1. Human Giant Season 2 Premiere

    giant1

    More cynical than SNL, more Adult Swim than MTV, and owing as much of its inspired absurdity to no-budget YouTubers as it does to Mr. Show, the debut of Human Giant last year was a major surprise - not because of how much of a contrast it was from the reality dregs of MTV, but for how the sketch comedy actually managed to live up to the pre-air blog hype and consistently deliver. Giants Paul Scheer, Rob Huebel, and Aziz Ansari - vets of cable and the comedy circuit - made the best of an opportunity given by a floundering network, and finally something on MTV was worth talking about again, without irony.

    It returns tonight, but instead of giving up too many of the surprises in the season 2 premiere - and there are scores of them - I’ll mention that one of the earlier sketches marks the return of the Shutterbugs child talent agency as they lament watching their old boss, Bobbe J, launch an ill-advised child-out-of-water primetime show entitled Kiditentiary (”They took our idea for Kidcentration Camp and watered it down!” they groan). Another returning element is the “Illusionators’ duo, who call on Michael K. Williams (Omar from The Wire) for a hand in damage-controlling a major public relations disaster. (Also look for guests like Andy Samberg, Will Arnett, Bill Heder, Jack McBrayer, Kristen Schall, and Rob Riggle in the new season.)

    Though hilarious as ever, the remainder of the episode also serves as an exercise in escalating censor-baiting - those already familiar with Human Giant know it to be anything but safe, but even the initiated sitting down for the premiere tonight might find themselves thinking, “Wow, they really took it there, didn’t they?” Whether it’s specific to the first episode or a continuing theme is unclear, but the material is blue in a way that only South Park has managed to pull off on basic cable up to now. As a guy that had memorized Eddie Murphy’s Delirious line for line a couple years before junior high, even I have to admit, I blushed once or twice - and then came back for seconds.

    Previously: Season 2 trailer

    tedzee | Permalink | March 11 2008 | Comments (View)

  1. blog comments powered by Disqus