as in moronic tv.
well, not completely moronic. but pretty much. a lot of what is on tv in the summer isn’t very watch-worthy. a lot of baseball games. that’s good. but i have a new favorite show, which will come as no shock to anyone who has read a few of my blogs, as i have new favorite shows quite frequently. but wonder showzen is special.
it’s vile, offensive, sacrilegious, perverted, sick, twisted, demented, offensive, demonic, abmormal, and offensive.
which of course means i love it.
it’s a takeoff on a muppet-style show for kids, but clearly for adults. it’s rated tv-ma, but a lot of the content i can’t believe they get away with. they may not going forward, because if this show ever gets any real publicity or traction, the oh-my-god-there’s-janet-jackson’s-nipple crowd is going to come down on this show like a ton of bricks.
i read about it in entertainment weekly, and it sounded cool so i gave it a try. remember when you watched the first south park (you did, didn’t you?) and all these badly animated cartoon characters were talking about the aliens coming down with the anal probes, and you couldn’t believe your good fortune at finding this show? well, wonder showzen is like that. i laugh my ass off every time i watch.
i love clarence, this muppet-y thing that does man-on-the-street interviews that are pure genius, and make the triumph the insult comic dog puppet seem trivial and worthless by comparison. and i also love the kids that they send out to do the same thing in a fake news show way. i won’t describe the kids’ theme song, because it’s one of the funniest things on the show. but listen for it. it’s a real earworm, as is the theme song for the show itself.
they also do brilliant things with stock footage, which makes sense since i think their budget must be $4.95 per show. but it’s all well spent.
so watch it while you can, because it might just disappear or get thrown off the air in a fit of corporate responsibility. it’s on mtv2. it time-shifts a bit, so if you tivo it, make sure you add five minutes before and five minutes after. i don’t think the mtv2 people give much of a crap exactly what time it is, which i like, actually.
and, in a highbrow sidenote, the final episode of six feet under was one of the best final episodes i’ve seen. the show ends exactly as it should end, and the very end is everything the show was–black humor, heartbreak, and elegance all at once and wrapped in an unforgettable package.
