Comedy Critique: Jimmy Kimmel Exercise Infomercial

Jimmy Kimmel has quietly (as quietly as a current late night host can be), created quite a good show, by embracing bits that have the chance to go viral on the Internet. It probably all started with these...

And now he has another video out - this time with some of the hottest female celebrity stars out there...

Knee Jerk Review: C+

While exercise infomercials seem like an easy target to spoof, and not terribly original, I don't really mind, because if something is funny, it's funny. I'm not going to take points away for the source material.

However...

This piece is cluttered and ultimately doesn't have the focus a funny bit needs. First, it's long - over seven minutes. And 7 minutes is a long time to sustain one joke. And I think the writers obviously knew that, which is why they chose to continually introduce the celebrities. Obviously a good move, as our culture has taken a shine to celebrities poking fun of themselves. So that can obviously work.

First, the likes...

The premise is funny, if a little hackneyed. Kimmel playing a fitness instructor means seeing him and his out of shape body in various exercise clothes. It's worth a laugh or two. And the idea of "humping" as exercising works because of the celebrities involved. Scarlett Johansson, Jessica Biel and the others going over the top in the exercise parts is funny. I'd like to specifically call out Ms. Biel for completely going with the joke and selling it. Comedy works only if you buy into it 100%, and she did.

What didn't work...

I didn't get the malapropisms and other weird word jumbles. I didn't think it added anything. But that wasn't a make or break for the piece. The biggest complaint I had was the inconsistency of the celebrities and their attitude toward "Jimmy K." Both Johansson and Biel play it as if they're madly in love with Jimmy K. A decent premise and a comedy standard of swapping gender attraction. But then we get Eva Longoria and Emily Blunt who both seemingly view Jimmy K. as creepy - with Emily Blunt laying the groundwork for Jimmy K. being a stalker. That comes completely out of left field and way after the video has established Jimmy K as being a sexual desire for major celebrities - which confuses the character. Is he desired or creepy? It would be one thing if he were desired by ordinary women but spurned by celebrities. But to make some celebrities love him and others weirded out by him sends an uneven message that ultimately sinks the bit.

I also if you're going to have a lion, it needs to be a real lion. The cgi is easy to spot and cheapens it a little. And Lohan gets a good line in at the end, but seems under utilized.

I think the bit had a lot of potential, yet only a little was realized. I realize that Late Night doesn't have a lot of time to fully flesh out these bits, and it's an amazing effort just to get something like this made, but with just a little more time spent in the writing room, it could have been up there with "I'm fucking Matt Damon/Ben Affleck."