Customer Reviews

Wonder Showzen - Season 1

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

In a culture where everything is ironic and everyone is trying to be shocking, it's difficult to find anything in entertainment that actually feels new and original. Wonder Showzen is one of those rare programs that has managed to push it's way past everything else and demand to be seen. The humor is refreshing and nothing is sacred or off limits. Some people may find some of the storylines and shorts to be highly offensive, but that is simply because they're not thinking about what the creators are really trying to say, and yes, the show is funny and entertaining, but there is some very deep social commentary being made in each episode.
Unfortunately, someone at Paramount Pictures (the company that is distributing the DVD) decided that some of the social commentary needed to be silenced for this DVD release. During the "Ocean" episode, there's a great animated short called "H.O.B.O. Opps". The short is about how America always fails to take care of their war veterans. And even though the veterans in the short are from the Vietnam war, their situation can be applied to how many of our current veterans from Iraq are coming home wounded and unable to pay their bills and medical bills thanks to our inadequette health care system. Two parts of this short have been cut from the DVD. First, the audio of one of the hobos urinating in public was removed, in the hopes that now the viewer wont be able to tell what this character is doing. And second, the end of the short was cut altogether. If you catch the rerun on MTV2, it ends with a young boy asking his mother "who that man was talking to" and she tells him to ignore the man. The camera then zooms in on a tear rolling down the boy's face that has a reflection of the American flag in it and the flag bursts into flames. This was the perfect way to end the short and it really drives the artist's message home, but it's gone from the DVD release, which is a shame. It amazes me how conservative people in this country who claim to be so patriotic, are always the first to try to censor or ban opinions, speech and art that differs with their beliefs.

So, I love Wonder Showzen and highly recommend it to everyone who loves cutting edge comedy laced with truth and social commentary. However, be aware that this set is edited so be sure to watch the show on MTV2 to get the full experience.

Easter Egg Instructions:
If you would rather hunt for these easter eggs on your own then STOP reading now, otherwise...

Press enter on your DVD remote at the following times...

Disc 1:
The THIRD Nobody Needs Me text in Birth
VERY beginning of first Tyler Time in Ocean
VERY beginning of second Tyler Time in Ocean
Beat Kids logo at the end of Beat Kids Song in Diversity
Beginning of Breaking News of Nature episode

Disc 2:
Beginning of Breaking News of Health episode
50 years later text on screen during first half of Patience
Kramdar text on screen during backwards portion of Patience

WONDER SHOWZEN - Season 1.
-
This show is Genius... absolute genius! Wonder Showzen takes a dark, satirical look at what we are really teaching our children (?)
During the average episode it will have puppets interacting with children in sesame street style antics and of course going out on the street to ask people questions (The Clarence skit about Patience is priceless!), funny little cartoons (`Bible Brew... What would Jesus Brew?') , strange voice-overs old educational footage (Like the chicken dinner factory...) and my favorite segments with the children doing interviews... titled BEAT-KIDS (`Kids on the Street, Kids on the beat, Beat-Kids! Beat-Kids')

All in all, this is a priceless disc like nothing you have ever seen or could imagine trying to describe it is damn near impossible...
I lies somewhere between the witty satire of `The Daily Show' mixed with the raunch of `South-Park' and presented by kids that are too cool for Sesame Street. Just Freakin Awesome!!!

-If you like dark, twisted comedy and you don't check this out, you are less of a person.

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I'm not going to talk too much about the show, but it's absolutely great with all sorts of hilarious moments, from the very short punch line sketches like the slaves song to Chauncey's dishonest actions to the cartoons like Segregation works because it has to and tradgedy farms milk.

The DVD has lots of extra features.
Disc 1:

Commentaries: The commentaries have very little to with the episodes.
Steven Hawking (Space): Obviously not him, but sounds like his electronic thing and says lots of weird things.
PFFR (Diversity): Just music by the band played throughout the episode.
Dick Gregory (Nature): He has some funny things to say but it is mostly political advice for young people. There is one section where he is censored to make a very scientific part of the commentary sound like he is saying lots of bad words.

