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Show:		2.0
Picture:		3.0
Sound:		3.0
Extras:		3.0
Score:		3.0

Director(s):	Dave Diomedi • Trevor Moore • Zach Cregger
Writer(s):	Sam Brown, Zach Cregger, Trevor Moore, Darren Trumeter, Timmy Williams
Starring:	Darren Trumeter • Sam Brown • Timmy Williams • Trevor Moore • Zach Cregger
Genre:	Comedy
Release Date:	January 26, 2010

List Price:	DVD - $16.99
Amazon:

About a year ago, in my unflattering review for the film Miss March, I said that, despite the great extent to which I disliked their film, I would be willing to give Zach Cregger and Trevor Moore’s other creative brain child, the ongoing sketch comedy series The Whitest Kids U Know, a shot. I have now done so, and can say unequivocally that any ambiguity in my feelings towards them has been removed; their stuff sucks. While I try not to use phrases like ‘suck’, ‘blow’, or ‘totally eats it’ in a review if it’s a simple matter of a creator not being talented, but the Whitest Kids U Know seem to be taking every opportunity that they get (basically, every sketch in every episode) to aggressively prove themselves worthy of the labels sexist, racist, and generally disgusting that have repeatedly been used to describe them.

In terms of format, the Whitest Kids U Know is a pretty standard sketch show: a stock cast of actors (Moore, Cregger, Sam Brown, Darren Trumeter, and Timmy Williams) perform a series of tangentially linked sketches that occasionally provide some sort of narrative arc over the course of an episode (again, the excellent Mr. Show demonstrates a good deal of influence). The majority of the Kids sketches can be placed into one of a few categories: character behaves strangely around normal people for no apparent reason (far and away the most prevalent of these), really disgusting thing happens, or flimsy premise used to do something really ‘edgy’, but still stay on the safe side of the ratings panel. None of these sketches are more than a few minutes long, and the shortest are only a few seconds (for example, one scene lasts only long enough for a woman to inform her blind date that she doesn’t believe in using menstrual pads). If anything can be said in their favor, it’s this: with relative frequency (although certainly not all the time), a failing skit will be ushered away rather quickly. This would perhaps be even more effective if there was any indication that there was anything to look forward to.

I could talk about how this show isn’t funny, but I won’t. Obviously somebody thinks it’s amusing, so it really wouldn’t be any good for to me to try and analyze it. But I do think that their general comprehension of social dynamics needs to be addressed, if only because, as a white kid, I have some sort of accountability for the way that white kids present themselves in the media (and Stuff White People Like has made it hard enough). Now, terms like racist and sexist shouldn’t just be thrown around arbitrarily, lest their impact and significance be diminished, but I honestly think that they can be safely used to describe this show (even if we can’t safely or justifiably ascribe it to its creators). Hostility towards women has a long tradition in comedy, and it would be unrealistic to say that these guys take it to an unforeseen level (although Miss March sure tried), but they do take it into a witless and ridiculous territory that is rarely trod upon even in the darkest corners of the comedy world. Seeing men in drag certainly can be funny, but how about men in nude drag (meaning a shirtless man with prosthetic breasts)? First, is that something that you would ever want to look at in your life, let alone find funny? Second, how much do you have to hate women to go to such a length to keep them off your show and put such a grotesque mock-up in their place? Considering that the scene in question takes place in a strip club, with an average guy just trying to get simple information out of an apparently idiotic stripper, you can start to see what I mean.

Also consider the sketch "Instant Karma Bigot", in which a (white) man walks up to a bus stop and starts shouting offensive racial expletives (all of which I was kind of surprised made it onto television), only to be immediately punished by seemingly random acts of destruction. The point of the sketch (I wouldn’t exactly call it a joke) seems to be that bigotry is bad, but then you’ve got to take into account the fact that the scene seems to be an excuse to shout as many of these words as possible (the pause for laughter comes after the word ‘gook’, not after he’s hit by a bus). While racism has been milked for laughter before (I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks Blazing Saddles is Mel Brooks’s best), but what exactly are we to make of a show that seems just as desperate to say nasty words as it is to prove that it isn’t racist?

Like I said, I don’t know these guys personally, so I can’t say with any certainty that they are in fact bigots. But, having watched this show and their movie, I can say that it sure isn’t doing white boys any favors, particularly those who would like to break the stereotype that they are racist, sexist, and completely untalented.

DVD Bonus Features

This set also contains a "The Best of Season One" montage, a preview of season 3, and commentaries by the guys on every episode. Really, they’re all just more of the same, and did little to nothing to make me appreciate the series more.