wonder showzen

(S02E04) Last night's episode mostly took place in the 18th century, with Chauncey taking on the role of the master of a plantation and his fellow puppets all serving as his slaves. Things start to get out of hand, however, when Him becomes a cyborg slave, able to bale hay, whitewash a barn, and whip other slaves with greater efficiency. Chauncey loves his new robotic slave, but when his young Southern bride puts the moves on Him, the new robo-slave is charged with rape. In a hilarious court room sequence, Sthugar, the young bride, blatantly admits she was lying about the rape, but they continue with the trial anyway. This became the main part of the episode, and one of the funniest, most absurd takes on race relations in the United States I've ever seen. A monkey who evolves into itself with a hat made of licorice, Chauncey having sex with the Bible, and a visit from God in the form of a banana were just a few of the things that popped up during the hearing.

(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.

(S02E02) This episode of Wonder Showzen began with Chauncey visited by himself from two minutes in the future. It turns out Chauncey's future self is a hundred times cooler than Chauncey, so Chauncey sets out to build a time machine and travel even further back in the future (four minutes) so he can be even hipper. But we'll get to all that in a moment.

I said in my last review that the "Beat Kids" segment wasn't my favorite, only because I don't think it always works in the execution. Of course, that was before last night when they had a kid put on zombie make-up, dress as the Pope, and interview people in front of a Catholic Church under the pseudonym "Little Dead Pope." Trey Parker has been quoted time and again saying Cartman was his way of creating a character who could say things that would get most real people burned at the stake. Wonder Showzen takes that concept one step further and actually uses real children, which adds a whole layer of apprehension when you hear them say things to unsuspecting adults like, "The Pope should go to Hell for promoting a corrupt system. High five!" Not many shows can make you almost fall of the couch laughing while at the same time fearing for a child's life. They should have some kind of award for that.

• On the cover: Howard Stern. He's the happiest he's ever been on the radio, but he finds it insulting that all of his fans haven't followed him to satellite radio.
• Why Mitch Hurwitz left Arrested Development and let the show die.
• Idol's Lisa Tucker explains why she sang Kelly Clarkson's "Because Of You."
• The twisted ABC's of Wonder Showzen.
• Speaking of, the critics give the first season DVD set of Wonder Showzen a B, while Justice League: Season One gets an A-.
• A close-up of the Lost map. But we've already told you about that.

Last night marked the start of the second season of Wonder Showzen, and I almost missed it. Thankfully they repeated the episode later in the evening so I was able to crank up the ol' Tivo and capture it. After watching the same Season One episodes about twenty times each, it was nice to finally see something new.

Last night's episode was about heroes and victims, with the main focus being put on the letter P, who was once very pretty but gained a lot of excess weight. Chauncy, the puppet's ringleader, decides P just needs a healthy dose of tough love, so he and the rest of the gang scream things at her like "stupid bitch" and "dumb slut" because "she needed to hear that."

Perfect Hair Forever: Okay, Stroker and Hoop has grown on me, I don't think Squidbillies is all that bad, and I still haven't quite made up my mind about 12 Oz. Mouse, but damn, Perfect Hair Forever, the Williams Street artisans ribald and aloof take on the anime genre was by far the best new offering on Adult Swim this year. In typical anime fashion, only six episodes were created. I hope for a DVD release.

Wonder Showzen: Despite my local cable provider moving MTV2 around so much that it makes my Tivo cry, I have hunted down every airing of this subversive "kids show" like a madman. There is nothing else like this on TV right now, and it rivals South Park in just how far it's willing to go to make its audience uncomfortable. A second season kicks off this year.

Everybody Hates Chris: It's a good show, plain and simple. It's not the Holy Grail, as a lot of pre-show hype made it out to be, but it is an unpretentious, hilarious look at what it's like to grow up with limited means in an environment that isn't always fair.

Either I've been spending too much time alone in my room, or I'm dead, but somehow I've completely missed Wonder Showzen, a show which borrows aesthetically from Sesame Street, but with a lot more heroin use and puppet sex. While its satire can sometimes seem a bit tired, it's done in a unique and manic way. Children are often utilized as on-the-street interviewers of unsuspecting adults in a segment simply called "Beat Kids." It's not a show you want to examine too closely, but when it works, you'll need a team of janitors to clean up your splattered brains after your head explodes from laughing so hard. And besides, it does the TV Funhouse thing better than TV Funhouse ever did. The show airs on MTV2.