By Jason Haskins
If you don't know, Kenny vs. Spenny was a Canadian show picked up by Comedy Central a few years back about two best friends who compete in a series of competitions, with the winner getting glory and picking a humiliation for the loser each show.
The show stars (and is directed by) Kenny Hotz and Spencer Rice, two young men who will go after nothing to win. Each show has a different challenge and a different humiliation. The humiliation is usually disgusting or completely crazy (licking bird poop, getting peed on, etc.)--the journey to the winner and the following humiliation is epic and always hilarious.
Spenny is a very passionate and sweet guy who wants to win the hard way and try his best to be fair and go through all the motions to win of his own accord, but Kenny is completely insane and willing to cheat, lie, steal, and manipulate Rice in every which way imaginable. The reason why this show works is that they both perfectly contrast each other and have great chemistry with each other.
Kenny vs. Spenny Vol. One represents all ten episodes of their initial run on Comedy Central and make up the fourth season of the show. Why they didn't buy the rights from Showcase (Canadian broadcaster) and re-release all of the previous seasons are beyond me. While the other seasons are available, they're much harder to find (except by the internet). These episodes give a great glimpse at this show and have some of the most outrageous moments from it. Here's the list:
First Guy To Get A Boner Loses is the first episode and out...of...control! Kenny cheats by getting an injection in his crotch so that he can't get aroused and the finale of the contest is a sudden death match of lap dance proportions. The next episode is Who Can Blow The Biggest Fart?, which made me feel sorry for the camera crew as they are basically just walking around their house farting into a machine that tells them the decibels of each puff. The humiliation for this one was ridiculously gross, too.
There's a completely off the wall episode called Who Can Be Tied To A Goat The Longest, which is much funnier as it sounds especially when Kenny starts messing with Spencer in ways that are much funnier when seen. Another great one was Who Can Be Obese The Longest, which had both of the boys put on eighty pounds worth of weight (in actual weights...at least for Spenny). This has some great parts especially with how cute Spenny is when he gets all serious about obese people and wanting to make a public announcement of sorts.
Two episodes out of ten are still awesome, but definitely aren't up to par with the rest: First Guy To Stop Singing Loses and Who Can Make The Best Viral Video. I still had a blast watching these, but they aren't ones I would watch as often. Hearing both guys sing the entire episode was funny at first, but grating on the ears and annoying later. The viral video episode had some good parts, but featured some insanely offensive material involving 9/11. Another episode First Guy To Get A Stain Loses was pretty funny, but not a well thought out idea as they kept changing the rules.
Three of the shows best episodes overall are all found conveniently here with Who Can Eat The Most Meat rounding out the funniest episodes on this two disc set. It's positively disgusting how much meat these guys ate and the climax was so funny that I was honestly in stitches laughing so hard at the outcome (good guess: one of ‘em got really sick).
Who Can Handle The Most Torture was also a lot of fun and definitely one of the many great episodes where Kenny cheats the whole time by avoiding the challenge and having Spenny do it all by himself to extreme results. Lastly there is Who Can Commit The Most Crime, which has them tally up how many laws they can break--small little things, of course, nothing violent or anything. Kenny is out of control in this episode, while Spenny had to drink some alcohol to get in the mood to break some laws. This was the first episode I saw of the show and remains a staple of what to expect if you try it out: Completely crazy comedy.
For the most part the show is unscripted. I think that these guys set up what they are going to do, but don't tell each other their strategies and this is a reality Jackass show of sorts where they both aren't really acting, but acting the way they always do. This collection is perfect because it's a great mainstream introduction to the series.
They are real friends, made a great little film a few years ago about getting their script made into a movie Pitch, and sometimes I really feel bad for Spenny as he's the sympathetic "character". Kenny is a real jerk, but he offers the most comedy on the program and is definitely the highlight of the show. That being said without Spenny, Kenny wouldn't be as funny because their bickering and competitive natures (as well as the outcome each episode) make them the funniest duo in comedy history.
The DVD comes with a ton of special features like interviews with the guys about each episode included giving great input and behind the scenes details, their actual viral videos are on here, two commentary tracks, as well as some deleted scenes. Overall, this two-disc DVD is of great value not just for all the extras included, but the replay value of the episodes. I've watched some of these multiples of times and I still find them funny--which says a lot for how good they are.
Granted, these guys have come under fire for the authenticity of the show and how it's shot in a rental house with their offices in the back, they do live with each other for the days these competitions are taped and the actual nature of them is real as well so regardless of whether or not this show is "real" or "staged" or whatever you want to believe, you just need to know that's it's a riot. I haven't laughed this hard at a comedy series since season four of The Office, and this has replaced a number of shows as my favorite show of all time. It's pretty tongue-in-cheek; some of the material is pretty foolish, but not anywhere as near as how insane other episodes were from Canada.
How crazy? Who Can Drink The Most Beer? (Kenny drinks non-alcoholic) Who Can Wear A Dead Octopus On Their Head The Longest? (My favorite episode of the show by far) Who Can Stay Blindfolded The Longest? And another favorite: First One To Be Mean Loses. This show is for a selected audience who like mean humor, but it's honestly so well done and humorous that I can see much more people enjoying it simply out of catharsis just be prepared for foul language and subject matter that may disgust or repulse you...and maybe entertain you as well!
5 out of 5 stars
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