Easter Eggs:
Not sure how to access them from the menu (if possible) but they are Titles 7-11 and easily accesible through Windows Media Player
7 - Chauncey and the Letter N sing a song about things that start with N.
8 - An extended scene with Tyler with the feather in the straw hut.
9 - An extenstion of Tyler doing the silly walk down the street.
10 - A kid interviewing in the studio some guy who is the "president" Very weird and funny.
11 - The producers talking to a kid about a jaguar. Also very weird and funny.

Disc 2:
Commentary:
Gordon Lish (Patience) - Sounds like he's having a conversation at a restaurant with the creators and they do their own little Patience repetition and a couple of other words that sound funny but I have no clue as to what they mean. Is played backwards during the second part of the episode and fast during the speed part.

Extras: The menu page has a kid (I think the one who does the air guitar during Slaves and might play a guitar in the series doing a "DVD extras" song.

Auditions and Outakes: Several minutes of interaction between the producers and the kids in the studio scenes, a couple of extras with Miss Amy, one where the kids are all skeletons and another where she arranges the dead baby thing with her husband, and Rufus Truthfist getting the teens to say something that a dirty mind can make very inappropriate.

Beat Kids Outakes: Has some extra scenes for the five best beat kids (the 4 with Trevor and the Petting Zoo). Some of the questions make absolutely no sense.

Clarence Outakes: Has some more funny Clarence things.

Promos: short little clips of season 1

PFFR Music video: has all the crazy animation like during Chauncey's trip on imagination.

Sneak peak of a second season cartoon: it's alright, about retarted people who are superheroes, don't do anything heroic and are still praised for their work

Storytime with Flava Flav: Probably the funniest thing on the whole set. Definitely not appropriate for Television.

Some previews for other MTV DVDs

Easter Eggs: Titles 14-16

14 - The kids teach you how to make a sandwich. With a variety of kid personalities.
15 - Clarence gets the old Asian guy from Patience to say some stupid things.
16 - A girl counts down from 100. Another patience tester.

For someone who taped all of the episodes on DVD thinking that this show would be cancelled like so many other good shows, just the extras make the price of this worth it.

First episode I saw, I thought the show was racist, INCREDIBLY TASTELESS, offensive, overall insulting and completelly disrespectfull towards every single moral value of our society. I thought also the show as it was should be banned and maybe taken off the air. Then, a week later when I saw another episode I was laughing so hard I could barelly breathe.
This show simply has no limits in itself about taboo subjects, it's very political and very raw/blunt/limitless. The people that make this show besides obviously being on drugs while writting it, they also just don't care about ANYTHING whatsoever, meaning that they won't give a damn if anyone gets insulted by anything they are saying or potraying. For a little example, almost every single show has a sex scene between puppets.
This show breaks every single moral rule and yeah, it will get you pissed, it will make you angry, it will ofend you, mostly you will be saying time after time " I cannot believe they said that" or "did that". That's why this show is so entertaining.

If you haven't seen this show, just imagine the TOM GREEN SHOW, JACKASS, ANDY MILONAKIS, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, MAD TV, CHAPPELLE SHOW and SESAME STREET, all mixed up, times a MILLION and WAY MORE EXTREME than any of these shows together.
Yes, it's that good.
Also, I forgot to mention that the show has a very fast pacing, everything happens so fast that you will miss 99% of the punchlines 'cause some of them are so ahead of it's time that you will have to give it a minute. Also, VERY SUBLIMINAL. Very fast images, hidden content ( like pictures flashing at 1 frame per second ) reversed talk, reversed audio messages.
THIS SHOW IS NUTS.
BUY IT, BUY IT, BUY IT, BUY IT.
This is the BEST SHOW EVER DONE.

