Remember way back in the 90's when it was it was commonplace to see animated series based on real-life comedians and their personas?
Some examples are fairly well known, such as, *Bobby's World (Howie Mandel) and **Life with Louie (Louie Anderson).
*I hated Bobby's voice
**Louie's father was the true star here (I liked this series)! XD
But then there are obscurer ones---the ones I prefer for ACO subjects, such as *Camp Candy (John Candy) and **Little Rosie (Roseanne Barr).
*I never saw this in childhood---it's also less obscure now that Mr. Enter has brought attention to it
**Discovered this via YT ...and it's actually watchable (expect an ACO of this, someday)!
...and let's not forget the series this ACO is based on: 'Super Dave: Daredevil for Hire' (SDDfH).
SDDfH is an animated series based on the live-action comedy daredevil sketches of Bob Einstein. Einstein played the role of 'Super Dave Osborne', a hapless daredevil whose stunts tended to go awry. These sketches were fairly harmless, but were not intended for children (for language, mostly).
Now, Bob Einstein voiced Super Dave on the cartoon show. Einstein also made some very short live-action stunt sketches to show at the end of most of the cartoon episodes. These sketches are, IMHO, the best part of SDDfH. ^^
Now, I had completely forgotten about SDDfH. I was only reminded of it (just yesterday, in fact) while watching a compilation of Fox Kids commercials (circa 1993). After a quick SDDfH refresher course (ie, watching an episode), it occurred to me I hadn't forgotten the series, but had actually repressed it.
To put it mildly, SDDfH is an unfunny, stupid cartoon! D:
Now, I'm not intending to speak ill of Bob Einstein (who died recently)---my criticism is directed solely at the animated series.
Basically, the cartoon Dave is a daredevil with a successful show. Dave has a rival (Slash Hazard) who tries to kill Dave ...which is impossible, given Super Dave is as indestructible as Wile E. Coyote.
But Dave really doesn't need a nemesis to try to do him in---Dave's own in-universe show does a pretty good job on its own!
Essentially, SDDfH's 'comedy' revolves around watching things fall on Dave, Dave getting blown up, etc., etc., but not in any clever or tricky ways. Most of it's just nonsensical.
An example: Dave wants a vacation from his show, so his producers decide to give him one...
SUPERDAVE (reading a note handed him by his producer):
"Dear Super, We love your show. We love what you do every week---we love YOU! We are very sorry about this mailbag-episode fiasco. Here are two tickets to stay for a week in a deluxe suite in the Durango Springs Resort. Take the rest of the show off!"
PRODUCER: "You deserve it!"
SUPERDAVE: "I'm just gonna have to turn you down, because I've had so much trouble with boats and planes and cars in this episode. I think I'd rather stay home"
PRODUCER: "We thought of that. The only way to get to Durango Springs is by train"
...So a *train crashes through the walls of THE UPPER FLOORS OF THE TV NETWORK SKYSCRAPER, just to run over Super Dave.
The episode ends. :P
*this train, to me, looked a lot like the USA Cartoon Express ^^
...Anyway, this was a kind, generous example of Super-Dave humor, as it actually had some build-up. Most of the slapstick just comes from nowhere or is otherwise (and most times) very obviously forthcoming. :P
Concisely, 'Super Dave' is pie-in-the-face humor, minus any comedic timing or artifice; there isn't much satisfaction to be had.
An example of the comedic writing (from a different episode),
SUPERDAVE (who needs to slip his entire body through a small opening): "Fuji! The petroleum jelly, please!"
FUJI: "Here you go, Super Dave!"
SUPERDAVE: "Prepare me for entry!"
...No comment.
Ok, so the TL;DR here is stick to the live-action sketches. They're low-budget, sure, but they're creative, (kinda) funny and blessedly short ...unlike their animated alternative. :P
"While we note that Disney uses their Mickey Mouse lawyers to aggressively protect Disney intellectual property, they did not seek permission to use Evel Knievel at any time."
D:
"While we note that Disney uses their Mickey Mouse lawyers to aggressively protect Disney intellectu
