New series review: The Whitest Kids U' Know (fuse)
03/20/07 10:02 AM
By ED BARK
The Whitest Kids U' Know want you to know they got there first with the face slaps, not Bud Light.
One of the beer company's many Super Bowl XLI commercials informed viewers that the fist bump is out and the face slap is in as a celebratory gesture. Now you can see a similarly themed sketch on the first episode of The Whitest Kids U' Know.
The five-member troupe says it's used this bit, "The New Thing," in its New York club act for five years running. Their first show for cable's fuse network (Tuesday, March 20 at 10 p.m. central) includes the hard-hitting sketch, which escalates into groin kicking and hockey punching. TV critics had a DVD of the Whitest Kids premiere well before this year's Super Bowl kicked into view. The sketch also has been on YouTube for a couple of years. So yes, they're a little pissed.
"Comedians of our generation are struggling to get their work out there," it says in part. "It is devastating to think that big corporations and ad agencies would come in and just take that work and use it for their own purposes, without any compensation, or more importantly, credit to the creators."
The creators are five guys in their mid-20s -- Trevor Moore, Zach Cregger, Sam Brown, Darren Trumeter Jr. and Timmy Williams. Their humor is in part an extension of Monty Python and Kids in the Hall. Except that it's predictably more outrageous in both its subject matter and heavy use of expletives (all bleeped by fuse). Comedy is a full contact sport when your target audience is teens and young adults.
Tuesday's opener starts innocently enough. A young couple is about to find out whether they're going to be parents. But she can't seem to read the testing device.
"That's my iPod Shuffle," her man finally realizes. "You peed on my iPod Shuffle. Such a stupid bitch."
Whitest Kids then segues to a music video by a young "A. Hitler" in full Nazi uniform. His "Triumph of the Ill" rap says he's a changed man who burns CDs and is "down with the Jews." Two young black women do his backup vocals.
This clearly tests the boundaries between inspired, take-no-prisoners satire and horrid, inexcusable bad taste. Saying it's funny just doesn't seem right. Nor did it fill this viewer with outrage. The sad point behind this mock video is that just about anything can be marketed today, including the return of Hitler as a reformed, new millennium "artist."
There's no shortage of high-wire material. In a later sketch, Abraham Lincoln is portrayed as a loud, profane lout during a ludicrous presentation of Hamlet at Ford's Theatre. A play-goer named John begs him to quiet down, but the president responds by taunting and cursing him. John finally runs up to Lincoln's box and beats him to death with a claw hammer. This supposedly is the true story of what really happened that fateful night.
Viewers also will encounter a seductive doe in a bra and a corporate meeting at which one of the attendees pulls poop from his pants. Three fellow employees are grossed out, but the bossman insists on keeping the meeting going without paying any mind to the guy with excrement on his hands.
The half-hour ends with a "Hey There, Kids!" music video. It's best not to get into the particulars of that one.
The Whitest Kids are, of course, a hit on various web sites. And they have a loyal, rabid following in New York City, where home base is the Pianos club.
They do bear watching, because there's a lot of talent here. People of a certain age might find much of their stuff unwatchable, though -- oftentimes for very good reason.
Grade: B
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