the first show geared exclusively toward little boys.
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the man showairs Wednesdays at 10:30pm on Comedy Central.
In preparation for the November 3rd season opener, Comedy Central's "The Man Show" has been airing promos that focus on the highly negative and highly positive reviews the press has given them. Opinions range anywhere from "The worst show ever created" to "The funniest show on television." My normal reaction to seeing such disparaging reports is that the truth is somewhere in between. That's not the case this time. This time the truth is somewhere below, as in the show really isn't worth any extreme comment, despite what it thinks of itself.
Hosted by Adam Carolla (of MTV's "Loveline") and Jimmy Kimmel (of Comedy Central's "Win Ben Stein's Money"), "The Man Show" purports to be a half-hour of beer commercial fun on a weekly basis, a show that's dedicated whole-heartedly to the perpetuation of testosterone. Strangely, the actual show is more a plea for help, a refuge for world-weary men who are tired of having to think, think, think.
The jokes and the writing have the essence of intelligence about them. Carolla and Kimmel are both eloquent comics who rely on understatement and flowery Victorian descriptions of gross situations for their humor. In other words, this beer commercial was written by your high school English teacher, after hours, when he's hanging out in the teacher's lounge smoking and ogling the new mini-skirted T.A. from State U.
The truth is, this show has a benign quality about it that just won't shake. It claims to be a tumor, but there's no malignancy in it. Unlike the "Tom Green Show," there's nothing truly offensive about "The Man Show." Sure, there are plenty of superficial attempts at controversial assertions, but a closer analysis reveals a limp effort at best.
HOMOPHOBISM FEMINISM ALCOHOLISM Yes, all the ingredients for offense are there. It's pretty clear why ABC balked at airing this show. But the promos have it wrong. It's not a testament to testosterone at all. This show is a celebration of male adolescence, a time when the man-cub can freely explore his darker destructive nature in a consequence-free environment. The only consequence ever mentioned on the show is the possibility of being yelled at by their wives or the censors. No different than the biggest punishment for a teenager: a parental lecture.
The best thing about adolescence, though, is not the freedom to peek at women's cleavage, or sneak beer to a party, or tell dirty jokes. It's the fact that it ends. You grow up, a little, and you get to look back on all that rowdiness as a lesson in maturity Adam and Jimmy are providing one service, in that they're memorializing the process of that maturity. But, like adolescence, "The Man Show" is doomed to end The material is only funny for so long before it becomes annoying, repetitive, and shallow (no matter how they intellectually dress it). I wish the hosts the best in this endeavor, and tell them to have fun while it lasts (and they know it won't last ... neither one has quit the show that made them famous).
Maybe when they grow up, they can put their talents to use, and create a real comedy show.
Date: November 7, 1999
Copyright © 1999 by Chris J. Magyar
Here's an easy one for them to go after. The first slur that comes to mind in the public conscience when a men's group is mentioned is "fag." It's a time-worn stereotype that manly-men are homophobic to the core, so much so that this assumption can be passed off as light humor (see "Three to Tango"). Adam and Jimmy stop short of this, however. The only close brush with homophobic sentiment that I've seen is a recreation of the famous swimsuit scene from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" ... only with Jimmy playing the part of Phoebe Cates and Adam as the star-struck Judge Reinhold. It's a disturbing scene, but not because of the homoerotic theme. It's disturbing because Adam and Jimmy are established as such close friends, and Adam's "dreaming" of this scene becomes a twisted betrayal, not a latent fantasy.
If this show appeared in the '70's, they'd be in big trouble. Dancers in bikinis, girls on trampolines, and open encouragement of audience heckling create a strip-club atmosphere on the set. Women are constantly put down as pure sex objects and eye candy. So why isn't this offensive? Why should feminists not bother to protest the show? Because of the same reasons feminists shouldn't bother to protest strip clubs. The women are obviously willing participants in this scenario. They smile and jump like cheerleaders at a football game, and no matter what you might think of their jobs, they seem to be having fun. Furthermore, the jokes rarely resort to women-bashing. It would be all too easy for the writers to churn out sophomoric e-mail forwards on why men are superior to women, but instead women are treated as toys. Shallow? Yes. Derogatory? Not quite.
Here's the one that does touch a nerve. Beer drinking takes place on stage, in the audience, all over the place. Fox, their musical ringleader and the world's fastest beer drinker, downs at least six pints a show. I keep waiting for his liver to burst clear out of his stomach. I realize that "The Man Show" is a comedy showcase, not a morality hour, but it's plain that no one in the show is concerned about the side effects of beer, except as a tool for pranking.
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