UCLAtv lineup tests boundaries of humor

By Andie Dingman
Daily Bruin Contributor

Everybody loves Raymond. He’s likable, comfortable, and,
well, boring. Every sitcom and comedy variety show, from
“Raymond” to “Saturday Night Live” to
“Tom Green,” might be mildly entertaining, but do any
of them make you think? UCLAtv’s Comedy Lineup on Monday
nights on Channel 29 in the dorms not only makes you chuckle; it
also makes you take a look at yourself and tells it like it is.

“The Mike and Ben Show” and “Getting it On
With Matt and John” will return with new-and-improved
episodes for your viewing enjoyment, and UCLAtv’s first
spin-off, “The Show,” will debut tonight.

In a recent interview, members of each cast demonstrated their
ability to gel together and come up with spontaneous, cutting-edge
soundbites.

“The Show,” the spin-off of “The Mike and Ben
Show,” is entirely sketch-based. Produced and co-hosted by
“Mike and Ben” actor Lawrence Givens,
“Show” hopes to break new ground in the world of sketch
comedy with its diverse staff.

By having a multicultural cast, Givens believes dorm residents
can see themselves represented onscreen. Many of the
sketches’ originated from real life, such as when
middleweight champion Shane Mosely stole a stripper at a club.

“We’re trying to actually implement more stereotypes
and concrete more that are actually out there,” Givens
explained. “We take those and just kind of poke fun at
them.”

Like “Saturday Night Live,” “Show” takes
a relatively small cast (seven actors at present) and puts them in
multiple roles.

“Getting it On With Matt and John” will resume its
televised live radio show on UCLAradio.com on Monday and Tuesday
nights from 10:30-11:30p.m., and then repeat the episodes Wednesday
and Thursday at the same time. Cohosts Matt Hirt and John Laun
chat, take calls from the dorms, and even perform the occasional
*NSYNC or Britney Spears dance number.

“We come on the air, and Matt and I are roommates and
friends and we always have stuff to talk about,” Laun said.
“So once the mics are on, it’s really pretty easy;
either we’ll be make fun of each other or talk about
something we did that day, or talk about our friends.”

Improvements for this season include a larger team, and going to
the dorms armed with Laun’s cell phone to recruit calls.

“The Mike and Ben Show” was the first ever
student-produced television show, and the most well-known of the
three programs. “Mike and Ben,” hosted by the
interview-shy and elusive Mike Pesses and Ben Larson, is a comedy
variety show, with sketches (or “skitches” as the
“Mike and Ben” crew likes to call them), improv and
silly, push-the-envelope pranks. The cast hopes the third season
will reflect their ever-progressing chemistry and improvements in
editing since past season.

To give prospective viewers a small taste of what to expect from
an episode of Mike and Ben, the following is the response of
several of the producers/directors/writers/editors of the show when
asked what the show is about:

“The Mike and Ben show is like “˜Where the Red Fern
Grows,’ only sadder,” said Price Peterson, a
second-year undeclared student.

Myles Nye, a second-year theater student said, “It’s
a show about nothing.”

Peterson: “We’re a strenuous exercise in bad
taste.”

“We’re dull-edged,” said Greg Snyder, a
fifth-year communications student.

Nye: “We’re breaking new ground in mediocrity, that
was Myles Nye, blood type O-negative.”

Peterson: “Hey! I’m O-negative!”

Nye: “Universal donor!”

Nye and Peterson together: “Oooohh!”

(Nye and Peterson high five).

Nye: “Sorry, uh, gotta go give platelets!”

All joking aside, “Mike and Ben” is concerned with
bringing injustices to light by putting them blatantly out in the
open, such as Givens’ comment, “We (the African
American actors) carry their bags.

“An important goal for us is to either emphasize
stereotypes by ridiculing them, or celebrating them, which is in a
way satirizing them and expressing our disapproval of these
horrible things that are going on in society today,” Peterson
said.

Examples of candid-camera-style pranks the show has pulled
include a stand-up Jesus doing insult comedy, four secret service
agents randomly escorting people, and students randomly dying on
campus (sudden student death syndrome).

According to producer Sean Heckman, who is also the coordinator
of UCLAtv comedy, mock public service announcements are also given.
One examines the horrible practice of “art molestation”
in the Sculpture Garden, where people abuse naked sculptures;
another deals with rufies, the “weapon of desperate
women.”

While UCLAtv is currently available in the dorms only, the cast
encourages those living off campus to make the trek over to Sproul
Hall at 9:30 p.m. on Mondays, where dorm residents will check them
in to watch the shows.

While one might try to stifle a laugh after Nye makes a comment
such as, “The great thing about the dining halls on campus is
that they’re all Mexican food,” pushing one’s
buttons is exactly what both “Mike and Ben” and
“The Show” are out to do.

“You are laughing, but you don’t think you
should,” Heckman said matter-of-factly. “That’s
what the show’s all about.”

“We’re kind of like a good enema,” Nye
continued. “”˜The Mike and Ben Show;’ it’s
an enema for your mind.”

TELEVISION: The Show premieres at 9:30 p.m., Monday, Oct. 16.
“The Mike and Ben Show” and “Gettin’ It On
With Matt and John” premiere at 10 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.,
respectively. All three shows play on Channel 29 in the dorms.