3 out of 5

Creator: Tim Heidecker, Eric Warheim

Hm.  I mentioned that season 1 seemed to play it a little safe, and season 2 seems to go the opposite way, jumping head-first into a chosen style for the show.  I wonder, in part, if this is because of a producer change from season 1 to 2, or T & E adapting more to the non-live format by going away from sketches and more toward the late-night TV send-ups, as season 2 goes pretty much full-throttle for the shitty VHS quality WTF public television stuff.  The weirdo editing is there, but it’s done more for making the bits end oddly or to get a funny freeze-frame than the just sorta bonkers doing-it-for-the-yuks feeling of Tom Goes to the Mayor or season 1.  …Which makes me wonder if there was a different editor on board with the new producer.  There’s also an uncomfortable return of ‘popular’ characters from season 1, making this seem like the typical sequel season where they just provide what they think the fans want… which I’m sure seems out of character for such an anti-humor show, but the aim is still to be funny and watchable, so even T & E are going to be susceptible to fan appeal.  Some sketches are still unbelievably hilarious, of course, and along with the fan-base comes less of a need to rely on celebs to sell this stuff, so when Zach Galifianakis shows up as The Snuggler, it feels less like a cameo or more because he’s the only dude that should be in that role.

Gross-out humor gets upped, for better or worse, setting a precedent for further poop and vomit gags, and we start to see more of the outsiders who would become fixtures of the series – Quall, Hart, Dunn, and all those random cats who do the random bits.  Season 2 is at its best when the gang don’t fall back on previous gags.  I was hoping for more commentary on the disc, as season 1’s was pretty lacking, but… well, there’s no commentary at all, which I guess you could argue is better than pointless commentary.  Otherwise the extras are again pretty generous – goofs, extended bits, video from Awesome Tour – but perhaps most interestingly is a full 50-minute capture of their live tour, which gives us a taste of how weird and experience that would be, and made me happy to see that, even while they bring out the recognizable-from-the-show faces that make the crowd cheer, T & E still push for making it an uncomfortable experience with fat naked men doing the hustle and plenty of silence.