Will Women of the '90s Be Offended By This Show? Man!
WILL WOMEN OF THE '90s BE OFFENDED BY THIS SHOW? MAN!, Orange County Register, 16 June 1999
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THE MAN SHOW, 10:30 tonight, Comedy Central.
by Barry Koltnow
They have vowed to sandbag the mighty Estrogen River that is threatening to overflow her banks and inundate the male landscape.
They have promised to battle the evil forces of Oprah and Rosie, and to put a stop to that Barbara Walters-led gang of feminine muscle known as "The View." They want men returned to their rightful place atop the throne as king of the remote control.
They are two complete idiots or two very funny guys.
Comedy Central is hoping that Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla are the latter. Many women may opt for the former.
Either way, "The Man Show," which they co-host, will ruffle some female feathers when it debuts at 10:30 tonight on Comedy Central. It is a show dedicated to the man in all of us.
It is a show where men are men, beer is beer, and gas is something that follows the beer.
Let's put it this way: The half-hour show ends each week with a segment called "Girls Jumping on Trampolines." That is not a metaphor. It's women jumping up and down in slow motion on a trampoline.
This isn't the first time some of you have seen or heard these guys. Kimmel, 31, recently won a daytime Emmy as co-host of the popular Comedy Central game show "Win Ben Stein's Money." He also was a fixture for five years on Los Angeles radio station KROQ, where he was a comedy writer and played the character "Jimmy the Sports Guy" on the "Kevin and Bean" morning show.
Carolla, 35, also played a character on the same radio show (Mr. Birchum, the shop teacher), but is better known as half of the hosting team (with Dr. Drew Pinsky) of the radio and TV show "Loveline." He co-wrote the book "The Dr. Drew and Adam Book: A Survival Guide to Life and Love."
"The Man Show" is the third such male-oriented program to hit the airwaves in recent weeks (Fox TV's "The X Show" and USA's "Happy Hour" preceded them to the little screen), but it actually may have started this mini-trend. The pilot for "The Man Show" was completed more than a year ago and has been floating around Hollywood.
We sat down with Kimmel and Carolla on a sunny patio outside the Hollywood soundstage where their show is taped for a jaw-dropping interview that will delight or incite, depending on your gender bias.
Be prepared; this is not going to be pretty:
ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER: What do you guys have against Oprah?
KIMMEL: It's nothing person-al against Oprah herself, but the woman is a big fat hypocrite. To me, this is a person with a weight problem who writes books about what you should eat, how you should exercise and how you should live your life. Meanwhile, she leads a pretty messed-up life. She's still fat; I don't care how many people congratulate her for being thin. She has a battery of personal trainers and chefs; how are regular women relating to her? If they think she's one of them; they're nuts. It seems hypocritical to try to act like you're an everyday person and not be one at all.
CAROLLA: She's the Pied Piper for women. I don't mind someone doing some entertaining, but when you devote an hour to your personal trainer, an hour to your chef and an hour to your aromatherapist, it's like the height of arrogance.
OCR: So you see your show as an anti-Oprah program?
KIMMEL: Definitely, but we're not focused solely on stopping her. We're just trying to present the opposite kind of television.
OCR: You seem obsessed with this so-called river of estrogen running through television.
KIMMEL: The problem is that people are stupid and believe what they see on TV, and they accept these ideas that men don't stop for directions. They accept that as true because they've heard a million comedians say it. It's not true. Some men do stop for directions. I want TV to stop promoting these kinds of falsehoods. Every lead male character on TV sitcoms is depicted as stupid. He's meek and whipped, like Tim Allen's character on "Home Improvement." Meanwhile, his character is the one with the job and the one paying for the house.
CAROLLA: In real life, Tim Allen makes $77 million a year and his co-star makes $2 million. Who's the buffoon and who's the brain? Talk to their tax attorneys.
OCR: Which reminds me; are you expecting any kind of backlash?
KIMMEL: Comedy Central has already gotten some letters based on our promos, but we really don't care at all. Let them march; it's a television show. The point is that guys don't march against Oprah and Rosie O'Donnell. We let them have their say.
CAROLLA: We're working and that's why men don't march.
KIMMEL: Unless you're in the Army, it's hard to march while you work.
OCR: How much of this is an act?
CAROLLA: We do tend to embellish to make the story more entertaining. But it wouldn't come up in the show if it hadn't crossed our minds. We're not as extreme about it as we may say; that's sort of artistic license. But if we say we don't like something, that's the truth.
KIMMEL: We try to make it like "The Simpsons," in that you can get it on different levels. When I watch "The Simpsons" with my kids, I'm laughing at the parodies they do on America and my kids are laughing when Homer pulls his pants down. I'm also laughing at that, but we appreciate it on different levels.
OCR: So "The Man Show" can be taken on different levels; it's not just a show for morons?
KIMMEL: Absolutely; we wouldn't want to do a show just for morons.
OCR: Do you think you are on the cusp of a trend here?
CAROLLA: It's starting to feel that way. It's flattering and discouraging at the same time.
KIMMEL: I don't think of it is a trend. The other shows will be gone soon and we'll be the only one left. And one show isn't a trend.
OCR: You guys probably agree with John Gray [author of "Men are from Mars; Women are from Venus"] that men and women are inherently different.
CAROLLA: We don't trust anyone who writes books about these issues.
OCR: But you must agree that men and women are different; you seem to be reveling in that fact.
CAROLLA: Part of the problem is that people don't accept the fact that we are different. I have nothing against equality, but what kind of equality are women looking for? Heck, you already can have kids. You live longer. You know the difference between drapes and curtains. Why should you get paid as much as a man? Stay home and take care of the kids. Equality is just a way to shoot yourself in the foot.
KIMMEL: What we want is real equality, not what's going on now. Like in sports, there is no real equality. Men are stronger and better athletes. It's true. With certain exceptions, like ice dancing, which we don't want to have anything to do with, men are better at sports. Yet women insist on being treated equally.
CAROLLA: Women are better at other things. Ask a good-looking woman how many times she's been pulled over in traffic with a warning. Ask a fat guy how many times he's gotten off with a warning. It all works out in the end.
OCR: So in the interest of equality, you believe that the tees should all be set at the same distance on a golf course.
KIMMEL: Women shouldn't even be on the golf course. My wife wanted to take golf lessons and I said, 'What are you thinking? I don't go to play golf; I go to a park to be with other guys and get drunk for four hours away from you. You're missing the point here; it's not about the golf.'
CAROLLA: Fishing and golf are ways for guys to sit around together without their wives. Never before have so many guys been so excited about things they can never excel at.
OCR: Is political correctness the death of comedy?
CAROLLA: The reason there is comedy is to combat political correctness. The problem is that lately, a lot of comedies have tried to be funny and politically correct, and that doesn't work.
KIMMEL: Political correctness is dishonest. People don't talk to each other in politically correct ways. They do use off-color language and do say sexist things and racist things and disgusting things. When you make believe the world doesn't work like that, it comes off as false.
OCR: Three final words . . . girls on trampolines?
CAROLLA: Girls on anything; fill in the blank. It's already good. You already feel like you're halfway home with the words 'girls on.'
KIMMEL: There's something wholesome yet dirty about it.
CAROLLA: Guys love trampolines. If you put a trampoline between a guy's cell and the electric chair, he would stop to jump on the trampoline before he was executed. That's the way guys are.
©1999 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.
