Bloggasm

In the short-lived television show Freaks and Geeks, the main character — Lindsay Weir — is often dogged by an overly-enthusiastic aged hippy guidance counselor named Jeff Rosso who is humorously unaware of his lack of hipness. In scenes that epitomize teenaged awkwardness, Rosso does things like lecture Weir on teen sex by admitting to his own encounter with herpes (the cold-sore kind, rather than the one associated with STDs), and relays lessons to her and her friends by grabbing his guitar and playing the songs of 70s contemporary bands. His own cluelessness and sincerity makes for an endearing and funny character that represents the vast distance between adults and teens, specifically within the education system.

Rosso was played by an actor named Dave Allen who co-stars in the new half-hour Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show on Comedy Central. Allen appears alongside actor David Koechner, who you might recognize from his roles in such films as Anchorman (where his character routinely engages in misogyny and sexual harassment) and Snakes on a Plane (where his character routinely engages in misogyny and sexual harassment), and the television show The Office (where his character routinely engages in misogyny and sexual harassment).

Allen and Koechner begin each show in front of a live audience — sometimes seen half-heartedly clapping to their jokes but never laughing — as the Naked Trucker and T-Bones, respectively. As can be inferred from his name, the Naked Trucker is scantily clad with only a guitar to cover his nether regions. The show, presumably, is supposed to mock and satirize blue-collar culture, and does so with back-and-forth banter between the two characters and intermittent skits — a style popularized by Chappelle Show.

The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show is, quite possibly, the worst comedy on television.

This statement might sound like hyperbole, especially since it faces stiff competition in the worst category by the likes of Carlos Mencia and Larry the Cable Guy, but at least those two comics have a niche audience who would find their humor funny. Mencia’s jokes appeal to a frat-boy mentality which has been sanded dull by white middle class political correctness, something that makes his statements sound “edgy.” Larry the Cable Guy cashes in on a redneck’s bizarre desire for brutal self-deprecation, and though he is a blatant caricature, he still manages to pass off as a real redneck to those who don’t know any better.

The Naked Trucker and T-Bones show, on the other hand, tries to engage in redneck humor, but their portrayals of hillbillies are magnified to such an exponential degree that they’re a parody to an already over-the-top parody. T-Bones plays the uneducated bumpkin, a foil to the Naked Trucker’s articulate finesse. A typical dialog between the two involves T-Bones saying something inevitably stupid and illogical and then the Naked Trucker responds with a robotic, over-rehearsed insult to T-Bones’ intelligence. Someone should enlighten the trucker then that it’s somewhat difficult to portray the rational character while being naked and appearing as the exact opposite. Like a number of recent other bad comedies, the show employs the use of a particularly fake laugh-track even though it’s not a sit-com, the laugh-track’s typical venue.

For some reason that escapes me, the pair have managed to snag a few guest appearances from big stars, including Will Ferrell and Jack Black. Rather than elevating the quality of the program by their presence, the show seems to drag the guest stars down, and one can almost detect a reserved pity on Black’s face while he hashes out his lines. Perhaps this was a case of them agreeing to appear in a show without realizing how bad it really was.

It would be too easy to predict this show’s imminent cancellation in the near future, but I’m not one to underestimate Comedy Central’s ability to drag a bad comedy on way past its expiration date. Mind of Mencia still seems to be going strong, and it took years before Colin Quinn’s Tough Crowd reached its deserved demise. How long will T-Bones’ unintelligible fake redneck vernacular haunt us on our television screens as we watch it with the fascination of those who slow down for car wrecks? I only hope that Allen might find his way to reviews like this one and come to his senses. Maybe he’ll force the show to commit figurative Seppuku. Until then, I’ll likely keep watching the Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show with morbid fascination, wondering if they will up the ante and somehow make it even worse.

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