The whole anal lube premise seams weak to me because all the humor is contained within the act of anal-sex, so there's not much room for exploration. The joke is pretty much, "Anal sex!" I would have liked to have seen them explore how one-sided the anal-ease product is. The husband gets to have anal sex and the wife shits herself. What kind of deal is that? That would have been more interesting than all the lead up to that premise, which itself was undeveloped. They could have come up with more products that only serve the husband at the expense of the wife, with her justification for using it being that he beats her less. So, shows potential!

I disagree on Anal Yum and think it's equally boring. As Paul F Tompkins said, "A Pun is the lowest form of humor." And although Anal Yum- When you're tossing salad you're going to need the right dressing is clever, I don't find it funny.

Euch, I think this Harry Potter Magical Lube is the worst of all. It's so amateurish. And the whole joke is anal lube, ha ha. Anal lube can probably be funny, but if it's the funniest thing in the sketch it's probably then that sketch is pretty weak. It's like a dude in drag. I just quoted TJ Miller!

The KY one was just too obvious.

Ha, the An-All Lube sketch is funny because they're idiots and morons! They ruined the joke since it's clearly labeled as Anal Lube in the opening, then they call it Anal lube by accident, the one girl knows what's happening, and the whole thing is so forced. I'm laughing at them and not with them, but I'm a fan of anti-humor. Ha, and the guy's name is broccoli! The host is trying so hard and thinks he's so clever that he can barely contain himself and says, "Excellent" many times. I would have loved to see footage of people telling him to eff off and insulting the host.

This was fun to do. Man, this might be what The Bob feels like. Looking forward to next week's installment!

Since I am at work I cannot watch these videos. But if you need an armchair director, quiet on the set:

Make fun of commercials, not anal lube. One common trope amongst commercials nowadays is introducing a situation that has nothing to do with the product, commenting on the situation, and then tying the comment to the product.

So maybe start out with some exaggeratedly awkward situation like some guy running over an infant with his car, picking up the dripping infant baby and showing it to the parents, saying "Is this your child?" Then the parents shriek in horror and say "yes" and he says "I saved it from some maniac."

Then the narrator of the commercial says "Friction gone" and you cut to an image of Slippery Crack lube or whatever.

That said, dirty humor is almost impossible to pull off with the glut of filth that's online and commercial parodies are also a bit overdone. Then again I haven't seen the commercials so I hope I disagree with Nate and Keith.

Yes you may rip apart my suggestions.

I agree with Keith. I understand that all amateur sketch groups are required to do a sketch about anal sex, but let's get a little more sophisticated.

Saying "butt sex" is only funny if you nuance it. That's why my group, Perv Griffin, has a sketch called the Big Anal Sex Joke Sketch. It's subtle and nuanced, just like the title.

This is a great feature. Keith kept things very academic, but I look forward to it devolving into a YouTube-esque gay-bashing.

I think the main problem with any sketch about anal lube is that there's nothing odd about it. To engage in anal sex, one must use lubrication--this is a fact. And people have anal sex all of the time all throughout the world--this is a fact too.

So in order for this subject to be funny, we have to heighten the (no pun intended PFT) shit out of it, or really heighten the way in which its being discussed. We'll heighten to humor in relationships, not just the anal sex subject matter. Maybe make these women mother and daughter or school teacher and student and treat it like a girl asking about her first period.

I liked the matter of fact delivery of the Anal-Ese sketch, but that could be taken a lot further. Put them in a place where its even more inappropriate for them to be talking about this--a school playground or classroom or grocery store checkout line, wherever. Create more of a gulf between the subject matter of their discussion (again, people talk about anal sex, I've seen it happen, to think they don't is prudish) and where they are talking about it.

Anyways, its in the relationships that you develop that will create the "odd thing" and that's where you'll find the humor, not in the subject matter of anal sex itself. Because there's nothing funny about anal sex--its beautiful.

Sorry, mo, you agree with me, but raise an interesting point as well. When it comes to anal lube, you'll get more humor out of the medium than out of the product.

Thanks Keith. I had no idea I was endorsing the Marshall McLuhan approach to comedy.

As for your comment on Tompkins and puns, remember when he called Best Show, Seth Galifiniakis was on and Tompkins pretended to be his own twin who loved puns?

Exaggeration is the key here, and sadly I don't think this has much of one.

Like Mo and Keith said, there might be much more to make out of this as a commercial than a project - using Anal-Ese as a hook to get into the rhythms of commercials for other products. Then the jokes would really be about these kinds of commercials with the anal lube being the hook that gets you in to making those jokes (and being the exaggerator for those).

But then any silly product could be that hook. So I'm going to try and see what I can think of that would work with only an anal lube product - where it's the subject, the exaggerated rather than the exaggerator.

What might work with anal-ese as the subject is using the lengths they have to go to disguise what they're talking about in many commercials - "male enhancement", "genital outbreaks" etc. The TV-friendly language becomes the exaggerator. I'm not sure that'd work, but it's seems like a good trail to start with. Something that plays off the inherent humor inside the product - rather than the element of just being naughty talking about buttsex.

