The Upright Citizens Brigade: Season One (1998) - By Josh Samford

Film Reviews: The Upright Citizens Brigade: Season One (1998) - By Josh Samford
Posted on Thursday, March 31, 2005 @ 23:00:00 Mountain Standard Time by Duane

Well, Rogue Cinema has expanded quite a bit in these months we've been in publication. We've grown to become something more than just a webzine covering your latest B-Movies or cult trash. There have been DVD reviews, musical reviews and even a bit of the most absurd fanfiction ever printed (by yours truly of course). So, I don't find myself at too much of a crossroads as to whether this review for the most insane sketch comedy show ever imagined is 'on topic' so to speak, but I am hopeful that at least a few of you will read this. So, who are the Upright Citizens Brigade? What are they and where do they come from? Well, in reality they're a sketch comedy troupe from Chicago that specializes in some... shall we say, rather off-beat humor. In the context of the show however, the UCB is an organization based on spreading chaos throughout the world with the ultimate goal being to disrupt the status quo... for some reason or other. Their names are Trotter (Matt Walsh, seen in Old School), Antoine (Ian Roberts, seen in Bring It On, or in a good movie, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy), Colby (Amy Poehler, who is now a superstar on Saturday Night Live) and Adair (Matt Besser, who you might have seen in the shortly lived candid camera-esque MTV show "Stung" - though I pray you didn't). Together they sit around in their super secret headquarters where the monitor everyone and everything, trying to throw as many curves into the sanity of human life as possible. As you may can guess, these segments are often used as the basis from where all the different sketches start from. Unlike many comedy shows of this variety though, UCB is shot all on video with no live segments (and thus no studio audience nor canned laughter, which has grown more and more annoying since Python first started) and although at first the random sketches may seem to be completely off the wall with no real connection to anything, by the end of nearly every show a complete revolution is made and things are back at the beginning. Always in the most shocking and insane manner possible, but of course. The UCB sadly has been slightly forgotten since being canceled, but with the release of this Season One DVD, we can hope more fans will come around - and even more important, that the rest of the series will see the light of day; because as funny as this set is, their greatest work was still ahead of them.

Now, when I say the UCB specialized in weird humor, you really don't know exactly what I'm talking about until you've actually seen the insanity for yourself. I'll just give a brief description of the very first episode: The Bucket of Truth. In the episode, we start off with a family buying a new home with a real estate agent walking them through each room until he stumbles upon the Hot Chicks room, which is apparently a room where "hot chicks" party 24/7, although the room was installed in the early eighties thus some of the chicks aren't really all that hot anymore, but the good news is that they're replaceable. After this little detour we're introduced to the actual Bucket of Truth, which is just what the name implied. A bucket of pure, unadulterated, unmitigated truth. Unknown to this family, their daughter slips out the backdoor and spends the rest of the day and night hanging out with the unabomber. That's right, the unabomber. It appears the guy that was caught wasn't the actual Unabomber, just some backwoods sociopath, and the real Unabomber could never live anywhere so far away from the disco (erm, he also talks with a lisp). All the while this is going on, across town Officer Lunatic (that's pronounced lu-na-dic) is slowly going out of his mind worrying about the mysterious Bong Boy. A stoner who for some reason is always on the scene whenever tragedy is at foot... getting high. Lunatic, and his slightly mentally deficient son, live alone after his hippie wife passed away and now Lunatic finds himself unable to cope with her death and has become a suicidal rogue. This is demonstrated when he finally tracks down Bong Boy and grabs his arm and makes him start slapping himself ("Stop it!" - "I can't make you stop, you're doing it!!"), such unconventional methods are surely the sign of a desperate man. So, while the little girl is missing over at The Unabomber's house the parents make due and try to enjoy company - but wouldn't you know it, that ol' Bucket of Truth gets in the way. I won't spoil the conclusion (which is kind of ridiculous since we're talking about a twenty minute program), but let's just say there's a giant John Woo inspired shoot-out, bombs, bongs and the most disturbing dance routine ever concocted.

The Season One DVD is put together nicely in a box set containing two discs with ten official episodes all together, but once you start counting the commentary tracks and bonus features the disc becomes so much more. Included on the disc is the original pilot episode (also with commentary), which sort of shows the rather cliché direction the series could have taken had it followed the traditions of the past and kept the live audience rather than sticking with the filmic aspects it later utilized. All together there are about seven commentary tracks, all of which are absolutely hilarious. Including an alternate commentary track featuring Little Donny and his family on the "Little Donny" episode. For those who aren't aware, the Little Donny episode was the one time where they deviated from being strictly a sketch comedy show and made a spoof of those infomercials 'for a good cause', usually about starving kids in Africa or poor mountain families. The Little Donny foundation however tries to help cure a disease named after Little Donny himself; his disease, more specifically, is the fact that he has a massive penis but remains completely unaware of it. Yeah, that's just the kind of show this is. Other commentary tracks are on the episodes "The Bucket of Truth" already mentioned, "Power Marketing", "Cyborgs" (arguably one of their best episodes) and "Time Machine" (which also has a lengthy live Q&A afterward that is hilarious all the way through). There's also a deleted scene called Highland Epoxy and two live bits from the UCB back when they were doing stage shows, including the origins of the previously mentioned Little Donny bit. The picture quality is fine, though we're not exactly talking about something bolstering amazing cinematography here now are we. Full frame and everything shows up without any splotches or pixelation, I can at least promise it will look a whole lot better than those grainy VHS tapes me and my friends used to trade back in the day. It always sucked being the only guy who didn't get Comedy Central.

So, with all of this said, how can you not be interested in this show? If you aren't, chances are you're a very boring person. If not, I apologize, then it's probably on account of your really bad tastes. The Upright Citizens Brigade, if you want my very humble opinion, is probably the most original and genuine sketch comedy show in the past twenty or so years. Sure, they built upon what others started, as with Kids in the Hall, Python, The State, etc. But never have I seen all the right buttons pushed so often with as much comedic design. So, I won't deny it, the UCB is most definitely my favorite troupe of all time, and hopefully this ranting will persuade someone else to give them a try. For thirty bucks you could spend your money on worse things. Like crack. Or a diseased prostitute, but really, now I'm just getting gross and off topic. For the love of all that is holy, check out the UCB - and keep an eye out for any hippie looking guys walking around with their bong out and sporting some dreadlocks, those guys are never around when anything good happens.