Last night Sydney and I decided to sit and watch the series premiere of Bob's Burgers. I had seen some commercials for it and I can't say I was very impressed with what I saw. But I thought I would give it a chance.
Three minutes into the show we weren't laughing. Five minutes into the show we STILL weren't laughing. At probably around the fifteen minute mark I can't take it anymore.
"I'm not laughing," says I.
"Me neither," replied Sydney.
Something was dreadfully wrong. The characters were annoying. I even found the fact that the mother and the older daughter being voice by men to be unnerving. And drag has never bothered me being a fan of both Monty Python's Flying Circus and Kids in the Hall. Or when Mel Blanc would voice some of the female characters in the Looney Tunes.
I think what annoyed me is there was no effort put into the voices. Python, KITH and Mel Blanc put an effort in their drag. This was just lazy.
And yes. We could have changed the channel. But we decided to endure this painfully unfunny half hour of our lives to the bitter end. Because you never know. There could be one scene that could turn this show around.
It never happened.
Although it did achieve making The Simpsons, Family Guy AND the Cleveland Show funny by comparison that Sunday. But even with those shows, as much as the Simpsons or Family Guy aren't what they used to be, there's still elements of the show that you find yourself chuckling at. I was never a fan of Futurama when it was on prime time television. But even with Futurama there was still scenes where I would chuckle at the jokes.
I couldn't even manage to muster a sympathy chuckle watching Bob's Burgers.
But I think that's the problem. Prime time cartoons have just gotten lazy. I've enjoyed both the Simpsons and Family Guy. However, cartoons like the Simpsons, Family Guy and South Park (YES! You're not exempt from this South Park) have gotten into this lazy pattern where the only way they feel they can make an audience laugh is to shock you. So, each episode is an attempt to make the next one more outrageous.
But once you've reached the top, where do you go from there?
And there's a place for that type of humor. I mean, I love the slapstick comedy of the Three Stooges and the verbal comedy of the Marx Brothers. But the problem right now, or at least as far as prime time comedy between the hours of 8pm till 10pm on Fox is that they is little to no variety. It's all the same. And that's the problem with Bob's Burgers. It's more of the same.
Not to mention it seems very much like the last Austin Powers movie where you get the feeling that it was written on a Saturday and filmed on a Sunday.
It's like eating Chocolate Cake for breakfast every day. It's a novelty at first but you're going to get sick of it after a while.
And it's not like there aren't any good cartoons on anymore. Even though I haven't seen an episode, cartoons like the Venture Brothers are very popular with a great deal of my friends. And I don't think that relies on the shock value Fox seems to think it has to rely on.
But it does make me miss the classic Warner Brothers and Tex Avery cartoons. I'm not saying that they need to do away with the Simpsons or Family Guy. However, I think Bob's Burgers proves we really do need something new.
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