Million Dollar Extreme Presents: World Peace

When the first episode of this show aired I was offended beyond belief. I started multiple change.org petitions so that perhaps Obama would send some death squads to quell this hate speech. At the time my view was that me must not tolerate intolerance, and more so, combat it with the utmost prejudice. The first problem I saw was that the cast did not represent the true diversity of the united states. It was not 50% white, 50% black, 60% Jewish, 50% Hispanic, 50% Asian, 50% gay, 50% lesbian, 50% non-binary genders. So I planned to watch the second episode and live-tweet all the racism, sexism, homophobia, trans-phobia, afrophobia, and Islamophobia. However something happened, I was somehow drawn in and at one point I didn't even feel offended, and then I felt dirty because I actually cracked a smile. I didn't like the feeling and shut of the TV. The next week I lied to my multiple sexual partners / band-mates / communal livers / revolutionaries that I was going to bed, but I was actually going to watch the next episode. This became a guilty pleasure, the show drew me in, awakened something inside me. When I began watching this show, I was a test-tube-gub-gub-snail-man. But now I am knee deep in gash, all thanks to Sam Hyde.

In the year of our Lord 2021, stuff and people and things get banned, delisted, shadowbanned, cancelled left and right (mostly right). This will in no way come to bite the banners, delisters etc in the behind anytime soon.

Oh yeah, the show. When somebody wants you to not see or be able to access something, that means you need to go ahead and check it out. ASAP.

A show too good for this world. Episode is a surreal masterpiece. Every time I go back and try to watch just one episode, I involuntarily end up watching the whole show.

If anything this show can be seen as being unique and unfiltered. There is no denying that. I would say however from my own point of view it comes off complex and perhaps at least a little smart if not at least sharing insight into how certain men, misogynistic or not, think. I think it might also be considered thought provoking ---though for women I could see how it could be infuriating as well as demoralizing for ethnic minorities. I feel that uncomfortable feelings one could feel exists even if you are a heterosexual white male because of how mysterious and indirect the messages are in the show. In an interview with Sam Hyde (the leader of the comedy troupe which is responsible for World Peace), Sam says he doesn't want to come off as someone who has some sort of message to get across despite the fact that you can never tell when any member of the comedy troupe of Million Dollar extreme are constantly lying to get reactions out of people whether it's Charls, Nick, or Sam himself.

That is kind of the fun of it though. Part of the "joke" is to never really understand if they are serious or not. I usually lean toward the latter due to how over the top and ---extreme--- Million Dollar extreme always is. They at least think they're joking, but from personal experience with questioning the deeper meaning of my own sense of humor I have found myself to be completely harmless, whether or not I am a lazy entitled human being.

The show is art regardless of whatever if may seem like. I could see how you could argue that Sam Hyde's low budget trolling on the MillionDollarExtreme Youtube channel which allowed him to experiment with making other people feel uncomfortable and angry without getting beaten or incarcerated may have not exactly been art but simply the style of all the weird animation in the opening theme and intermissions sets the odd tone and makes the racism, sexism and general intolerance become quirky whether or not they are just trying to offend as many people on television that they can.

But that's the whole point, the show is an experiment like the Youtube videos but it achieves artistic standards whether or not the comedy troupe had anything to do with the subtleties that allowed it to be green-lit in the first place. There's plenty to be appreciated stylistically other than the weird art style seem randomly almost like tongue in cheek patterns pretending to be propaganda with a eerie hypnotic effect. For instance, the way the camera is positioned in scenes as if a camera operator was sitting on a ladder aiming downward and diagonally from a character in a tiny office for no apparent reason whatsoever other than to poke your brain even though the sets have enough effort put into them without feasibly being done without professionals on a budget ---while obviously looking disproportionately terrible at the same time. The music is tasteful and unique and has no real purpose other than to purposefully make the characters in the skits seem as stupid as possible. Like the troupe's Youtube antics often what they say makes no sense but they talk with such confidence that often it doesn't matter how blatantly insane due to their peculiar delivery along with the rest of their non verbal communication that makes them seem unsettling at times, but never dangerous, malicious, or serious about anything.

Check it out on Cartoon Network's late night "Adult Swim" programming or whatever.

FRIDAYS AT 12:15 EASTERN TIME

The show will most likely not make another season so if you're at least mildly intrigued, check it out before it's too late.

Adult Swim as a network always puts out "different" content. The Eric Andre Show and Tim and Eric (both excellent) are great examples of this. However I believe MDE World Peace is different enough from those other 2, it's not just being weird for the sake of being weird.

Every episode is filled with skits that really make you think about what message its trying to send. At face value, most of the skits are uninteresting, maybe even unfunny. There are a few genuinely funny scenes in every episode yes, but the most interesting thing about the show is actually finding out what the message of the skit is. It sounds silly but this show is more nuanced than it appears.

Not for everybody though. People who enjoy surreal stuff, or those who use certain mind altering substances will definitely appreciate this show. I don't use those myself, but I do enjoy surreal stuff like this.

Overall, I'd say it's different enough from everything on TV and Adult Swim, and I think it's worth at least seeing a few of the episodes. Of the 6, I'd say the last 2 episodes are the best.