Mad

Just when you thought Cartoon Network, oh excuse me, CN couldn't get any worse, they air this pile of monkey feces. You wouldn't believe how awful this show is unless you watched it yourself, I watched a couple of them and my brain felt numb after seeing just one.

The parodies consist of mashing up two or more pieces of pop culture with an idiotic, lazily thought up puns for titles like Mouse MD or Naru210 or Jersey Thor. Barely any of these made me laugh, truthfully the scenarios and jokes could work if it was done by people who had an actual sense of humor. These skits are reminiscent of the disastrous travesties made by Seltzer & Friedberg; same lazily inspired parodies where they barely know nothing about what they're parodying, we're expected to laugh simply because they're there and because they mash these references together. Actual jokes? References to the subject being satirized? Who needs that when you could just come up with lame, nonsensical drivel and pass it off as satire.

Perhaps the worst thing about this show is the animation, Oh my Lord this makes Adventure Time look like Paprika. If you watched these you'd swear it was one of those awful youtube animations. How did these people even get into the animation industry? The designs for celebrity live action characters look like Saddam & Mel Gibson from South Park, only badly done and unfunny.

Here's my proposal to those in charge of CN because obviously they're gonna read this review, hire people who actually have a brain, a sense of humor and respect for the audience. Stop hiring fresh out of college rookies to be in charge of shows and please do not hire stoners. Watch some of your classic programming that put your channel on the map, see what they did and try to follow their example by coming up with creative concepts, lovable characters and material that people of all ages can enjoy. While Adventure Time & Regular Show are mediocre, they're a step in the right direction, but MAD is ten steps back.

This show is amazing for all ages, especially ones who love the magazine. The quirky animation styles are fun to watch, and are all different. Some younger kids might not get some of the references, like the movies they are parodying, but still probably will like it. Any kids interested in the show should also read the magazine when they are older. The use of mixed media really makes every sketch unique. Each episode is about 11 minutes long, so it is very binge worthy. Each sketch is a different genre, so everyone will at least like one. It is sadly hard to find all of the episodes free though.

It's basically Robot Chicken for kids though more hit or miss. Some people like it some people don't. I'm more in the middle. I feel like the first season was hilarious and as the show progressed it got less and less funny. One thing that stayed great were the Spy vs Spy segments. They were so inventive. Interestingly they were claymated in later seasons. A lot of the gags parodying ads and infomercials were funny and clever. If you like parody then i'd say check it out. If not you can probably skip this.

I remember on Cartoon Network back in the late 90s that TV-Y7 was the norm. Sometimes PG, but only movies. Why does CN feel the need to shove out so many TV-PG shows out recently, especially if THIS is what happens?

Well, I watched an episode. Actually, I TRIED to watch MOST of the episode. Didn't happen. Maybe kids who appreciate the fact that they get to watch big boy stuff will enjoy the crudeness, but how this aired more than one episode is beyond me. Seriously, I bet the worst Teletubbies episode can outdo the best Mad episode.

Because of this, I'm going to rip off other shows like Robot Chicken and try to make it suitable enough for kids. Then, I'm going to replace any possible profound comedy with shock value actions like puking or turds blowing up or whatever the hell happens on a regular basis. Sounds lame? Because it is lame.

I am a huge fan of "Mad" magazine and it would be interesting to see a more faithful TV adaptation than "MadTV". Unfortunately, this just isn't anywhere near as good. The main problem is that too much time is devoted to these random mashup parodies. The mashups are just too random to really enjoy. You could take any two pop culture icons and put them together for no reason. This show is by no means terrible.

There are definitely good jokes here and there. Yes, it does feel a lot like a tame version of "Robot Chicken". Unfortunately, by making the humor tamer you take away what made the magazine so funny. There's definitely creativity and it's pretty unpredictable. It's nice to see these different animation styles. It just doesn't add up to much. **