Is the Ben Stiller show the least funny show ever?
 

First of all, I never saw it during it's original run (wow, that's a surprise).

I heard some great recommendations about it, so I bought the DVD.

I'm watching a bunch of sketches and I have yet to even crack a smile, let alone laugh.

Is there something wrong with me? Or would I have appreciated it more back during it's original run?

a lot of the stuff seems incredibly dated.

Is there any skit in particular that is REALLY, REALLY laugh out loud funny that I should try?

I feel like there is something wrong with my sense of humor, because I just think this is the dumbest crap I've ever watched.

This was one of my favorite shows in its all too brief life. Fox had several good comedy shows that were shelved before their time. (Another one I really liked was "The Edge.")

Some of the skits are a bit dated, but the one I remembering laughing the hardest at was where he plays Oliver Stone to promote an amusement park based on his movies.

Die Hard 12: Die Hungry, Skank, The Pig Latin Lover, The No-No-No Guy, Manson, Michael Pheret the Agent, Melrose Heights 90210-2402.

Did any of these make you laugh? If not, my condolences on your passing.

The Andre Agassi Made-For-TV Movie had me on the floor.

re: Is the Ben Stiller show the least funny show ever?
 

Yes.

Unless you plug your DVD player in..

Ben Stiller, Bob Odenkirk, David Cross, Andy Dick, Janeane Garofalo, and Judd Apatow. If this show had lasted longer, it probably would've been the best sketch comedy show ever.

Do you like Mr. Show? What about the sketches from the first years of the MTV movie awards, which Ben Stiller helped create?

The Vietnam Vet Wheelchair Bumper Car ride. :lol:

My favorite was a little skit called "The Grungies" a parody of The Monkees, except with a band just like Nirvana.

I saw the show during the original run as well as The Edge. Both were great for way back then and were ahead of their time. I figured most people at the time didn't "get" the joke.

A little known fact, 'The Ben Stiller Show' is the only show to ever win an Emmy for writing after it was cancelled and off the air. Whoops.

I love the show and most of the skits mentioned above. Other great ones...the Springsteen memories sketches and Tom Cruise's one man show.

There's nothing wrong with the show, you just apparently have the least funny sense of humor ever. The show on the other hand, is brilliant and hilarious.

just an observation...
 

That show is one of those sacred cows around here that it simply doesn't pay to criticize, because you're going to get snowed under, just like this.

Just piling on: it's a great show.

Stiller does an awesome Bono :lol:

advantage agassi?

nope, didn't laugh once.

:(

No, Magic johnson had a show back in the 90's that was the least funny show ever.

I'd add the Chevy Chase talk show to that list. :)

Re: just an observation...
 

It's a sacred cow because it's a funny show. Loved it all. Even reading the skits above is making me laugh out loud.

So, I'm going to pile on, too. Great show!! Loved it in its original run, even though my local Fox affiliate kept on pre-empting and moving it around, so it was hard to find.

I got this on DVD for Christmas, but still haven't had a chance to watch it. With such praise here, I will try to watch some of it in the next couple of days...

My favorite skit would have to be the "Let Go Clinic with Tony Bobbins." Man, that had me rolling when I saw it on its original run and it still gets me today.

"Step Four: I hypnotize you with my teeth and you pay me money."

Re: Is the Ben Stiller show the least funny show ever?
 

With this question alone, did you expect to get any other answer than what has been posted so far? Your subject line only attracts fans of the show. If it doesn't make you laugh and you are SO pressed for time that you're not willing to watch it all the way through, I'd suggest selling it on half.com and moving on - Otherwise something IS very wrong with you. Jeez! -rolleyes-

p.s. Funniest show ever...

Blue & White Shampoo is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Anything involving Manson gets me going, especially the "bloopers" of Odenkirk performing. Oliver Stone Land, Melrose Heights, PJ O'Pootertoot's (?), great sketches, very good show. It's a shame you don't enjoy it.

Of course it's dated. I can't really think of any sketch comedy that doesn't try to be timely. They all start looking dated after ten years because they are usually making fun of current events and pop culture. That doesn't make Cape Fear starring Eddie Munster any less hilarious though :D

Maybe they just don't have enough explosive diarrhea jokes for you. You're not into their low-brow humor.

no, no.

I'm quite low brow.

I usually like Ben Stiller. I loved "Meet the Parents." I laughed out loud through most of the movie. I loved "There's Something About Mary." I laughed out loud through most of the movie. I liked "The Royal Tenenbaums." It was a good movie, but I didn't think it was laugh-out-loud funny. And I hated Zoolander.

Obviously, people loved his show. But, are you saying that because you liked it back when it was on the air? Maybe it's just something you can't get into ten years later.

I can't be the only one who thinks it's overrated. Someone's gotta back me up here.

It's overrated to a point. I bought the dvd after only seeing a few of the sketches on Comedy Central. I really liked it and am glad I bought it, but there's a few whole episodes where I didn't laugh at all. Overall though, Stiller's "do it" guy, his spot-on impressions of Tom Cruise, Bruce Springsteen, Al Pacino, Robert Deniro, etc. were worth the price alone.

I think you just have to be in the right mind-set. My wife didn't laugh once either, but I was rolling during most of the skits. To each his own I guess.

Good luck with the sense of humor thing :)

There's your problem right there. The Ben Stiller as of late (Meet the Parents, Something about Mary, Along Came Polly, Envy) is pretty much the unfunny, punching bag character of his, much like the persona he portrays in the interviews during the Ben Stiller Show(although those are actually sometimes funny). This character was funny the first time I saw it in film(Flirting with Disaster), but has since grown tiring, primarily because Deniro is no hippe Alan Alda or Lily Tomlin. Cable Guy, Heavyweights, Reality Bites and Zoolander are much more the kind of humor that the Ben Stiller show is about and by far what he does best, which is either caricature(Heavyweights, Zoolander) or social and pop culture satire(Cable Guy, Reality Bites). If you like former set of movies over the later then I don't think you will like the Ben Stiller show as much.

It is sad that I think that he is going to continue with his Meet the Parents(see his Curb Your Enthusiasm stint as well as Meet the Fockers) persona as that makes him money, while Zoolander doesn't. Hopefully Starsky and Hutch will be good as that seems much more like Zoolander, but it may be too over the top.

I watched many of the episodes when this intially aired. At the time the parody of the U2 video was hilarious, but a lot of it fell flat for me. I imagine a great deal of the enjoyment would come from the familiarity of the stuff they're making fun of. I'm curious to see them again to see how my tastes have changed.

I watched six of the shows last night, and I loved them. I can see that there are a number of bits really dated, but overall they still are funny to me. Great blind buy for me.