Human Giant: Season 1

Hi,

I'm Aziz Ansari, one of the creators and stars of Human Giant and I can't recommend this show enough. Unfortunately, the Amazon editorial review is the only bad review of this DVD I've really seen. Don't listen to Bret Fetzer. He went to elementary school with me and I remember him being pretty racist.

Here's our A- minus review from The Onion AV Club.

Human Giant: Season One (MTV)

Reviewed by Nathan Rabin
March 5th, 2008

Fans like to bemoan the premature deaths of Mr. Show and Arrested Development, but both enjoyed substantial runs and left behind a lasting cultural legacy. A direct line can be drawn between the cult shows of the very recent past and the cult shows of today. Arrested Development found a worthy heir in 30 Rock, while the terrific sketch-comedy show Human Giant serves as a vital link between Mr. Show and the current generation of web-weaned funnymen who made their names posting homemade videos online instead of working their way through Second City, The Groundlings, or Saturday Night Live. The show's central dynamic echoes Mr. Show as well. Like Bob Odenkirk, Rob Huebel boasts the bland good looks of a local TV news anchor, yet there's a spark of madness and rage at his core. Castmates Paul Scheer and Aziz Ansari, meanwhile, take turns inhabiting the David Cross role.

Unlike Mr. Show, Human Giant isn't averse to recurring characters. Popular bits like "The Illusionators" (a pair of David Blaine/Criss Angel-like magical douchebags who are alternately astonishingly lamely mundane and genuinely magical) and "The Shutterbugs" (about intense, hyper-profane children's agents who become the brain trust behind the notorious flop Li'l 9/11) prove that in spite of what decades of Saturday Night Live suggest, the phrase "funny recurring character" doesn't have to be an oxymoron.

Like The Ben Stiller Show before it, Human Giant earns its MTV pedigree by being the kind of hip rock 'n' roll show where guest appearances by Ted Leo or Ghostface Killah are par for the course. In fact, Human Giant may be the only hip rock 'n' roll show left on MTV. The half-hour format suits its short, punchy aesthetic perfectly, but it's fascinating watching more than an hour's worth of excerpts from a 24-hour marathon where the cast of Human Giant and a gaudy procession of big-name guest stars (including Odenkirk) took over MTV and MTV2 for an entire day. It's a testament to the show's addictiveness that the excerpts leave audiences hungry for more. Given Human Giant's web-friendliness, it's also fitting that the full 24 hours can probably be found somewhere online.

Key features: Hilarious deleted scenes, live footage, a preview of season two, and amusing audio commentaries from the cast and selected guest stars.

A.V. Club Rating: A-

Sketch comedy hasn't been this brilliantly absurd since the Upright Citizens Brigade. Maybe the only sketch show that develops their recurring characters with each appearance rather than relying on the same jokes each time. Comparisons to "Mr. Show" is a little unfair as they have almost nothing in common besides being sketch shows, but that doesn't take away from the show's quality, it's definitely head and shoulders above any other sketch show on television today.

Bret Fetzer is a dick.

If there was any doubt that sketch comedy shows could work in the new millennium, Human Giant disproves it. I can only assume MTV was skeptical when these three hilarious young comedians came to them with their mission statement to make a comedy program accessible to everyone except Amazon.com's own Bret Fetzer, but their investment paid off and the results are top-notch.

Buy this DVD and prepare yourself for hours of entertainment.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 21 reviews  4.5 out of 5 stars