Today's column is a two-fer, with reviews of Fox's
"Unhitched" and season two of FX's
"Dirt." Of the former, I start off with:
In the opening moments of the new Fox sitcom "Unhitched," a man gets raped by an orangutan.
I bring this up not to get up on some "Won't someone pleeease think of the children?" moral high horse about declining standards of decency on broadcast television. After all, "Unhitched" is airing after "Family Guy," a show which has historically shattered barriers of what's acceptable to say and show on a network.
No, I have no problem with offensive humor. I've always believed that any subject can be made funny given the right approach. (See Jon Stewart's "Gaydolf Titler" joke on Sunday's Oscars, in which he successfully turned a genocidal madman into the center of a very sophomoric, very effective punchline.)
The issue I have with the rape-by-orangutan scene in "Unhitched" is that it's not funny, nor does it even seem to be trying to be funny. It's lazy comedy, substituting shock value for wit and invention, and it typifies everything that follows on this lame excuse for a sitcom.
To read the full thing (including my continued unhappiness with "Dirt"),
click here.
Today's column is a two-fer, with reviews of Fox's "Unhitched" and season two of FX's "Dirt." Of the former, I start off with:
5 comments:
My only hope is that "Unhitched" will end mercifully fast, so the sexy & hilarious Rashida Jones can get back to "The Office".
The writers need to watch "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" if they want to learn how to make offensive humour work.
I have seen all 6 episodes and I really think they are hilarious.
The pilot is definitely not the best of the bunch. How good were the pilots for a lot of great comedies?
This one is better than most, by a long shot.
I'm probably the only one who remembers this, but the Gaydolph Titler joke was actually recycled from the Daily Show. It was essentially the same joke, but the Daily Show version was one notch funnier: Gaydolph Shitler.
I watched about ten minutes of tonight's episode, and it's just plain dumb. Basically just a single-camera version of Seinfeld, except far less funny.
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