Editorial: Was “Sanity Not Included” Worth The (Random, Unexpected) Wait?

Let me say right off the bat that I once thought Sanity Not Included was the bees knees; it was the funniest thing since sliced bread (like, if it was sliced by a clown or something, I guess.)

When I was first assigned to write about this show way back when, I knew nothing about it. I began watching the episodes of the first season, and eventually came to see it as a poor man’s Robot Chicken. That is, an extremely funny show made up of very short, unrelated skits, all voiced by the same couple of guys. And during the first two seasons those two dudes – Dexter Gilligan and Lyle McDouchebag – we’re killing it. I laughed so hard and so often that once I accidentally woke up my girlfriend, who was sleeping in the other room. When she came in to yell at me see what all the fuss was about, yet another fan was born.

I can’t emphasize enough how entertaining the early episodes of Sanity were. The humor was unique, the jokes were rapid-fire, and the imagination of the two creators was surprisingly impressive. They managed to present the fans with a mixed bag of random, topical, and witty comedy, and – unlike a lot of other YouTube series – they didn’t skimp on the runtime, with each show clocking in around ten minutes. I figured this show would be the next big thing. Hell, I thought Adult Swim (or a competing network) would discover these guys and they’d soon become household names.

Alas, when season three rolled around, there was a noticeable dip in quality. I couldn’t quite place it at the time, but the show just wasn’t as funny as it had previously been. Then, after the season came to a close, Lyle decided to leave. Maybe Mr. Douchebag just wanted to move on to other projects (he later created Rip Snorting) or maybe he saw the impending downfall as inevitable. Regardless, he was gone, and a bro named Aleks became Dexter’s new partner-in-crime.

Their first season together (Season 4) was, well…what’s a nice word for garbage? The jokes were embarrassingly bad, at times completely nonsensical, and overall just plain dull. The worst of the show was getting worse, and all the humor that once made it shine was completely gone. And not only did the season totally blow, but after almost logging a full ten episodes, there was a suddenly a random unannounced hiatus where the show just went MIA for a few months. Then in mid-January of this year, the duo released a video explaining that the animator is apparently too busy to finish the Season 4 finale, and it will have to come at a later date.

First: What the fuck is this? Get another animator. There are (what seems like) millions of starving art students milling about in coffee shops and bars without work, annoying everyone around them. Hire someone!

Second: How can a show start its fifth season when the fourth never ended?

Whatever, moving along, the creators also announced that the animation portion of the show (with the cartoon versions of Dex and Aleks) was also too time-consuming to produce, and thus Season 5 will not contain any. There will be separate videos later for that, because apparently some people actually care about this portion of the show.

The show is currently in its fifth season, six episodes deep, and I must say all-in-all it isn’t half bad. Actually, wait, scratch that; the season is almost exactly half bad. But hey, at least that’s slightly better than the last. Let’s take a look at what’s working and what isn’t:

For starters, the game selection appears to have expanded a bit. For a while the show seemed to have a regular lineup of video games that it would rotate through on a consistent basis. However, even though there are new games this season, they repeated some a bit too much in the first six.

Also, there are fewer mini skits (under five seconds) than previously. I see this as a plus, considering most of the brief skits were just someone screaming or yelling as they are harmed in some way – which by itself is rarely funny. There still is some of this, but less.

In fact, most of the things that aren’t working are things that have never really worked. For instance: the little “Choose Your Adventure” choices in the middle of each episode. Not only do you often have to watch a commercial before each of these, but you need to watch each option separately, and then return to the original video, which doesn’t always seem to remember where you left off. Not only that, but both option videos were always lousy and never worth the time or effort – for viewer or creator.

Next thing to cut: the songs. I simply can’t remember a single song or song sequence being funny. Ever. They’re corny, the singing is expectedly awful, and it goes on for entirely too long.

Finally – and I’m sick of saying this regarding this particular series – but the words “fag,” “faggot,” and “gay” are completely unnecessary in this show. These words are not synonyms for “bad” or “lame” or “stupid”. Don’t get me wrong, a little gay humor can definitely be funny (as long as it’s not hateful) but the words aren’t even used in the correct context, they’re just thrown around needlessly.

Grow up, guys.

Shows like Arby N the Chief used these words, but they did in a way that made fun of morons that think it’s cool or funny to call everything gay and everyone fags. Be a little bit more creative, people.

In the end, I’ll say this: Season 5 isn’t the worst season of Sanity Not Included. The jokes are a little fresher than the last time around, and it looks like a bit more thought was put into the writing, voice acting, and game ideas, and perhaps all is not lost for the show. Still, it’s falling into the same traps that almost doomed the series previously, and that is still worrisome. I struggle to commit to any sort of statement of approval other than the first sentence of this paragraph, but for those of you who haven’t watched the current season, I’ll say this with whatever level of confidence you need me to say so you feel reassured: I, at the very least, do not regret watching the newest six episodes.