New Fox Cartoon Needs Night Class in Comedy

I never was a 'King of the Hill' fan. Nothing against it– I watched it when nothing better was on and it was funny, but not my type of humor. I like 'Frasier', if that helps. No wonder I didn’t notice that FOX has canceled the show, the second longest-running animated show in America. D’oh! 'The Simpsons' are first. Hank Hill fans can watch creator Mike Judge’s new cartoon on ABC this Fall. In the meantime, ‘Arrested Development’ is back on FOX. The critically-acclaimed– no, critically dry-humped show was canceled by some network exec, likely the same cokehead who axed ‘Futurama’, ‘Family Guy’ and ‘Gumbel & Gumbel’. But enough fans complained that FOX had to return the show to the air. Except now instead of ‘Arrested Development’ they’re calling it ‘Sit Down, Shut Up’ and instead of it being about the Bluthe family it’s about a school. And it’s now a cartoon, all the characters are different and it’s no longer funny. But other than that, exactly like ‘Arrested Development’.

‘Sit Down, Shut Up’ was conceived by ‘Arrested Development’ creator Mitch Hurwitz. Based on a live action Australian ‘The Office’ knock-off, Hurwitz eventually changed to an animated format– another example of outsourcing the jobs of American actors to third-world animators. Mitch recruited writers from ‘The Simpsons’ and ‘Two and a Half Men’, which I am told is some sort of sitcom and not, as I had supposed, about two police detectives, one of whom is a conjoined twin.

Jason Bateman returns as the leading man. Will Arnett and Henry “The Fonz” Winkler, who worked with Hurwitz and Bateman on ‘Arrested Development’ reunite to provide voices, adding Kenan Thompson, Will Forte and Cheri Oteri, all from Saturday Night Live, to round out the cast. Oh! The guy who does Spongebob Squarepant’s voice is on the show too!

However, from the beginning the show fails to deliver on all that potential. The pilot episode introduces the characters, replete with double entendre names– Principal Sue Sezno and a German teacher named Mr. Deutschebog, just to name a few. But that’s it– nothing funny happens. Subsequent episodes do the same, build up hope for a great pay off of funny, but never deliver. Watching this show leaves me with comedy blue balls. Luckily it’s part of FOX’s ‘Animation Domination Sunday’ lineup, so Seth McFarlane can give me some release. I won’t give up on ‘Sit Down, Shut Up’ just yet– FOX plans to air the full season before deciding the show’s fate. If a coked-out executive can be that patient with a show that delivers cheap, easy, high-school level jokes, I can too.