The reviews today are mixed over last night’s airing of an Americanized, half-hour Creature Comforts. Some critics are raving about the subtle humor and clever juxtaposition. Other critics say it goes on too long and there’s no laughs to be had. That second group of critics are the ones I like to call “dumb critics.” For those who’ve never seen the Oscar-winning short or the subsequent BBC series, this concept is built around interviews with everyday people. Then the creative team creates animates animals around the soundtrack of these everyday people speaking. Much of the wit comes from what animal has been chosen to exemplify the character of the person’s voice. In last night’s episode, for example, a woman speaking definitively about how she had no interest in the sexual advances of a male friend of hers was portrayed as a panda bear. Hilarious. Add to that the always fantastic undertones of Aardman-style animation (Wallace & Grommit) and you’ve got TV worth your 30 minutes.

Animators also take full advantage of background “business” possibilities from the characters, from a dog starting to drool when one of the interviewed subjects is getting excited, or a bird pooping as his doctor-dependent wife explains how she has constipation issues that he doesn’t. My favorite series of meta-jokes involved a lizard in a cage. The voice was that of a small boy telling a joke with all the enthusiasm and poor timing that only a seven-year-old can summon. The energy of his joke was probably cute enough on it’s own. However, at the punchline, the crickets in the cage’s background start chirping. Brilliant. He got no laughs, only crickets chirping. But the cherry on top was the lizard’s response. Eat a cricket. And the cherry on top of that cherry was a return later in the show to the same lizard attempting another joke. This time, the crickets applaud enthusiastically.

Personally, I thought this show concept survived it’s Americanization fully. Yes, critics are probably right to worry about whether subtle, understated, dry wit will land with American audiences. This is certainly not Charlie Sheen making barely-veiled innuendo in front of a pre-teen. As for me, I’ll keep hoping. It’s nice when a show comes along that says, to the world, “Hey, we can take this whole Television thing up a notch.”

If nothing else, I’m just glad every time more comedy lands on the air.

Similar Posts:

• The Perfect Woman?
• new show review The Return of Jezebel James
• Seven Itchy Years (my writing thus far…)
• Character Development and Naked Women
• Did you bring enough joke for the entire class?