It’s like a stoner’s version of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia- just not as smart or funny. That’s Workaholics (Wednesdays, 10:30pm), Comedy Central’s newest offering. Like Sunny there are three males saying outrageous stuff, a female co-worker who throws in some barbs and crude antics. I mean, when your pilot is titled “Piss and Shit,” you’re not really pulling any punches with what’s about to come.
Workaholics stars three fresh faces, Anders Holm, Blake Anderson and Adam DeVine, who are also the executive producers. This is their show and the three actors’ characters go by their first names. Anders, Blake and Adam are straight out of college and entering the monotony of the work world but not giving up old habits. They’re smoking blunts, drinking 40s and throwing ‘poop dollars’ from the roof on a Sunday afternoon.
The show’s first scene sets its type of humor from the onset. The word ‘dick’ is thrown around more than you’d even hear in a college dorm, as Anders snaps a shot of his in the bathroom to ‘sext’ it to a girl. But dear friend Adam makes sure everyone at the party gets a text of this too.
The references to private parts continue with the guys spitting gems such as ‘Dickembe Mutombo.’ Actually, the whole pilot does live up to its name. The central plot revolves around a drug test the guys forget about and are obviously not prepared for. Well, except Anders, who has clean urine samples in his desk drawer. These workaholics are very prepared for the rigors of the post-grad work world.
Except they mess that up and then begin a quest for clean urine that continues on for the rest of the episode. It’s like a stoner’s version of Odysseus’ journey that takes them far and wide, from a drugie’s house to a middle school. Take notice that you will actually see urine splashing around and if that makes you a little queasy this is certainly not the show for you. Frankly if you don’t like vulgarity, stay far away.
Workaholics is like the kid in high school that tries way too hard to be like the cool kids and fails. The three main actors, Holm, Anderson and DeVine all suffer from this terrible comedic plight of overacting. Holm is the most redeemable just because he doesn’t force the comedy quite as much as his counterparts Anderson and Devine. The most objectionable is Anderson, who long, scraggly hair and all plays a milque-toast version of the burnout stereotype.
You can’t blame the cast too much though. There’s only so much you can do when half the dialogue involves a piece of potty humor that you stop thinking is clever once you get your own locker in school. It’s nothing new.
A couple bright spots do shine through outside of the main characters. Jillian, played by Jillian Bell, is a deer in the headlights with a deadpan delivery of which the other actors should take note. Bell’s the most natural of any of them. Brian Huskey’s not a regular but has good comedic timing as the doctor who’s giving the drug test.
For the show to succeed, the guys will need foils to facilitate their antics, so guests could be important. There should be plenty of storylines to sustain the concept for a while but it won’t get a chance to if the writing doesn’t move past the three Ps: poop, pee and penis. It was starting to get old in the pilot and is going to get stale real quick.
If you like Arrested Development or It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the sophomoric humor of Workaholics probably is not going to be your thing. It’s more down the line of MTV’s The Hard Times of RJ Berger. Workaholics is not one I would make a point to go back to week in and week out. But I’m curious to see where they go with it, so I’d check it out online again after a few more episodes to see if the characters become more fleshed out and the writing improves.
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