C&C - Young Person's Guide to History Part One [10/26]

[Space Cadet]

A new special from the creators of Saul of the Molemen makes it debut on Adult Swim on Sunday at midnight. Its a two-parter, so I wonder what the cliffhanger will be for this episode.

[chdr]

That was awful in every way. For the first time ever, I just quit halfway through.

Please don't become a series.

[Beat]

And with those fateful words, it's guaranteed a 30 episode run.

[Neo Ultra Mike]

Eh I don't know about that. If Saul Of The Moleman is on the dead show list for Halloween that means that didn't get renewed for a new season so I doubt they're looking for a lot more from Craig Lewis and co. Besides I doubt it will really get high ratings and looking at it just seemed to be one of those one time (well you know two parter) special things AS airs every so often.

In truth there were like two or three jokes I liked (some random guy asking Franklin to take his top off and Franklin calling them all idiots at the end. Well anything with Dana Snyder as Franklin was I guess okay since he always makes something funny) but yeah this was just an example of a really bloody random retelling of history without any sort of actual working plot to tie it together. At least Saul Of The moleman had some sort of overal storyline to it: This just tried being off the wall without any kind of story or any real actual humor. Even Superjail tries for more of a plot then this show and Superjail actually does animated violence well, not the kind of crummy live action that looks purposley bad but at the same time you can see they bothered having something of a budget that would of been better spend on say more episodes of Moral Orel or stopping AS from running anime premieres at 5:30AM at night.

[btv]

It was incredibly hard to follow. I knew what they were talking about history-wise but it didn't flow at all in the ways that they twisted it around. Viciously disappointing.... but unsurprising if you saw the pilot.

D

[Gamaoi]

Holy crap I loved this.

[Beat]

Holy crap I loved this.

That's one person. Still, mind explaining why?

[Vyse]

Holy crap I loved this.


And with those fateful words, it's guaranteed a 30 episode run.

Seriously, though. I watched all of this, and my brain felt stupid. It's literally "Let's insert random crap into the history pages! And then, we film it for the Internet!" It's too random and too dumb. Plus, it completely wastes the talents of Dana Snyder and Will Forte. If they had Forte go into a crazy dream mode where he was Tim Calhoun and have Dana as Ben Franklin perform Nude Love, I would have scored it higher. Instead, I give it a flaming bag of poop that you step on.

[Beat]

Say what you will, but if the AS of 08/09 cancelled Moral Orel in favor of this, then we really are seeing a block on its decline. This is cut from the same mold of Tim and Eric, and it shows the new preference for shows they want.

Got to hand it to WS though. They called our hatred a week in advance. To quote Home movies "it's an alternative. Yeah, an alternative to GOOD".

[chdr]

i like tim and eric... :sad:

[Gamaoi]

The target demographic seems to generally favor something extremely edgy and fast-paced and strange like Tim & Eric and YPGTH in comparison to more straightforward, traditional programming with great writing like Moral Orel.

Still, I don't understand why I can't like everything. This new season of Moral Orel is looking to be the best season of any show [as] has ever had that premered after 2003, and with their third season T&E have perfected their mindblowing impersonations of public access television and 3:30 in the morning advertisements for unnessecary products. And YPGTH works so well because it's a story that doesn't seem to have a story, flowing seemlessly from one "plot" point to the next, almost a sort of stream-of-conscience experience.

Maybe it's an aquired taste.

[chdr]

Meh, the only things besides this I've hated on AS have been Minoriteam and Assy McGee. This whole thing seems like Tim And Eric, but without the flow, subtlety, and general weirdness of it all.

[Scythemantis]

I loved Saul, and this has all the makings of a funny show...but it was pretty bad. Nothing made me laugh, or even feel all that entertained.

[Draft]

the only highlight for me was Dana Snyder as Benjamin Franklin

otherwise this was an insane mess, I had decent hopes since I like historical parodies and I loved Saul of the Molemen

[pyromanaic414]

i like tim and eric. i can tolerate watching Saul...but this was incredible retarded.

[JTurner954]

Please don't compare this to Tim and Eric. That's just insulting.