The casual viewer may not be ready for the brilliant comedy of Wonder Showzen. Think of Sesame Street...on acid. Puppets, cartoons,the children, they are all here comically pointing out the sad but true dysfunctionality of capitalistic America. Not since Beavis and Butthead has mtv had a good tv show especially considering all the cheesy pop(they call it hip hop)and reality tv show crap they play 24/7.Its almost artistic the way Wonder Showzen is done, the segments flow right into one another,I wont say anymore about this show just get this dvd.

I tore something in my lung I laughed so hard. Had to shut it off and heal up for a few more days.

Consists of 8-9, 30 minute episodes. The pilot ep was mostly cut-up and reused in the balance of the 1st season run.

Great absurdist parody of children's programming. Does for "Sesame Street", what "T.V Funhouse" did for "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood". The narration on the tour footage alone is amazing. The Hotdog factory and the Farm together is probably my favorite 5-6 minutes of footage in TV history. Especially a treat for any generation X'ers who remember the grainy footage on the 70's era PBS kids shows.

There is one klinker episode, and the rest of them poke a lot of fun at the same religious and racial issues - to the point of being somewhat repetitive and exclusionary of other topics, but still more creative, funnier, more subversive, and better than any (and I mean "ANY") mainstream comedy out there.

Definitely worth the time and money. Seek. Buy. Watch. Laugh.

Puppets having sex: FUNNY
According to Jim: NOT FUNNY
Beat Kids: FUNNY
D.O.G. O.B.G.Y.N : FUNNY
Joey: NOT FUNNY
Wonder Showzen: FUNNY!

Wonder Showzen is insanely funny, I dont' get mtv2, so I had actually only seen 2 episodes before I bought this, and, just thinking about some of the skits I start laughing. This is the best random offensively hilarious show since the dearly departed Strangers With Candy.

Wonder Showzen is an educational program for children. With childrens' programming, there is a sensitive boundary between laughter and learning. Wonder Showzen is 'hip' enough that kids will be both entertained and enlightened - the show is so colorful and energetic that the lessons will never bore them. For example, slavery is normally a sensitive topic for kids to be exposed to, but Wonder Showzen turns this notion on its head by showing kids dancing around to a catchy singalong in celebration of the fruits of slave labor: pyramids, the Parthenon, and America. Elaborate but important concepts are condensed and made easily digestible, as when we learn about America's honored 'pay-to-play legal system'. A favorite segment of mine shows children how to accept life's catastrophes in the context of God's will - whether it be a car crash, or two countries having an ethnic rivalry - just smile and chalk it up to God having one of his 'biggest boners'. If and when I have children of my own, this is definitely what they're watching every morning before school.

Amazingly enough, this sometimes ridiculously offensive show is one of those things that brought me and my current girlfriend closer together. We would spend many a summer night getting a little tipsy and finding delight in seeing Wonder Showzen on late night MTV2. It was hilarious, especially to someone like me, who is quite the cynic when it comes to "everyday" humor. This DVD gives you all the great moments from the first season, and a few nice little extras. For instance, there is a section of auditions for the show. I hold the belief that Tyler (the perfect child)'s character is based DIRECTLY off of his audition. He seems like the darling child that his parents molded him to be, and it is hilarious that his segment is a bit of a mockery of other children like him. There are a lot of moments in Wonder Showzen that people will not find funny unless they have at least some understanding of the way America really is. Yes I said it, Wonder Showzen sometimes shows a level of sophisticated humor rivaled only by quality satire such as The Daily Show or The Colbert Report. That being said, I must admit that the rest is just tripped out, crude awesomeness that should probably only be watched at night or under the influence of something.

Unless you want to expose your children to graphic violence, puppets having sex and an 11 year old dressed like Hitler interviewing people out on the street. BUT, for adults with a twisted sense of humor, the show is a masterpiece. It follows the classic Sesame Street format, but dirties everything up for the late night crowd. You won't learn much from this show, but you will most certainly laugh non-stop. Very wrong and very funny. A must own for fans of sick and twisted humor.