OK, it is official. I have found my new favorite comedy on television. Move over everyone else, "Life's Too Short" is absolutely the funniest show on TV right now, all thanks to Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, Warwick Davis, and the cameos they have been able to get. Last week, the hilarious episode was topped off with an incredible scene with Liam Neeson trying to do improve comedy. This week, Johnny Depp trying to learn how to be a dwarf by watching Warwick blew me away. It is nothing short of brilliant.
After a hilarious beginning to the episode where Warwick argues with the mother of a child with a tumor at a fan convention, agrees to show up at a Star Wars themed wedding, has the funniest interview with a local news agency ever, and starts coming up with other ideas to make money (the best of which is being strapped to a pole and doing chimney sweeping), Warwick meets with Depp as Johnny researches his new role of Rumpelstiltskin. The series of events that transpires with Warwick falling over as if struck by lightning, standing in the toilet, and taking Johnny to talk to Ricky and Stephen is the hardest I have laughed watching a show in a great deal of time. Depp is absolutely fantastic in the role as himself fascinated by the dwarf, looking both energetic and playful with Warwick, as well as angry and frustrated by Gervais. We all know Depp is a brilliant actor, but what he does in "Life's Too Short" is comic gold.
What's more, the episode doesn't end there as Warwick attends the wedding he is paid to go to. After showing up without his Ewok costume, being stuffed into the inside of a giant teddy bear that's stuffing was removed (his assistants Teddy Bear that "stinks" because her dog is "always humping it"), and sitting through a brutal Best Man speech, Warwick tries to lighten things up with a few jokes. The first few hit and make the crowd laugh, the last few miss entirely and make the show's audience cringe and laugh at how awkward the situation is.
This show has everything. Where many episodes of funny shows have some very hysterical moments and sequences, every scene of this episode was outrageously funny. There are no lull points or breaks from the entertainment. Gervais and Merchant stuff enough comedy to fill an entire feature film in one half hour episode of their series. It is brilliant, smart, funny, and engaging throughout. The Warwick character is so arrogant and stupid it is hard to like him, but the situations he gets into makes it hard not to love him. And other than Depp and Neeson, Gervais and Merchant are great as themselves, constantly loathing the fact they will have to talk to Warwick again when he shows up unannounced. This show is everything we should want from a comedy and I can only hope it continues at this high pace.
Best line: Johnny Depp: "FASTER FUCKING GIVE ME PASSION" as he plays a recorder and asks Warwick to dance a River Dance. That or Depp calling Warwick an "Evil Toilet Dwarf" as Warwick stands in Johnny's toilet showing Johnny what being in a chimney would look like.
Biggest laugh: EVERYTHING with Johnny Depp, but the most laughs come as he talks with Warwick and takes notes on his voice recorder. Absolutely hilarious.
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After a hilarious beginning to the episode where Warwick argues with the mother of a child with a tumor at a fan convention, agrees to show up at a Star Wars themed wedding, has the funniest interview with a local news agency ever, and starts coming up with other ideas to make money (the best of which is being strapped to a pole and doing chimney sweeping), Warwick meets with Depp as Johnny researches his new role of Rumpelstiltskin. The series of events that transpires with Warwick falling over as if struck by lightning, standing in the toilet, and taking Johnny to talk to Ricky and Stephen is the hardest I have laughed watching a show in a great deal of time. Depp is absolutely fantastic in the role as himself fascinated by the dwarf, looking both energetic and playful with Warwick, as well as angry and frustrated by Gervais. We all know Depp is a brilliant actor, but what he does in "Life's Too Short" is comic gold.
What's more, the episode doesn't end there as Warwick attends the wedding he is paid to go to. After showing up without his Ewok costume, being stuffed into the inside of a giant teddy bear that's stuffing was removed (his assistants Teddy Bear that "stinks" because her dog is "always humping it"), and sitting through a brutal Best Man speech, Warwick tries to lighten things up with a few jokes. The first few hit and make the crowd laugh, the last few miss entirely and make the show's audience cringe and laugh at how awkward the situation is.
This show has everything. Where many episodes of funny shows have some very hysterical moments and sequences, every scene of this episode was outrageously funny. There are no lull points or breaks from the entertainment. Gervais and Merchant stuff enough comedy to fill an entire feature film in one half hour episode of their series. It is brilliant, smart, funny, and engaging throughout. The Warwick character is so arrogant and stupid it is hard to like him, but the situations he gets into makes it hard not to love him. And other than Depp and Neeson, Gervais and Merchant are great as themselves, constantly loathing the fact they will have to talk to Warwick again when he shows up unannounced. This show is everything we should want from a comedy and I can only hope it continues at this high pace.
Best line: Johnny Depp: "FASTER FUCKING GIVE ME PASSION" as he plays a recorder and asks Warwick to dance a River Dance. That or Depp calling Warwick an "Evil Toilet Dwarf" as Warwick stands in Johnny's toilet showing Johnny what being in a chimney would look like.
Biggest laugh: EVERYTHING with Johnny Depp, but the most laughs come as he talks with Warwick and takes notes on his voice recorder. Absolutely hilarious.
READ MORE MOVIE, TV, AND VIDEO GAME RVIEWS AT: CustodianFilmCritic.com
