A young man working in the mail room of the Jose el Retardo offices asked me today if I had ever witnessed the comic prowess of The Whitest Kids U’Know, a fairly recent addition to the overabundance of sketch comedy groups that litter the history books with their corpses. I said I had heard of them, but have not watched them, and even had not heard great things about them. He said, “Forget what you’ve heard, they rock.” Cool. So you know, I like funny things—maybe I’ll find something new to lighten up my days.

These cats, I’m sorry to say, are not funny. I’m not sure what they are at all, as a matter of fact. The sketch I saw was more bizarrely sad commentary than anything else, but the acting is pretty over the top and poor—off the mark completely if the goal is stylization. And it just wasn’t funny. Take a look:

It only makes me pine for the Kids in the Hall, those legendary Canadians whose esoteric comedy has still to be matched in pure oddness even after being gone from the airwaves for like 15 years. Come back, Kids. Please. Here’s one of my favorites, The Beard: