Comedy Central's Home Grown DVD Review
Posted by Joseph Lee on 06.10.2008
Not worth it.
This DVD is labeled "A Comedy Central Experiment" and it sort of is. It's basically a sampler of original Comedy Central programming of past and present. The DVD tries to be hip and appeal to stoners by having everything drug themed, from the naming of the sections of the DVD, to the packaging. The cover has a mushroom and the disc features a apple bong (which was supposed to be the DVD cover before it was switched). The menu has at times, distorted visuals and quotes from painter Bob Ross. A lot of the sketches and episodes have a drug theme. It's all an attempt to be "clever".
Buds
These are full episodes, all of which have a theme of drug use somewhere within.
The Sarah Silverman Program - "Face Wars": Sarah gets denied entrance to a country club because of not being a member, but she thinks it's because she's Jewish. Claiming that Jews have it harder than African Americans, she pretends to be black for a day. Meanwhile, Steve and Brian smoke too much pot. The main story is really offensive and funny, and you feel guilty for laughing. The subplot is not really funny at all, although I did get a chuckle out of them trying to use a quarter to start the car.
Comedy Central's TV Funhouse - "Christmas Day": Doug is full of Christmas cheer, and the anipals proceed to steal it and turn it into a cocaine-like drug. They get high, make asses of themselves and find Jesus. We also get the animated short "Tingles the Christmas Tension" and another segment called "Where To Look For Christmas Presents" which includes a loaf of bread as a possible location. The latter segment is the saving grace of this episode, which really isn't all that funny.
Lewis Black's Root of All Evil - "Weed vs Beer": Paul F. Tompkins claims weed is the root of all evil, while Andrew Daly says it's beer. Beer wins, although Paul's arguement was funnier and more logical. Not as good as some of the other episodes (especially those with Patton Oswalt) but still funny at times.
Reno 911! - "Burning Man Festival": Lt. Dangle leads an undercover trip to the Burning Man Festival that gets lost; meanwhile Deputy Garcia tries to get a prostitute off the streets and Deputy Johnson tries an undercover drug bust that goes awry. The drug bust is kind of funny, the rest not so much. The best bit is at the beginning during an undercover prostitution bust in which Dangle demands more acting. I've seen better episodes.
Strangers With Candy - "Old Habits, New Beginnings": Jerri makes drugs in order to become popular, but suffers the consequences. I do not get the appeal of this show. It's not funny and Amy Sedaris is awful to look at. Terrible inclusion for this disc.
There are only five episodes, and they're not all that funny. Plus, they can be found elsewhere, for the most part.
Rating: 5.0
Stems
Instead of full episodes, these are just segments of shows. Not all of these are drug-themed, however.
Chappelle's Show - "Dave Meets Showbiz": As the title says, Dave meets Showbiz, played by the awesome Rob Corddry. Showbiz suggest Dave get into merchandising, including a cereal, a Lil' Jon movie, and a guest spot on MTV Cribs. Probably the funniest segment of all the original Comedy Central stuff here. There's something disturbing and hilarious about Dave eating the last T-Rex egg because it's "baller".
The Sarah Silverman Program - "Steve and Brian's Adventure", "Cookie Party" and "More Cookie Party": The first segment is an animated clip of Steve and Brian inside of a T-Rex. The two Cookie Party sketches feature an animated short where talking cookies have misadentures. None of it is funny at all. Unless you like talking cookies.
Drawn Together - Karaoke/Sing-Along: Two songs from the show, with words. Pointless inclusion.
Crank Yankers - "I Want To Go To Hawaii", "Badonkadonk" and "Hold Please": Badonkadonk is probably the best of the three, although Hawaii has it's moments before it gets annoying. Hold Please isn't really that funny at all.
Viva Variety - "Marijuana Uses" and "Baby That Tastes Like Soup": The first segment is advocation for legalized marijuana, and isn't funny. The second segment is about a new toy baby that tastes like soup, and is so bizarre I laughed simply out the stupidity of it.
Rating: 5.0
Seeds
This is the more bizarre section on the disc, as none of the segments included are Comedy Central programming, and they're just odd. Two of them are drug-themed.
Spiders on Drugs: Yes, this is the same video that's featured on Youtube. It was kind of funny the first time I saw it, but not funny anymore.
From The Archive: Weed: A segment from a documentary on marijuana, that's pro-drugs in nature. I'm not entirely sure it was intended to be funny, but it's not.
The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross: Yes, this is an entire episode of the famous show that is sampled for the menus of this DVD. It's automatically the funniest thing on the entire disc. And there's a sketch from Chappelle's Show so that's saying something. He's just so gosh-darned happy about painting and he says some really weird stuff. "Be careful with that dark red. It'll eat your whole world". If this were a DVD full of episodes of this show, I'd give it a high recommendation.
The Animation Show: Three shorts from the Mike Judge Animation Festival called "Rabbit" "Abigail" and "Psychotown". I really liked Rabbit, and while the animation of Abigail was really good I found it boring. Psychotown was just stupid.
Rating: 6.5
The 411: Even if everything on this DVD were hysterical, I just don't think it's worth buying. It's a bunch of small segments that only really takes up 2-3 hours of your time. As it is, most of the content isn't all that funny, either. I'd say your money is better spent elsewhere, probably buying the shows listed if you're a fan.
