4 out of 5

Director: Wacky

So you’re cool, and you’ve seen Meet the Feebles, and you find offensive humor… humorous, and when people write things in their reviews like “The facade is immaturity… the show delves into contemporary socioeconomic hypocrisies and inequalities” you totally wet yourself, brush off your skinny jeans and form a love-it-until-it-becomes-too-cool relationship with Wonder Showzen. But you know what? It is funny, and it is ridiculously creative, and while the need to offend gets a little tired at times, this magical mixing of art, and music, and subversive humor and pop-culture is just swilling with distraction. Wonder Showzen operates structured as a kids’ show (though it makes no attempt to pretend it is one), with the cast being almost completely made up of kids and puppets. The recurring themes are rewarding for watching several episodes in a row, and the repeating segments are spread at a good pace through the seasons so you don’t get into too much of a pattern show-to-show. Jackass fans will probably like the simple offensiveness of what’s going on here, but, even though I don’t think it requires such expressive language as *socioeconomic hypocrisies*, the genius that bubbles beneath the surface of gross / mean humor is inspiring, akin to one’s first doses of, say, Tim and Eric. Don’t expect convincing muppetry – this is low-budget, so the puppet work is pretty straight-forward, but it’s all part of the appeal. As is the show’s willingness to pretty much shoot itself in the foot at any occasion, prepared for cancellation after each and every joke.