Reviews WebAnimation / Bonus Stage

NOW WITNESS THE FAILURE!

In my honest opinion, no TV show, film, play, or book has ever reached the level of pure hilarity achieved by Bonus Stage. Don't get me wrong...there are a few forms of media more entertaining overall, but if you judge solely on humor, Bonus Stage is by far the best. What is it about the show that's so great? The meaningless story arcs? The wacky one-dimensional characters? The terrible one-liners? It's probably the over-all insanity. Without being a direct parody, the show sometimes feels like a direct caricature of sitcom-style writing. It appears to aspire to be like Family Guy, except it's even more insane and self-referential. One episode even has a title card that says "Bonus Stage is for referencing video games and making friends." If you put Family Guy, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and a small dash of Homestar Runner in a blender...you wouldn't quite have Bonus Stage. You need to have a writer-director-creator [Matt Wilson is a one man show] who believes he's making something stupid. He KNOWS it's not art. It's this sort of self-loathing cynicism that makes Bonus Stage awesome. But why debunk what makes the show so good? I'm not Roger Ebert. I'm just a crazy fanboy. I'll just talk about how Bonus Stage IS THE FUNNIEST THING EVER. YOU WILL DIE OF LAUGHTER. The show has aged very little, but that can change fast. For example, there used to be a Bonus Stage Wiki, almost identical in structure to the Homestar Runner Wiki. I LOVED that site. Unfortunately, it closed down for reasons I'm not sure of, thus helping to make the gags in Bonus Stage that reference the fandom seem dated...especially a scene where Phil directly mocks someone who edits the Wiki. And once Family Guy and Aqua Teen Hunger Force become things of the past, Bonus Stage's twist-on-popular-styles will seem somehat dated. One thing's for sure, though: Bonus Stage IS the best webtoon ever...and a potentional contender for the best THING ever.