The only thing that could be worse than watching the pilot of the WB's new series "The Oblongs" would be watching it three times.
If you've got a masochistic streak, you can do just that as the network airs this animated atrocity on Sunday at 7:30, 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. as a sort of April Fools' joke.
No one at the WB really expects anyone to watch the show three times. Network honchos just want to give "The Oblongs" as much exposure as possible. But the joke is going to be on the network — the more exposure the show gets, the more viewers it will send screaming in the opposite direction.
Did I mention that "The Oblongs" is an animated atrocity?
Created by underground cartoonist Angus Oblong and executive produced by Bruce Helford ("Drew Carey" and "Norm") and Jace Richdale ("The Simpsons"), the concept of "The Oblongs" is just plain creepy. The family lives in a toxic, polluted valley that has resulted in some bizarre abnormalities — Bob Oblong (voiced by Will Ferrell) is the armless, legless head of the family; his bald, alcoholic, chain-smoking wife, Pickles (Jean Smart); their conjoined twin sons, Biff and Chip (Randy and Jason Sklar); their 4-year-old daughter, Beth — who has a benign growth sticking out of her head; and son Milo (Pamela Segall Adlon), who has "every childhood emotional disorder and behavioral problem ever diagnosed."
With the exception of the the rich people up on the hill, the other characters are similarly bizarre. And jokes about physical deformity get old fast.
The level of humor is low. The opening sequence finds Pickles trying to shake off her stupor in the morning, asking, "Are you a cop? Am I in detox?"
There's lesbian pornography humor, homoerotic humor, potty humor. And we use the term "humor" extremely loosely.
Thank goodness the show is animated — it would be too gross otherwise, what with internal organs flopping around getting licked by aliens. Really.
Weirdness can be funny, but "The Oblongs" isn't. Social satire is a difficult thing to pull off — too difficult for this show.
Did I mention that "The Oblongs" is an animated atrocity?
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com