f13.net

Stella is WAY old, schildy. I watched the DVD last summer. But it is DEFINITELY must see brill to the nth degree. Especially the Santa episode

I just can't hang with BRitish humor for the most part, but the Young Ones is funny (I hear). The only Brit series I've really been able to get behind is Spaced (as I've linked before). The main characters in Spaced are in Shaun of the Dead, as are some of the cast of the original version of The Office. Good stuff.

A 'Stella' example of lame comedy (http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/story/322778p-275946c.html)

1.5 Stars

Comedy Central's newest series, "Stella," comes from three members of the former comedy troupe The State.

It's described as an absurdist comedy, but that's not at all accurate. Absurd, in parts, it may be - but it's not even remotely funny.

"Stella," premiering tomorrow night at 10:30, isn't as horrendously devoid of humor as, say, Carrot Top.

But the few flashes of inspiration fizzle before taking spark, like an inept "Survivor" contestant trying futilely to make fire.

Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black (good in "Ed," less impressive elsewhere) and David Wain star as three goofball goofoffs who share an apartment - when they're not evicted from it, that is - and argue about such ephemera as which music to play loudly to annoy the three young women living downstairs.

The women don't see anything funny about their antics.

I'm with them.

These three comics lend their own names to these characters, which isn't exactly clever product placement. These guys act like a trio of only slightly more mature Pee-wee Hermans. I'd say they're about as funny as open-heart surgery (and open-heart surgery is one of the gags here).

Of the three ex-State players, Wain comes off the best; his unexpected instant romance with a real-estate agent, played comically by Laura Interval, is the one moment in this first "Stella" that works.

The rest, even a cameo appearance by a respected young film star, doesn't do anything but just sit there - and a spoof of "Flashdance" seems so dated as to be almost inexplicable.

Speaking of inexplicable, I have no idea why the show is called "Stella." On the one hand, there was no clear reason, long ago, why veterans from other TV comedy shows called their new joint program "Monty Python's Flying Circus," but that show was hilarious. "Stella," whatever the inspiration for its title, is hilarity-free.

It doesn't matter whether it was named after Marlon Brando's feverish desire in "A Streetcar Named Desire," or after the model of Mason Williams' first, $13 guitar, or even after my aunt in Pittsburgh.

This "Stella" is no fun at all.

For a Comedy Central show, that's no recipe for success.

Originally published on June 27, 2005

In a state of surreality, 'Stella' embraces the absurd (http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2005/06/28/in_a_state_of_surreality_stella_embraces_the_absurd/)

By Matthew Gilbert, Globe Staff  |  June 28, 2005

''Stella" is the kind of sitcom that makes a reviewer want to throw up his hands and say, ''Oh, just watch it." And that's not because Comedy Central's ''Stella" is so amazingly wonderful, although it certainly is a fresh kick for viewers who like willfully offbeat shows such as ''Reno 911!" No, just watch it because it's so freaking odd, and so original, that it's really, really hard to describe.

In its promotional push, Comedy Central has been likening ''Stella" to the Marx Brothers, and there is truth in that lofty comparison. But the show, which premieres tonight at 10:30 p.m., is also built around an ironic sensibility that feels altogether contemporary and ''Mad TV"-esque. It follows the Manhattan adventures of three bumbling men in suits -- played by Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, and David Wain -- as they suck innocent bystanders into their web of modern surreality. Acting like big kids, they charm a co-op board by doing a zany dance, and they perform heart surgery on their landlord with a butter knife. In short, they're an interactive seminar in absurdity.

The series began its life as a New York stage revue that Black, Showalter, and Wain developed after serving in the comedy troupe the State. And it does play a bit like sketch comedy, with its roots in theatrical improvisation. But then ''Stella" is definitely a crafted sitcom, a single-camera series that breaks the laws of time and space in the manner of an animated show. As they do their Marx Brothers-meets-Monty Python-meets-Three Stooges shtick, the men fall into all kinds of studio-manufactured reality warps. At times, ''Stella" may remind you of the edited kookiness of that 1960s TV classic about the prefab-four, ''The Monkees."

As with ''The Monkees," you have to enjoy stupidity for stupidity's sake to embrace ''Stella." If you're willing to stop thinking and submit to its neo-vaudeville stylings, you can stumble across a laugh or two or three. There's plenty of tight slapstick in each half-hour, as Black, Showalter, and Wain move with a synchrony that comes from years of working together. They stretch their faces into all sorts of exaggerated expressions, looking like the Fab Five one minute and ruthless politicians the next.

In an upcoming episode, they wear long faces, literally, which the performers make funnier than it sounds. The guys also make the most of their low-level word play, such as when they insist to the co-op board that they aren't skunks because they're wearing skunk tails; they're ''skunk people."

Ultimately, ''Stella" is a light exercise in controlled anarchy. It makes sense, and then it doesn't make sense, and then before you know it, you find yourself not caring much about sense at all -- just like its trio of flip heroes.

Damnit, I think this is playing during Rescue Me, which is already on my must watch list. Oh, what I wouldn't give for Tivo.

It's going to premiere on June 29th after Southpark - which is a MUCH better timeslot than any of the ones they've been given in the past.

The commercials look dumb, impromptu and surprisingly successful heart surgery isn't exactly a new gag, but I'm willing to give it a chance.  I'll report back with my opinion.  And my opinion will be correct.

That they're on cable and can't swear anymore isn't an excuse, sorry.  Vulgarity can be funny, but If you have to be vulgar to be funny, you're not funny.

"I'm gonna stay here and rub one out."

You work for Pier 1? Wanna help out and furnish the f13.house and f13.office out in Arizona? Thx.

Ikea, bitches!

Fly you out? Sheeeeit. We'll be in Austin for AGC.

Now with more child labor! (No rich capitalists were harmed in the making of this promotional. Offer does not apply in any first world country.)

I pine for the days when we had Kirstie Alley. (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/11/entertainment/main605456.shtml)  Thom was a disaster.

Not entirely his fault.  Our marketing sucks worse than any other retailer.  Shows in our stock price.

I'd rather have child labor than Kirstie Alley.

You need some Christopher Lowell action.