So when it comes to televised comedies, “Wonder Showzen” outclasses perhaps even the extraordinary likes of “The Venture Bros.” and “South Park” when it comes to that all-important laugh-per-minute ratio. Wonder Showzen: The Complete Second Season is a marvel of poor-taste hilarity for seven of its eight installments.
In “Body,” The letter P becomes a victim of deliciousness, seeks the aid of the DeVictimizer, and is haunted by her own extracted cellulite. A needy, runny-looking clump of fecal matter seeks someone to love it, and finds that someone. (“Do this doody!”) Mr. Body eats a child’s lungs. Clarence loses his eyes in “Please Don’t Film Me.” Beat Kids chats up many comely Miss Connecticut contestants. Aunt Flo gives a little girl a tour of the little girl’s own vagina.
In “Knowledge,” residents of Chinese Girl Baby Atlantis are replaced by underwater murdered Indian girl babies. A slow-witted America-puppet snips off puppet privates. Beat Kids visits veterinarians to learn how pets are neutered. The first appearance of a trailer-trash parody of “Hee-Haw” (or is “Blue Collar TV”?) turns up, and Amy Poehler and David Cross turn up to help. As Beat Kids looks on, a real focus heaps praise upon “Horse Apples.”
In “Justice,” Chauncy becomes a cruel plantation owner who goes on to literally sodomize The Holy Bible in an American courtroom. A lost nebbish wanders into a bad neighborhood and is transformed into He-Bro, who can produce – among many other things - man-milk. Beat kids visits a pharmacy. (“How many med schools do you have to flunk out of to become a pharmacist?”) Clarence asks for opinions on “the issue.” (“You going to shoot a little dessert in my mouth?”) Wonder Showzen Preemies keep killing and reviving each other. The “greatest generation” is thanked.
In “Science,” Wordsworth’s nightmare escapes and Chauncy and Him have to invade his repressed memories. Clarence asks the homeless about what constitutes the American dream. A youngster is mocked for not putting down his rabid pet. Beat Kids visits Ground Zero and asks if we can ever again. (“You just knocked down the twin towers of my funnybone.”)
In “Cooperation,” a desperate Chauncy buys a bootleg version of “Wonder Showzen.” When Clarence kills his bootleg doppelganger C. Laurence with a powerful optic blast, the Showzen gang goes to war with its own knockoffs. When an angry A nine crashes into an eleven. Hit Children asks about experiences in the public bathroom. D.O.G.O.B.G.Y.N. returns to help the fetus inside a doomed murderess. The Wishing Care Foundation seeks to help terminally ill children. An imperiled David Cross tries to tell a story about a bunny rabbit. The show ends with a trisected screen offering three times the comedy simultaneously.
In “Horse Apples,” “Wonder Showzen” is replaced by 2.3’s hillbilly-happy show-within-a-show. Guest stars include Todd Barry, David Cross, Judah Friedlander, Zach Galifianakis and “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” vet John Glaser.
In “Clarence Special Report,” the bug-eyed dinosaur puppet lets the camera run as ordinary people on the street, backed with the sad and dramatic music of composer Nico Muhly, endeavor to manifest compelling television.
Plus? Clarence outtakes, “Beat Kids” outtakes, a “Beat Kids” featurette, commentaries, a storybook, super-annoying games, an hour of time-wasters and the karate-slap sound effects remain intact.
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