I am afraid of Ugly Americans. Dangerously so. I’m afraid that it exists, because it is as consistently in tune with my sensibilities as anything I can think of. It’s as if someone hijacked my mind and Inceptioned all my thinkers out and built a show out of it.

I don’t like Adult Swim. I see a lot of creators trying way too hard to be edgy and weird and in tune with the minds of a lot of people who need something they can call their own. If I was 20 maybe Adult Swim would connect with me and though there are great little moments to be had if you spend the time, my overall inclination is to dismiss it as people guided by a gimmick, absurdist freedom, or little ideas not carried through to their full potential. But I’m 37, and the time I spend on disposable entertainment is better spent elsewhere.

Sorry if that comes off as snobbish. I just see folks with a lot of great tools and a ton of shortcuts taken.

Ugly Americans feels like an Adult Swim show, but there’s something about it that clicks.  A beautiful chaos. And tons of little ideas. Especially in the margins.

In the same way that Sergio Aragones’ work absolutely made Mad Magazine, Ugly Americans is made by the little nuances away from the action.

The premise is that monsters and demons and all sorts of beasts have been a part of society, so it’s perfectly normal that a blob may work as a janitor, an eagle-man may shit on your head, or a slithering minion may be part of a board of directors. Our ‘hero’ is a nebbish who’s pussywhipped by a demon girl, his best friends are a zombie and an alcoholic wizard, and his job as a social worker has a far different set of rules considering the climate.


The first few episodes are machine-gun fire madness. Jokes both visual and crafted through dialogue come out and a surprising amount of them stick.

The show gets a little more story driven [likely the work of Comedy Central] and things become much more focused than the pilot, but there’s still fun to be had (like the video clip below featuring a Criss Angel-alike named Christ Angel).

It’s a show very much like what I’ve been trying to do with 11 Colonels, which is inspiring and a little sad. I know there’s people like me who like this kind of stuff. There’s nothing sacred to the makers of this show and when it clicks it gives me faith in humanity. Shit like this counteracts the soul crushing Jon and Kate Plus Eight stuff out there.  

Well at least it it gives us assholes something to enjoy while the majority of our peers fuck their brains in the asspussy.

Grab the pilot off iTunes. You won’t regret it.

Warning, this file crashes Firefox for me sometime. Something about certain QT files and Firefox simply don’t get along.