(S02E05) Last night's episode of Wonder Showzen was
incredibly surreal, even for Wonder Showzen. The show began with a science fair in which Sthugar reveals a
propeller beanie powered by sadness, and Wordsworth creates a television which shows his dreams. Unfortunately,
Wordsworth's deepest fears manifest themselves into an actual monster who escapes the TV and wreaks havoc on the town.
Chauncey demands Wordsworth face his fear, but Wordsworth is too afraid. Therefore, Chauncey and Him use Him's shrink
ray (which doesn't actually shrink an object but instead makes everything else bigger, giving the illusion of
shrinkage) and journey into Wordsworth's brain in order to bypass his free will and make him fight the giant monster.
The segments inside Wordsworth's brain included some great meta moments, especially when they find themselves inside
his short term memory center and they become sensory echoes themselves, multiplying and repeating into
infinity.
Chauncey's "man on the street" segment about the "American dream" in which he asked sleeping homeless people what they were dreaming about was amusing, and the "Beat Kids" segment at the World Trade Center site in which a kid (not sure of his name, but it wasn't Trevor) would ask people how we can heal through humor and then would chastise them for making light of such a tragedy started off really strong but then fizzled out when the concept entered a kind of cul-de-sac and wound up really going nowhere. Both were good segments, but the WTC segment burst through the gates seeming to promise much more than it ultimately delivered.
I also loved the animated spoof of Old Yeller in which a young boy learns he must kill in order to be a man, or more importantly, so no one will call him a lesbian. The cartoon begins with him shooting his dog, then a chipmunk, then several parts of his grandfather's anatomy. By the end of the segment the boy's journey into manhood has resulted in him slitting the throats of everyone in town. There was also a very brief animated clip in which we're told to treat our body like a temple. Naturally, the man in the segment paints the words "Jewz go home" on his body.
Also, did anyone else notice in the "Mr. Body" animated segment that Mr. Body actually removes and swallows one of his testicles right before the segment begins? Wonder Showzen is peppered with odd subtle moments like that which make repeated viewings almost a necessity. You know, if seeing a man with visible organs eating one of his balls is your idea of "a necessity." It certainly is for me.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-11-2006 @ 6:20PM
N G said...
The mocking of the World Trade Center was horrifying. I used to love Wonder Showzen. I lost two of my closest people in the world that were coming down the stairs that morning. I never saw got to say goodbye as their bodies where obviously severed in crushed in the rubble and shipped off on garbage trucks like they were nothing.
They died there, and I wasn't in NYC when it happened and that site is the closest I can get to them. And this group of people mocks it and people for not laughing when they go? That would make me cry if I was approached by that team of people. And of course, in the same episode, they would mock me for "not being a man".
It's devastating that they are encouraging people to forget, no one is harping on it, but that is the closest we can get to saying goodbye or feeling close to the ones that suffered a horrible end to their life there in flames, that these guys want to make fun of.
That episode was astonishingly difficult for me to watch, now that everyone gets their cues from TV, we should all mock and forget, and pretend that the problem of religion destroying people, what they mock as well, is still as much of a threat to us now than ever.
I don't believe in sacred on an absolute or metaphysical level like a holy land, but I'm visiting my loved ones graves there who's bodies where destroyed and literally up in smoke and that's the closest I can get. You Wonder Showzen people watched the World Trade Center fall and people jump and die, as the best decision they could make in their lives. How dare you take away the meaning of that place with your bullshit, and suck away the limited reminder that that day even existed. If it's too hard to bear, do not make it into a joke, just ignore it. You are mocking people who would have loved your show, and Terry and Angie and all my family would have loved it as well. But they can't watch your show because the World Trade Center caved in on them. And you want us to laugh about that?
That show was horrible and senseless and illogical to introduce to the public. Plenty of people are laughing, but why go to the ONE place on Earth that's sheer proxmity can make you sad as a memorial of what happen, and you treat it like a threat that IT is making you sad and should mock it? You have a weird self-defense mechanism to mock everything that has made you feel bad, what were you all molested as kids? It's one thing to mock people on the street, but to pursue the few feet of area that actually brings out the humanity and good will of people to vircariously consider what a sad day that was, touches people in a way that makes them more aware of the problem.
Why you encourage the opposite I will never understand and show people like me that I should not be sad and mock me for caring -- mocking people for that is so illogical, and you all would too if you ever had something to lose. You are so disconnected, that it's so fucked up to witness. Of course you will argue, "We aren't telling anyone what to do" but you are suggesting that on a massive level and don't want to take any responsibility for the heartache it stirs up.
Fuck you.
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5-12-2006 @ 8:38PM
Brooks Williams said...
In responce to the other post on here, Wonder Showzen was not mocking the 9/11 attacks. If that's how you interpreted it, then that's your fault. I can understand things being more sensitive after you losing loved ones in the attacks... but everybody has their own emotional baggage, and just because one person is feeling really angry about it does not mean that it is a bad thing to do. I have jokes that I don't exactly find funny, but to rant for 8 pages just to rant is a waste of time. It's not pulling it off the network. I had a problem with rape jokes in one episode, but I realised that was not what they were getting at. If you take the show for what it is, of course you will be offended. But if you look past the puppets and the cartoon humor and violence, they actually raise a lot of very good points. Basically, they did the 9/11 segment because people nowadays are too sensitive to everybody else's opinions and feelings. We are all too worried about hot button issues being talked about that we keep our mouths shut when they should be open. I've lost over 10 loved ones to cancer, but I still find cancer jokes, when done right, can be funny. WS was not mocking 9/11 or the people who died in it. It may have seemed like that, but it wasn't what they were getting at. But you mentioned that they went to the one place that could never be funny... they made fun of poor people living on the streets and 3rd world countries sufferage. Why did you think they wouldn't even touch 9/11? Also, when you make a point, don't end it with an insult. That just makes you seem stupid and contradicting of your own intellagence.
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