Elbowskin: Are We Stupid?

Note: This review is from 2009

Review by Steve Bennett

Are We Stupid? is a show that deserves a one-word review 'yes'.

But I feel the need to expand because, as this unsophisticated musical comedy duo discusses, there can be good stupid and bad stupid. And this is all bad.

Their simplistic attempts at humour go little further than using 'a bit of a James Blunt' as an insult, or showing us the movie of one of them getting a tattoo on their backside after losing a bet on their footy team.

If you think that a juvenile song about donkeys riddled with double-entendres about the word 'ass' is the funniest thing in the world, this is the show for you. But then you might just as easily be entertained by watching the washing machine at work.

They throw every trick in the book at their obvious and unfunny material; but a lame joke is still a lame joke, even if you do it in PowerPoint. In a time when so much innovative use of technology is around, this is as sophisticated as drawing a cock on a toilet door.

They occasionally attempt political gags, which they should probably leave to people who’ve read a book. Simply levelling their ‘James Blunt’ insult at right-wing columnist Andrew Bolt (who many of their audience didn’t seem to recognise anyway) just doesn’t cut the mustard. It’s cheap insult over argument or wit.

And that’s the problem at every turn, they go for cheap, easy lazy gags that any drunk nitwit could come up with. They attempt to cover it up with a tongue-in-cheek attitude and musical verve, but there’s not disguising what’s beneath all the sparkle.

Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Melbourne, April 2009

Review date: 1 Jan 2009
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett

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