life and country laugh.
Barnett was amicable and effortlessly relatable, regaling us with tales of how he was growing older and wiser and wryly coming to terms with it. Sample jokes that made us chuckle included how he would defend his date's honor if anyone messed with her, but that was inversely proportional to the size of the offender. He also mentioned how he was slowly losing his sight and had to make the hard decision to give up reading books altogether. Another hilarious bit included how when he was younger, he used to root for the children in scary movies. But now that he was a parent, he realized he was getting old when he wanted the kids in these slasher flicks to get their just desserts. He pointed out that they should have listened to their parents and not left the house in the first place. He also mentioned that they probably deserved whatever was coming, especially since they had been drinking and should have been spanked first by the movie's villain.
Simon loved his bit and found him incredibly relatable, especially the bit about the slasher films. Sofia also mentioned that Simon rarely laughed at standup comedians, so this was a refreshing change and said she really liked Barnett's brand of humor. Howie, who also counted Pryor as one of his heroes, said that Barnett had made a man from London (Simon), a woman from Colombia (Sofia) and a grandpa from Canada (Howie) laugh their hearts out. Naturally, Barnett got three yeses and we look forward to seeing him in the next round.
Fans on social media were also declaring their love for his standup comedy. One viewer said, "Hysterical never saw Simon laugh out loud! You're a great human!!" Another admirer said, "Thanks for giving me a new comedian to follow!!" Another new fan exclaimed, "Comedian was great. Loved the kids in horror movies jokes. Totally relatable." We certainly agree with these tickled fans.
You can catch up with more 'America's Got Talent' every Tuesday night on NBC at 8 pm ET.