Allen Gregory

The previews for Allen Gregory seemed to offer some promise of a cartoon series ripe with witty sarcasm and humorous cynicism. It seemed like it might be comparable to Southpark or Family Guy (before the show started declining, that is).

Unfortunately, the actual show itself is crude, crass, possibly controversial (I say "possibly" because I'm sure some people will be put off by the open-armed acceptance of gay couples...but I am not one of them), and even outright disgusting (some people will be VERY put off by the sex fantasy Allen Gregory has about his 60+, overweight principal...and I AM one of those people).

The premise is simple: a spoiled rich kid, used to being home schooled by his "gay" stepfather (who we find out later, actually isn't gay at all, which only serves to add a new level of disturbing to this already messed up show) is sent to a regular school where he openly insults everyone he comes across and lives in a fantasy world where he believes he's the center of attention for all.

Some of the lines in here were good for a chuckle or two...but about half-way through the show everything seems to just go rapidly down hill. I admit I watched the first episode out of curiosity. Curiosity having been satisfied, this is NOT a show I will be watching future episodes of.

All in all, what could have been a decent cartoon in the hands of someone OTHER than Jonah Hill turns out to be a major waste of time for those of us unfortunate enough to have sat through the first episode's half hour run time.

Allen Gregory serves as both a working title and pun: Allegory, with several significant connotations. The show provides allegories based on contemporary social discourse and commentary. As such, some of the jokes will go over most of the audience's heads. However, for those in the audience aware of the implications of social sitcom scripts, "Allen Gregory" provides subtle (and not so subtle) nudges regarding gay marriage, political dichotomy, gender disaggregation, and other sociological factors. Each joke is smartly written, with close attention paid to both comedic transitions and subtext of material. As a result, Allen Gregory is worth watching for both its simple punchlines and greater sociological implications.

Always a fan of good animated comedy, I tuned in Allen Gregory to see what it held for me. Before the show even started, there was a "not suitable for children under 14" blurb, which gave me hope that this might be the new South Park - raunchy and scatological, but also inventive and funny.

The reality is much, much less. The humour (such as there is) is of the cruel, taunting variety, and the title character lacks any characteristics that make him sympathetic or likable. Set up as an intelligent overachiever by the show's promoters, he comes off more like an arrogant, impolite poseur with no compassion whatsoever for his fellow human beings.

Perhaps he gets this from his home situation, or perhaps he has managed to become this out of touch with reality all on his own. At any rate, the result is not worth watching.

I'm the first to say if something "funny" is actually offensive or just plain not funny. This show is funny.

People have complained that the characters aren't likable - that's kind of the point. The whole point is that he's a fish out of water, and Blind Freddy could tell over the course of the series he'll learn to be a good person.

I love Julie! She's hilarious and was underutilised in the pilot. And as far as I can tell, she is actually the audience surrogate for the show - she doesn't like Allen Gregory's snobby behaviour.

This show reminds me of late-nineties comedies like King of the Hill, South Park, Johnny Bravo, to name a few. Maybe that's why I dig it - I miss when these shows were fresh. I guess with Allen Gregory I'm vicariously experiencing late-nineties television all over again.

And I'm really digging it. Unfortunately, I seem to be the only one who does...

just watched the first two episodes of Allen Gregory... good try Jonas, but not many people find a pretentious protagonist funny or likable when they absolutely learn no lesson or face no consequences (whether that consequence is funny or not). Stewie Griffin at least shows some signs of being human instead of being the love child of a man who forcibly made a straight man his bitch. The point of pilot is to get audiences intrigue...not to alienate and offend gays, straights, teachers, kids, parents, basically everyone except for...I can't even think of who would like this. It's pretty obvious that you were aiming to please the "1%" or trying to be "smart" funny by not having a "lesson learned", but all you accomplished was making me cheer for the douche-bag class president kid when Allen put himself into a situation where he deserved to be mocked and made fun of. Good luck getting a renewal for Season 2....