Before I vent, let me just say that humor is very subjective & I'm not going to change anyone's opinion on the show if they find it funny. I can't just explain why I don't think it works & expect you to not find it funny, or vice versa, explaining why something should be funny & you go "OH OKAY, NOW I FIND IT FUNNY", that's not how humor works. Laugh at what you find funny, I'm not going to change that.
Alright. So. Let me explain my dislike for PTE by comparing it to a show I used to absolutely love as a teen: Bo-Bobo.
Bo-Bobo is basically Mad Libs: The Anime & I fully understand why it doesn't work for some people, especially with how random it can get. But there was still some (be it barely there, hanging on a thread) method to the madness & chaos that was happening, with characters who acted as the audience surrogate unable to comprehend all the crazy shit that would unfold. Plus there was an actual plot & more importantly, people who would witness the chaos and react to it, thus allowing the characters to play off each other.
Let's throw in Cromartie High School as well, one of my favorite comedic animes. You could argue that show gets surreal as well, but what makes it great is that there's still some sense of reality no matter how insane things got & part of the joke was reality sinking in, plus the fact the characters were interacting with each other. Simply put, both this & Bo-bobo had a cause and effect. A set up and punchline. Point A to Point B. Logic to the illogical humor.
Now. Let's take some scenes from PTE & question why they're suppose to be funny. Take the random scene where all of a sudden, they're referencing Skyrim. Okay.....WHY are they referencing Skyrim? I could argue that Family Guy, SOMEHOW, does a better job with just cutting to random references that don't contribute to anything because they're actually doing something with said reference, like make fun of it or spin it in a new light. You can't just point out that something exists & expect it to be funny, you have to make a statement that's more than that. I know Pokemon is a thing, so why bring it up if you're going to do nothing with it? You can't just make the characters look like Berserk & insta-comedy. That's just combining 2 things from pop culture, one of the laziest things you can do.
Not to mention, the physical humor just doesn't work because nobody reacts to it most of the time. Part of what makes it work is the seeing the reaction, or if there's no reaction from the person who got hit, from another person questioning why it didn't work. At least Space Dandy acknowledges the fact that in certain episodes, they die, so when it's just brought up nonchalantly, it's funny. Here, just onto the next skit like nothing happened. It's almost like they either have a setup, but forgot the punchline, or a punchline that has no setup. Random for the sake of randomness. Hell, I would argue that the Dandy episode we just watched still felt like its weirdness still worked because it made "sense" within the context of the show & your suspension of disbelief goes along for the ride.
If I had to give it some form of praise, the dub is instantly better because I believe that hearing a joke is usually funnier than just reading it. Watching the dub, I will admit I got some chuckles out of some of the deliveries from the VAs, but that wasn't because of the joke itself, it was because I recognized who was doing the voice & I was laughing because "hah, that's Chris Sabat saying that" & how he delivered it. Which doesn't work in Japanese when I'm not entirely familiar with Japanese VAs, so when I'm reading the subtitles, they don't nearly have the same impact.
Speaking of which, I've heard this is really only done in the first episode, but simply swapping the VAs doesn't really work if you just repeat the exact same jokes with absolutely no variation. It's like hearing a joke you don't find funny but now someone else is telling it to you again mere minutes later, acting like if someone else says it or says it in a different voice, it goes from unfunny to funny. Sure, hearing a different VA say a similar line in their own unique voice is kind of funny, but again, I'm finding it more the VA saying it itself funny, not the line within the context of the show.
I know I'm putting WAY too much thought into what is basically the anime version of Tim & Eric or Robot Chicken, but I don't like those shows either nor their style of "anti-comedy" or "the equivalent of shitposting" (which I get more than enough from being online). I guess it's just the fact that I know comedy is extremely hard to do & this goes against what I grew up with/the style of comedy that I developed thanks to shows like Simpsons & Futurama. Plus I owe you guys a serious post explaining why I really disliked the first episode. I was really hoping I could stop acting so damn angry for a non-Black Clover show with Kai off the block, & while I'm not getting my hopes up, I really hope future episodes won't be anywhere as infuriating like the first, as I instantly dropped the series after finishing the first episode.
If anything, I need to do a better job of trying to type up more of these serious posts detailing the reasons I dislike something & less "GRRRRRRRRRRRR THIS MAKES ME SOOOO MAD". I don't know why I was able to go into so much detail for a comedy when I'm not really able to articulate my likes or dislikes for other genres/shows, but this was the best I could do & I completely get it if you disagree with me.
