Spoilers Below

In my ever-increasing Machinima Monopoly (Machinopoly?), I have chosen to next tackle Sanity Not Included, a show now entering its fourth season.

SNI, like all Machinima cartoons, features video game characters being dubbed over by voice actors with humorous dialogue. Although most series follow one video game in particular, and have a consistent overarching plot, Sanity Not Included is comprised of short-to-extremely-short skits combined into one six or seven minute-long episodes, similar to the format of Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken. Some are only a couple seconds long, others are a minute or two. The clips are from actual video games, everything from Metal Gear Solid and Halo, to Mario and Crash Bandicoot. Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed, and many others also make appearances. I’m honestly not much of a gamer, so ex-squeeze me for not knowing more. You’ll just have to take my word for it.

The dialogue, though, is obviously what makes the show. I’ll quote another article of mine that is also running today (about Machinima’s new series Scribblenauts.) In speaking about different machinima-type cartoons:

“Sometimes they make fun of the graphics or some other quality issue within the games. Sometimes they mock the characters or plot lines. Other times they simply use the platform and characters to have normal conversations about life and its little quirks and/or make references to pop culture . . . [and] the depiction of how video game characters and plot lines would play out in the real world.” 

The greatest thing about Sanity Not Included is that it does all these things. In some bits the characters make general commentary on games as a whole, or certain scenes or other characters. Occasionally it’s just someone having an obscenity-heavy freak out. (On a side note, I respect any video – such as this – that utilizes the Wilhelm Scream at some point. If you don’t know what that is, educate yourself. )

One thing was clear to me from the first episode: these guys know how to write. The dialogue is witty, just the right amount of profane, and just the number of skits they come up with is astounding. Each episode has at least a dozen of them, sometimes double that.

There is also a string that ties these Non-sequiter vignettes together, two twenty-something dudes named Dexter Gilligan (the Englishman) & Lyle McDouchebag (the American). The two characters are based on the show’s creators, who go by their handles, Dexterboy124 and GuitarMasterX7. In the first season they appear only in short sketchy segments, adding a bit of stability to the unstable and unpredictable flow of the show. In later episodes their role grows, and the characters develop a bit and start to expand their segments. Honestly, for the most part I could take or leave these scenes. That’s just me though. Don’t get me wrong, some are genuinely funny, but the real bread-and-butter for the SNI guys are the video game sequences.

Regardless of how haphazard my account of the show sounds, the creators truly make the thing work. They run the bits for the precisely appropriate amount of time, and weave them all together in perfect order, even flashing back and repeating jokes or continuing plot lines in several segments throughout an episode. Often they feature a music video sequence, or fake commercials for shows or businesses, all done with the usual dubbed-over video games scenes. Sure, the shorts are hit-and-miss. The first season was by far the most consistently funny, there was a bit of a sophomore slump with a few too many misses, but the third season started moving back in the direction of the show’s former glory.

My only other criticisms involve the use of a bit too much poo humor (someone spraying projectile diarrhea into someone else’s face – although occasionally funny – can only be done so many times) and a few too many silly immature grabs for laughs. Also, I think in today’s culture the creators should know enough not to use so many gay jokes, and (in the earlier episodes) some homophobic slurs. I think most people are moving past using “that’s so gay” as a substitute for saying something is bad, or “you’re so gay” as a general insult.

Not to say that these phrases can’t be used. I honestly believe they have their place and time (like: “Dude, wearing a fishnet t-shirt is pretty gay. Especially with those leather chaps,”) but these guys flat-out overdo it. It just seems kind of lazy, because the writers are more creative than that. These are very minor criticism, though, and the show should be properly recognized as one of the best currently on the net. All this brings us to the season 4 premier, just released this week. Weighing in at almost 13 minutes, the latest Sanity Not Included picks up where the previous season left off.

Following the cartoon death and real-life departure of Lyle, Dexter begins auditions for his mate’s replacement. After interviewing a plethora or eclectic and generally shady individuals, Dexter settles on Aleks (ImmortalHD) as his new partner-in-crime (literally, most-likely). Season 4 doesn’t appear to have changed much, and all things considered that’s definitely a good thing. The new guy fills in nicely, and there are some funny bits, even though one of the funniest lines is the text on Lyle’s tombstone: “He didn’t press start to continue.” Oh, and the music video is a heavy metal song. All good signs.

The show has only one brief gay reference, and no doo poo humor, showing what I hope is a slight maturing in its fourth year. Not too much though, let’s not fix anything that isn’t broke.

All in all I’m really excited for the newest season of Sanity Not Included. Any fears of the new guy not living up to the previous standard proved to be unnecessary, and we should all look forward to what the new duo has to offer this season.

(8/10)

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LC3_cEt8q0&feature=share&list=PLA8263D9CADB28603