Sofia Vergara may have laughed until she cried during Cesar Dias' latest America's Got Talent performance, but one brutally honest remark quickly turned the studio audience against her.
The Portuguese comedy singer returned during Tuesday night's semifinals with a deliberately disastrous rendition of Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World." Dias attempted to maintain his serious singing voice while a succession of carefully staged mishaps transformed the performance into physical comedy.
Howie Mandel appeared almost as entertained by Vergara's reaction as he was by the act itself. He told Dias that watching Vergara laugh and cry throughout the routine was "worth more than a million dollars"-a playful reference to the show's grand prize.
Vergara admitted that Dias had completely won her over. However, her compliment came with a sharp sting.
"We just want to laugh at silly, simple things that shouldn't be on AGT, but we don't know how they have made it to the semifinals," the Modern Family star said.
That was all the studio audience needed to hear. Boos immediately erupted as viewers appeared to interpret Vergara's comment as a suggestion that Dias did not deserve his place in the competition. The awkward twist was that she had spent the entire performance laughing harder than anyone else on the judging panel.
Mel B then found herself facing more boos when she delivered an even tougher verdict. Although the former Spice Girl compared Dias to legendary comic actor Peter Sellers, she argued that his semifinal routine failed to improve upon what audiences had already seen.
Mel B told Dias that he should have selected a better song and added more comic disasters, claiming he had "stepped it down" when the semifinals demanded that he step things up.
Dias' act has divided viewers throughout the season. His routines depend upon the illusion that everything is going terribly wrong, combining genuine singing with awkward movements, visual accidents and old-fashioned clowning. Some viewers love the simplicity of the joke, while others question whether it belongs alongside the competition's singers, dancers, magicians and high-risk performers.
That debate is precisely what made Vergara's comment so explosive. She seemingly voiced the question some critics were already asking-but did it moments after displaying just how effective Dias' comedy can be.
Simon Cowell was once again absent from the judging panel, leaving Mandel, Vergara and Mel B to deliver the verdicts. Ultimately, however, the judges could not decide Dias' fate. Six of the 12 semifinalists were due to advance through the public vote and join four Golden Buzzer recipients in the finals.
Whether Dias' deliberately chaotic comedy was worthy of the $1 million prize remained open to debate. But after he made Vergara laugh uncontrollably and then caused the audience to boo her, nobody could accuse him of delivering a forgettable performance.
