by Abel Horwitz
Daily Lobo
The trick to watching Comedy Central's "Drawn Together" is that you have to be able to find humor in the fact that your childhood heroes are reduced to foul-mouthed morons.
Entering its second season, "Drawn Together" asks the question, what would happen if you took eight cartoon stereotypes and put them together in the same house? The premise isn't much different from VH1's "Surreal Life," except its cast with cartoons instead of has-been celebrities. The result is pure madness.
"Drawn Together" takes the formula to another level. Since it's a cartoon and scripted, the creators of this show can put the characters into madcap situations and make utter fools of them. The thing is, this is done with an eye for the nostalgia that made all these cartoons so great in the first place. "Drawn Together" takes the nostalgia one step further and tears these characters down to a level of offensive humor that somehow makes sense.
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For example, the Disney princess stereotype, Clara, spews blindly racist statements. This comes from the fact that she spent her entire life inside a Disney-esque world where homosexuals and black people simply don't exist. The second season opens in a cliffhanger from the first season, with the characters plummeting to death in a crashing helicopter. Taking cues from "Lost," "Survivor" and even "The Shawshank Redemption," the characters discover what the future has in store for reality TV "superstars."
The difference between the first season and the second season is that there is an underlying element of social commentary. The first two episodes of the new season comment on facets of life in America by making jokes out of them, yet coming to a positive conclusion.
New episodes of "Drawn Together," which air after new episodes of "South Park," are in no way at the capacity for social commentary that "South Park" has fashioned itself out to be over the last few seasons. They do, however, present the evolution of a show that originally packaged itself as a show about hot cartoon girls kissing each other and random fart jokes. The fart jokes and lesbian kisses are still there, but now they do it for a purpose. "Drawn Together" is definitely not wholesome family entertainment. Like "South Park," this show is meant for an adult audience. To find humor in this show, you have to be prepared to be offended. The show's goal is to destroy as many sacred cows as possible and they do so through jokes that come off as racist, sexist, and sometimes just downright gross.
Recognize that it's all done for laughs and you'll soon find yourself clutching your stomach because you're laughing so hard. If you take offense at the show's humor, then you'll never watch it again.
