online review: "Barats & Bereta"
I've never been a fan of the "in your face" style of comedy featured in some Hollywood films and countless TV commercials and YouTube videos. You know what I'm talking about, the kind that pounds you over the head by mixing aggression and arrogance into its humor, with the message, "isn't this hilarious?"
That being said, the impressively prolific YouTube comedy duo of Barats & Bereta is very much of the "in your face" school, but, perhaps as the exception that proves the rule, because these guys are, quite simply, very, very, very funny. I refer to them as the exception that proves the rule because, in their case, their arrogance is really the point of the joke -- meaning that even if Barats and Bereta both specialize in playing arrogant characters, the performers themselves (who seem to do their own brilliant writing) are actually quite eager to please their audience, and are shameless in their lengths to do so. That includes poking fun at themselves, of course, as best displayed in their video "Barats and Bereta Theme Song," which ostensibly seeks to explain the differences between the two, but ends up illustrating how interchangable they are. (And yet, that's just a joke, because they're really not interchangable; Luke Barats tends to mix his arrogance with an undercurrent of vulnerability, while Joe Bereta's characters have a hint of jockiness to them.)
Despite their own mastery over comic delivery, Barats and Bereta are not afraid to share the spotlight. Note how, for example, the girl in the "Pick-up Lines" sketches is more than just a straight-man; her reactions and (sparse) dialogue form a big part of the humor. Then there's "Call From Jail," in which guest star Dan Oster takes the spotlight in a tour-de-force of one great character or impression after another.
I wouldn't go quite so far to say that everything they touch turns to gold. Their one weak point seems to be long-form comedy: While some of their biggest laughs appear in "skitlets" that are each only a few seconds long, their longer stuff is less impressive. The multi-episode storyline "Ad Guys," for example, has the same comic skill in the performances, and has a great premise, with Barats and Bereta playing a team in an advertising agency who become rivals when they are told that only one of them can be promoted. But nothing funny ever really comes from this idea. Then there's Scott and Zander's Crazy Night, a perpetually unfinished movie project that teams Barats and Bereta with Tony Danza (who plays himself). Granted, the clips are out of context, but there is not one laugh amongst them, and the storyline itself seems unoriginal, like a "Harold and Kumar" without the ethnic humor.
Still, such laughless videos are actually few and far between for this duo. These guys are amazingly prolific, and with the exceptions of "Ad Guys" and Scott and Zander's Crazy Night, every video is a winner. These guys are funny, and more than that, creative. Yes, there's some slapstick involved, but their humor is mostly absurdist in nature, and it's been a long time -- if ever -- that I've seen such a unique view on what makes us laugh.
AVOID: Scott and Zander's Crazy Night clips, also, arguably, "Ad Guys" and "Patrick Stewart's Christmas Story"
CHECK OUT: Pretty much anything else they've ever done. "Pick-up Lines," "Skitlets," etc. The list goes on and on, each video even better than the last.
PURE GENIUS: "Bible in a Minute"
That being said, the impressively prolific YouTube comedy duo of Barats & Bereta is very much of the "in your face" school, but, perhaps as the exception that proves the rule, because these guys are, quite simply, very, very, very funny. I refer to them as the exception that proves the rule because, in their case, their arrogance is really the point of the joke -- meaning that even if Barats and Bereta both specialize in playing arrogant characters, the performers themselves (who seem to do their own brilliant writing) are actually quite eager to please their audience, and are shameless in their lengths to do so. That includes poking fun at themselves, of course, as best displayed in their video "Barats and Bereta Theme Song," which ostensibly seeks to explain the differences between the two, but ends up illustrating how interchangable they are. (And yet, that's just a joke, because they're really not interchangable; Luke Barats tends to mix his arrogance with an undercurrent of vulnerability, while Joe Bereta's characters have a hint of jockiness to them.)
Despite their own mastery over comic delivery, Barats and Bereta are not afraid to share the spotlight. Note how, for example, the girl in the "Pick-up Lines" sketches is more than just a straight-man; her reactions and (sparse) dialogue form a big part of the humor. Then there's "Call From Jail," in which guest star Dan Oster takes the spotlight in a tour-de-force of one great character or impression after another.
I wouldn't go quite so far to say that everything they touch turns to gold. Their one weak point seems to be long-form comedy: While some of their biggest laughs appear in "skitlets" that are each only a few seconds long, their longer stuff is less impressive. The multi-episode storyline "Ad Guys," for example, has the same comic skill in the performances, and has a great premise, with Barats and Bereta playing a team in an advertising agency who become rivals when they are told that only one of them can be promoted. But nothing funny ever really comes from this idea. Then there's Scott and Zander's Crazy Night, a perpetually unfinished movie project that teams Barats and Bereta with Tony Danza (who plays himself). Granted, the clips are out of context, but there is not one laugh amongst them, and the storyline itself seems unoriginal, like a "Harold and Kumar" without the ethnic humor.
Still, such laughless videos are actually few and far between for this duo. These guys are amazingly prolific, and with the exceptions of "Ad Guys" and Scott and Zander's Crazy Night, every video is a winner. These guys are funny, and more than that, creative. Yes, there's some slapstick involved, but their humor is mostly absurdist in nature, and it's been a long time -- if ever -- that I've seen such a unique view on what makes us laugh.
AVOID: Scott and Zander's Crazy Night clips, also, arguably, "Ad Guys" and "Patrick Stewart's Christmas Story"
CHECK OUT: Pretty much anything else they've ever done. "Pick-up Lines," "Skitlets," etc. The list goes on and on, each video even better than the last.
PURE GENIUS: "Bible in a Minute"
posted by Movie Man at
6:47 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home