I should have known better, I really should have known better but hey, who doesn’t like to laugh.  I know I do.  That’s why if a movie has ‘comedy’ attached to its genre tag, I will show some interest in watching it.  Take for instance the animated ‘The Boondocks’.  Now that’s some funny stuff.  Samuel L. Jackson as the voice of Gin Rummy and Charlie Murphy voicing Ed Wuncler III?  Hilarious.  Now I have already stated in previous reviews that any movie which leads off with moniker ‘National Lampoon Presents…’ post the ‘Vacation’ movies actually stands for ‘this incredibly lame piece of total GARBAGE you are about to witness is…’  But despite the ‘Pucked’ and the ‘Van Wilder 2’s’ and the ‘School Daze’s’ of the world I went into ‘National Lampoon Presents TV: The Movie’ with the hope that it would change everything and be freaking hilarious.  I mean with sketch titles like ‘Tijuana Cops’, ‘The Real Fear Factor’ and ‘XXXL’ a play on Vin Diesels ‘XXX’ it’s going to be funny even if by accident, right?

A series of sketch gags, our comedy starts off with the aforementioned Tijuana cops with Clifton Collins Jr. and Jacob Vargas playing tired, overweight drugged out Mexican cops. Now this may have been quite offensive to my Hispanic brothers out there, but it was the funniest bit in the movie and as such, it has just blown its wad  in it's first two minutes.

A ‘Fear Factor’ gag featuring Judd Neslson.  Not funny.

A ‘Girls Gone Bonkers’ commercial.  Lots of tits, not funny.

A crap load of gags featuring Steve-O from ‘Jackass’.  I mean he was the freaking star of this thing.  I’m not one for Jackass so obviously I’m probably not one for Steve-O

either one could assume.  I’m sure dude is great at messing himself up real good.  But watching him piss in his kitchen and participate in the largest majority of the skits would lead me to think that he’s also some kind of good at comedy.  I would be lead astray.  Skits with Steve-O, not funny.

A ‘Miami Vice’ gag featuring midgets.  Not Funny.

A news interview with both Satan, as played by Steve-O yet again, and an interview with an overtly homosexual Jesus Christ.  Neither of them was funny and even though I’m probably not the most religious cat in the world, though I do have my own special belief system, it made me feel strangely uncomfortable.

An ‘XXX’ send up called ‘XXXL’ featuring a real fat guy.  Not funny, but it did feature Lee Majors who wasn’t funny either, but he’s Lee Freaking Majors!  So he gets a lifetime pass.  It also features Lamont Johnson in the Samuel L. Jackson role and HE was funny.  The lesson here is that almost anything having to do with Samuel L. Jackson that doesn’t require the actual Samuel L. Jackson having to act is BOUND to be funny.  Samuel L. Jackson as Gator in ‘Jungle Fever’?  Brilliant!

A prison skit featuring Clifton Collins and Jason Vargas again along with Jason Mewes playing gay inmates in a ‘Sex and the City’ send up.  Funny, but still made me strangely uncomfortable.  Especially when Mewes chimes in with ‘I need some dick’.
The director of the film, Sam Maccarone, in a masturbation training video skit.  Should have been funnier.

The final verdict on ‘TV: The Movie’ is that it’s not too terribly funny and seems to think that grossness and offensiveness equals funny.  It don’t.  But ‘Not too Terribly Funny’ is actually a step for the prefix ‘National Lampoon Presents…’.  Also in this flicks favor is the fact it’s not nearly as bad as the watershed point for horrific comedies in ‘Date Movie’ or ‘Van Wilder 2’ which came dangerously close to usurping ‘Date Movie’ for lameness.  But I was forced to watch those in the theater and was basically trapped there without access to the pause button or my refrigerator.  Please take that into consideration.