I think the most important lesson here is the mention that this was done in a live show. I'd be curious to see how this sketch played in front of a live audience and to hear what kind of laughs it was generating. I suspect they were more of the social "oh!" variety rather than at any particular line.

Its not the best thing I've seen - but I will say this: I've seen some stuff featured on NEW VIDEO DAY that isn't much better (of course there is a goodly ammount of stellar stuff that shows up, as well).

As for the previous comment in regards to this group being an amateur sketch group ... I'd hardly call most of the sketch groups in NYC to be much further from amateur sketch. Thats why they are all digging around in ditches creating material and making magic happen.

I've seen much worse videos at both the UCBT and The Pit in REAL shows.

I think the problem with that video isn't the unoriginality of the subject - but the pace and intensity.

This video had some funny moments - it was just a little long, I agree.

Its hard to be original in a world that has over 500 Sketch groups on myspace alone.

My beef with this video and countless others is that I'd like to see more of an effort in the whole process.
Making videos with better sound, camera-work that isn't handheld, and some REAL MAGIC LOVE! Thats what I want. Its not hard to put a camera on a tripod, get a better microphone (or at least tape the dialogue up close), and try to make some quality work.

I agree with the general critique of the video trying to mine humor from a taboo that isn't really a taboo; the orig. video is closer to a videotaping of an actual (ie, "real life") conversation between friends that could occur than a video sketch heightening any aspect of the content/delivery. Therein lies the problem.

It should also be said that if we're trying to find the "game" of the sketch, the description provided for it by the head writer does not match what we see; it's not clear that the "game" is "weird product," but rather, it seems like the game is "anal is taboo," which brings us back to why it's not as successful. People's opinions aside, the Analyum video, when viewed with this in mind, is much more successful because it takes a mild taboo and makes it insanely taboo (kids are gonna eat this?). All that sketch needed was some faster pacing to add to the frenzy.

Had the writer of the original sketch stuck to escalating how weird the product is in a more focused manner (the cancer line is great, but it's one of maybe two things she says specifically about the products physical effects and it comes too late), the sketch could have been tighter and funnier.

Terrible.

Anal Lube? Are you fucking kidding me? I honestly can't think of a worse topic to base a comedy bit around. Maybe Douches or Adult Diapers? No, anal lube is the worst.

I can imagine it being done in a way that doesn't make me roll my eyes after 3 seconds. But these are all terrible.

It's like I asked any high schooler in the nation to make a commercial for anal lube, and told them it was okay to smirk through it if they couldn't act. These are a waste of time. There is no debate to be had.

And, PS, if you joke is "Anal Lube is funny" why is this video 3 minutes long? WE GET THE JOKE. Do a one line punch and get out in 20 seconds.

"Gee, what other hilarious things are going to be revealed about anal lube? I am on the edge of my seat! Oh, a homosexual reference! These guys are really working it!"

It's the least original premise possible. I would dare the guys who made these to tell me a premise for a video that is worse than 'anal lube commercial.' If they convince me a less creative premise exists, I will make the video myself and post it on the front of my website.

OK seen the videos.

Yeah again the videos seem to follow the standard SNL commercial parody paradigm, where actors earnestly sell the product.

Again, deconstruct. David Cross brilliantly deconstructs this egg commercial in one of his stand-up albums. He says something like "Not your grandma's eggs."

"Not your grandma's anal lube."

Correct me if I'm wrong Nate but does this blog post hold the record for most comments on the Apiary and most appearances of the term "anal lube"? Sleep with one eye open, Fleshbot.

@David Angelo

I don't think the idea behind this piece is to dogpile on the video, but to give constructive criticism on how you take an okay video and make it great. I'll second Critical Poops about how I've seen worse stuff (and better stuff) at all the comedy venues all over the city. This isn't "let's all say why we think this is the worst video ever and then hi-five."

Hi-Five!

David!
I've got a worse premise for you..
A bad comedian compulsively giving other people advice on how to be good comedians (but in a very mean way)! But the clincher is...he says his website every third word....and pees when he cries and cries when he hurts other peoples feelings.
Thats a movie I'd like to see you make.

But please....use a tripod!

There is no 'constructive criticism' to give these videos. They can't be made 'great.' I think it's unfair to suggest otherwise. It's like modeling coaches who tell obviously incapable wannabes they need to take more classes and pay for headshots when they really just need to hear the truth. Just because I've seen worse doesn't mean I have to pretend there are redeeming qualities to these.

Critical Poops, at least I don't hide behind a pseudonym when I talk shit. And I actually think your premise is much richer than 'anal lube commercial' - at least it is character based. So, that's not a worse premise - thus proving my earlier point (despite being a weak attempt at disparaging me).

Also, tripods don't equate with high production value. I would suggest, instead, use of wide angle lens handheld with a decent off-camera microphone. Tripods encourage static, horizontal shots that are boring visuals.

Shouldn't commercial parodies be 30 seconds long, just like real commercials?

Just face it, dudes. When it comes to anal lube, I bring the unique spin. I bet if I send this out to World's Funniest Animals I'll get a writing job.