In theory, Testees should a perfect timeslot companion for FX's cult hit sitcom It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. It's similarly gamy, following two grubby, too-old-for-this-shit urban slackers–played by Steve Markle and Jeff Kassel–as they scrounge for money to support their sitting-around-scarfing-junk-food-and-watching-TV lifestyle. And judging by the pilot, Testees is willing to go for the gross-out. Markle and Kassel's characters make their nut by offering themselves up as human test subjects for a lab called Testico. In the first episode this leads to Markle getting rammed up the ass by an un-lubed probe, then waking up with all the symptoms of pregnancy, including lactation and a craving for whole pickles dipped in a tub of melting ice cream.
There ought to be pages upon pages of potentially funny pregnant man gags, but Testees only manages a couple of mildly funny shock-jokes, strung back-to-back: After Kassel catches Markle jamming a hot coat hanger up his ass to induce an abortion, they both settle down and decide to see what Markle ultimately produces, figuring, "Worst case scenario, we burn the baby." (That line made me laugh, anyway.) But much of the rest of the episode is about Markle's low-boil irritation, mixed in with an overlong, pointlessly absurd montage in which Markle and Kassel learn to be parents by slapping a diaper on their chubby next-door neighbor.
Ultimately, it turns out that Markle isn't pregnant; he just has a wicked case of gas. When Kassel leans in to help with the "delivery," Markle cuts a massive fart that ripples Kassel's face and makes a dandelion lose its achenes in Osaka. (Okay, I chuckled at the dandelion gag too.)
Testees was created by Canadian renaissance man Kenny Hotz, best known for the self-humiliation reality competition series Kenny Vs. Spenny. I believe Hotz also appears in the episode as fellow testee whose use of a penis enlargement spray has left his "wiener so big, you could hump the hole in it." (I say "I believe" it's Hotz, because nothing in the FX press materials identifies the character or the actor who plays him.) I've actually never seen KvS, so I can't vouch for whether Hotz can be funny under the right circumstances, but he doesn't strike me as an especially strong sitcom writer. One big problem with the Testees pilot is that nothing is specific enough to really catch hold. The characters are blanks, the gags are broad and obvious, and the milieu is undeveloped.
Given enough time, Testees might solve the specificity problem. (Most sitcoms do… even the bad ones.) But I kept thinking throughout the pilot how if the It's Always Sunny gang latched on to this premise, the episode would move at about four times the pace, and contain about eight times as many jokes, delivered in a breathless rush. Even when Sunny isn't that funny; it's never boring. Or take The Sarah Silverman Program. Whether you like Silverman or not–I do, most of the time–her show at least feels like its coming from a person with her own take on the world. I don't see much evidence in Testees' pilot that Hotz is interested in matching his shock-comedy with the kind of breakneck pace or distinctive point-of-view that makes this kind of lo-fi sitcom work.
Well, at least the name is hilarious. Oh wait….
Grade: D+
Stray observations:
-I mean no disrespect to our neighbors up north, who have produced more brilliant comedians than I can count, and who make such excellent hosts every September when I attend the Toronto International Film Festival, but there's a certain wrung-dry tone to a lot of Canadian sitcoms that I have a hard time getting into. It works reasonably well when the comedy is gentle–as is the case with Corner Gas, for example–but when it's supposed to be edgy, something essential is missing. I hate to propogate cultural stereotypes, but Canadian sitcoms often aren't rude enough. Earthy, yes. But not corrosive. Or maybe I just haven't seen the right shows. Help me out, Canadians.