Laughing Stock

Rating:
Summary: Each Funny and Distinct
Review: Eight sketch comedy groups on one DVD.

Depending on your sense of humor, you'll either love this collection or hate it. Most of the skits reveal a sarcastic and witty line of jokes. In other words, the skits are intelligent. (...) There is no profanity or nudity. All of the sketches are well delivered and well written. Even with all these similarities, all eight groups have their own distinct style.

The first group is HotDogBoy, a two-man group that illustrates the misadventures of the unfortunate in skits that always end with "to be continued." Mildly funny and entertaining, but no side-splitting laughs here.

The Wahltoons, headed by Dave Wahl, immediately shows a much more biting humor. Literacy Midget is their best skit, relying on Simpsons-esque irony to generate laughter.

The Night Shift, rivaled only by All Filler, practically commits grand theft DVD by showing the funniest skits in the anthology. Reminiscent of HBO's Mr. Show, The Night Shift is headed by Dom Zook, who is an extremely talented comedian and actor who steals the show completely.

David Nixon writes, films, and stars in all of his own skits on this DVD, Five Short Death Scenes. With larger-than-life facial expressions and over-the-top physical humor, it's slightly less intelligent but still worth watching. He deserves credit for being able to carry a comedy skit all by himself.

Cupid Players are a musical group that sings humorous songs. Filmed live, their sketches lack a polished quality that the others have, and the audio is difficult to hear. Their humor is lackluster after the hilarity of the Night Shift team.

Unexpected Productions brings one short to this compilation. Man behind the Motion is a mockumentary-style skit that looks into the life of the man who designs the moves of victims in car crash video games. In the fail-proof Waiting for Guffman style, Unexpected is successful in their endeavor to make fun of people with dumb jobs who take themselves too seriously.

All Filler is another extremely funny group that overshadows the others. With quite a few skits--each funny and distinct--their Kids in the Hall offbeat humor had me nearly vomiting, I laughed so hard and so long.

Troop! ends the DVD with a few zombie sketches that make fun of Night of the Living Dead, but it's more like watching a bad Saturday Night Live episode after all of the excitement of All Filler. An episode, perhaps, with Gwyneth Paltrow.

All of these skits are funny in their own way. Lovers of sarcastic, mocking, and sardonic humor will love All Filler and The Night Shift, while people who like more mainstream humor will enjoy Cupid Players and Unexpected Productions. However, placing such different groups in succession on one DVD will always leave some of the groups at a disadvantage. Some have higher budgets, better cameramen, better sound, and always, different senses of humor. Viewers will enjoy some of the skits, depending on their senses of humor, but are unlikely to enjoy all of them because of these distinctions.

Three stars.