Sit Down, Shut Up

When I first heard Josh Weinstein & Bill Oakley, the creators of Mission Hill, were teaming up again to do Sit Down, Shut Up I thought it would be a similarly off-beat comedy (i.e., good).

But after watching last night’s pilot episode, I felt like Obi-Wan at the end of Star Wars: Episode III when he yells “You were the chosen one!”

A little research revealed that Oakley actually quit early on because it wouldn’t be produced under Writers Guild of America (WGA) jurisdiction, so I guess he was the funny one of the two.

Sit Down, Shut Up is about a group of  idiosyncratic high school teachers who were no doubt the reason for the No Child Left Behind act. The characters are one-dimensional and not just the way they’re drawn. Nick Kroll plays a stereotypical gay Drama teacher, while Tom Kenny (Mission Hill’s Wally Langford) is wasted playing an unintelligible Muslim custodian, who is… (yawn) a secret terrorist. Their names reveal what little personality they have, such as Acting Principal Sue “Sezno” who says no. Oh it get’s better (and by better I mean worse). They also have “hilarious” catch phrases like “I need a catch phrase.” And the backgrounds are live-action but not in an experimental kinda way, more in a low production value kinda way.

The only thing good about Sit Down, Shut Up is that it was cut down from 13 episodes to 5 episodes (including pilot), and I’ll be amazed if it lasts that long.