From YouTube.com user: tv12673

For something to be funny, there must be truth behind it so people can identify with it; it must also have some irony in it, and it's gotta go over the top just enough to make you understand that it is parody and, Heck, to make you laugh. This one by YouTuber tv12673 , AKA The Quattlebaum Comedy Troupe, really nails it. This one is entertaining and funny. !Yo quiero! (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

The Chuck Chair

This satire (in the video above) of the sleazy pseudo docu-entertainment show "True Hollywood Story" follows the life and death of that adorable Chihuahua we knew as 'the Taco Bell dog'.

He recited those words that became famous in America a couple years ago with his tagline spoken in his deep accented voice: "Yo quiero Taco Bell," until the phenomenon died down soon after. And apparently so did "Arnesto Martinez", the famous Taco Bell Dog.

This video is very well done, from the voice-over to the acting. But I do wish they would have left out the dog's paws in the act, trying to manipulate a razor and to hold money. It didn't work as it just looks odd, like someone glued the items to a doggy paw. It would worked better if that portion was edited out of those scenes because everything else in this video worked so well.

Angry Coach

Unfortunately this video is the only of tv12673's that works and the one we can reccomend watching. Their other efforts completely miss the mark.

They each want to be comedies but, well, they're not funny. You know when you tell a joke and no one laughs, and you feel compelled to tell your audience, "I guess you had to be there." I think that's what's happened here. The writer perhaps saw each of these situations happen in real life and he had good laugh to himself, then he tried to produce that humor in these videos. And they flopped. The angry coach is not angry enough, the "crazy advertisement" is not crazy at all, the fan is not any more fanatical than we've seen before, the librarian -- again is normal. The dwarf segment is just silly.

I do give high marks for the actors' exemplary portrayals of their respective characters. They are all pros. All the videos appear to be real scenes, with the acting so good that you don't believe anyone is acting. Unfortunately the writing makes these scene seem real. Nothing is over the top enough to clue us in that there's a joke or that we should be laughing or with anyone in the scene.

Angry Dwarf

There's no irony, nothing over-the-top. The scene is over, the credits role, and you say to yourself, "What did I just watch? A documentary with actors portraying real characters? I don't get it."

It's really too bad too because all the videos started out with a viable premise, but the writing needed a strong hand to add real irony and knock the audience over with big laughs.

And there's the rub. How many times have we gone to high school or college football games and seen a rabid fans, screaming at the field? It happens all the time. It's not funny.

Angry Librarian

Case in point: How many times have we seen customers ask for just a little too much help, or a student demand too much from a college library help desk? Awkward, but not funny.

Case in point: How many times have we seen rabid fans with painted faces, hair, bodies? Yep, it happens every weekend during football season in America. Reality. Not funny. "Fan" is the root of "fanitical", so we expect fans to be fanitical.

The title is "Crazy Fan" but he's not so crazy. He's a fan. I kept waiting for him to become a crazed fan. What if ... Now stay with me here ... How about a rabid fan who carries his fanaticism it into his personal life, also painting his face and tummy and screaming out encouragement during sex, or sitting in on his seventh grade sons' math class going overboard when his boy gives a correct answer,

Crazy Fan

"Woo Woo Woo!! That's my. boy!" Then on Friday nights we see this same guy go crazy for his football team. Maybe we even see him sniffing the players' jersey's in the locker room before the team comes in.

I'm not trying to re-write their scripts for these guys who obviously put a lot of effort into their professionally produced movies, I'm just describing what takes a scene from normal everyday reality and pushes it into the realm of irony and well, comedy.

I know, who am I to tell the filmmaker how to re-write his screenplay? Perhaps it's not my place. It's just that I was disappointed in each of their videos (except the 'Taco Bell Dog True Hollywood Story') because they all had so much promise and I wanted to like them. I wanted to laugh, instead I was confused.

Labels: access hollywood, aitkins, comedy, commercial, dog, football, hollywood, interviews, Taco Bell, TV