Pauly Shore’s Pauly~Tics (2012)

Starring: Pauly Shore, Larry King, Duane “Dog” Chapman from Dog the Bounty Hunter, Ralph Nader, Herman Cain, Michael Steele, and Jaclyn Swedberg
Grade: C+

Slowly but surely, Pauly Shore has finally started to recover post-Weasel. Pauly~Tics may not be outstanding or anything, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Summary

Following a montage of what’s to come with Pauly Shore talking to various political figures and strangers and clips from the eventual stand-up special, we cut to Pauly at home watching The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. His girlfriend and former “Playmate of the Year” Jaclyn Swedberg interrupts because she wants to have sex, but Pauly wants to focus on politics and gets agitated with her insistence. They are both interrupted by Larry King’s arrival, as he’s there to give Pauly advice on his trip to Washington. Jaclyn gets all excited because she loves Larry King, revealing that Pauly is the youngest person she’s dated. Getting insecure about this reveal, Pauly makes her wait in the house as he talks outside with King. After King gives him surface-level advice like “be yourself” and other nonsense, he asks Pauly if he can stay at his house for a while. Unfortunately, Pauly reveals that he’s actually leasing his house out, so they can’t even be there right now, and they have to go. Right after, we cut to Pauly messing around by the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial and interacting and joking with workers and nearby fans.

Finally, the stand-up comedy begins. After being introduced as the President of the United States, Pauly shows up in a full suit and begins his politically focused special. He starts by talking about how he understands why politicians cheat on their wives because the girls in Washington D.C. are unbelievable, potentially running for mayor, and how celebrities have an easier road to politics purely because of their name, relating himself to Arnold Schwarzenegger and how they both have catchphrases. Next, he discusses his potential slogan of not wanting to promise shit, how no one would care if he was in a sex scandal because he’s Pauly Shore (fair point), and how if he did run, he could finally find out how many women he had sex with, which was pretty funny. This joke is directly related to Herman Cain and how he was accused of sexual harassment by several women. We then transition to a bar where Pauly interviews the real Herman Cain over a game of pool. Cain talks about replacing the tax code with his famous 9-9-9 idea and insists all the allegations against him were false. Once they discuss celebrities getting involved in politics, Pauly uses this as an opportunity to ask Cain to coach him in a mayoral run and he jokingly considers it. Going back to the stand-up, Pauly does a bit on how he wishes more entertainers would get into politics and vice versa, bringing up the match made in heaven that is Bill Clinton being on Two and a Half Men. After talking about Joe Biden being creepy and probably having an affinity for gin and tonic, and how awesome it would be to see Brad Pitt doing the State of the Address along with other members of the Ocean’s crew being involved, we cut to another segment.

This time it’s with former RNC chairman Michael Steele. Pauly meets him at a clothing store. After Steele tries to convince him to become a Republican and Pauly jokingly says he’ll piss half of his audience off if he does, they get Pauly a Republican-style suit to wear, which is the one he wears for the stand-up portion of the special. Following a very funny line about how he wants to be on Rachel Maddow’s show (“I love girls too”), they discuss how Steele is a former brother-in-law of Mike Tyson because of his sister, so Pauly tries to shoot his shot once he realizes Steele isn’t talking about Robin Givens. The two then head out to the restaurant Ben’s Chili Bowl and Pauly ducks paying for the suit. Back in the actual stand-up, we get arguably the best bits of the special. This is where he talks about if he were president and how he would cut back on things himself to save money, taxing things that are really bad for you, and sending prisoners to fight wars instead of soldiers. With the last point giving us the best joke of the special:

“There’s over 2 million prisoners that are in jail right now for killing people. What do you think they don’t want to kill more people?”

Next, he talks about legalizing weed, heroin, and cocaine and how there are prescription drugs available right now similar to all three. The main comparison being Adderall and coke. Then, he furthers his talks about CVS and how they always talk about his medicines out loud. Following this, we transition to another interview segment. This time it’s with Ralph Nader at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. They talk about Nader’s influence and his combatting of corporations, the war on prescription drugs and how they’re worse, which is funny because Pauly uses this as an opportunity to bring the ultra-serious Nader down to earth, asking him if he’s ever done Ambien. Of course, Nader offers the awful suggestion of just counting sheep to fall asleep instead. Then, he hits us with the classic dad joke of saying that the city is full of sheep and “they’re called members of congress”.

