Allow The Benson Interruption to interrupt your night

     Or morning, if you TiVo it like me.  It's on at midnight, after all!  But regardless of when you watch Comedy Central's newest show, The Benson Interruption, prepare to be amused.

     Doug Benson is that way-too-cheesy, unfunny comedian from VH1's canceled show, Best Week Ever.  However, turns out that when he's on stage and not doing a really stupid voice, he's pretty watchable.  Apparently Benson would sit in the front row while comedians performed and hilariously interrupted them (I assume this was planned and he didn't just show up at random people's sets), and Comedy Central through, why not put that on tv?  Instead of being in the front row, Doug gets more visible with a chair on stage, which he sits in and patiently holds up his microphone, waiting for the right moment to jump into the jokes being performed.  Which is often.  Really, it seems more like a duo on stage than one man butting into another one's time.  But no matter.  It works.

     This weekend, the first episode premiered with Nick Swardson (Nick Swardson's Pretend Time, Reno 9-1-1), Nick Kroll (The League) and G4's Chris Hardwick.  Each was pretty funny.  The comedy definitely leaned towards the raunchy, with masturbation, pee, AIDs nurse, and birthing jokes.  The best runs were when Doug and the current performer went back and forth at each other, with the performer improvising retorts to what Doug said, instead of just trying to carry on with their set
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     I'm not sure how I feel about the 'Twitter-off' bits, which Doug did with Nick K. and Chris.  Basically, they each just read some of their own twitter posts, and then the other made a funny comment.  Sure, the one-liners were funny, but I felt the show was at it's best when it was a followable thread, rather than random jokes out of nowhere.

     The Benson Interruption airs Friday nights at 12am according to the Comedy Central website, although technically that is Saturday morning.

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Nick Swardson's Pretend Time less than satisfying

     I am a fan of Nick Swardson.  I enjoyed his character Terry on Reno 9-1-1 very much.  But I was concerned when I heard he was getting his own comedy central sketch show.  Many great comedians have tried and failed to develop their work into a weekly half hour.  I assumed Swardson would soon join the likes of Louis Black and Jeff Dunham.  But I hoped he would be like Demetri Martin and somehow pull it off.

     Sadly, Nick Swardson's Pretend Time falls into the failure category.  It isn't Swardson himself.  He effortlessly portrays some very different characters, and proves he can handle a variety of scenes.  In fact, he was better than I had dared hope.  My problem is with the writing.  The sketches were just not funny.  From a car that runs on pee, to a botched proposal during a hockey game, where no less than four pucks hit the couple, each bit failed to elicit even a smile from me.

     Three of the segments should have been amusing.  The toddler bucket list, Lady Gaga's cop brother, and the wheelchair cat seemed like good ideas.  I kept wanting to laugh, I truly did.  I can't pinpoint exactly what was lacking in either one of them, but again, it just wasn't good enough.

     I hope Swardson succeeds, I really do.  I will watch again next week in the hopes that perhaps the pilot was just an off episode.  That happens in some shows, though I don't think that would really apply to this one.

     If you'd like to give Swardson a chance, Nick Swardson's Pretend Time airs on Comedy Central Tuesday nights at 10.

For frequent mini-reviews and occasional tv news, follow Jerome on Twitter.