I lost a bet and now I have to watch Allen Gregory

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > I lost a bet and now I have to watch Allen Gregory

get that OUT of my face: Feb 10, 2007

you poor, poor bastard

for the safety of this thread, please don't watch the show along with the OP. it is super bad (reference to the movie with Jonah Hill not intended)

# ¿ Apr 14, 2017 05:55

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# ¿ Apr 24, 2024 11:57

get that OUT of my face: Feb 10, 2007

sexpig by night posted:

Allen Gregory is yet another brick in the 'conservative humor doesn't exist' wall

You're giving Allen Gregory too much credit. There was no political agenda behind it, Jonah Hill was just inspired by Kenny Powers and wanted to make a show with an irredeemable main character. He just missed a very important element: audiences want to see these characters get screwed over. Kenny Powers, the Always Sunny gang, the Seinfeld crew, Sterling Archer, Forrest MacNeill in Review... the list goes on. All of these characters aren't liked by anyone and circumstances always work against them. Even when you have main characters who are flawed but not terrible people (Larry David in Curb, Abbi and Ilana in Broad City), it's still funny to see them on their asses at the end.

Off the top of my head, the only main characters that don't fit that mold are Rick in Rick and Morty, the four women in Girls, and Allen Gregory. Rick and Morty is more of a plot-driven show, while the other two shows are irredeemable garbage because heels like Hannah and Allen never end up worse for the wear.

get that OUT of my face fucked around with this message at 06:20 on Apr 14, 2017

# ¿ Apr 14, 2017 06:13

get that OUT of my face: Feb 10, 2007

Space Cadet Omoly posted:

�.so yeah, turns out Lex Luther is a sexual predator who stalked, harassed, and emotionally abused Johnny Football into being with him. There�might be some way to make that situation funny? Maybe?

There isn't.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2017 19:17

get that OUT of my face: Feb 10, 2007

I remember seeing one episode when it aired out of morbid curiosity. It was terrible, but I don't remember what it was about.

Tellingly, the ~~best~~ least painful episode was the one where Allen's mother comes back and trashes him all the time. It would be the show's way of saying "gently caress you, you little poo poo," except that's not the point of the show.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2017 20:30

get that OUT of my face: Feb 10, 2007

The jokes about Allen Gregory wanting to gently caress the principal make no sense whatsoever. There's no rationale behind it other than "lol a 7-year-old has a thing for grannies."

I wanna say the episode I saw was the "mandatory gay prom" one, but I don't remember exactly. I posted about it in the thread (yes, it existed) so I'll have to dig through the archives.

Edit: I had the first non-OP post in that thread and I made a horrifying discovery. I've made my fair share of bad posts in my ten years of posting on SA, but this is the worst thing I've ever posted. I want to go back in time and punch my past self for making this post.

Also, there were 13 episodes of Allen Gregory produced. It was canceled to make way for the second season of Bob's Burgers and the Napoleon Dynamite cartoon, so the world (especially the OP) was spared from more unspeakable horror.

get that OUT of my face fucked around with this message at 01:59 on Apr 16, 2017

# ¿ Apr 16, 2017 01:48

get that OUT of my face: Feb 10, 2007

Looking through the old thread: yes, I watched through the "mandatory gay prom" episode. My takeaways were "I was too bored to be offended," "not a single joke lands," and "they used a South Park-esque 'I learned a lesson today' moment to say that being gay is a choice."

If you have archives, you can watch the reactions to the episodes as they aired right here.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2017 05:01

get that OUT of my face: Feb 10, 2007

BioEnchanted posted:

I'll admit I enjoy Jonah Hill in the stuff that I've seen (never had any interest in Superbad) where he's a side character or villain. I loved his performance as Tighten/Hal in Megamind and enjoyed him in Wolf of Wall Street as well. I have no idea what made him think that this show was a good idea in the first place.

He also has a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Moneyball, so Jonah Hill is actually quite good when he's not the center of attention. Something to mention: he got said nomination a month or so after Allen Gregory got canceled and when The Sitter bombed at the box office. Remember The Sitter? Neither do I, but they were talking about it in the thread.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2017 18:35

get that OUT of my face: Feb 10, 2007

NoEyedSquareGuy posted:

It's really, really bad in a way that's impossible to enjoy even ironically. It evokes nothing more than disgust, and I hope the seventh episode ends with Allen Gregory being thrown into one of those giant industrial shredders.

The seventh episode is the worst one. It's the epitome of Allen Gregory getting everything he wants and not facing the consequences of being a horrible little poo poo, and it even ends with a rape joke.

# ¿ Apr 17, 2017 06:28

get that OUT of my face: Feb 10, 2007

The next episode is the least-bad one. The last one... well, I already told you.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2017 20:50

get that OUT of my face: Feb 10, 2007

bunnyofdoom posted:

Wait, hang the gently caress on, what is with all the rape as a humour thing? Like Lex Luthor and Johnny Football, the teacher, and all that. Is Jonah Hill a rapist?

The archived thread had an excerpt of an interview he gave with AOL, and he thought it would be funny to have a show like Eastbound and Down- a show he loves- where the main character doesn't eat poo poo at the end of every episode. He also mentioned that if he were given the opportunity to make more episodes (the show wasn't canceled yet when he gave it), he'd lean in even harder on the show's moronic concept. Thank God Fox didn't give him an opportunity.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2017 07:15

get that OUT of my face: Feb 10, 2007

Blazing Ownager posted:

See, terrible people getting away with poo poo I'm OK with. I've laughed my rear end off with Seinfield plots and Sunny plots that have the main characters being massive douchenozzles and getting everything they want. I think where this piece of poo poo show differs, and fails is that the creators don't realize how awful the main characters are, possibly because the creators are awful people themselves. They think they're clever, where as again on a show like Sunny, it's very very clear that the people creating the show developed their characters with eyes wide open and aren't under any delusion that they're the good guys.