As insulting as this show. Geez, at least Shin Chan tries. Even Saul tries and has a likeable character in Johnny Tambourine. But this ... I'm still haunted by the April 1 airing. I believe this is the only show in Adult Swim history where I didn't laugh. That's right ... NEVER LAUGHED.

And now I see this is Part 1 .... I won't even wait for the AS Awards to announce that this is the worst show of 2008. I think I'll watch just so I can be ready to add more reasons when Part 2 comes around.

[Kitschensyngk]

I think it would be more accurate to name this show The Average Male 18-24 Adult Swim Viewer's Guide to History.

I don't think I understood a lick of that. At least Saul had something resembling a plot.

It also felt like one of those shows that when you think it's half over, you look at a clock and discover that you're only four minutes in.

[macattack]

I am never watching this again. My God this thing made absolutely zero sense whatsoever and seemed just to be an excuse to do entirely stupid, random things.

Not my style. This "randomness" kick new AS material has been getting on wrecked Xavier, made Fat Guy unwatchable, has hampered Superjail for me, and I can't stand T&E at all. I need something resembling a plotline at the very least.

[Revelator]

It was just abysmal. Stylistically it has a superficial resemblance to Tim and Eric, with the cheap video effects, but T&E;s absurdism is sharp-edged and the sketches rarely wear out their welcome. But History is tedious in its comic sloppiness, and the perpetual anachronisms are practically its only sense of humor.
That's the worst part actually. Historical period comedy can produce great works, such as Buster Keaton's The General or Monty's Python's Life of Brian. But these sort of works get their laughs by actually engaging with history and getting the details right--the writers do research. There are so many great gags you could extract revolutionary period history--George Washington growing hemp on his farm, Thomas Jefferson hypocritically having sex with his slaves, the bitter hatred between Jefferson and Hamilton--but the writers of this program just want to do gags that are either dumb and random or just dull, like having the Founding Fathers hole up in a motel and act like 21st century frat boys. That's neither funny, interesting, or original. There's real potential for a comedy based on the gruesome thing that is American history. But this show isn't it.

[Fool's Gil]

...I don't understand, why live action? And why BAD live action? I gave Saul a chance. I gave Tim and Eric two chances. I went to bed when this crap came on, and I'm glad I did. Is [AS] making a profit, or getting even more money or something to cause them to show this? I don't get it.

[Blackstar]

That was a complete waste of 15 minutes. It made absolutely no sense at all. There was no plot whatsoever and the "jokes" were non-existent. Even the most randon Monty Python sketch made more sense than this thing. I'd be willing to bet money that the Saul writers were high when they came up with this. I have no idea how this thing got greenlit and no one put the brakes on.

[LoneToonman]

Franklin was inaccurate. Plus. It made reference to academia. I HATE ACADEMIA! I'm dissapointed.

[SpaceCowboy]

This show has garbage written all over it.

[Vyse]

I watched this on the air, and throughout most of the time, I had this grin. This grin can best be described as what the Nostalgia Critic had when time expired at the haunted house level in Bebe's Kids. The show looked bad on tv, even on the HD feed (repeat, this show is NOT presented in HD, but the network stretches out the picture). The characters look bad when against the bluescreen. I can't believe that a show would look better on the Internet than on television, but Young Person's did it. It should have stayed on the Internet, where G4's Attack of the Show will find it and call it an epic fail.

Final Score:
EPIC FAIL! Mike Lazzo (or someone at Williams Street) must have done something wrong that they would like to keep secret, because the Saul creators are blackmailing them to air this pile of garbage. I would rather watch the worst Minoriteam episode than this. It has no redeeming value and makes you question why [as] greenlighted it in the first place over Saul season 2.
And, early review for Part Two: it sucks. Wanna get that out of the way since [as] early called our hatred for Young Person's.

