“I’ve decided to write a show about the horrifyingly large number of unsolved abductions. It’s a vitally important issue and nobody’s saying anything about it.”
“Wow! Really? Okay that’s… wow. I really admire you for doing that. What’s the show going to be like?”
“Oh it is going to be hilarious. In the pilot episode the characters spend the night in a haunted house in order to claim an inheritance. And this one guy keeps getting bowls of pudding dumped on his head! Hahahaha! And then he turns to the camera all messy and says ‘What’s all this bullcrap?’ Haha! It’s his catchphrase! And then his sister has two dates for the prom at the same time and she tries to keep both of them from finding out….”
“You… you’re kidding right?”
You can be funny in a serious show and serious in a funny show. It just gets weird when you sell an audience on the importance of a real social issue only to drop it immediately in favour of the oldest most clichéd sitcom jokes you can come up with. Why yes I did just watch Dr. Cabbie (2014)… how did you guess?
The intriguing premise of Dr. Cabbie is the fact that Canada has some of the most highly educated taxi drivers in the world. Brilliant surgeons come here from other countries only to find that their degrees aren’t recognized and they must find employment unrelated to their field of study. This is a real thing and it is worth discussing. So I was hopeful when I saw the trailer for Dr. Cabbie figuring that this light-hearted comedy would both amuse me and cast a light on an issue of some importance.
As it happens the film’s topic is quickly overshadowed by the kind of jokes you’d expect from a failed 1986 sitcom. You’ve got the embarrassing relatives the wacky horndog sidekick a woman giving birth in a taxi an overweight woman whose sexuality is treated as a joke and a climactic courtroom scene coupled with a climactic surprise marriage scene. Yeeesh. It’s trying so hard to be funny that every single moment of silence is filled with hastily dubbed-in jokes spoken by unseen characters. It’s painless enough I suppose — I just wish it had real humour instead of gags real characters instead of stereotypes and perhaps just a gram of originality beyond the central premise which again is worthwhile.
Watching Dr. Cabbie made me think of another show that combines hack sitcom material with glimpses of real issues only this show reverses the process. It sells itself as an unoriginal comedy and sneaks in a bit of cultural relevance when it isn’t expected. I am speaking of the Netflix original series BoJack Horseman (2014).
This show is getting tepid reviews but lots of viewers so it probably qualifies as a guilty pleasure. It’s about a former sitcom actor living in a post-fame rut and generally acting like a selfish prick. Oh hey… and he’s a horse! With a cat for an agent/girlfriend! And his publisher is a penguin! Hahahaha! Yep this animated series is filled with hack sitcom humour but it at least seems to be aware of it. And then when you’re wincing at the corniness of it all something kind of real will happen. Like in Episode 3 when BoJack finally decides to give some proper guidance and boundaries to the child-star-turned-pop-idol-turned-drug-addict in his care.
She shrugs and says “Okie doke. Guess I’ll just move out and find one of the billion people who will let me party at their house. I’m at a place right now where I never need to grow as a person or rise to an occasion because I can just constantly surround myself with sycophants and enablers until I die tragically young.” Then she just leaves. Having learned nothing. And she’s right! Wow… that’s kind of dark.
