Mr. Birchum

Nothing really that new.

Same old jokes, tired, overused, animation style.

I really wish these low-budget "idea without a concept" animated shows would find a NEW animation studio to use. They all look exactly the same.

There's no "style" here... no flair.. Flair examples since the studio CLEARLY has no idea.... Simpson's coloring and non-human shapes.. South Park's "cardboard" characters. Rick and Morty's non-realistic human figures. Solar Opposites off-kilter characters and settings, etc. You know CREATIVE animation. Not just standard human figures and oh, throw in a talking dog, or some other animal, too...

This is one of those shows where someone (Carolla and company) has some random idea for a sitcom, but doesn't have the money or can't raise the money for an actual live action sitcom..... so they take the cheap route.. animation. But there's no real point in it being animation, since it's just supposed to be "real life" situations. Animation mimicking live action because you can't afford live action is boring and pointless.

It's more of the same.. nothing inventive or original. Including the idea behind the show.

Just a low budget way for those behind the scenes to think they can make money with minimal effort and then rendered by an overused animation studio with next to zero artistic creativity.

No I'm not saying it's 2024 and there shouldn't be shows like this. Mr. Birchum has a solid foundation and a decent cast to entertain, but the jokes land as slow as the animation in episodes 1 & 2. There are parts that I recognize as funny, heck even solid jokes and wordplay, but the stilted delivery aborts the laugh growing inside of you. Animation & characters remind me of Brickleberry but that show knew when to rapid fire a joke at the audience for the quick laugh and move on. Birchum needs that tighter editing and comedic-delivery style to really have a stronger appeal in the animation world.

Plot

Mr. Birchum attempts to navigate a world he doesn't comprehend. He's confused by his gaming streamer son, Eddie, annoyed at his selfie-taking students, and is constantly at war with the school district's appointed "J. E. D. I." Mr. Karponzi.

Cast

Brett Cooper, Adam Carolla, Jay Mohr, Roseanne Barr and.....Megyn Kelly?! Yep, look up what these people have in common, go on.

Verdict

Ack! Where do you start here, I mean really?

First of all let me say that according to certain political "Commentators" (Man I hate that term so much) this is an anti-woke show that's intentionally not PC to strike back at the "Libs". Okay, you're aware of how many non PC shows are out there successfully right? Have you heard of South Park? Family Guy? Monkey Dust and more? This isn't something new, you haven't broken the mold, you've just replicated what already exists while denying its existence in an attempt to change the narrative and make out that censorship is rife and it's not possible to make such a show.

Now putting this foolishness aside what actually is Mr Birchum? Well it's not as mean spirited as I expected, it doesn't antagonize on the scale I thought it would. It tries to play it straight while occasionally throwing childish digs at certain demographics in the most juvenile way imaginable. The quality? Simply not funny, and I mean that unbiased it's just not funny but then look at who wrote it and put on your best surprised face. South Park is in bad taste often, but it's well written and funny this is the opposite end of the scale and is just head scratchingly stupid.

When I was a kid there was this crass childrens show called Round the Bend which was full of poop and fart jokes which naturally appeal to simple minds. Mr Birchum is an adult version of that, it's unfunny and quite frankly stupid but those of the less bright nature may get a kick out of it.

Rants

Resisting the urge to have a good rant here as I fear once I get started I'd melt the keyboard with frenzied fingers. What I will say is I despise the word "Woke", it's lost all meaning. The only people I hear using that word are simply using it totally out of context to describe anything they don't like. Woke is not new, we used to just call it being a respectful human being. Cancel culture is not new, we used to just call it consequences to your actions. Being a white knight is not a new thing, we used to just call it defending someone. How did these things become bad? We're in the age where meanness and cruelty are celebrated and decency is met with confusion and anger. Diversity is a good thing, if you disagree you might want to take a deep breath and engage with the reasons you feel that way.

The Good

Nothing springs to mind

The Bad

Some awful human beings involved in its creation Deeply unfunny Nasty snarky moments that come across very childish The very intentions of the shows existence are just foolish.

This is a TV/streaming show made by the Daily Wire, a conservative news outlet and streaming site. They specialize in anti-PC shows and movies, mostly comedies. That's fine. We need some anti-PC stuff and we do need comedy. However, just being anti-PC isn't enough to make your show good. It has to work on its own terms. This show does not. Many of the jokes fall flat and much of the dialogue isn't very good. It's almost as if the anti-PC crowd is being preachy and political with their entertainment, which is what they accuse the left of doing. You cannot expect audiences to like your stuff just because you have the "correct" political opinions, and honestly, that can go either way. Your show has to be GOOD, period. This isn't godawful, but it's not very interesting either. Conservatives can be funny (read the Babylon Bee, which is often hysterical), but this isn't one of those times.

Adam Corolla, the creator of this show, seems like a relatively decent guy, but his sense of humor has always been very low brow and dumb dating all the way back to his Man Show days. That hasn't really changed as he's gotten older, so this series comes across as tired and feels like an animated show from the early 00's. So, if you want mild amusement, it's OK for that. But there's nothing here that is gut busting hysterical.

I watched Ladyballers. I then visited my family and they all raved about it. I asked about specific scenes in the movie, they said "Oh I've only watched a clip or two, but the message of the movie is so true and on point! It's funny!" So I had them watch it. Afterwards, they were inches away from canceling their daily wire membership. They were appalled. Daily Wire rips into modern culture and foundry talks about Plato and the Great Gasby, ... fine. Show us what you think our culture needs more of. Show us the what a quality alternative looks like. This show has the same issue as Ladyballers, People seem to like the IDEA of the show more than the actual jokes, characters or story.

This will have its fans. And I'm happy for you. There are many shows and movies I love that I know are awful quality but it just scratches an itch I have. However this IS lacking in quality and holding DW accountable is important. They are young... but not THAT young anymore...and they seem to be investing a lot of energy and money into some rather poor quality products. And they'll keep doing it if they keep seeing people rave at the ideas alone. (I mean if you think about all the Disney defenders out there, they never defend the quality of these Marvel shows or Dr. Who Specials or Star Wars shows etc... they identify with the idea. Maybe let's hold "alternative" media to a higher standard than "this fits into my world view" and start looking for shows that actually deliver good stories, jokes, characters, music... anything really at this point.)

The animation in this is that really uninspired modern "adult cartoon" style that might as well be radio. There is no life breathed into them on a visual level. I remember internet cartoons in the early 2000's that had similar designs but way more inventive animation. The writing is... clunky to say the least. The plot is... there... but motives flip on a dime. I can't tell where people stand on any given plot point. The family dynamics aren't fun to watch. You can have families that don't get along, but you should still feel what drew these people together in the first place. These are joke avatars. The voice acting doesn't do any favors here either but I think it's more of a directing issue than the voice talent themselves. It's hard to be edgy when your character look, sound and feel stale. The whole show is lacking energy and as I mentioned before, it's lacking passion.

Eventually this road DW is heading down is going to burn out people who aren't hungry for ideas that were dated even back when they were relevant. This show has potential to be good, but that just means it hasn't done anything good yet. I really hope this finds it's stride but I won't be tuning in to find out.