Dubbed "sketch comedy that doesn't suck," the comedy troupe known as Ralph don't suck by any means but could benefit a bit by watching some of their influences, which they cite as including "Mr. Show" and "South Park." Basically "The Grapes Of Ralph" is a sketch show, not unlike "Saturday Night Live" except grosser and usually funnier, and the comedy has a refreshingly un-PC bend to it. Sketches include a couple haunted by the sounds of Lou Bega (obvious), a ruthless gym teacher obsessed with ridiculing her stroke victim pupil (sick, but damn funny), a visit with J.D Salinger, who turns out to be obsessed with the word "titty" (silly but kind of amusing) and a theater class with a pretentious teacher who uses a decrepit old bag as a decoy (yawn).
As you can tell, this is all very hit-or-miss material. Oddly, the ruder the scenes are, the funnier they are, though the cast may want to refrain from setting up every punchline with their "this-is-supposed-to-be-a-parody" delivery. They work hard though, and they're aiming to please, which is always an asset. Apparently, the show will be updated throughout its run, so different performances may be affected, good or bad. But the deafening laughter from the semi-obnoxious audience I saw it with seemed to eat it up, and if you're in the mood for farts, spitting, F-words and Abe Lincoln doing stand-up, you could do worse.
