Product Details

• Actors: Tom Konkle, David Beeler, Stephanie Stearns, Gino C. Vianelli, Michael Neill
• Directors: Tom Konkle
• Format: NTSC
• Region: All Regions
• Studio: Pith-e Productions
• DVD Release Date: June 9, 2008
• Run Time: 118 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001AX6JOC
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #361,443 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gut Wrenching, June 23, 2008

By 

Jon Miles "Mileschauvin" (washington dc) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Archaeology Of Comedy (DVD)

Tom Konkle and Dave Beeler are comic genius. Why they don't have their own TV show on cable yet is beyond me. In this rare and funny ensemble show, TARC, causes you to cry with laughter. Like their predecessors Monty Python the lines stay with you for days afterward, you find yourself mumbling to yourself and people look at your strangely, but then they smile. I'd put Tom/Dave and crew up against Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, SNL, Mad TV anytime. The Archaeology Of Comedy is a jewel, a wonderfully comic turd in the toilet bowl of propriety. And while there is no "funny bone in the fossil record" I heartily recommend digging this as soon as possible.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional Smart Underground Sketch Comedy, June 20, 2008

By 

Brianna "Comedy Nut" (Studio City,Ca) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Archaeology Of Comedy (DVD)

The Archaeology Of Comedy

Comedy for people without A.D.D. Smart, sometimes languid, scenes that are subtile, dry and require a surprising amount of attention and thought from the viewer whose intelligence is assumed and only occasionally wonderfully insulted. The sketches they have within the sketch that is the main show can be fast and funny, but Dave and Tom are a throwback to a time when comedy teams Cook and Moore and Bob and Ray took time to present a silly, egghead kind of comedy that you listened to as much as watched. I loved it and on a low budget they have a richness and layers of surprising comedy in the DVD. What's even more remarkable is the two main actors and the cast are also chameleon-like in sketches with the "lost" troupe performing then the show will analyze their own work pretending there is some significance and great mystery to it all. Intellectually they occasionally make a great point about comedy and overall its a very silly, fun comedy. The cast is uniformly terrific and talented. The writing sharp, extremely witty and funny. The sketches are great and on a limited budget it is nice to see the ideas exceed the money rather than the other way around. I recommend buying it just to see a documentary that makes fun of documentaries while being as smart as the audience for which it is intended. Hilarious.

Here is a review I found by reviewer on [...]

Where does humor come from? How did it evolve over the ages? What was the world like back when wild dinosaurs and clowns roamed the plains together, side by side? What was the first joke and was it funny? Just what is this thing called `funny'?

The Archaeology of Comedy: the Search for Funny is yet another brilliant entry to the Theater of the Absurd, a magnificent romp through the hilarious surreal world of comedy that so well defines Dave & Tom. Technically Archaeology was their first foray into web shows and thus carries some of the duo's best skits. Later shows such as Invention with Brian Forbes and Safety Geeks: SVI continued their particular fuse of Anglo-American humor, but it was with Archaeology that it all began. The short segments are loosely stuck together with the overall theme of a BBC-esq documentary series (or think Discovery Channel on crack).

It was also here that Dave & Tom established their British alter-egos. Tom's Sir Doctor George Flightus in Archaeology bears a striking resemblance to Sir Reginald from Invention, and Dave's Richard Lagina must be undoubtedly related to Brian Forbes. Both deliver a quasi Received Pronunciation accent, with Tom's crawling deliciously out of his nose, while gumming out hilarious non sequiturs.

The skits are a crosscut of nonsense that are pointless to to explain: they have to be seen to be believed. Often complicated and elaborate, shot in a studio and even on locations, sometimes silly and at times unexpected intelligent and then suddenly just plain naughty. Sketch humor classics at their best come to mind, everything from Monty Python, Little Britain to SNL (the early years), but this comedy team does establish its own flavor of funny.

Dave & Tom have a fantastic cast backing and often leading the sketches, the very talented Gino C. Vianelli, Michael Neill and the hilarious (and gorgeous) Stephanie Stearns. You may even spot Safety Geeks: SVI's Brittney Powell in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it Viking moment. But it is the combination of the writing, acting and timing that makes this a great show to watch and great comedy team to watch out for.

After all, they're the only one's who dared to `kill a joke'. And you'll have to see it to know what I mean.

5.0 out of 5 stars A new kind of silly awesome, October 8, 2011

By 

M. Smith (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Archaeology Of Comedy (DVD)

This Monty Python level satire of history channel shows is a lot of fun and an excuse for some smart and smartly acted sketch comedy.

Delightfully nostalgic yet unmistakably original, you''ll be glued to your screen as they take a look back on "this business of funny." From prehistoric pornography to poetic clowns on mountainsides, after watching Dave and Tom you''ll agree that history has never been this much fun. A spoof of BBC and Discovery Channel documentaries that promise to reveal a great mystery

Its worth a look.