Funny or Die Presents (S01E01)

0 comments

Funny or Die Presents (S01E01)

Monday, February 22, 2010

Some people can just make yelling hilarious naturally, no matter what they're saying, such as Chris Farley and Bob Odenkirk. Rob Riggle is the newest candidate for that list, and he proved himself pretty well in the "Designated Driver" skitch in this premiere.

Reviewer
Kaitis
Categories
TV Shows

Reviewed by Michael Kaitis

Funny or Die Presents (S01E01)

I sure do love when things live up to my expectations. I mean I knew Funny or Die Presents would make me laugh; it seemed impossible that it wouldn't. It was just really nice that it made me laugh as often as I hoped it would. The format is akin to most sketch comedy programs with multiple, unrelated segments within the program. After the amazing retro-styled titles and credits we're brought to a funny old man host accompanied by a secretary and some weird machines that give it a rather quirky but charming feel. The host is there primarily to break segments up, but often I feel like we see him for pointless reasons that just make it feel like you're on the FoD site waiting for your next video to load. Except I can't create a new tab and go back to Reddit while I'm waiting.

The first episode is broken down into four segments, starting with Derek Waters: LOL, which is basically like three short skits within itself. This block starts off with the hilarious sight of Steve Little aka Stevie Janowski from Eastbound and Down in a fat suit, used with subtlety so it's actually funny, refraining from that stupid over the top Martin Lawerence/Mike Myers/Eddie Murphy style that makes me want to throw myself in front of a McDonald's truck. I thought most of these segments fell kinda flat, and didn't make me laugh a whole bunch. I guess his style of so-stupid-it's-funny wasn't for me, which is disappointing because that's not always the case.

They do, however, pull off stupid-funny quite well with the ending skit, Space Baby. The beginning where you learn about the history and everything is not that entertaining, but once the mission starts, the sketch is pure gold, especially once Fred Willard gets to improv a few lines. Another smart move was bringing over the famous Drunk History from the website. This one brilliantly cast Will Ferrell as Abraham Lincoln and also Don Cheadle and Zooey Deschanel taking a break from doing mostly serious roles, and having some fun in this bit. Now we can only hope they'll do the smart thing and give us a full length Between Two Ferns.

Also, I don't want to get political with this or anything but the sketch "Playground Politics" sort of requires me to have to. They have children re-enact global problems, with one kid representing each country. Hilariously enough they chose a fat kid for America and even though it's an old joke at this point, the kid they chose to portray America is just the perfect type of portly. The sketch slightly criticizes some policies too, but lays them out in a hilarious way while still bringing light to it. Oh, and I'll repeat what Brad said: the kid who plays Africa couldn't be more perfect.

That brings us to the sketch I enjoyed most, "Designated Driver." Now it may be because I'm a huge Human Giant fan, but the team of Scheer/Riggle with Woliner directing not only make this something I was constantly laughing at, but one that looks really good too. Riggle plays his typical annoying guy character, which is actually worse because his character is wasted. Maybe it's his facial expressions, vocal tone or both but when he's yelling (which he constantly is) I'm laughing. After a cheesy and hilariously out of place feel-good montage, Scheer picks up Riggle and after a stop at a donut shop, all hell breaks loose. And I officially can't wait for the next part.

TL;DR - After a slow start, it picks up, then your cheek muscles start hurting from laughing so much. They need to get rid of the unnecessary parts in between the sketches.

Read more TV Shows