This Is Not Happening Plot Summary:
Aaron Shaffir and his comedian friends tell hilarious and true stories in front of a live audience at Cheetahs (strip club) in Hollywood.
As with anything that features multiple standup comedians, This Is Not Happening is a mixed bag. Each episode of the series, which is hosted by Ari Shiffer, has Shiffer and two guest comedians tell “mostly true stories” centered around one topic. For the first episode, the audience was treated to Ari Shiffer ,Keegan-Michael Key, and Bobby Lee’s stories about drugs.
The entire episode was a miss. Shiffer comes off as arrogant, unsympathetic, and not funny. His story about sneaking marijuana gummy bears into Australia presents him as an idiot, which is naturally part of self-deprecating humor. However, justifying the smuggling because of a mostly likely fake story about you Holocaust-survivor father’s biggest problem with the Holocaust was a lack of good pot is offensive.
Keegan-Michael Key told a story about driving a crack addict around Detroit. Key fans will enjoy it, but it was nothing special. The same goes for Bobby Lee, whose story about being fired from Mad TV because of his drug addiction and then being rehired once he was sober was more depressing and inspiring than funny.
While the first episode wasn’t good, This Is Not Happening is a great way to gather a bunch of comedians and showcase their talents. It also makes me long for the days when Comedy Central didn’t relegate standup comedy to graveyard slots.
Rating: 5 out of 10
This is not Happening airs Thursday nights on Comedy Central
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Allison Lips is the Founder of Wait! What’s a Dial?, a television blog that showcases the writing of millennials. Allison graduated from Rowan University in May 2013. She has a passion for TV history, especially late night and game shows. If she could go back in time, Steve Allen would still be hosting The Tonight Show. Follow her on Twitter @waitwaitsadial.
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