Classic Ralph Nader.

Next, the two discuss Nader’s responsibility for the seatbelt reminder, how it’ll be 25 years before they make the full-on switch to electric cars, and how the government will give you a tax credit for driving them. After Pauly jokingly accuses Nader of driving a hummer, we jump back into the special where Pauly asks if the crowd thinks President Barack Obama is a terrorist. Obviously, this sets up a divided and loud response from the crowd and he’s surprisingly shocked by the response. Once he settles things down with a joke about how this isn’t an episode of The Jerry Springer Show, he comes up with this fake scenario where he met Obama and they talk about him capturing Osama bin Laden (“You got him, but it only cost us three trillion dollars”). In another great bit, Pauly suggests they should’ve sent Dog the Bounty Hunter to get Osama instead and just make it a two-hour A&E special. Once he comes up with another fake and unfunny scenario of him hanging out with Obama and his family and comparing it to Soul Plane, we go back to another segment of Pauly talking with Herman Cain at the bar. They discuss the similarity in names of Osama and Obama, and Cain gives advice on Pauly wanting to start a family. This is where he talks about dating sites and how Pauly should find a good church girl. Going back to the stand-up, we get a small but amusing bit about how there aren’t any sex scandals because “Michelle don’t play that shit”, and Hilary Clinton just looking scary in general.

At Ben’s Chili Bowl with Michael Steele, the two eat and Pauly brings up how Bill O’Reilly is probably fucking all the female Fox News anchors. Then, they discuss politicians being humans but having to resign as soon as they screw up, with Steele pointing out that politicians should be doing something else if they want to get laid. This sets up Pauly perfectly to suggest they get into show business. After this, Pauly messes with more strangers and talks with citizens around town about having sex with politicians. Then, we jump to the worst part of the special. This is where Pauly brings out a midget rapper and they do this song about Obama and other random political figures. During this elongated, unfunny, and dated bit, Michael Steele and an Obama impersonator are brought on stage. The song abruptly ends once Pauly says a line about “lazy blacks” and the midget rapper points it out. Pauly apologizes and it sets up the Obama impersonator to say, “I’ve seen some lazy Asians”, which is so unexpected that Steele starts laughing, just barely saving the segment. After this, Pauly interviews democrat Barney Frank. They discuss John Boehner and how the party moved really far right without him, Frank being gay, gay marriage, gays in the military, and his husband.

Next, we cut back to the stand-up where Pauly does his version of Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue”, but it’s not even intended to be humorous it seems. He just sings a song with a collage of pictures in the background regarding his career. After another bit at the Chili Bowl with Michael Steele, where Steele leaves angrily once Pauly brings up Rush Limbaugh, we go to the final part of the actual stand-up. This is where Pauly brings out the “Political Party Rock” dancers, which consists of a bunch of people impersonating political figures, and he sings this horrible, cringeworthy, offbeat song in a speedo and afro wig. Then, they kill the lights, and Pauly takes us throw a retrospective through time that is basically a PowerPoint presentation about historical events and what Pauly was doing at the same time as said events. To finish the special, Pauly is back at his house on the phone with Michael Steele. He has a toast with Jaclyn, but he’s quickly arrested by Dog the Bounty Hunter for squatting and trespassing even though it’s still technically his house.

My Thoughts:

Despite the look and presentation of this special, this isn’t Pauly Shore’s attempt at making a politically focused stand-up special in the vein of someone like Bill Maher or Jon Stewart. That’s not Pauly and that’s never been Pauly. Not to sound like a cornball, but this isn’t politics. It’s Pauly~Tics. That’s the whole joke.

Pauly Shore takes his silly brand of humor and inserts it into the heart of Washington D.C. Throughout, he interviews Republicans, Democrats, independents, and random citizens alike, but he manages to keep things light and fun for everybody, despite certain topics or people being brought up. In a current world full of divisive political opinions, argumentative representatives of each party, and a negative stigma attached to anything and everything in Washington, Pauly Shore’s Pauly~Tics is a refreshing, above-average special because it takes the anger and hatred of out of the political landscape in search of basic comedy. Instead of the negative aspects, Shore decides to focus on the positive, goofy, somewhat uplighting, and even surface-level observational humor that can be found in political topics and figures.

Compared to anything revolving around the subject we have in the 2020s, it’s a nice change of pace.

