“Are you retarded or something?” is the line that stands out the most for me from Pauly Shore’s latest exercise in idiocy: Natural Born Komics. The idea that anyone on this planet thinks this is remotely funny is in itself extremely scary. The show first emerged on Showtime about a year or so ago and took a long time to find its way to DVD release. It should have taken longer, much longer. Pauly Shore’s act is so manically bad that it takes less than 2 minutes into the film before it has gotten old. The so-called film is really just a collection of bad sketches mixed with some unimaginatively unfunny stand-up. Of course the audience shots depict mostly busty young women, laughing their pants off at Shore’s dull delivery and rather tasteless humor. I suspect there were a couple of tanks of nitrous pumping some happy gas into the venue. It’s the only logical explanation I can find. The skits range from spoofs of Punk’d and Cheaters to “hidden camera” gags that make absolutely no sense at all. There’s even a shameless takeoff on Pacino and Scarface that leaves me wanting to introduce Shore to a couple of my “little friends”. Even the multitude of extras that fill Shore’s “woman in the street” segments look more annoyed than anything else at the antics he’s pulling. Like a little kid aimlessly playing with new toys, Shore acts out with absolutely no direction or focus for the entire blissfully short running time of the film. I’m far from a prude, but Pauly Shore engages in crudeness simply for crudeness’ sake and carries on as if there’s actually an inside joke going on that he’s decided to keep from the audience so that before long at all you really won’t care. He spends far more time bragging about his drug use than actually being funny. Sad!
This is your brain.
This is your brain on Pauly Shore’s Natural Born Komics.
Any questions?
Video
Natural Born Komics is presented in what I can only assume is its original broadcast full frame format. Most of the footage takes place out in the streets of Miami with camcorders and such, so there isn’t anything spectacular going on visually here. The colors and resolution are pretty much documentary quality. The stand-up footage is extremely grainy and lacking in proper lighting.
Audio
The Dolby Digital 2.0 track is more than adequate to capture every word spoken here for the most part. Some of the skits rely on mics that don’t pick everything up. During most of these times the film offers subtitles so we don’t miss a single word. It’s not dynamic, but then again it’s not like this material really calls for it.
Special Features
The Diarrhea Of Pauly Shore: Seldom has a feature been so appropriatly named. Shore sees himself as quite the visionary here. The delusion with which he expresses himself is almost actually pretty funny. I’m sure “real” directors out there would find themselves cringing as Shore talks about staying true to his vision as a director. Shore whines endlessly about the problems he was challenged with in making the film, from bad weather to uncooperative actors. He forgot about crappy material. Shore also tries to cover himself against these kinds of deserved bad reviews by remarking that he had to work extra hard because of the haters out there who want to hate the film. That’s the ticket, Pauly. I wasted over two hours of my life just to show you a little hate. You got me, dude.
Bloopers and Deleted Scenes: Pretty much more of the same, with skits that never made it to the final cut, like “Chubby Girls Gone Wild.” Spare me.
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Final Thoughts
Is it any wonder why this guy’s career is in the toilet? It seems that it is merely searching for his talent in the most likely of places to find it. This stuff is mind numbing bad. I have seen bad comedy before; just look at Saturday Night Live in the 90’s, but this has got to be the worst comedy I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen amateur comics working it at open mics, and not the worst of them was this bad. I hosted a public access show where pretty much any idiot can get on television and have never experienced material this bad. If you are an aspiring comic, you really need to stay away from this DVD. You’re gonna just get pissed that while you work your tail off trying to get a break, crap like this gets put on Showtime and released on DVD. I have only one piece of advice to Pauly Shore: “Would you just shut the ‘bleep’ up?”