[Gamaoi]

It was just abysmal. Stylistically it has a superficial resemblance to Tim and Eric, with the cheap video effects, but T&E;s absurdism is sharp-edged and the sketches rarely wear out their welcome. But History is tedious in its comic sloppiness, and the perpetual anachronisms are practically its only sense of humor.
That's the worst part actually. Historical period comedy can produce great works, such as Buster Keaton's The General or Monty's Python's Life of Brian. But these sort of works get their laughs by actually engaging with history and getting the details right--the writers do research. There are so many great gags you could extract revolutionary period history--George Washington growing hemp on his farm, Thomas Jefferson hypocritically having sex with his slaves, the bitter hatred between Jefferson and Hamilton--but the writers of this program just want to do gags that are either dumb and random or just dull, like having the Founding Fathers hole up in a motel and act like 21st century frat boys. That's neither funny, interesting, or original. There's real potential for a comedy based on the gruesome thing that is American history. But this show isn't it.

I think the humor is supposed to stem from the fact that it seems like it's told by a young person, who to my knowledge would try to make everything superficial and with explosions and no historical documentation whatsoever.

[Beat]

I think the humor is supposed to stem from the fact that it seems like it's told by a young person, who to my knowledge would try to make everything superficial and with explosions and no historical documentation whatsoever.

All I saw was frat humor two levels below Robot Chicken's. Nothing in the 15 minutes possessed the slightest hint of anything resembling a setup. The only thing it needed to be a bad Robot Chicken sketch was more fart jokes and better writing.

History is a very ripe, rich subject for parody. The horrible show that just aired squandered any potential that was there.

[Kitschensyngk]

All I saw was frat humor two levels below Robot Chicken's. Nothing in the 15 minutes possessed the slightest hint of anything resembling a setup. The only thing it needed to be a bad Robot Chicken sketch was more fart jokes and better writing.

And at least one scene of domestic abuse. Don't forget that.

[Beat]

And at least one scene of domestic abuse. Don't forget that.

And you know what? It'd still be a billion times funnier.

[Beat]

Interesting quote from Adultswim employee or mod, or whatever...



This show isn't about mocking history. Not even close. It's absurdist/dada humor that takes colonial American historical moments as it's skeleton. If you're looking for a satirical view of our history, this is not that show.

Is it just me, or is absurdist/dada now a synonym for "Not funny"?

[Revelator]

This show isn't about mocking history. Not even close. It's absurdist/dada humor that takes colonial American historical moments as it's skeleton. If you're looking for a satirical view of our history, this is not that show.Why bother taking Colonial American Historical moments (more like characters) for the skeleton then, if you're not actually going to do anything with them? Then the show rests on a one-joke premise and sits there like a legless dog. Anyway, the idea that you can't have historically engaged and absurd humor at the same time is BS. Monty Python proved you can have both: erudition and absurdism are not enemies. And given the mercurial nature of dada, if the show's creators were really dadaists they'd be condemning the show even more harshly then the rest of us.

[macattack]

Isn't absurdist humor supposed to be funny?

[Vyse]

Here is what Merriam-Webster (http://mw1.meriam-webster.com/dictionary/dada) says about dada:

a movement in art and literature based on deliberate irrationality and negation of traditional artistic values
In fact, this could apply to almost every single [as] show. It doesn't excuse quality or humor. I was just like the Nostalgia Critic when he reviewed Bebe's Kids on the SNES; I made these faces during Young Person's:
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g39/tetrisdork/shockedface01.jpg
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g39/tetrisdork/shockedface03.jpg
Those two faces were made when he discovered that the game has a time limit (re: it was bad).

[Revelator]

Dada very specifically refers to the dada art movement that reached its height in the 1920s and ended shortly afterward--many of its practitioners ended up in the surrealist movement, of which dada was the precursor. But while we can call a modern-day work surreal or surrealist without implying that it comes from Salavador Dali or his fellows in the original surrealist movement, calling something dada generally implies that it was from the actual dada movement. Young Person's Guide doesn't qualify as dada, even if it meets a dictionary's very broad definition, and I'd hate to put it on the same plane as Tristan Tzara and company. It's just a bad absurdist comedy. I looked at Adult Swim's forum and was quite surprised to hear that so many people liked it. No accounting for taste...