As I’m not sure which are more exhausted, my eyes or my ears, another good name for “The Kibbles and Bits of Hellorama” might just be “sensory overload.” Brought to us by the Philadelphia-based comedy troupe Latitude X Multimedia, “Hellorama” supposedly runs on WUUW Channel 1.6, an obviously low-powered UHF channel owned by Illya Morometz, (portrayed by a still photo of Nikita Kruschev). Hosted by hyper, hard-bitten, and drug-addled former movie star Jackie Spratlin (Tim Burke), the cacophonous, brightly colored “Hellorama” plays as a sort of “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse” meets “Mr.Rogers Neighborhood” on crack. The program features a number of zany original bits such as “Six Flags over Old People” and “Fighting Buddha,” skits compiled from vintage file footage such as “The Meanest Man in the World,” and kooky commercials such as the truly disturbing “Sugar Frosted Beef Flakes.”
“The Kibbles and Bits of Hellorama” tries very hard to be an affectionate, tongue-in-cheek ode to pop culture kitsch and nearly succeeds. This is what community access television would look like if the so-called access “producers” across the country could scrape up half a clue between them. Slickly-produced for the most part, the show’s material unfortunately doesn’t quite match its production value. Thus, for all its wild and wacky trappings, this parody of children’s television shows for grown-ups contains an awful lot of dead air. As this is allegedly a “greatest hits” collection compiled from the group’s library, such flat spots in the more creative than comical “Kibbles and Bits of Hellorama” only further reinforce just how difficult it is to do consistently amusing sketch comedy.
