Despite looks, JPL's no 'Idol'

Yes, the race to be the first "Idol" contestant to release a CD is already over. The 21-year-old Cal-Berkeley engineering student sings (and I use that term loosely) the song that made him famous (or is that infamous?) — "She Bangs" — as well as his own special stylings of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight," "Circle of Life," "Hotel California," "I Believe I Can Fly," "Rocket Man" and "YMCA" on the Koch International release titled "Inspiration."

The CD debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's independent album chart and No. 34 on the Top 200 chart as upward of 40,000 copies were sold.

This for a guy who got as far as he did only because the "American Idol" judges were being deliberately cruel to him. Before he even appeared on TV, Jackson started making fun of him — beginning with his name — judge Paula Abdul told TV critics.

"He said, 'I'll sing "God Bless America" ' and the second song was 'She Bangs,' " said Abdul, who wanted to hear him sing the former while Jackson "was elbowing me" and urging him to sing the latter.

"We amuse ourselves," Jackson said.

It's Hung who's laughing now, however. He has appeared on various TV shows, including "Tonight," "Good Morning America" and "Today," where he performed outside on Rockefeller Plaza and dragged that venerable NBC morning "news" show still further down into pop-culture oblivion.

Far be it from me to tell people how to spend their money, but — while I can understand the kitsch value in watching Hung massacre songs on TV — it's beyond me why anyone would spend money to hear the guy "sing."

Yes, folks, we've now reached the point where utter lack of ability is rewarded. Maybe JPL's problem is that he has some talent, just not enough to be great or little enough to be awful.

The big question is — does Hung know he's bad? And, from the interviews I've seen, it's hard to say. We can only hope he does.

The William Hung phenomenon hasn't gone unnoticed. As a matter of fact, the WB has already completed filming "Superstar USA," which is scheduled to premiere on Monday, May 17. The "unsuspecting participants," chosen for their Hung-like lack of talent, are encouraged to believe they're potential singing sensations — the judges lie to them. Contestants can win a "talent and recording deal worth $100,000" as they're held up to national ridicule on the faux talent show.

All you have to do is watch the "American Idol" audition shows to know there's no lack of people out there who think they're great singers when they're not. Jackson went so far as to call them "delusional."

"I just think it's all wrong," he said. "People just want to be famous."

Mission accomplished for Hung, quite obviously.

Fox itself has jumped on the bandwagon, basically building "special" editions of "American Idol" around Hung's awful audition. (One of which the network repeated Monday night.)

But Fox runs the risk of killing its ratings golden goose by removing any pretense that "Idol" is a talent competition and turning it into a joke.