VH1's ILL-ustrated
Oct. 18, 2003

Camp Chaos, the popular website featuring hilarious cartoons such as the Metallica Napster Bad series, has teamed up with VH1 for an all new TV show called ILL-ustrated. The series features various Flash-animated sketches that you've probably grown accustomed to watching on the 'net. Now, you get to watch on TV sans the loading times (but plus the commercials ... life is so cruel).

I wouldn't go so far as to say ILL-ustrated is downright brilliant, but the shorts I saw taking jabs at the likes of Courtney Love, Michael Jackson and George Bush were hysterically entertaining. Much better than anything you'd find on Saturday Night Live or Mad TV, but then ILL-ustrated has the benefit of being animated. And in animation, the gloves come off in regards to how wild you can get.

Take, for instance, the episode poking fun at Michael Jackson—the easiest target in the world, really. Now, it could have gotten cheesy and overly redundant, because, let's face it, who hasn't made fun of Jackson in one way or the other? But the skit clicked, and in fact, it kicked ass. In the segment, Jackson was filming a video for his new song, "Indestructible," but every time he started dancing, his fell off, revealing a hideous skeleton underneath. Don't worry, Jackson said, that happens all the time. Wow. Yes, it's cruel, but you can't help laughing.

In the same episode, George Bush, angered that Europe thinks he's stupid, decides to write his own speech (rather than letting Dick Cheney do it) concerning world hunger to present to the UN. Much to the chagrin of Cheney, Bush goes on to deliver his speech, saying if the mothers of the world would just pack lunches for their children, then the children wouldn't be hungry. He then starts to demonstrate to the people how to make spaghetti, which he hilariously keeps calling "pussgetti." Trust me, you have to see this to really appreciate it.

The low-budget Flash animation with spot-on likenesses and incredible voice acting has everything to do with the overall sucess of the segments.

You can find out more about ILL-ustrated at VH1.com, complete with previews of the show featuring the segments on Jackson and Bush that I described above. Do yourself a favor and go watch them, because as funny as ILL-ustrated is, who knows how long it will last on TV.

Chris Douvalas
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