spoof

If you missed the Dog the Bounty Hunter special, Year of the Dog on A&E last night, don't worry, because you didn't miss much, especially if you had been watching the last season and keeping up with the news on Duane "Dog" Chapman's recent arrest stemming from his capture of Andrew Luster. The special was pretty much a recap of the last year in the life of the Chapmans: a roller coaster that included deaths, births, Dog's marriage to Beth, and the aforementioned arrest.

If you've been sitting around all day waiting to see footage of someone from an unfunny sketch show make fun of an unfunny comedian, your wait is over. In the clip after the jump you can watch Ike Berenholtz of Mad TV throw down on the comedy stage as he does his impression of comedian Dane Cook.

I've never been a fan of Dane Cook, and I think the best description I've ever heard of him came from comedian Michael Schmidt on Jimmy Pardo's "Never Not Funny" podcast: "Dane Cook is KISS. He's the KISS of comedy. Just like, crazy, wild, bombastic phenomenon with the most pedantic, pedestrian content ever."

Berenholtz's Cook impression isn't too bad, and heck, I give him credit for trying to make people laugh by being unfunny on purpose, but I only laughed maybe once during the whole thing, which is still more than I've ever laughed at Dane Cook.

VH1 has created its own syndicated video player, which it will use to distribute a new, original comedy series on its broadband channel, VSPOT. The new series is called Home Purchasing Club-- a spoof on the Home Shopping Network and similar cable channels. VSPOT will release eight episodes of HPC. The series was created by Sean Masterson, a former improv-er with Second City, and is being co-written by Jonathan Mangum, a writer for Reno 911! The program is going to be presented in sketch comedy style, and includes SNL actor Kristen Wiig and Diedrich Bader, who played Oswald on The Drew Carey Show. The series launches on VSPOT in two weeks on Monday, November 27th.

On a side note, VH1's new player doesn't work on Macs.

Comedy Central is building up a cast of relatively unknown actors to star in a new series making fun of teen soap operas, also known as "guilty pleasures". The series is called Not Another High School Show and it will spoof popular teen soaps such as Dawson's Creek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The O.C.

Six newcomers have nabbed lead roles in the series, which begins filming this Saturday in Los Angeles. The actors are Rachel Specter, Brendan Miller, Anna Osceola, John Keefe, Jeffrey Christopher Todd and Jocelin Donahue. All of the actors are credited with small parts in movies or guest starring roles in television series such as Entourage and CSI: Miami.

On the surface, That's My Bush!, the short-lived series from South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, seemed trite and silly, a collection of tired sitcom and cliches and lame one-liners. Really, though, it was a show that was too damn smart and funny for its own good. The series ran for eight episodes in 2001, and ended four months before the 9/11 attacks. It's interesting to think how or if the show would have continued in the wake of the attacks, but while it was set in the Bush White House, its main target was not the president, but sitcoms in general. Every episode played with the sitcom convention in some way, and if that made you roll your eyes at the inane plots and over-the-top acting, well, that was exactly the point. The complete series will be released on DVD on October 24. The disc will include extra footage, bloopers and commentaries.

If you've never seen the SciFi series Eureka, you're missing one of the best new shows of the season. Actually, I've never seen a single episode, I just thought for a change of pace I would lionize things I've never actually seen or experienced. Have you ever put ranch dressing on a jelly donut? It's absolutely delicious, I'm telling you. Sorry, I'll get to the point: as a way to promote the series a faux shopping channel has been set up where people can "purchase" some of the cool and weird inventions that appear on the show. I'm thinking of getting myself a TemporalVision Monitor so I can get a jump on the next book Oprah wants everyone to read. When you try to buy the non-existent products, you're actually entered into a sweepstakes to win a Sony HDTV and Blu-ray player. All in all, a clever bit of marketing for the show. The site is MadeInEureka.com.

