Underplayed Gems

Crossballs: The Debate Show (2004)

Crossballs: The Debate Show poster
Genre
comedy
Country
United States
Length
1 season, 24 episodes
Rating
10.0 of 10 from 2 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

This show is a parody of cable news debate programs. Comedians pretend to be experts and argue with real commentators who do not know the show is fake. Topics include reality TV, religion, and video games.

satiricalunsettlingcomedicfast-pacedabsurdmischievousawkwardparodic

What happens

Crossballs: The Debate Show is a Comedy Central television show which poked fun at cable news networks' political debate shows, especially CNN's Crossfire and MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews. In each episode, comedians posing as experts on a particular subject would debate two real commentators. The true experts were unaware that the show was a sham. Topics ranged from reality television to religion to violence in video games. It debuted on July 6, 2004, and ran for eight weeks. It aired Tuesday-Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET. The twenty-third and final episode aired on August 25, 2004. Episode 24 ("Pistol Whipped America") was taped but never aired, after one unsuspecting guest named James March threatened to sue Comedy Central. A further legal threat came from radio comedian Phil Hendrie, who publicly accused the show's creators of stealing the concept of a show he pitched to Comedy Central in 1998, as well as that of The Phil Hendrie Show. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.