America's Funniest People

I remember at one time when I was young, I thought this show was actually funny. Thanks to late night TBS, I can now watch all the reruns I want. However, after viewing one episode, I was shocked to see how horrible this show really is. Unless you are interested in bad childish comedy, stupid videos and an insane audience I recommend never ever viewing this show.

In 1990, ABC had developed this spin-off series alongside the very successful America's Funniest Home Videos, but has not aged too well, partly because of the corny joke videos submitted by home viewers. This show actually had good recurring sketches like the Jackalope and This Old Shack, featuring two idiot handymen who try to renovate houses with chaotic results. The always-reliable Dave Coulier was able to carry the show with co-host Arleen Sorkin, then, in later seasons, by Tawny Kitaen. By fall 1993, the show's ratings were tanking and the producers had re-tooled its format and renamed it The New America's Funniest People, even having a third co-host from a specific ABC show to join Dave and Tawny each week. Unfortunately, the changes weren't enough to save it and, the following year, the network replaced it with the short-lived sitcom On Our Own.

I remember that show. I still remember that kick ass fun song "America's Funniest People." Frankly it should've been titled American's lame or unfunny or downright disgusting People. Dave couldn't save this show and neither could Bob Saget or the replacement hosts for AFV that came later. The Jackalope segments were hilarious and yes Dave could make some good voice overs that were better than Bob's. But this show went to hell because of the lame crappy videos people submitted. Also it developed as somewhat of a variety show with lame guest stars including the Olson Twins. Plus AFV was in it's prime before they started picking the drooling ugly as sin babies as the winner. Did I mentioned the videos were disgusting and lame? But still the theme song rocks!

Now that I can watch this show from an adult's point of view, I realize how dumb most of it was. The videos sent in from viewers were what made it really stupid. Some were funny, but most were people doing really kiddish and/or disgusting things. I am a fan of Dave Coulier and he is funny. He was usually funny on the show, but it was the clips sent in by viewers that made it so dull. The only funny parts were the the videos from the show like "This old shack," "Dunk your parents" or "Jack Ching Bottabing." Why can't they show funny things from American viewers? I guess too many people here have quite a dry sense of humor! Most of the clips were better than America's Funniest Home videos and Coulier was MUCH better than Bob Saget! At least he didn't narrate each scene in his falsetto voice. Dave's lines in between clips were funny, while Bob was so dry on his show that REAL people didn't even crack a smile to his jokes! I grew up watching both Saget and Coulier on Full House and still like that, but cannot stand either AFHV or AFP! Both are funny to kids, but adults know what real humor is!

If you wanna see some REAL humor, go watch Three's Company, Mad TV or Saturday Night Live. If your kids wanna see humor, don't expose them to this, unless you want them performing those dumb stunts! Have your kids watch "All That" to find humor!

Thanks to TBS, I can re-watch all these stupid episodes I admitted were guilty pleasures even when I was nine-years-old. The now dead and forgotten Dave Coulier, jealous that his `Full House' co-star Bob Saget was actually getting work outside of said nauseating sitcom, thought it a good idea to give America 10,000 more reasons to act incredibly stupid (like they need any more incentive). Shamefully copying `America's Funniest Videos' right down to the bland cartoon voices and banal format, the sole difference was a bubbly ditz as co-host, alternating between Tawney Kitaen and Arleen Sorkin, both equally boring and stupid. Had Kitaen reprised her hooker role from Bachelor Party and starting kicking the audience like she did her real life husband, the show would have generated at a least a few chuckles.

Jack Ching Bada Bing (I probably spelled that wrong, but I don't care) as the mischievous and revengeful antelope was remotely humorous as was the `This Old Shack' segments, but that curly-haired man child that kept scaring his transvestite mom was more disturbing than fun-loving. People would send in videos of themselves doing ordinary acts such as blowing into a sheet of glass or making a monkey face - stuff so unfunny, you long for the scenes of a stupid dog chasing its tail. One woman won the grand prize for doing nothing more than jiggling the rolls of fat on her extended waistline. A low point in American pop culture, but I why do I keep coming back?