Last night I watched Popcultured, the new half-hour "comment on popculture" comedy show with Elvira Kurtz on The Comedy Network.
I thought it was pretty bad. Not funny to me at all. I'm not really sure what the format is supposed to be, but there was far too much single person monologuing going on. And none of it were very interesting, nevermind funny.
Elvira really needs to stop smiling and appreciating the humour of what she says. It's not good when the performer gets the biggest kick out of the material. Her opening monologue was dull and full of fairly tame Jay Leno type current event jokes. Later, she did a bit on lip injections which basically culminated in her making faces at big pictures of celebrities. Cheap and boring and bad.
Other segments included some woman's review of The DaVinci Code (or, rather, a review of people's perception of it, I'm not really sure what it was about, truthfully) and wasn't nearly as smart as she thought it was. Another woman did another monologue opinion-piece type thing that I wouldn't even be able to remember if I was hypnotized specifically to bring up that memory. Some guy did some on location video piece on gift bags at the Junos, and it was surprisingly bad. Surprisingly bad in a show where expectations had continually plumetted, so that at the point when his segment came on "bad" was the expectation, and it still surprised me. So, that's pretty bad.
Then Elvira interviewed some celebrity reporter from, I think, The National Post, and it was a terrible segment. Appallingly full of entirely nothing of value in any entertaining way.
And the show ended.
The production was poor. I don't know whether it was live, but it sure looked live, because words were stumbled over far too often (if it was taped, the director would/should have, a number of times, stopped the taping and had the performer speak more clearly). No interesting set design to speak of. It's also not good when a tv audience hears only a smattering of laughter from the studio audience. It sounded like there were about 10 people in attendance. Either get enough people to fill the room and get them to be very generous with their laughter, or cut the audience laughter out entirely. It sounds bad when it sounds like so few people laughing.
They really need to rethink the "you do your funny bit segment, then I'll do my funny bit segment, then you do another funny bit segment, etc." routine and come up with some interesting look and feel. As the show was presented last night, there was no flow, no direction, no focus. It was just people saying things about things. Standing and saying things. Things that weren't that interesting. The show desperately needs a look and feel and format.
How about getting some sofas, chairs a couple of TVs and turn the set (which is now basically "Nothing") into a giant funky living room. It's the living room where people experience pop culture so it makes sense to talk about it there too. Instead of the "I do my segment, then we cut to your segment, then cut to another segment" style, have the half hour unfold in a more informal manner, and let the segments flow naturally from one to another, with the other cast members on hand all the time, sitting around on couches, chairs, eating pizza or whatever.
As it is now, Popcultured is not worth anyone's time. It's cable-access bad, and The Comedy Network needs to be airing better Canadian programming.
here is the review for the show from eye magazine which pretty much says it all, got it thru ottawa comedy resource.
(Ottawa Comedy Resource, "Wow, before it was just a snide bullet in their eye-arts comedy listings. Now it's a full-blown bitchslap.")
POPCULTURED WITH ELVIRA KURT Live taping. Audience arrives Mon-Thu, 6:30pm. Free. Toronto Film Studios, 629 Eastern. 416-849-0063. Popcultured is one of those shows that comes along once in a great while that is so incomprehensibly bad, you find yourself waiting for the camera to pan out revealing an appalled Jason Bateman watching it on his set as some sort of clever comment on the state of the TV nation. But no, this is a real show, with stand-up from Elvira Kurt as stale as that joke about her comically foreign mother thinking her daughter's Lebanese she told for the first decade of her career. The show's schtick -- what if the hosts of Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood just snapped one day and said exactly what they were thinking? -- falls flatter than Debra Messing as one unfit comic after another tries to deliver abysmal, uninsightful and fatally unengaged material with the sort of utter absence of screen presence you expect only from German accountants talking about the decline of the euro, and Ben Mulroney. Do these people actually watch TV? An incompetent show written by untalented writers, performed by embarrassingly inept comics. The funniest thing about the premiere episode was their guest, a guy who came in third or fourth in last year's Canadian Idol. Their second guest? Homunculus-about-town Shinan Govani. And that about wraps it up. BERT ARCHER
(FURTHER DOWN EYE ARTS LISTING)
MON. 25th. POPCULTURED WITH ELVIRA KURT See Thu and despair.
TUE. 26th. POPCULTURED WITH ELVIRA KURT See Thu and run.
i'd sa this is to cruel if it was any other show but popcultured really is this bad.
no wait it's much much worse!
Posted by: someone in vancouver is funny! | May 17, 2005 at 07:03 PM
popcultured is a big miss indeed.
Posted by: i agree | May 21, 2005 at 04:29 PM
we're very sorry! for all the awful shows we've made over tehe years, especially for mike bullard and his lesbian student elvira kurt.
but see, what happened is this. the government gives us big grants to make shows so we make whatever is cheap using our friends to make it. the shows do suck but hey they are allrrady paid for so you can't blame us for keeping them on tv until they leave us and go to global or until our funding is cut off. and our funding never gets cut off because the governemtn can't cut off funding ot a canadian network and canadian tv shows. this set up is perfect for us.
ther is absolutely no reason for us to have to make a decent show you see!
we buy cheap reruns from america and cbc's ten year old kids in the hall and air farce and just for laughs episodes. and we make the canadian comedy shows we have to make because of our grants. but nobody says any of it has to be good.
so sorry for all the awful shows but you know you can turn the channel or turn off your tv. even if you do this is how we will keep running things until the end of time because our jobs are safe.
get ready for twelve more years of popcultured! then maybe we'll bring bullard back. who cares right?
