Dog Bites Man (Comedy Central, 2006)IMDB LinkOnly once during this one season (nine episodes) cancelled show did my face slightly form into something that might have eventually been taken for a half-smile. Rest of the time I was stone-faced and would have stopped watching it if I did not already have the first season, and figured I might as well just go through it.
Here is how you can know that the show creators did not know what the fuck they were doing. It is a sort of mockumentary about a fake TV crew and having them interact with real people who are not aware that the show is a comedy, kind of like “Ali G”. However, it is actually not obvious that the real people are not scripted actors, and it seems I am not the only person who did not get that, because starting from episode five they actually mention that the people are real. If it has taken them five episodes to do that, then how much do they really know their audience?
Not very much, because it is not funny at all. The show seems to have watched better similar shows and decided that putting people in awkward situation is funny. It is, but only if it is done right. All the show does is interview random people, say something stupid, and then zoom on their face while they don’t say anything.
Comedy is not so easy, guys. It is more complicated than a formula you think you understand.
Also, frankly, I’m getting sick of these kinds of shows. It’s frankly a bit mean to interview unsuspecting, nice, normal people and try to misuse their trust for the show’s own benefit. Even one of the actors, Zach Galifianakis (the best thing in “Hangover”), in the show agrees with this.
Below is something from one of his interviews, after the show was canceled.
“There’s a lack of honesty in doing Dog Bites Man. We’re going under this auspice of something completely different. That veil was what I was uncomfortable with. But I enjoyed doing it.
The same guy who did the Ali G and the Borat movie is also the producer of Dog Bites Man. And I actually talked to Sacha Baron Cohen about this. The difference is Sacha is going after, especially when he’s doing Ali G, people of power. We were just whoever we could get, we’re screwing with them. And there was a different element.
What me and the cast members wanted was to look stupid. I feel like we did a lot of times but also at the expense of making other people look quite stupid.
There was a time, Todd, when I cried during an interview. I was so not wanting to be there and I got really upset. And I started sobbing.”1/5
