DVD REVIEW: FUNNY OR DIE PRESENTS SEASON 2

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03.31.2013

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MSRP $29.98

RATED Not Rated

STUDIO HBO Studios

RUNNING TIME 300 Minutes

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Nothing!

The Pitch
Little bit of Funny, whole lot of Die.

The Humans

Steve Tom, Rob Huebel, Rob Riggle, Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim, Fred Willard

The Nutshell

Comedy masterminds Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, and Chris Henchy are at it again with a brand new season of the HBO hit sketch comedy series. Funny or Die Presents features today’s hottest comedians, actors, and writers in an outrageous 30-minute comedy smorgasbord, complete with scripted pieces, animated vignettes, music videos, faux commercials, and more. Hosted by your white-haired, self-assued, and foul-mouthed host, Ed Halligan, Funny or Die Presents: The Complete Second Season takes comedy to a whole new level.

“Can you remember why I wanted to go outside?”

The Lowdown

Author’s Note: Since it’s hard to make funny captions for pictures that are intended to be funny already I will be using punch-lines from Family Circus strips out of context.

For those who aren’t aware, Funny or Die is a website created by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay that uses famous comedians and other celebrities for short viral comedy sketches. Also, welcome to the internet, enjoy the cat picture and don’t give your bank account info to that Nigerian prince, he is not a real prince.

“If Daddy has a baby, I hope it’s a girl.”

I was not aware that Funny or Die had actually branched out to doing a TV show, but since the viral videos are the kind of thing that started with sketch comedy shows and a lot of the people involved have TV and movie backgrounds it’s not that far fetched for Funny or Die to make a good half-hour TV show, right?

For those wanting a quick answer to whether or not this show is for them I have one tidbit of information. Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim are not only in this show, they’re writers for it, and a lot of the sketches on display reflect their unique sense of humor. Personally, I kind of like Tim and Eric (though I acknowledge they’re extremely hit or miss and definitely not for everyone) but I know for a lot of you this will be a deciding factor.

“Come in! Mommy’s right here in the bathtub!”

Most of the sketches either try too hard (like the recurring lesbian romantic thriller Lady Refs) or don’t try at all (Like the children’s show segment Welcome to My Study or the Cheaters-esque Burn Unit) every once in a while you’ll find a hidden gem but they’re mostly just overcooked or crap. Many sketches are extremely awkward and some don’t even have punch-lines. It’s like a show made up entirely of the last sketch of an episode of Saturday Night Live. This gets worse as the show progresses, escalating until the last episode with the near 20-minute sketch “Terrys” starring (who else?) Tim and Eric. It is a soul crushing test of your endurance to watch and it’s a swift kick in the balls following a rather awkward and unfunny season.

The one major shining star is a recurring sketch starring Rob Huebel called “Do You Want to See a Dead Body?” where he takes a celebrity (the best one is guru Deepak Chopra) to see a dead body. They’re always just the right blend of dark, funny, and weird to make me laugh. To be honest, pretty much any skit that involves Huebel is at least mildly amusing.

Bottom Line, Funny or Die is more miss than hit and the few good sketches don’t make up for all the terrible ones. If you enjoy Tim and Eric’s Awesome Show or some of Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s weaker movies then you might like this, but it’s a turd and I wouldn’t pay money for this when I can just watch much funnier videos on Funny or Die’s website for free.

“That was a bored yawn, not a sleepy yawn.”

The Package

There is literally nothing else on the disc. It has subtitles but that’s about it; just two discs with five episodes each and a little piece of paper on the inside listing the skits in each episode.

“Get your ‘God Bless yous’ ready, my nose wants me to sneeze.”

Rating:
★½☆☆☆

Out of a Possible 5 Stars



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