TV Funhouse

I was skeptical at first--the weekly intro with the host in various positions while people walk around him isn't great--but this show is hilarious and gets better each week. Lots of shows try to be sick, but very few are sick AND funny in a new enough way to make them watchable each week (South Park being the obvious king of the genre). The show consists of both live action, with the kiddie-style host "Doug" and his puppets, and short clip segments (many of which are cartoons). Happily, Smigel doesn't just fall back on the Ambiguously Gay Duo or Triumph; his new creations, like the Joe Camel Pokemon take-off, are very funny if a little over the top. I do wish he wouldn't use real kids in his skits, as most of them are clearly adult-oriented. Comedy Central has had more than enough bombs lately, but "TV Funhouse" is definitely worth watching.

No doubt canceled because of what must have been an avalanche of lawsuits, this show strove to offend everyone. The most shocking thing about this show really was that Comedy Central let it be killed. It was truly awesome. Robert Smigel is a vicious satirist in the tradition of Monty Python. Like Monty Python, much of his satire goes unnoticed, or people just don't see the irony in it. What few episodes were made are funny enough to make you wet your pants.

There is no doubt that comedy central has gone down hill... but this show is awesome. I don't think there's been a time I haven't laughing during this show. It has great writing and I think corrupting children is the funniest. "Places to find Christmas presents", "Jokamel", "Stedman"... this show is genius.

Not since "Meet the Feebles" have puppets been used for such evil purposes. "TV Funhouse" is pure gold: a demented kiddie variety show with some reality skits thrown in (a method taken, I'm guessing, from the hidden-camera end credit shots from "The Upright Citizens Brigade") and a few animated shorts to fill out the rest of the half hour, all three shockingly, hilariously obscene.

The twisted scenes involving the drug-using, cannibalistic, necrophiliac Anipals are jaw-dropping, to say the least; the Christmas special involved them injecting a hypodermic needle into the spine of their good-natured host in order to extract some "Christmas spirit," then cutting the pinkish substance and selling it on the street (not to mention using it heavily themselves). If that's where the episodes starts, imagine the ending.

Robert Smigel's animated sequences are, it seems, what he would have done earlier had "Saturday Night Live" not been on a broadcast channel: the usual use of impersonated celebrities and wacky situations is raised to grotesque new levels, making it much, much funnier.

A show that is nearly impossible to describe, the kind of thing which becomes mind-numbing when described by a breathless, giggling friend, "TV Funhouse" in its undiluted first-hand form is one of the funniest shows Comedy Central has produced in a while, rivaling "Strangers with Candy" and "The Upright Citizens Brigade" in crudeness, giddy hilarity, and sheer ballsiness. Highly recommended for those with strong stomachs and a low tolerance for political correctness.

Network: Comedy Central; Genre: Sketch Comedy; Content Rating: TV-14; Classification: Contemporary (Star range: 1 - 4);

Season Reviewed: Complete Series (1 season)

Robert Smigel, the voice of Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog, spins off his shining diamond in the rough 'TV Funhouse' animated shorts from Saturday Night Live into his own sketch comedy show for Comedy Central. The title couldn't be more appropriate, as the show is a brightly colored carnival ride through the absurd, the sick and the twisted in Smigel's mind now given free reign for a full 22 minutes. It is delivered to us like a full-length children's television show. Doug (Doug Dale) is our gosh darn, sweet as sugar host, always coming to us in ridiculous get-up of whatever theme day today's show is about - Astronaut Day, Hawaiian Day, Western Day, etc. His puppet pals are the AniPals and include a turtle, a chicken and his chicks, a dog who does nothing but chase his tail with malicious intent and Triumph himself. We follow the AniPals into their world and out of the studio as they discuss all manner of foul things and get into all kinds of wacky situations.

It's pretty well known at this point that what Comedy Central finds funnier than anything in the world is not a well timed comedy of errors or witty naturalistic dialogue, but nothing more than scatological vulgarity - especially when it is juxtaposed against a backdrop as wholesome as a kid's show. Swearing puppets? Comedy gold to them. Despite this autopilot programming, they actually stumbled onto something with this show. 'TV Funhouse' is actually funny. It works because the show doesn't tip it's hand and ironically snicker at itself, but plays it's cornball set-up with a poker face. Smigel doesn't spare us from anything crude here, making ample use of projective vomit, novelty poop, hair balls and - in a particularly disgusting segment - Terrance the snake hacking up a mystery item that he ate that day. But Smigel does it all with a giddy smile. He splatters the walls with that wit, edge and feverish enthusiasm that make his 'Ambiguously Gay Duo' or 'Fun with Real Audio' segments on 'SNL' such a hoot. His dead-pan animated segments were the best, featuring such things as 'Wonderman' whose soul goal was to save only beautiful women and get his alias some action and 'Sted-Man' in which Oprah's live-in boyfriend Stedman haplessly pretends to be a CIA agent to avoid commitment.

Most amazingly, 'Funhouse' is able to keep it's pace up at a funny pitch almost the entire 22 minutes. There are dud skits here and there, but any attempt at sketch comedy series in primetime is wrought with dead spots and minefields. The disaster that was 'The Dana Carvey Show' proved that even the most talented comic can't keep every sketch in each episode hysterical. So Smigel hits more than he misses, particularly compared to most shows. That is quite an achievement in this genre. Disgusting, fitfully funny and lined with pointed commentary. I can imagine that if this type of offbeat crude comedy is ever going to get appreciated as a kind of post-modern art it would have to be from Robert Smigel leading the charge. I'd follow him.

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