TV Reviews
'The Andy Milonakis Show,' not funny
By Andrew Lyons
Apr 27, 2007, 07:41

That’s a good thing. Keeping one's brow furrowed in confusion and dismay starts to hurt about that time. For while Milonakis may have brevity on his side, the wit side of the equation is largely absent.

The comic, whose “The Andy Milonakis Show" returns to MTV2 for a third season on Saturday, became a minor cult sensation for his ability to create squirm-inducing moments with his absurdist, half-comedic, half-nonsensical sketches. But by now Milonakis and his act have worn paper thin.

The show hasn’t changed much since it debuted in 2005, consisting of mostly odd mini-sketches, strange raps with Milonakis cohort Ralphie, and condescending man-on-the-street interviews.

Milonakis skits can still occasionally be funny in concept. Where they suffer is in delivery. They're invariably crudely produced and barely coherent. So we have a skit where a delivery guy brings food to an apartment that has been turned into a comedy club, complete with a brick facade and spotlight. It's a clever idea. But then the nominal audience laughs at the guy’s every word for a minute and half when all he says are confused variations on “Can I get paid, please?” Not funny.

Milonakis is, quite simply, a terrible performer. He can barely get through a sketch without laughing and darting his eyes toward the camera in nervous glances that serve to undermine the comedy rather than enhance it.

He delights in the humor of confusion, whether it’s the confusion of an elderly man on the street or the audience at home. His idea of funny is to ask the homeless on Hollywood Boulevard if they want to interview him, then behave like a prima donna and yell at them when they take him up on his offer and begin asking questions. What's funny about that?

Milonakis manages to attract the occasional guest star, and in this season's debut episode teen star Hilary Duff appears as the L.A. girlfriend of Andy’s turtle, Herbie.

As the skit goes, Herbie has decided to move west to be with Duff, and Milonakis has followed him and moved in with the couple, much to the chagrin of Duff, who thinks Milonakis is driving a wedge in her relationship with Herbie (whom she prefers to call Herb).

As with most Milonakis material, the description is funnier than the execution. We see Duff in a turtle suit, feigning jealousy while talking to her turtle lover. The sketch then drifts into an interminable stretch of Duff making unintelligible sounds that are meant as turtle talk.

There's one funny moment when the comic struts on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but that's followed by a truly disturbing sketch in which Milonakis invites schoolchildren to beat an invisible goat, showing them how to punch with extra force. There may be some intended social commentary about how people are sheep, but it’s lost in the clumsiness of the staging. It's truly unsettling. Is it funny? Not so much.

MTV2 is known for its edgy, sometimes over-the-top programming. And "Milonakis” is certainly that. But whether it's worth watching is something else.