Funny and Uncensored

Funny and Uncensored
by: Lisa Christiansen and Emma Sawchuk

Lisa: With plumy accents and a bucolic setting, teenage bad boys Raph Von Blumenthal and Sam Baron from that dirty urban hot spot, Cambridge, England, arguably create the chorus of the year with "tea motherf$%^@, tea motherf@#$%^" in "Lazy Sunday UK." (Warning, this one is full of obscenity).

Emma: "Lazy Sunday" the Narnia rap was made by Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell on SNL, which must have been e-mailed around to everyone at least a couple of times. Those videos, which made Andy Samberg famous, also launched the two British teens: Sam Baron (cousin of Sacha Baron Cohen -- a.k.a. Ali G and Borat), who had already made one feature film and two documentaries all before the age of 19, and his partner Raph Von Blumenthal. They made "Lazy Sunday UK" a couple of years ago, and since then have been getting their own buzz for it and their new vids.

Lisa: The duo is brave enough not to try and be anyone else but who they are while offering a different point of view -- which is the secret to successful comedy.

And it's why, in a way, they remind me of Kids in the Hall. I remember their "Bank People" sketch and finding it perfectly astute and funny.

Even though it's now 20 years old I can still remember discovering the Canadian comedy troupe one night while watching TV. Years of watching sketch comedy teams from Monty Python (like the "Dead Parrot" sketch) to SCTV (like the parody of CBC's upcoming news shows) and all the Saturday Night Live casts had made me a fan of absurdist social commentary. But I especially liked the Kids because these five guys from Toronto looked like my friends, and saw the world in a way I understood. And each week CBC presented their skewed ideas and seemingly didn't censor their creativity. And so far so good for Sam and Raph too -- there's no censorship happening on the Internet, unless of course you try and read or watch this at work!

Emma: Blumenthal and Baron also made a fake sitcom pilot,"Tom's Life" which is good. But it's their interviewing that's their real skill. Their style is similar to Rick Mercer; there are just no unsuspecting American victims.

In other vids, Blumenthal and Baron drill people with questions at a climate change protest . . .

Read the entire article here: http://thetyee.ca/Video/2008/02/06/FunVids/