Upon watching Adult Swim’s latest program Children’s Hospital, I came to the following conclusion: spoofs truly have the potential for excellence. More and more they are becoming a legitimate art form, completely vibrant and separate from their original source material. In fact the art of spoofing is a delicate craft, one that requires a painstaking attention to detail and a smart wit to balance the line between subtle humor and over the top absurdities. Creator Rob Corddry successfully strikes this balance, resulting with the brilliant medical drama satire Children’s Hospital.
The show did not start at Adult Swim. It began as an under watched web series, passed on by Comedy Central and it finally premiered on Adult Swim last night. CH features a brilliant cast including Lake Bell, Megan Mullally and Ken Marino (of the recently doomed Showtime comedy Party Down). Bell plays the “Meredith Grey” role, and the show makes no attempt to hide that it’s largely based on Grey’s Anatomy; complete with overly sappy and self indulgent monologues, copious amounts of sex on the hospital premises and even a scenario taken directly from season two of Grey’s—two strangers impaled on a pole-- the show works because its source is so immediately recognizable.
I highly recommend this new summer comedy. Adult Swim will be airing the original web episodes until a new season begins on August 22nd. Though I’ve been frightened of Adult Swim since childhood (something about talking French Fries and Milkshakes just gave me the creeps) I finally have a wonderful reason to give it a second chance.
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Jennifer Abidor is a new contributor to TBSYNW
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Jen Abidor is a rising senior at Brandeis University, studying American Studies, Journalism and Film. She loves to entertain, be entertained and write about entertainment. Check out her writing on jaclips.blogspot.com