Wednesday night is the infamous halfway point of the week, so close to over the hump that you can nearly taste Friday. Watching "The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show," however, will replace the allure of Friday with the stagnant taste of Monday morning.
Comedy Central is one of the few channels that's worth a pause during rapid channel surfing, simply because it delivers. It's the home of Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Dave Chappelle and Eric Cartman. As of Jan. 17, it is also the new dwelling place of comedians David Koechner ("Unaccompanied Minors"), who plays T-Bones, and Dave Allen ("Unaccompanied Minors"), who plays the Naked Trucker.
The sketch comedy show gives about as much to the audience in its title as it does in the entire half hour. These two scantily clad men come on stage in front of a live audience, do short bits of shtick, squabble back and forth and show clips of their adventures.
The Naked Trucker, ironically the sensible one, wears very little, as his alias suggests, including only a red trucker hat and a shiny black acoustic guitar (which he does actually play). Mostly, however, it functions as a cover for his modest attire. The Naked Trucker idea might work if he didn't look almost exactly like The Naked Cowboy who stands in Times Square in his underwear and plays guitar.
The Naked Trucker acts perhaps a bit too sensible for a guy standing naked in front of both a studio and national audience as if it were the most natural thing in the world. It's not like he is very muscular or anything, though it saves viewers the frightening agony of the inverse, which is seeing the dreaded David Koechner naked.
"T-Bones," short for Gerald Tibbons, is the eccentric, screwball hick. He's constructed with a protruding gut and lower lip and a lousy, over-the-top imitation of a country bumpkin voice that's often incomprehensible. Koechner, who has done well playing comical supporting characters in the past with such roles as Champ Kind in the beloved "Anchorman," now gives the impression that he's simply trying too hard in a vain attempt to break out on his own.
The show features a few different segments such as "The Hitchhiker of the Week," where, just as with the title of the show, they act out exactly that. The Naked Trucker and T-Bones pick up a hitchhiker, in one instance a man in a bear costume, and the three interact. In this episode T-Bones and the bear make The Naked Trucker pull over so they can fight each other in tall grass off the side of the road.
If Conan O'Brien didn't already have a man in a bear costume this sketch might have had a chance. Unfortunately, the "Late Night" host did it first and he did it better.
Towards the end of the episode the two actually sing a song, with The Naked Trucker on guitar and further accompaniment from their band that they call "The Dick-Around Gang." The song doesn't really make sense, but then again neither does most of the show.
If the simple rating system of hit or miss can be applied to "The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show," it is unquestionably a miss. What the show lacks in originality, it makes up for in stupidity. The pair offers nothing more than stale humor, uninspired characters and sketches that are nothing short of boring.
Comedy Central, a channel that usually produces quality primetime comedic programming, seems to be suffering from a severe lapse of judgment in giving these two faintly whimsical comedians their 10:30 p.m. spot on Wednesday nights, right after the far superior "South Park."
So if Wednesday evening is TV night, kick back, relax, and get over the hump with something else.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
