TVSquad

I'm not always floored by what springs from the mind of Andy Milonakis, who, according to TMZ, recently gave a homeless guy a buck, but I like that he does his own thing and stays true to himself.

Before I joined the TV Squadders and before he had his show on MTV2 (The Andy Milonakis Show), I did a phone interview with the youthful-looking Milonakis (he's 31 now) about the Web videos he had been making that had caught the eye of Jimmy Kimmel and led to his deal at MTV. Back then, his humor didn't always hit, but when it did, I found it hilarious. And, even when it landed with a thud, I had to admire him for trying something different. Also, Andy and I are the same age and both seem to have a penchant for the absurd, so I was pretty much tuned in to his wavelength from the beginning.

So I told you that on May 18 Human Giant would be taking the reins of MTV and MTV2 for 24 hours starting at noon on May 18.

A rather amusing press release has it that MTV will give the series --which features actors Paul Scheer, Aziz Ansari and Rob Huebel-- a second season if they get one million hits on their MTV site. A snippet from the release:

I've said before I'm kind of an intermittent fan of the Andy Milonakis Show, but after seeing the season three premiere in which Andy first arrives in Los Angeles, I have to say that the show has improved greatly. If you hated Andy before, you'll probably still hate him, since his brand of humor isn't for everyone, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much more fully realized the show now seems. The first season had some very funny moments, but it seemed to lack focus, as if it wasn't sure what it was trying to be. I think both Andy and his show have finally found themselves, and Milonakis may have figured out a way to turn his penchant for oddball non sequiturs and general nonsense into real, honest to goodness comedy. Our little weirdo has finally become a butterfly, with peanut butter on his hands ("peanut butter slap")!

The six season three episodes are available on iTunes and will also be made available on MTV2.com and MTV.com.

It is indeed a sad day, fellow fans of Wonder Showzen. In an interview with Radar, show creators Vernon Chatman and John Lee have said that MTV2 has still given no official word on whether their subversive, blood-soaked, drug-addled tribute to children's shows will return for a third season. Currently, Lee says the answer is about "ninety percent 'no'" as to whether or not the show will return.

As is the case with most shows that includes kids dressed up as a dead Pope, dozens of scenes segmented on the screen and played simultaneously, a dog pulling a baby from a pregnant woman's womb while she's being killed in an electric chair and puppets dry humping the Bible, Wonder Showzen had a devoted fanbase but never got the ratings that would make a network want to keep it around. It's not much consolation, but the second season does come out on DVD today, so you can always pop it into the ol' DVD player and remember the good times. Also, the brains at Adult Swim have expressed their love for Wonder Showzen, so maybe there's still a small glimmer of hope for the show after all. Keep the faith, brothers and sisters.

Thanks to Mack Swift for the info.

Last month I mentioned that MTV2 was planning on bringing Celebrity Deathmatch back. Now, if you can find any information on this, especially on either the MTV or MTV2 site, than you're a better man/woman than I. The only thing I have found is this clip from Perez Hilton of Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton in clay form beating the stuffing out of one another with text below stating that the show is returning on June 10.

Oop, hang on there, Missy. The Futon Critic has the first episode listed as airing on June 9, not 10. Apparently, someone is lying to us. 

(S02E04) Last night's episode mostly took place in the 18th century, with Chauncey taking on the role of the master of a plantation and his fellow puppets all serving as his slaves. Things start to get out of hand, however, when Him becomes a cyborg slave, able to bale hay, whitewash a barn, and whip other slaves with greater efficiency. Chauncey loves his new robotic slave, but when his young Southern bride puts the moves on Him, the new robo-slave is charged with rape. In a hilarious court room sequence, Sthugar, the young bride, blatantly admits she was lying about the rape, but they continue with the trial anyway. This became the main part of the episode, and one of the funniest, most absurd takes on race relations in the United States I've ever seen. A monkey who evolves into itself with a hat made of licorice, Chauncey having sex with the Bible, and a visit from God in the form of a banana were just a few of the things that popped up during the hearing.

(S02E02) This episode of Wonder Showzen began with Chauncey visited by himself from two minutes in the future. It turns out Chauncey's future self is a hundred times cooler than Chauncey, so Chauncey sets out to build a time machine and travel even further back in the future (four minutes) so he can be even hipper. But we'll get to all that in a moment.

I said in my last review that the "Beat Kids" segment wasn't my favorite, only because I don't think it always works in the execution. Of course, that was before last night when they had a kid put on zombie make-up, dress as the Pope, and interview people in front of a Catholic Church under the pseudonym "Little Dead Pope." Trey Parker has been quoted time and again saying Cartman was his way of creating a character who could say things that would get most real people burned at the stake. Wonder Showzen takes that concept one step further and actually uses real children, which adds a whole layer of apprehension when you hear them say things to unsuspecting adults like, "The Pope should go to Hell for promoting a corrupt system. High five!" Not many shows can make you almost fall of the couch laughing while at the same time fearing for a child's life. They should have some kind of award for that.

I apologize for piggybacking something personal onto this blog post, but I thought you should know that this is what's happening inside my head all the time. How this girl was able to capture it, I'll never know.

Speaking of animation, last month I mentioned a new animated series from comedians Jeffrey Ross and Tracy Morgan called Where My Dogs At? At the time I couldn't find much information on the series, but it turns out the show is part of a new effort from MTV2 to go head to head with Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block. Besides Ross and Morgan's new series, the network also plans to bring back Celebrity Deathmatch, one of the most boring uses of clay since Gumby. MTV2 has actually been testing the waters with animation for awhile now, tossing in old episodes of Beavis and Butthead and Celebrity Deathmatch into the schedule. Personally, I think they should bring back Liquid Television, or at least show old episodes. I don't know if MTV is in any position to go up against Adult Swim, which is clearly the undisputed champion of experimental animation right now. However, MTV was once a lot like Adult Swim, home to a lot of really great and weird animated shows. It'll be interesting to see if anything they come up with can rival what Adult Swim is offering.