‘The Jeselnik Offensive’ Tries Too Hard To Be Offensive

The Jeselnik Offensive, hosted by Anthony Jeselnik, makes a point of being offensive. Actually, that’s the show’s entire schtick. It gets old fast. You shouldn’t be uncomfortable to laugh at a joke when you are alone, yet Jeselnik loves uncomfortable laughter. Jeselnik’s onstage persona is extremely punchable. It’s a mixture of Daniel Tosh, Craig Kilborn, and British comedian Jimmy Carr, who is one of the few people to pull off shock comedy well.

Most of his jokes are offensive because they are not funny. Asking your audience to turn off Amber Alert on their phones is in bad taste. Following it up with a joke about Usher’s son almost drowning in a pool is horrible. When he finally does get to a joke in poor taste that would be funny coming out of a comedian who would show some remorse, he’s already gone way too far.

Jeselnik told a joke about Chelsea Handler, who is Jewish, finding out that her father fought for the Nazi’s in World War II on Who Do You Think You Are?, but that Chelsea lightened up once her midget came out dressed like Hitler. Anyone who has ever watched Chelsea Handler’s show knows she would probably find that funny because it’s true. (It also helps that her father wasn’t a Nazi, was only in the German military because the Nazi’s had mandatory conscription, and spent most of the war as a prisoner of war in the United States.) The joke would have been funny coming out of, Chelsea’s friend, Conan O’Brien’s mouth because he would have immediately dropped his hand, brought his hand to his nose, and apologized or said “I’m an ass.” Conan also wouldn’t follow up with more jokes that make him look like a sociopath.

After the monologue, Jeselnik presented “Who Wore It Better?,” which is just an excuse for him to say things like Christina Aguilera is “a ten pound genie in a five pound bottle” and Oprah Winfrey makes him throw up. People say rude things about Christina Aguilera all the time, so while it wasn’t funny, it’s par for the course when a celebrity gains weight. However, Jeselnik missed the memo that saying someone makes you want to throw up isn’t a joke.

When it’s time for the panel, Jeselnik repeatedly introduces the segment with long sentences that contain the word panel multiple times, not always in places that make sense. The panel segment was most likely added so that Jeselnik and his comedian friends can act like jerks and get paid for it. This particular episode had T.J. Miller and Eric André. All it consisted of was Jeselnik mentioning a news story, which is followed by the group making tasteless jokes about it. For example, Jeselnik mentioned a story about a town made up of mostly sex offenders called Miracle Village, André responded with “man, if i was a horny, gay eight-year-old who was into older men that place would be a f***ing miracle.” Not exactly high brow stuff here.

Once the panel segment is over, Jeselnik introduces a segment that is supposedly a recap of the episode’s best segments. It’s really a fake outtake and a short bit about an odd game show with a really long title. Neither clip added anything to the show, but one of them would have had to be amazing to rescue this show from the trash.

About Allison Lips

I am the Toastmasters District 83 Public Relations manager and President of Freehold Phrasers.

Posted on August 14, 2013, in Cable, Comedy, Comedy Central, Primetime, Talk Shows and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.

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