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Secret Girlfriend: Incredibly, as dumb as it looks

I'm really curious who's in charge of Comedy Central's programming decisions.

This is Comedy Central's newest show. If it was on at 2 am as an experiment to draw the 18-25 stoner male crowd, I could understand it. But if you're a CC viewer, even if only for the Daily Show/Colbert Report, there's no way you could have missed the insane amount of promotion this thing has been getting. And if you wondered, "Geez, that program looks so stupid there almost has to be something else to it," there's not.

Here's the gist:

The camera is you. You roll around with your two best friends, who can't think about anything other than getting laid. You have a lunatic ex-girlfriend and a new sane girlfriend the ex doesn't know about.

That's basically it. And in and of itself, this premise isn't exactly atrocious. Plays on stereotypes and whatnot, but if you do it right that's no big deal.

It's not done right. I can't even say it's done wrong; that would suggest whoever wrote it was trying. It's essentially a half-hour (in what glimpses I could make myself watch- the stupidity was hurting my brain) of the two best friends dragging the camera along, trying to get girls in skimpy clothing to wear less than the skimpy clothing, and that's it. And I specify that the camera is getting dragged along for a reason- they talk to the camera like it's you, but unless you can really get your mind into the concept of being a mute bodiless thing on a leash, it doesn't click at all.

Here's a shorter explanation: Remember that Carl's Jr. commercial with Audrina Partridge in the bikini that pissed some people off? It's a half hour of that, minus the smidge of clever wordplay.

Honestly, I'm not even sure what I think posting about this will do. Maybe it's because there are some people here who take complaining to businesses seriously and may let Comedy Central know how ridiculous and insulting this is. But I'm cynical to the point where the aforementioned CJ's commercial didn't trip me out one bit. I see stuff referenced all over this site that I know and believe is screwed up, but I have a hard time being outraged because the world has so much worse waiting in the wings. And yet I have to say something about this because, beyond the meat market premise, it's so revoltingly stupid.

If this was on Spike, I wouldn't care. I would expect it there. But Comedy Central? Their worst decisions tend to be giving stand-up comedians their own shows. The most "controversial" fare they serve up that I can think of is Drawn Together, which, while not for everyone, is pretty brilliantly done for what it is. And now they've made a show that can't even pretend to hope it will pull more than five female viewers in any given week. Even if loads of young, scantily-clad females don't bother you- even if you like it- the first-person perspective is set up in such a way that it's almost impossible to envision more than a severe minority of women actually getting something out of this show at all. That's a hell of a demographic to ignore.

And one night a week, this is the new lead-in to Jon Stewart.

Just... wow.

Posted by Spiffy McBang - October 13, 2009, at 12:16PM | in Media
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7 Comments

[0+] Author Profile Page gothhenge said:

As a regular viewer of Comedy Central (I love Stewart, Colbert, and South Park), I have seen WAY too many ads for this show. I'm not at all surprised to hear that it's as stupid as it looks. It's being billed as an "unapologetic" new show, which implies that they feel as though there's something they need to apologize for. Sounds like there actually is.

[0+] Author Profile Page Ian said:

The camera thing sounds like Blue's Clues for as you put it "the 18-25 stoner male crowd." The commercials were annoying, and honestly the show is idiotic and hopefully will fail in rantings. If not, then I have officially lost faith in humanity as a whole.

[0+] Author Profile Page Lilith Luffles said:

I saw the first few minutes of this show (I couldn't finish) and switched to Sean Hannity because he is less offensive and Rachel Maddow wasn't hosting her show last night. Yes, I'm serious.

What's really infuriating is the complete disregard for a female audience of any kind. Yeah, people don't usually think about their female audience when making any non-woman-oriented show. But this is so blatantly male-centered, it's so hard to believe and I wonder why Viacom put it on Comedy Central instead of Spike. This show should be retitled "Women are only good for being scantily clad and stared at."

[0+] Author Profile Page SociologicalMe said:

I couldn't even get through the opening credits of this one. I just made gagging noises until my husband changed the channel. He's a good guy, but way too willing to "give it a try." I can't believe this counts as a show- it's like a sexist aquarium.

[0+] Author Profile Page Toni said:

"I'm really curious who's in charge of Comedy Central's programming decisions."

That's what I thought when I saw the Jeff Dunham got his own show. He's not funny. Niether is Dane Cook. Okay, a few of his jokes are good but for the most part he says "fuck" a bunch of times to get people to laugh.

I'll stop now as I'm going OT.

[0+] Author Profile Page Spiffy McBang replied to Toni :

Anything that bashes Dane Cook is never OT.

I actually like Dunham's routines, but the show is going to be epic fail, just like Dmitri Martin's (latest example only).

[0+] Author Profile Page gothhenge replied to Spiffy McBang :

Dimitri Martin is awesome, though :( I'm sad his show didn't make it.

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