When I first heard that a film spoof based on March of the Penguins was being made, I thought the idea sounded kind of lame. However, the more I hear about it, and some of the great TV personalities involved such as Lewis Black, Dane Cook, Tracy Morgan, Jamie Kennedy, and Bob Saget (who wrote and directed the film, and provides the voice of the lead penguin), I think the mockumentary might actually be decent. Ok, actually I'm not a huge Dane Cook fan, but whatever, Farce of the Penguins sounds like it's going to be pretty funny. Apparently the first draft of the film had to be toned down quite a bit for theatrical release, so I'm looking forward to some of that quality Saget blue humor. Look for it to come out sometime later this year.

Comedy Central's partially-improvised spoof of local news, Dog Bites Man, debuts on June 7 at 10:30 p.m. Right now you can click over to Comedy Central's Web site for the show and watch a preview clip, plus "interviews" with different members of the tenacious but somewhat inept KHBX newsteam. It's hard to gauge by the brief clip alone, but the show looks pretty funny, and I love the talent they've assembled for it. It definitely has a Reno 911 vibe to it, so I'm sure I'll be checking out at least the first episode, which will see the newsteam cover a bodybuilding competition and take part in sexual harassment training.

Comedy Central has ordered a pilot episode of a new improvisational comedy which will spoof shows such as American Chopper and Monster Garage. The new series, which is being compared stylistically to Reno 911, will take place in an automotive garage in suburban Phoenix. Assuming the pilot gets picked up, it will air this fall. The series is called American Body Shop. It is actually one of three new pilots the network is looking at, including a series called Mark and Mike, which will focus on Mark Borchardt and Mike Schank, the two "stars" of American Movie who will try to secure distribution for his new horror film. The series begins where American Movie left off. The third pilot is an untitled comedy and variety show featuring stand-up comic DeRay Davis.

(S17E18) It wasn't that great, and it wasn't that bad. I'm deeming last night's episode "just okay." Using the same template as the "Simpsons Tall Tales" episode, this one found the family waiting indefinitely for their meal at the Frying Dutchman and swapping stories about life at sea. While these episodes as a whole usually turn out to be sub par, the vignettes which make up the episode usually have some great gags in them. Besides, I loved the self-referential remark from Marge when she asks Bart to tell his story before Homer because Bart's story always tends to be the weakest.

The first tale was about the Mayflower, or as Homer refers to the boat of boring Puritans, the "Gayflower." Making fun of the most fundamental of fundamentalist Christians is like shooting fish in a barrel for the Simpsons writing staff, so this was probably the weakest story by familiarity alone.

(S02E03) Yeah, I know, this review is a couple days late, but that's okay. It means we've all learned an important lesson. You've learned patience, and I've learned not to trust Tivo so much. Luckily, the episode repeated last night so I was able to catch it without having a gap in my reviews staring at me like some kind of malevolent eye swirling inside a black hole. Or maybe that's being melodramatic. Anyway, my review:

In this episode, Chauncey and the gang are visited by Middle America (the puppet version), a yammering chunk of the United States who speaks only in gibberish and says "Texas" every other word. This eventually leads to a spoof of Hee Haw called Horse Apples which features a group of trailer park dwellers cracking jokes about incest and lynching. You know, typical family fare. The whole "Middle America" gag is funny for awhile, but eventually it wore thin. The other segments, such as Clarence's obligatory annoying of people on the street and a "Beat Kids" segment where we learn about pet castration seemed to lack their usual energy.

Product Invasion, the Web site created by members of the Writers Guild of America (West) that pokes fun at the surfeit of product placement in reality programming has yet another video up on their site, this time taking more than a few potshots at America's Next Top Model and its use of product placement. But then, these are "models" aren't they? Isn't their job to serve as spokespeople for corporate products? I'm just saying. Anyway, check out the video here. I know the phrase "I can poop it out, Tyra" is going to be in my head the rest of the day.

They've been saying since last year that Wonder Showzen, a subversive Sesame Street spoof from Canada that aired on MTV2, would be back for a second season. Well, now we actually have an airdate. The second season of what could quite possibly be my new favorite show kicks off on March 31. Here's hoping my cable provider doesn't take MTV2 away again. They have a nasty habit of moving that channel around, so much so that my Tivo has no idea what channel MTV2 is anymore. "It's channel 98, not 75!" I keep screaming, but it never listens.