Cynical Cinema

“I am a racism connaisseur.” 

Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist was a bizarrely-animated Comedy Central TV series featuring a type of computer animation dubbed “squigglevision”.  It’s a rather disconcerting style, where the inanimate objects look normal, but the outlines of the people are constantly “squiggling” around.  It’s too bad that the animation is so obnoxious and distracting from what was otherwise an excellent show.  And the best of it is here on this DVD. 

When they say “the best of”, they really mean “the biggest stars to appear on the show”.  Everyone on the show appears as “themselves”.  So when Denis Leary comes on the show, he is really playing Denis Leary, just in a cartoon therapy session.  Most of the superstars on this disc are basically doing their standup routines, just in the context of a therapist’s chair.  For some of them, this really works.  Like Dave Chappelle, whose bit about being the only black guy on an airplane is still one of the funniest bits I’ve ever heard.  The extra pictures that add to the routine are fantastic, like the little graph he pulls up that shows the statistics on terrorists taking black hostages, versus white and hispanic and oriental ones.

Patton Oswalt’s bit is hilarious, where he tries to convince Dr. Katz that he functions better if he has someone to hate, and that he would like Dr. Katz to be his nemesis.  It’s an inspired bit, where he keeps asking the therapist to be more evil, and maybe tent his fingers some.  Also great are Sarah Silverman, Janeane Garofalo, and Conan O’Brien.  There are a few misses, like the bit with Julia Louis-Dreyfus where she does the whole session over the phone, and keeps having to go to the bathroom. 

Overall, this really is a funny DVD, and a great collection of the best Dr. Katz moments.  It’s just too bad about that annoying animation.  The Best Of Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist comes out Tuesday, December 2nd, from Paramount Home Entertainment.

The Best of Comedy Central Presents was a DVD containing the “best of the best” of the show - Lewis Black, Mitch Hedberg, Dane Cook and many others all showed up on the DVD with their absolute best stand-up material from the Comedy Central Presents show. But there were some weak links, and I questioned, at the time, whether this really WAS the “best of the best”. It clearly wasn’t, because it looks as though there are still more DVDs on the way. The Best Of Comedy Central Presents, Volume Two comes out today, August 26th, from Paramount Home Entertainment. It’s better and more consistent than Volume One.

Dave Attell kicks things off with a terrific set - filthy, self-deprecating, with lots of gay humour and small-penis humour. Then Mike Birbiglia does a solid bit, making himself into the Busta Rhymes of comedy - the parts where he ends jokes by yelling out his own name is priceless. Frank Caliendo has a set which is short on content but long on celebrity impressions. A guy this good at impressions can get by without too much content. Zach Galifianakis is OK, with a mostly musical set that has a few laughs. Stephen Lynch then does an even-more-musical comedy show, one that is very funny and contains many filthy lyrics and references to Satan. Also referring to Satan is Patton Oswalt, in a very funny set dealing with dating and double standards. Oswalt is currently best-known as a regular contributor on Lewis Black’s Root of all Evil show, one of the funniest shows on television. Perhaps the biggest surprise here is Nick Swardson, best known as the creepy guy stalking Jon Heder in Blades Of Glory, whose stand-up is very close to that character, but is far funnier than that movie. And Daniel Tosh closes things out with the weakest set on the DVD.

Altogether, this is a much more consistent DVD than Volume One of The Best of Comedy Central Presents. There is only one weak performance, and there are only two half-decent ones. The other five are terrific, and each 22-minute set is different enough from the others that it flows nicely. If you’re going to sit down and watch three straight hours of comedy, The Best Of Comedy Central Presents, Volume Two, is a pretty good place to start.