The All-Pilot Project: Momma’s Boys and Game Show in My Head
The Poop: You know you’re though the looking glass when the opening narration proudly announces that some of the female contestants are stereotypes. Is that a nice thing to say about actual people? I mean, they sort of are, but that’s still a real dick move, faceless narrator guy.
There’s something deeply sad about every single “Guy (or girl) picks from a group of girls (or guys) who are competing for them and are totally in love even though they haven’t actually spent any time together”. Besides playing off of the desperation of a whole group of people, it’s just so creepy. It’s all fake emotion, only with real hurt at the end. It’s all gross, and it makes me feel weird.
Also, the title is really bothersome. Aside from the non-traditional standing of “Mama”, the punctuation is all screwed up. “Momma’s Boys” implies one Momma with multiple boys. Wouldn’t “Mommas’ Boys” be more accurate, since there are, in fact, three Mommas? And shouldn’t somebody at NBC have put forth one second of effort to proofread the title of a show?
Anyway, this is a mess. There are some disturbing mother/son relationships here. (Don’t kiss your son’s picture and talk about how hot he is, lady!) And it’s really weird that all three guys are making their selection from the same pool of women. The whole thing is meant to be a freak show, rather than any sort of earnest attempt to build romance. Also, one of the guys is named JoJo, and another one has unofficially been dubbed (by me) “Ugly Jason Biggs”.
But it’s JoJo’s mom who makes the whole thing upsetting. She explains on the first episode that “I can’t have a Jewish girl….a Black girl….an Asian girl, a fat-butt girl.” Presenting crazy racist ladies on TV and giving them a soapbox is probably a bad thing. Of course, that does lead us to the hilarious moment when she asks two of the African-American women “So, you play basketball?” OK, crazy racist ladies saying stupid things is pretty funny.
It’s a trainwreck, to be sure. Unfortunately, it’s just insane enough to be watchable. I hate myself.
The Prognosis: “I paid for my second boob job with the money from my student loan.” So yeah, I guess that means I have to keep watching. (Don’t look at me. I’m hideous!)
Game Show in My Head
Saturday 8 PM, CBS
The Premise: Contestants go out in public and receive directions for crazy tasks via an earpiece. You know, exactly the sort of segment David Letterman’s been doing with Rupert for about 15 years now.
The Personnel: Joe Rogan hosts, and he will always have a spot in my heart for Newsradio and for publicly calling out Carlos Mencia as a joke thief. By the way, 2009 Joe Rogan appears to have eaten 1995 Joe Rogan. Dude’s gotten a little puffy. Ashton Kutcher produces. Curiously, IMDB has Chris Kattan listed as the host. Make of that what you will.
The Poop: I’m a sucker for a hidden earpiece bit. I love when Letterman does it. I love when Producer Joe does it. It’s comedy gold, man!
While Game Show has some funny tasks, it seems a little too slick. The camerawork is a little too clean, with too many different angles in any given piece. I’m not convinced that the cameras aren’t plainly visible to passerby – hidden camera footage usually looks pretty crappy, and it certainly doesn’t present multiple angles of spontaneous events. This is not a huge deal, since CBS probably wants to fill airtime with something that looks reasonably professional, but the presence of cameras changes how people react.
Further, the contestants seem to be aspiring actors. In the two episodes aired so far, they’re a little too-good looking and a little too comfortable interacting with complete strangers. Again, that’s probably for the best in terms of production value, but the more polished it looks, the less realistic it looks. I’m not saying that it’s fake, but something a little grittier-looking would probably make it funnier.
Still, the stunts are pretty funny. Awkwardness always makes me laugh, basically. Joe Rogan is genial and seems to really want the miked contestants to win money. It moves fast and gets some good laughs. For a Saturday night, that’s not too bad.
The Prognosis: I laughed, but it’s nothing I’m going to go out of my way to watch. It’s worth catching for some quick gags, though. But why, why does a hidden camera show have slicker production values than The Office? You’re making it look fake, CBS!
