Sarah’s character, who’s very attractive but even more self-centered, is named Sarah Silverman. Sarah’s an unemployed single woman who has an ugly lap dog named Doug, two nerdy, pot-smoking gay neighbors (she calls “gaybers”), Brian and Steve (Brian Posehn and Steve Agee), her sister Laura (real-life sister Laura Silverman) who is a nurse, and dim-witted Officer Jay (Jay Johnston) who’s Laura’s boyfriend. The cast play their parts so sincerely (fine comic actors) they make perfect foils for Sarah whose character displays a combination of ignorance and arrogance. Hmm. Who else does that sound like?
The shows take place in the quiet town of Valley Village and center around a typical day for Sarah revealed through scripted scenes, animation and musical numbers. (Sarah’s “Poop Song” is a huge hit among young kids.) In the first season episode, entitled “Positively Negative,” Sarah has a case of the blahs she cures by getting tested for AIDS. The intake worker asks Sarah if she’s ever had unprotected sex to which Sarah answers casually, “Is there any other kind?” Suddenly, Sarah is convinced she has the disease. At lunch, where her friends are planning Jay’s birthday party, self absorbed Sarah changes the mood by blurting out she has AIDS.
All in one day, Sarah becomes an AIDS awareness crusader. (Actually a “Sarah crusader” as she insists the T-shirts and posters all have her photo.) She stages a huge rally where, in Eva Peron fashion, she addresses her adoring masses. They ultimately throw vegetables at her when they discover she hasn’t even gotten her blood test back! “You’re booing me because I DON’T have AIDS?” a bewildered Sarah asks innocently.
Each episode ends with Sarah in bed talking to Doug about what she learned that day. Sarah says she’s learned she “should look before she leaps. And for some reason people bring tomatoes to AIDS rallies.” (In another episode she tells Doug she learned that “Prejudice of any kind is wrong. What difference does it make if someone is gay or bi? They’re both gross.”) In various episodes Sarah becomes convinced: She’s a lesbian and turns into a Joan Jett type rocker; that Jews are discriminated against and goes in black face to prove they have it harder than blacks; she should take in a homeless person to prove she’s a humanitarian but she so provokes him he tries to kill her; and that the only way to cure her childhood trauma of coming in second at the “Little Miss Rainbow” pageant is to adopt a little girl who wins only to have Sarah try to steal her crown. It’s okay because the little girl blows Sarah off for a trip to England and a series of Gap Kids commercials.
Silverman is like no other comedienne, perhaps ever. She’s a unique combination of funny, attractive and frightening. Hiding behind a child’s innocence, she attacks taboos like a smiling cobra. The show has elements from PeeWee Herman (her favorite TV show is “Cookie Party”), Gary Shandling, and perhaps even a touch of Lenny Bruce. Sarah’s so talented she could be a fine serious actress, though I have a feeling if anyone ever told her that, they’d better duck. Her real-life boyfriend of five years is talk show host Jimmy Kimmel who appeared in one episode as Joan, a transvestite police dispatcher.
The “Sarah Silverman Program” airs on the Comedy Channel every Wednesday at 10:30 p.m. (The first season DVD just recently went on sale.) While exceptionally funny, the show is clearly not for everyone. Put it this way, I’m not sending this review to my friends from our former Netflix club.
JACK NEWORTH also writes the “Laughing Matters” column which appears every Friday. He
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 26, 2007. Read the original PDF.