Episode 'Celebrity Apprentice' Season 11, Episode 9 - 'Laugh On' Recap

Who's excited to hear NeNe Leakes yell at everyone some more? Yeah, me neither. But let's do this thing anyway.

The result of last week was the firing of Hope and the re-hiring of LaToya, officially leaving no one on the show who's nice to look at while adding one more who's annoying.

NeNe thinks that Star is scared of her. I'd be willing she's tired of listening to your nails-on-a-chalkboard voice, NeNe. Then again, you are some kind of giant, so I guess it's possible she's scared of you.

Lil' John delivers his check to the United Methodists Children's Home, which has a rather lavish lobby for a charity organization.

Orangeface has the great idea to switch NeNe with Meat Loaf for the teams. So now all of a sudden we can just switch people's teams? How does that make sense? Whatever. Jim Cramer is here. I hope he hits something with a bat and then cues a crazy sound effect.

The task for the contestants is to create and promote a comedy show, with the goal of raising the most money with a set number of tickets. When the meeting disperse, NeNe leaves her team and disappears.

Uh, Rich is friends with Jimmy Fallon? How'd that happen? Well, looks like Backbone just got itself a comedian. ASAP has Marlee. Uh oh. Sometimes people think stand-up is easy until they try it. Star also convinces Tracy Morgan to do a video, but apparently he won't show up for the actual show.

LaToya says she's crushed about her donors, but she seems just like normal. I guess that's what happens when you always sound like you're going to cry. NeNe, meanwhile, is still AWOL. I was hoping she got kidnapped or something, but it turns out she's just quitting. That might be the first intelligent thing she's done on this show. Let's hope it sticks, we won't have to listen to her anymore!

The teams audition comics, who seem all right. Dunno what's going on with that one girl who's just making loud noises though. Seems odd...they're in the heart of NYC and they can't get some big comedians?

Meat Loaf is in tears because he doesn't want to risk his donor money in case they lose, so Star calls up Trump and asks if they can keep their money if they lose. Orangeface refuses, so Meat Loaf keeps crying. Really, he must have been in tears for the last hour at least.

Things are going much better in the Backbone trailer, as Jimmy Fallon shows up with $10,000 and a song that's kinda not very funny. Oh well. It's all about the money, it doesn't really matter if the show is good.

Time for the show, and Kevin Kline is there. Meat Loaf introduces the comedians and commits a cardinal sin: he calls them "the greatest comedians on the face of the f*****g planet." That sets the bar a little high for the poor comedians, doesn't it? The show seemed to go well for ASAP, although it looked a little awkward to me.

LaToya is up to host for Backbone, which seems like a bad idea, I guess the didn't spend much time up there though. That's good. The comics seem to do well, and Fallon's song goes over well for some reason. It's anybody's game.

First visit to the board room, and Meat Loaf starts crying again. Trump re-iterates that it's more about winning than charity, which seems a little backward. But then again, this is Trump we're talking about. Jim Cramer looks like a confused chicken.

Trump claims that everyone who has ever quit "The Apprentice" has called him up and said that it was the worst decision they ever made because everyone called them a loser and a quitter. In other news, Donald Trump is a total liar. He then fires NeNe, who already quit.

The discussion of Backbone is basically just a LaToya love fest. Nobody mentions that she seemed to not be able to raise any money. Rich finally turns to Meat Loaf and tells him that if Backbone wins, he'll match what Meat Loaf raised. Then Meat Loaf kisses Trump's ass for some reason. Oh, and he cries more.

But it turns out that ASAP won anyway, so that won't be necessary. Meat Loaf cries.

Meat Loaf calls his wife and cries.

Star struggles with the TV as though it actually shows them footage of the board room. That's a load of crap, by the way.

Jim Cramer's reaction shots are AMAZING.

LaToya refuses to point a finger. An honorable move, especially considering it's her fault that they lost. Orangeface, who is clearly way too close to the Jackson family, gives LaToya the nicest firing ever. "You're fired, but we love you." Man, this episode is so emotional.

Oh. My. God. They give LaToya a "Billie Jean" exit as if she had anything to do with that song. Disgusting. You just lost me, editors.

The next assignment is to produce a promotional video for OnStar, which will be judged on creativity, originality, brand managing, and product integration. The project managers this time are Rich and Marlee.

After the executive meetings, the teams get to work. The Jons get to writing a script but Rich is suffering from a serious headache.

Meanwhile, at ASAP, Meat Loaf starts taking control of the script and the setup, and has a very ambitious idea for the shoot. When the DP tells him that it's a little unrealistic, Meat Loaf gets all uppity. He doesn't cry, though.

Marlee calls Meat Loaf "a tornado on crack." Turns out that the ASL sign for "crack" is lighting a crack pipe. Hilarious. He plans on winging it and improvising the whole thing. That's when the Star Jones paranoia sets in. "Is she doing this to me on purpose?" asks Meat Loaf.

Star, meanwhile, can't get through her lines. Really? This woman talks incessantly. Then we get on to the rest of Meat's flight of fancy, which seems like a complete mess. Then the team gets stuck in traffic on the way back, and they're left with only a couple of hours to edit.

Backbone thinks they have it in the bag, but it turns out that Lil' Jon's special effects ideas don't turn out they way he hoped. Will they get the video done in time?

At the screening, the execs seem less than impressed with ASAP's video...it seems that the storyline aspect loses them a bit. That's fair, considering it's kind of ridiculous. Backbone's video, meanwhile, is so enthusiastic you would expect an explosion or two in there. At least the special effects worked.

Back to the boardroom for the second time, and both teams seem to be feeling pretty confident. The execs like both videos, but found brand message problems with both: ASAP's comical policeman didn't match the OnStar brand, while Backbone had a woman driving in their commercial without a seatbelt.

Jon & John win, so Rich will be able to bring another $40,000 to St. Jude's Children's Hospital.

ASAP, meanwhile, begins the board room fight to see who stays and who goes. Meat Loaf blames it on Star, who was in charge of branding, that they were missing the shot of the product at the end. Star tries to blame it on Meat, of course. Rather than argue with him about it, she just becomes condescending and dismissive. It's kind of amazing that Meat Loaf hasn't crushed her yet.

Star tries to deflect the argument by getting on Meat's case for calling her "sweetie." Trump calls her on her BS and asks why she can't get along with anyone. "What's wrong with you?"

I have to say, the board room is usually boring as hell, but watching Star "I'm a lawyer" Jones crash and burn is a beautiful thing. The final result is that Star is abruptly fired.

Whew! NeNe, LaToya, and Star all gone in the same episode? This show just got about a million times easier to watch. And it only took three hours.