Wonder Showzen

by **Ted the dog** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 4:20 pm

Has anyone seen this show? this is really bizarre. I saw David Cross from Mr. Show mention it several times in an interview. It's on MTV 2 I guess, (I saw it online), and it's a kind of spoof on modern children's shows. they use puppets and real children to make their points. here's an example...they have a child (no more than 9 years old) dressed in a hitler costume walking through central park interviewing passersby....the kid walks up to a man wearing a business suit and a cowboy hat and asks, "Who's hat symbolizes more oppression, yours or mine?" and the cowboy hat wearing guy glumly says, "They both represent oppression to some degree...but you killed yours faster and in greater numbers." Then the camera cuts away and cuts back and you just see the hitler kid and the cowboy guy staring at each other for a minute straight...then the cowboy asks, "What's next?" and the child says, "I'm trying to blow up your brain with my mind." There's another one where one of the puppets and one of the children fly a rocket into space and meet god. god has blown up the earth because he "...didn't like the way the crackers were treating the black man". For the fate of the earth, the puppet plays god at paper rock scissors...and wins. The earth is restored. God gets depressed because he's "...never lost anything before" and it "...feels terrible...like being a loser.." God ends up blowing his brains out with a shotgun, only to be eaten by all the puppets and children back on earth. another one is a montage of famous landmarks like the pyramids in egypt, mount rushmore, etc. while the montage is going, they have super-imposed children dancing on the screen with the words "SLAVES!" popping up every few seconds. The music is like a pop jingle theme song kind of thing that says, "SLAVES! built the pyramids! SLAVES! built the railroads! SLAVES! built mount rushmore!" and so on. there are some really funny parts to this show, but it could easily be offensive to a lot of people. I'd be interested to see what everyone here has to say about it. it's a good example of something that seems horrific and shocking and offensive, but in reality it's holding a mirror up to american values. Depends on what you think of as subversive I guess. I have to see more before I can make a judgement.

by **FourthBase** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 4:27 pm

Easily the most fucked up show I've ever seen. Some of it is genuine subversive commentary. Some of it seems like it's literally trying to warp your brain with surreal nihilism.

by **Ted the dog** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 4:28 pm

here's the official website from MTV2: <a href="http://www.mtv2.com/#wondershowzen">www.mtv2.com/#wondershowzen</a> here's a fansite: <a href="http://www.wonder-showzen.com/">www.wonder-showzen.com/</a> imdb: <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0450357/">www.imdb.com/title/tt0450357/</a> wikipedia: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonder_Showzen">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonder_Showzen</a> Wonder Showzen From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search The Wonder Showzen logo.Wonder Showzen is a sketch comedy television series airing in 2005 on MTV2. It was created by John Lee and Vernon Chatman of PFFR. The show's format is that of children's shows, such as Sesame Street or The Electric Company (e.g. use of stock footage, puppetry, and clips of children being interviewed). However, Wonder Showzen parodies the format in a very adult-oriented manner. In addition to general controversial comedy, it satirizes politics, religion, war, and culture with black comedy. Despite the warning that airs at the beginning of each episode; stating that the show is "not appropriate for viewers under the age of 17", Wonder Showzen has attracted quite a large teenaged audience. Recurring skits include interviews with kids (who give irreverent, controversial answers), kid reporters interviewing adults in a segment titled 'Beat Kids', and man-on-the-street interviews by the puppet Clarence (voiced by Vernon Chatman, who also voiced the character Towelie in South Park.) Clarence has a knack for harassing New Yorkers with innocent questions. Every episode also features short animated cartoon segments. Wonder Showzen was originally developed and pitched to the USA Network. After about five minutes of viewing, executives at the USA Network said that there was no way they could air the program. However, Viacom was re-branding MTV2 and made Wonder Showzen part of its new programming lineup. It aired as part of Sic 'Em Fridays, along with Team Sanchez and Jackass spinoff Wildboyz. The pilot was named simply Kids Show. The Wonder Showzen theme song is still 'Kids Show'. MTV released the first season of Wonder Showzen on DVD on March 28, 2006. The second season of Wonder Showzen premiered on March 31, 2006 on MTV2. It has also recently aired on Comedy Central.

by **Ted the dog** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 4:40 pm

"Easily the most fucked up show I've ever seen. Some of it is genuine subversive commentary. Some of it seems like it's literally trying to warp your brain with surreal nihilism. " yes!...the nihilism...I'm reminded of the one where one of the puppets is interviewing people on their smoke breaks and I think at one point it asks one of the smokers, "What if you die tomorrow?" and the guy answers, "God I hope so...I hate this life." and the camera cuts out. I do like the way the show is presented though... as a commentary on children's entertainment. It's all a rapid fire barrage of insane imagery, songs and sounds colliding and cutting each other off...a very realistic depiction of children's programming in 2006 America. even the theme song is cut off before it can properly end! recently I had to go out of town for a wedding and in the hotel I watched a little TV . I haven't had pay cable or basic cable in about 3 or 4 years now and watching the "Fox Kids!" programming for the first time was just fucking insane. It was exactly like Wonder Showzen... just sounds and noises and commercials all colliding and smashing together into one giant twisted audio/visual mindfuck. I couldn't watch it for more than 5 or 10 minutes without getting annoyed and irritable. obnoxious, poorly animated cartoons, horrific commercials, loud noises and epileptic fit-inducing flashes of bright colors.

Wonder Showzen

Wonder Showzen

Yeah

...

...

Who is online