Posted by: the comedy network | May 25, 2005 at 01:02 PM
Yup...makin' us Canadians look bad. As Jimmy said somewhere above, I'm usually not one to Google a product or service and complain about them, but there's no need of Popcultured clogging up the Entertainment drain. It's patriotically embarassing.
Bad writing, bad smatterings of laughter, bad attempted recoveries by Elvira, but supporting 'comedians'...just BAD!
Shame on the Comedy Network if the producers there don't see what the rest of the country does in Popcultured. Being in the Funny Business should involve spotting a sense of humour.
Posted by: Hawky | May 25, 2005 at 04:49 PM
hear hear!
get that bad show off my tv now!
Posted by: bup | May 28, 2005 at 04:21 PM
I agree, popculture is an awful show. The humour is really dull and I fell asleep watching the 2nd episode.
Posted by: TJ | May 31, 2005 at 01:41 PM
I don't like PopCultured. It makes me scream swear words at my TV.
Posted by: GG | June 01, 2005 at 07:14 PM
Somebody started an online petition to get Popcultured off the air. I forgot to copy the address but if you find it you should sign it, assuming you hate it like I do.
Posted by: wanpow | June 02, 2005 at 09:22 PM
I don't think we need the personal attack of the people on the show as some seem to be doing.
The big problem is the bad writing of jokes for the show and not how people LOOK or act on it!
And remember you can turn off if you don't like it!
Personal mean attacks will not help any one.
Posted by: Lia Pham | June 02, 2005 at 09:29 PM
Lia
Allow me to explain something to you, ms. sensitive idiot:
If someone is going to get paid to saunter around and use their imagination for a living then great! They scored. They got the privilage of living a life many strive and dream of, so if you are willing to stick yourself out there then you better make sure you are wittier, funnier or whatever more then the dozens/hundreds who don't make it. If you are not, you must be prepared to get verbally, socially and mentally slapped around. Thats the price of "fame".
So YES , it does matter how someone looks on TV and definately 100 percent matters how someone fucking acts.
I did critisize her fashion (hair) as being deceiving and outdated, as someone pretending to be enlightened. I guess you must have the same hair or something for you to get your back up. I don't think you're very enlightened, either.
Posted by: graham | June 03, 2005 at 09:57 AM
Nothing personal, I just get the sense that you personally know the folks on the show, or think her stand-up is good or something. Maybe some like it, but I don't and I'll express that.
Don't misinterpret me either by thinking I'm saying she's not pretty enough to be on TV, I'm not, I just have a feeling that her fashion is part of the reason that she is a small 'c' celebrity. It must be, because she doesn't have good timing or a great wit and there's only so many reasons someone gets their own show ( she seems to have enough integrity to not sleep her way onto the comedy channel).
Posted by: graham | June 03, 2005 at 01:32 PM
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Posted by: Canadaian TAXPAYER | June 04, 2005 at 12:11 AM
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Posted by: Canadaian TAXPAYER | June 04, 2005 at 12:12 AM
HERE IS THE PETITION
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Posted by: Canadaian TAXPAYER | June 04, 2005 at 12:12 AM
Sorry. That wasn't cool. I only meant to do it once :(
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/elvira22/petition.html
Posted by: Canadian TAXPAYER | June 04, 2005 at 12:14 AM
Sorry. That wasn't cool. I only meant to do it once :(
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/elvira22/petition.html
Posted by: Canadian TAXPAYER | June 04, 2005 at 12:15 AM
a few have mentioned not liking the personal attacks on this show, but i am willing to keep it personal....elvira kurt sucks ass...she is so untalented i feel embarassed for her while watching....and yes, i can just turn the channel but unfortunately i am a devoted watcher of the daily show, and the comedy network knows enough to place popcultured all around it....if i ever meet anyone who works on this show i will definitely be sure to keep it personal....they should be ashamed of themselves....painful.
Brian
Posted by: brian paul | June 05, 2005 at 11:53 AM
Popcultured is the worst thing I have ever seen on TV.
Posted by: Steve Coleman | June 05, 2005 at 08:41 PM
The Eye magazine review is 190000% right. This show is a complete dud.
Posted by: Mahmet Yasseffi | June 06, 2005 at 05:36 PM
Popcultured is like smearing poop all over your TV screen for half an hour.
Posted by: Jokey Hackburger | June 06, 2005 at 08:30 PM
To be fair I watched a segment last night I didn't hate. Maybe cause I just got high... maybe I should cut down on the drugs..
Posted by: graham | June 07, 2005 at 09:04 AM
popcultured blows monkey ass.
Posted by: cc | June 09, 2005 at 10:36 PM
No Popcultured EATS monkey ass!
Posted by: anonymous | June 13, 2005 at 01:08 PM
Why does it seem as though people with no taste are the ones who think they have the best taste and feel that everyone should share this taste. I like popcultured, I even like Elvira's stand up. The show is about crap, and what do you get when you paint a piece of crap?...A painted piece of crap. YOU DON"T LIKE IT BECAUSE YOUR crappy existence is made fun of! The show is a mirror of you Blog heads! It pokes fun at you! It is funny, choppy sometimes, but funny. It paints the Crap you are.
You Pussies should go back to watching Everybody loves Raymond.
Oh yeah that show is over cuz it sucked, and so do you.
Hugz Bitches!
Posted by: opywon | June 17, 2005 at 05:29 PM
A show about crap doesn't have to be crap, opy. I agree that a painted piece of crap has little value. But there might be merit in an impressionistic painting of crap. Unfortunately, the PopCultured shows I've seen (admittedly few) have bee little more than paint-by-numbers.
Posted by: Rob | June 17, 2005 at 06:14 PM