‘Outsourced’ should change its name to ‘Outstinks’

Everyone loves a good fart joke, I don’t care how cultured and sophisticated an individual you think you are. I’m sure even the Queen of England cracked a smile or two when Little Charlie made bubbles in the royal bathtub. It is a funny little bodily function, and when the jokes are clever, I chuckle with the best of them. And I did so, once, during the pilot episode of Outsourced as Charlie (Diedrich Bader) described the effects of the local cuisine on the gastrointestinal system of a foreigner. But when that level of humor is all you’ve got to offer, the jokes deflate faster than a worn-out whoopie cushion.

In case you’ve missed the promos with which NBC has been incessantly beating viewers over the head — taking up valuable ad space that would be better served promoting Chuck mind you — the basic premise involves Todd (Ben Rappaport), a young management trainee of a novelty products company, who is forced into relocation after learning that the call center he was supposed to manage was outsourced to — you guessed it — India. When the attempts at humor aren’t stemming from the juvenile and gradually more degrading novelty props taken from the fictional Mid America Novelties sales catalog, it veers off, as expected, into poking fun at racial stereotypes, such as when Todd suggests extracting cream for the coffee from the wandering cow that has taken up shop outside the call center, or when Rajiv (Rizwan Manji, looking eerily like Peter Sellers in the 1968 film The Party ) mentions that one of the employees doesn’t belong there because she’s of a lower caste. I don’t necessarily object to equal opportunity racial humor when it’s deftly handled and is, you know, funny, but the jokes here are about as amusing as the pool of fake latex blood one character uses to freak out another.

It’s a shame, though. I wanted to like this show, for what I expect should be obvious reasons. You know what I mean. You’ve been on that customer service call before. I had hoped for a satirical look at the corporate offshoring bandwagon most of America’s largest companies seem ever eager to board. I might have even settled for a displaced clone of The Office. There are moments when I sensed it wanted to become a workplace lampoon, such as when Todd and Manmeet (Sacha Dhawan), whose name serves as the punchline for one of the lamest jokes in the pilot, attempt to avoid the office “over-talker,” but then it turned right around and dove back into the shallow end of the pool again.

Granted, it’s difficult to establish characters in the initial episode of any series — much less a half hour comedy featuring an ensemble cast — but, based on this one outing, the supporting characters all seem very one-note. You have the aforementioned over-talker, the shy girl who speaks so quietly no one can understand her, the libidinous young guy eager to do the deed, the requisite seemingly normal “hot” girl in the office, and the weaselly saboteur who plays nice to your face but not-so-subtly roots for you to fail. Todd tries somewhat successfully to build them up as a team Bad News Bears-style, and introduce them to a semblance of American culture (and evidently the 18-year-old film Glengarry Glen Ross and the Pussycat Dolls are supposed to sum it up) but nothing gave me any impetus to cheer them on.  There is even the suggestion of an impending love triangle between Todd, one of his employees and the gorgeous Australian manager of another call center, which just seems a desperate attempt at a yawn-worthy, staple sitcom cliche.

The only bright light in the entire episode is newcomer Rappaport, of whom I really would like to see more — in something else.   So far this doesn’t seem like a vehicle to properly showcase his charm. I suspect, however, he’d make the perfect male lead opposite Kristen Bell in a romantic comedy. I’m just sayin’.

Clacked by Jeff Kirkpatrick
on Sep 16, 2010 @ 14:00 EST5EDT