For a Pauly Shore special, it’s actually one of his better one’s too. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: I like Shore, though I’m more partial to his movies than his stand-up comedy. In his stand-up, he either leans too hard into his old persona, reminisces about it too much in his later material, or exposes himself as a below-average joke maker with tired punchlines. With Pauly~Tics, we arguably get some of his best stand-up material yet. In addition, Pauly’s fun-loving persona is highlighted in all the right ways, with amusing segments in-between the special and interviews to spice things up and keep the pace moving. More than likely, this is to cover up the dull spots of his actual stand-up, but this works because only the better jokes are left in this special. As a result, it feels much more complete than his usual stage work and is consistently amusing for a good portion of the special. In Pauly Does Dallas, the best parts of the special were the segments in-between, as we took a look into the real Shore and him interacting with fans and such. With Pauly’s improved abilities as a filmmaker and being the creative spearhead of some of his later projects like Pauly Shore is Dead and Adopted, Pauly~Tics isn’t necessarily his magnum opus or anything, but you can see how a lot of the setup and presentation of this special is similar to some of the best parts of his lesser-known projects. Shore did his homework on what worked previously and applied it to this special. He masked his shortcomings as a comedian by highlighting what made him famous to fill in the cracks. Of course, this is using his funny personality to interact with others unfamiliar to his style in a conversational format and getting a chance to do some comic acting in general.

You won’t hear anyone say this anywhere else, so I’ll say it now: When given the opportunity every so many years, Pauly Shore has steadily improved as a filmmaker, a writer, and a more well-rounded comedian. Though the production quality of the projects he’s been in since the 90s has noticeably dropped, it’s a bit of a give and take that has to be accepted once you go independent. If you take this out of the equation, you can see how much Shore has improved in so many facets.

He’s more than “The Weasel”.

Honestly, his interviews were entertaining as well. Watching him loosen up guys like Ralph Nader and Barney Frank, having fun with Michael Steele and Herman Cain, and having pleasant conversation with all of them, showcased their personalities very well. They understood the assignment and reacted accordingly to Pauly Shore while maintaining who they are as people. Despite getting taken out of their comfort zone, they react well to Shore, and he doesn’t push too far to where it seems like he’s trying to agitate them. It’s just harmless fun, something we’d usually never say about a special centered around political humor. Shore deserves credit for managing to make a political comedy that’s not too political. It’s just comedy that pokes fun at everyone in a light and inoffensive manner, reminiscent of the energy he would bring in those MTV interviews all those years ago, only with a bit more maturity comparatively. Though these interviews aren’t hilarious or anything, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it. Everyone seemed to be having fun here and it was infectious.

Though it’s dated now, the Dog the Bounty Hunter stuff was chuckle-worthy as well. Larry King’s star power helped, but I wonder how much he was paid because he gave Shore nothing to play off of in that opening.

What ruined what was otherwise a solid special was the musical portion of the evening. The rap was cringeworthy and unfunny, and the “Political Party Rock” thing was borderline embarrassing. It only gets stuck in your head because it was so awful. Though the country song thing fit the theme, it ruined the momentum and energy of the special and was equally as unamusing as the other musical segments. The ending of the show was a bit more humorous but by this point in the show, it was too far gone to recover. All in all, two-thirds of the show was good, but the final one-third was crucial in bringing the overall grade down. It felt like Shore was doing so good, he got worried that people would be expecting more goofball/party antics compared to the rest of the special and tried to go overboard to meet this standard he set for himself. Sadly, he got in his own head when things were going just fine. As a result, the potential of the special dropped off mightily following a strong-than-expected first half.

Though this may not mean much to some, Pauly Shore’s Pauly~Tics is one of Pauly Shore’s better stand-up specials. It’s arguably the best of his more recent work. Somehow, Shore is able to succeed in making a special about politics but avoids offending anyone. All he does is have fun with it in typical Pauly fashion and generates more authentic laughs than usual for a good portion of the special. For fans of Shore, you’ll appreciate his usual antics and will take notice of his improved skills, as he avoids relying on shtick in favor of trying different things in this special. Unfortunately, the key negative is that he tries just a tad too much and ruins what could have been. The music stuff was a solid chunk and none it was funny, the interviews were light and amusing, but it’s not nearly as funny as it could be because Shore doesn’t try too hard in generating comedy out of the segments, and it’s just one segment too long.

It’s still rough around the edges in totality, but considering Pauly’s track record, I’m proud of him.