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Sit Down, Shut Up - A cartoon I can get behind

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Jason Bateman, Will Arnet, Cheri Oteri, Will Forte and Kenan Thompson in cartoon form? Sign me the f$%@ up. This animated series combines my three favorite things: the brain trust behind Arrested Development, pissed off/loser teachers and envelope-pushing comedy. In other words - Hilarious.

Sit Down, Shut Up is adapted by Michael Hurwitz (Arrested Development) from the Australian series of the same name. It follows a group of neurotic, self-absorbed, incompetent teachers and administrators through their lives in a high school (mascot: the Baiters). The group includes a pornography obsessed German teacher, a God loving- Evolution hating science teacher, a bisexual technology teacher, a grim reaper- like librarian, and an ego maniacal english teacher, among others.

The faculty want to do everything except teach. They take steroids, start hunger strikes, dig for money, and hide in the locker rooms to spy on the cute boys. Sounds like my high school.

What I loved about this show was the Arrested Development type humor in animated form. The jokes are often so obvious you miss them or are so in your face you think, "man I could have written that." Only you couldn't have and therein lies the genius. It is not easy to write an obvious joke and make it laugh out loud funny. Hurwitz and crew can and do. Mrs. Channelup put it great when she said, "I want this show to do well just because Arrested Development got screwed." Agreed.

Animated series are hit or miss. (This is half animated as the characters are cartoons but the backdrops are still photos). Cartoons need to bring it comedically because they can't rely on an actor or actress to carry them through sheer charisma. Sit Down, Shut Up hits the bullseye. I haven't watched the Simpsons in years and I catch Family Guy when I can, but I will make a point to keep this show in the queue as I can only see it getting funnier and funnier.
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  1. AnonymousApril 21, 2009 at 10:49 PM

    It is really funny and clever

    ReplyDelete
  2. Doug NorrieApril 22, 2009 at 9:14 AM

    One other thing I wanted to post about this show and its similarity to Arrested Development is the joke within the joke within the joke format. The humor on these shows often works on more than one level. That makes for rewatchability (if that is a word).

    ReplyDelete

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