In the case of Always Sunny, it helps that a lot of the time, some or all of the gang eats poo poo at the end of an episode. Also, they're all in hells of their own making (i.e. Frank living in squalor even though he could easily afford a better place to live, Dennis's oversized ego that blinds him to what others think of him). In every episode of Allen Gregory, everything bends to his will, and the show expects us to cheer for him. That's asking way too much from the audience.

It's not that the concept alone makes for a bad show, but there other factors that have to be in play. That's why Always Sunny has been on for 12 seasons and Allen Gregory was canceled after seven episodes.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2017 05:05

get that OUT of my face: Feb 10, 2007

If Allen Gregory is a dumpster fire, Chozen is a garbage can fire- not quite as bad, but definitely not good. I like to say I'll watch anything that involves Hannibal Buress, but between Chozen and his short-lived Comedy Central show, maybe I should step back from that promise.

I watched one episode, the one where they go to a strip club and Hannibal's character ends up getting a lap dance from a girl nicknamed "Onion Pussy."

# ¿ Apr 22, 2017 08:53

get that OUT of my face: Feb 10, 2007

FactsAreUseless posted:

Also, Always Sunny is really funny.

Well, yeah. Sitcoms with awful protagonists usually are because they get those details right. Jonah Hill thought it was funny to have Allen Gregory work like this, and he was sorely mistaken.

Propaganda Machine posted:

There was a thread a whole back where somebody toxxed themselves into watching and reviewing Last Man Standing, and people dared each other into watching and reviewing horrible television. I think I ended up with an episode of The Goldbergs, and it delivered. Both of those shows are bad and worthy of mockery.

I heard a description of Last Man Standing and I'm astounded that a show with such a regressive view of society just wrapped up its sixth season, albeit on a Friday night slot where networks just dump a bunch of crap. The Goldbergs is just "Let's Capitalize On '80s Nostalgia: The TV Show," which is bad, but not quite as awful.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2017 21:10

get that OUT of my face: Feb 10, 2007

Propaganda Machine posted:

The Goldbergs is just an unfunny sitcom with schlocky "aww everything's okay now" solutions to non-problems that the family creates for itself.

So it's almost every TV sitcom ever up until the late '80s or so? There's a reason why they died out.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2017 00:12

get that OUT of my face: Feb 10, 2007

You Are A Elf posted:

Brickleberry had THREE seasons, not two. There is no God.

I once watched like fifteen minutes of Brickleberry because a friend of mine had it on once. It was just "Teenage Edgelord Humor Disguised as Park Rangers: The Show."

Needless to say, we're no longer friends.

I still hate that Brickleberry got three seasons while Ugly Americans, a much better show on the same network that aired during the same span of time, just got two. Granted, Ugly Americans didn't have the clout of Daniel Tosh behind it like Brickleberry did.

twistedmentat posted:

There was also Perfect Hair Forever which felt like someone who once saw a cover of an anime DVD and decided to do a parody of it, but then it only was like 4 episodes or something? I also had no idea Squidbillys was still going after 13 seasons.

You know what I loved, even if it was basically just a reskinned Archer? Moonbeam City. It only got one season, but I read it was really expensive, which probably not surprising because the core cast was Elizabeth Banks, Rob Lowe and Kate Mara. It had the most amazing soundtrack and I became a big fan of Night Club because of it.

I saw all 10 episodes or something of Perfect Hair Forever and it's a dumb but fun anime parody. I hope there's an Adult Swim show that revisits the concept.

I love Squidbillies. With Aqua Teen done, it's the last remaining link to the older era of Adult Swim (although Mike Tyson Mysteries feels like it could have been right at home in the block's first years).

MoonBeam City got less Archer-like as it went on, and it's a shame that it got canceled, not to mention unceremoniously dumped to a 1am timeslot(!) in the middle of its run.

Space Cadet Omoly posted:

Pacific Heat

Now this show is (was?) a wholesale rip-off of Archer. There's not a whole lot else to say about it, really. Watching one episode and writing about it will give you an idea about the whole show.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2017 05:58

get that OUT of my face: Feb 10, 2007

Leonard owns and so does Doug.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2017 15:53

get that OUT of my face: Feb 10, 2007

Wimp.

# ¿ Apr 29, 2017 07:22

get that OUT of my face: Feb 10, 2007

Chozen was terrible, MoonBeam City got better by the end, and I know absolutely nothing about Unsupervised. So my vote for the next show goes to Unsupervised.

According to Jonah Hill, what makes Allen Gregory funny is that he's an insufferable turd, always gets his way, and learns nothing from being terrible. Does that sound funny? It sure didn't strike a chord with audiences, that's for sure.

Maxwell Lord posted:

The best part of Perfect Hair Forever was the Prince of All Animals whose job was to deliver all the insane idiotic exposition that makes no sense.

Also the Cat-Bun Wars.

You don't understand!

# ¿ May 1, 2017 07:49

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# ¿ Apr 24, 2024 11:57

get that OUT of my face: Feb 10, 2007

more like Hamstack

# ¿ May 2, 2017 05:51

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > I lost a bet and now I have to watch Allen Gregory