Review: The Jack and Triumph Show

The Jack and Triumph Show

Triumph The Insult Comic Dog is by far my favorite character from The Conan O’Brien Show.  Whether he’s covering the premiere of Attack Of The Clones or going to a  Bon Jovi concert, his brand of raw insult comedy has always cracked me up.  In 2012, Triumph teamed up with 30 Rock’s Jack McBrayer to take a legendary trip to the Chicago staple, The Weiner Circle, known for insulting their customers.  The result is one of the best late night skits I’ve ever seen.  The two worked so well together, it led them to star in The Jack and Triumph Show, a 30 minute sitcom on Adult Swim.  What seemed like such a good idea, unfortunately has had some pretty poor results.

The mistakes are clear right out of the gate, by choosing a sitcom format for this show.  Everything that is funny about Triumph is his ad-lib humor in live settings.  A hokey script about Jack and Triumph starring on a Lassie-type show in their younger years falls very flat.

The only redeeming thing about the two episodes aired so far are they actually put short live setting skits in there.  So far, Jack and Triumph have gone to New York Comic Con to harass professional wrestlers and Star Trek cast members, as well as taking on hipsters at a coffee shop.  Both of these bits are as strong as anything Triumph has ever done.  The problem is, it’s maybe 3-4 minutes tops out of a half hour show.

I’m personally giving the show one more episode before I remove the series from my dvr.  I can’t really recommend it though.  Throwing Jack and Triumph into a format they don’t thrive in was a big mistake.  I can only hope that the live scenes from each episode get singled out and put online so I can watch the funny parts of the show without wasting my time with the rest.

The Jack and Triumph Show airs Friday nights at 11:30pm on Adult Swim.