Friday, January 12, 2007

Kenny vs. Spenny: Season 3

13 episodes

Here’s the latest season of “Kenny vs. Spenny” which just concluded on January 11th. I have already reviewed the first and second seasons of the show. This season has 13 episodes just like the last one, and also like the last was on the Showcase network. This means the guys have free reign as far as swearing and all of that is concerned.

For the uninitiated, real briefly – KvS is a show that emanates from Canada where childhood friends Kenny Hotz and Spencer Rice compete in a series of dumb competitions with the winner being able to humiliate the loser. Kenny usually finds ways to bend the rules, while Spenny tries to persevere and err on the side of good taste. The following are reviewed in the order they aired. And if this is really your first time on the Jason TV Review Train – each episode can get a thumbs up, thumbs in the middle, or thumbs down. The score at the end, out of five stars, rates the season as a whole.

First to laugh loses – Whereas Spenny has gone into many competitions with an inherent disadvantage, this one’s Kenny’s to lose. I am hard pressed to remember a time on the show where Spenny had a good laugh. As an episode where they both try to make each other laugh, I tried to play along, and found myself losing early. Thumbs up.

Who do gay guys like more? – Anything that lets Kenny break out the Spenny slurs en masse is terrific. Both guys go for it on their dates…which depending on your point of view is really funny or disturbing. I found a little of both, but overall, this was a touch above decent. Thumbs up.

Who can wear a dead octopus on their head the longest? – How do they come up with these? This episode contains my favorite alternate strategy ever. Thumbs up.

Who can win a ten mile race? – Kenny is famously out of shape and unathletic compared to Spenny, so he obviously needs to cheat his way out. The scam he pulls is pretty obvious, and there’s nothing in both Kenny’s “acting” and Spenny’s “reaction” that makes me want to say it worked. I don’t want to say the show’s a hoax or anything, but maybe it was just poor editing choices. As it stands, though, the very top and end of the episode gave me some chuckles, so this is a thumbs in the middle.

Who can lift more weight with their genitals? – So what starts as a pretty funny episode turns into Spenny having a break down and leaving the show within the first segment. I’m really starting to question the validity of this show. Maybe not the entire run, but for this season. Whilst he’s gone, Kenny tries to find “replacements,” which depending on your theories were either comedy bits to fill the void because there was nothing to make this episode out of, or were part of a scripted “storyline.” Whatever the case, it’s thumbs down.

Who is cooler? – The guys get a journalist from Vice magazine to judge who is cooler. Kenny fakes that he’s a junkie for a week so that Spenny will loses his cool at the competition. Meanwhile, the crew tells Spenny how being himself is a surefire way to lose. Thumbs up.

Who can produce more semen? – After a bunch of crappy, lukewarm or apparently scripted episodes, it’s a return to form. Both guys have 3 days to jack off as much as possible and fill a beaker. It’s hilarious. Thumbs up. Easily the best of the season to this point.

Who can stay in a haunted house the longest? – It is what it says it is. Kenny prepares by figuring out how to conjure dead spirits and screw with Spenny, who is consulting all these whack spiritual people on how to repel evil forces with drums and smoke and other fru fru stuff. It’s a bit generous, but this one made me laugh so, thumbs up.

Who can make a better porno? – Kenny decides the best way to win is to do something nobody’s done before – a comedy porno. Spenny re-enacts a childhood fantasy for his movie with two porn “actors.” This one did have some funny parts, but it was bizarre to see nudity and barely blurred thrusting in a comedy program…much less, bizarre to see Kenny floppin’ his junk all over against a green screen for his sketches. It’s not necessarily bad, but the porn episode gets thumbs in the middle from me because I wouldn’t recommend going out of your way. There are many more episodes with much heartier laughs.

Who can catch the bigger fish? – Ooh, artsy - the ending comes before the rest of the episode! But seriously, this one has some great laughs, with some of that lame Spenny training and hilarious Kenny jokes. Thumbs up.

Who can imitate the other guy better? – This goes about as well as you would expect, with each guy doing a cartoony and hilarious version of the other. And as you would hopefully surmise by now, Kenny uses his Spenny imitation to totally besmirch Spenny and have him break character to protest. Thumbs up.

Who can stay homeless the longest? – Kind of a weird one here, as there’s no real definition of what makes you homeless. I mean that in the sense that any homeless guy can just comfortably walk around malls and any 24-hour establishment whilst sleeping on the street, which makes things a lot easier. But in any event, there are some nice peaks of laughter in this one that I’ll push it to a thumbs up.

Arm wrestling competition – Spenny flies out of Canada to train in peace. Kenny already knows where he’s gone and goes after him. They really turned things around in the second part of this season. This episode is great, with some good humiliations. Thumbs up.

The count (up-middle-down):
10-2-1

Again, being on Showcase propels the show to new heights, as they can now pretty much do and say what they want. Kenny without a leash is great stuff.

****

The only points off this season are for the perhaps-scripted episodes that really soured me midway through, and almost had me give up watching the show. Luckily they had some great ones to follow those really bad episodes. They’re already picked up for season 4 – I can hardly wait! Season 2 just recently came out on DVD, too.

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