I've seen a handful of threads on /r/television over the last couple months slamming Comedy Central for a lack of original programming. Some of the threads have started talking about the fact they'll play 4 hour blocks of That 70's Show/South Park/The Office during the day instead of standup like they used to. While I can't refute that point, the conversations I've seen then evolve into criticizing their original programming as well, which I don't agree with.
South Park is the flagship series for Comedy Central originals. Sometimes it kind of gets lost as a CC original because Matt and Trey are larger than life, but it's CC's anchor and South Park continues to put together quality episodes. This has been one of the biggest shows of our generation and set the bar for CC originals.
Broad City is arguably their flagship comedy 2.0 in terms of cult following and critic ratings. Season 4 was a little celebrity heavy for me as the show increased in popularity, but season 5 has been good at getting back to form. I'm sad we only have a few more episodes before the series finale, but Broad City has been a fucking outstanding show since the first episode. I love my wife for many reasons, but a large one is getting me to watch this show. 4 AND 3 AND 2 AND 1 1. She also got me to watch The Wire ... she's pretty okay.
Tosh.0 might not be as popular as it was when it first debuted, but the show remains really funny. Admittedly, the format hasn't changed much but I essentially view this show as a millennial AFV. That format never changed from its core and neither has Tosh's: watching stupid videos of stupid people doing stupid things. Doesn't need to be any deeper than that to keep me entertained. Plus Tosh is a surprisingly solid interviewer as well to add another good layer to the show.
The Daily Show is another longstanding CC original. I personally haven't seen any Trevor Noah episodes because I'm more of a John Oliver guy, but plenty of people still watch. I can't speak to this much first hand, but feel obligated to include it in this list given its history.
Drunk History may have lost a little bit of its charm from the original web series, but the Comedy Central format continues to be hilarious. They always have great comedians, both telling and reenacting the stories that keeps the show engaging. A few episodes ago started with Thomas Middleditch playing John Muir which is everything I fucking need in my life. This show is equally fun to watch while drinking and devolve into a mess together.
Corporate is one I've been enjoying the hell of. This is more anecdotal but when Workaholics (another CC original) was on the air, I was their age and very much identified with it: a few years removed from school, working my first real job, and trying to be taken seriously at work while holding onto my party hard phase. Old Man Ders got me through my 25th birthday CITY BREAKDANCER MAN. Aaanyway, when I saw commercials for Corporate, I looked at it almost like a Workaholics 2.0. I was in a different phase of my life and thought I'd identify strongly now that I'm around their age (I think?), working a serious job and into my career. I've definitely had a few moments of pretty sobering identification like working for a large corporation, answering e-mails all fucking day, and justifying an expense report but it's more over the top than most jobs which has allowed the show to carve out a dark humored niche for itself. The side characters are zany like most good comedies and has definitely become a weekly favorite of mine.
The Other Two is only 5 episodes into its first season and has been outstanding so far. I saw Drew Tarver do improv with Ben Schwartz a few months back and gave it a shot since he was really funny. Shoutout to Gil Ozeri who was also doing improv with them and is fucking amazing. But imagine my luck when I tune in for Drew Tarver and both Ken Marino and Molly Shannon have supporting roles! Maybe I'm just a sucker for Ken Marino but sign me the hell up. It's a funny premise led by a phenomenal cast; I wasn't familiar with Heléne Yorke going in but she's another standout. I'm really excited for more of this show - only regret is picking it up so early and not having more to binge through in 1 sitting. The also end each episode with "The Other Show" which is essentially their own 5 minute Talking Dead. Definitely seems a little ballsy to start those in season 1, but it's been cool to learn more of the show regardless.
Comedy Central Roasts also technically count as originally programming even though we seem to only get 1 every other year lately. Traditionally I'm a big fan of the roasts but the Bruce Willis one fell really flat for me. The Franco one was pretty great though so I'm not writing the series off or anything, just hope they don't follow the Willis path.
Comedy Central Presents (aka The Half Hour), The Jim Jefferies Show, The President's Show, and This is Not Happening are also all considered current CC originals according to Wikipedia, but I've never seen any and can't speak to them.
I've been enjoying their originals so much lately I just started Detroiters (a CC original that aired for 2 seasons and was cancelled last year) and while I'm only 5 episodes in, that show is funny as fuck. Similar to Corporate, it can be super zany and off the handle, but the 2 main characters kill me. I was sold by episode 2 when the security guy was giving his pitches about cops shooting people and Chris Brown's dick. Also a shout out to Secret Girlfriend that was one of my favorites but I might be the only person in history who watched that show. But I digress.
This turned into a wall of text from my original idea but the hypothesis stands: Comedy Central really continues to put out quality original shows. The shows might not be super popular or pull in ratings (yikes I just looked and Broad City has never had more than 1m viewers for an episode and Thursday's episode had 0.251m which was the lowest rating they'd ever pulled in) but the point remains. If you're willing to seek them out, Comedy Central still produces some quality, fresh, and unique originals that are worth watching.
Submitted February 28, 2019 at 11:00AM by LutzExpertTera https://ift.tt/2Hdz2Cv
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