Review: Hiccups better without Butt

From Rob Salem of the Toronto Star:

  • Salem: Still a few Hiccups to overcome
    “But what the network may perceive as Hiccups’ greatest asset turns out to be its greatest liability. Butt’s appearance onscreen – which he was, I gather, reluctantly persuaded to do by the network – is a distraction from this singular showcase for his wife’s considerable comedic skills. At the same time, who better to write and produce a vehicle so impeccably well-suited to her talents?” Read more.
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43 thoughts on “Review: Hiccups better without Butt”

  1. Yeah, but Dan for Mayor seems like a show that will have lag and dance around the story arc of him running for mayor because he can only run for mayor for so long. A municipal election only runs for a month or two. It’s only logical that he’s going to have to become mayor by the end of the season, or else he’d have to wait a couple years to run again. And what happens when he becomes the mayor? The show isn’t about him being the mayor, it’s about him running for mayor, and he can only run for so long. A show like Dan for mayor can’t run for more then 2 seasons without viewers moving on to something that’s going somewhere. Unless the writers are prepared to change the whole synopsis of the show to him being mayor, which then the entire idea of the show is different.

  2. Watched both show premieres on PRV last night; I am a HUGE Corner Gas fan and was apprehensive about the new shows… but I laughed the entire way through both shows – they are fantastic!!!!

    Hiccups was laugh-out-loud funny, showed Nancy Robertson’s range so well and Brent is just so loveable to watch. The writers are perfect, witty and consistent!

    Dan for Mayor started out a bit slower, but Fred carried the show well. The characters on this show will be fun to watch, and the writing got funnier as the show went on. I was hooked by the end.

    So happy that these two shows are on the air, can’t wait to stock up on the season dvds!!!

  3. TV comedy is so difficult, but Hiccups definitely sucks. There’s no fun in it. Butts’ former show Corner Gas sucked much less. It had a meaty script something that deserved several views. Hiccups is an insult to watch. There’s nothing there, nothing. I’ve given up on that show and decided to show my dog a lot more love. Not that kind of love you filthy pervert, I don’t work for the Vatican, where interspecies love may yet gain a foothold. The Vatican’s work people appear to be searching for that new low.

  4. I have only seen the previews for this show – who watches this? It is humor for 12 year olds written by 12 year olds. Deb

  5. I think commenter “Mindy” may actually be Nancy Robertson, herself!
    I mean who else would give “Hiccups”, Nancy and Brent such rave reviews?

    This show is lame!

    1. I agree. Both shows are a terrible let-down, however, if I had to watch one…it would be Dan for Mayor.

  6. This show is crap, Too much Brent Butt and Nancy Robertson. Corner Gas was a great show in spite of Brent Butt being a character. The Nancy Robertson (Wanda) character wasn’t very good either, but the rest of the cast made it work (Jackass). This show has nothing to hang its hat on. I mean has anyone ever seen a Brent Butt standup routine, (he couldn’t make his grandmother laugh if she was stoned). The Canadian entertainment industry seems to thrive on mediocrity and this could easily be a CBC classic on the scale of The Beachcombers or This Hour Has 22 Minutes where the cast doesn’t even think they are funny.

  7. Hiccups sucks out loud. Nancy Robertson tries way to hard to be funny and forced funny is not funny at all. She sucked in Corner Gas and she sucks in this Canadian Product as well. Butts acting is just as bad as his wife’s acting. I give this show one season and the viewers will be down to just cast and crew’s family members watching it. It is pathetic beyond belief and insults the intelligence of anyone lame enough to watch it. It should be on the kids network.. Robertson shouldn’t be in front of any camera let alone one that records audio too. Why can’t Canada get it right? Corner Gas was okay until they did the episode with the pocket pet and that did it. I never watched it again. The writers don’t have a sense of humor. They don’t know the difference between what is funny and what is stupid and that makes them stupid.

  8. I’ve seen Brent Butt’s live standup and I laughed until I nearly peed my pants. I watched “Corner Gas” and laughed nearly as hard. I really like Brent (having met him personally and the whole bit), but “Hiccups” really sucks. It makes me sad to see what can happen when something good goes bad. Please Brent, PLEASE, get some kind of fix on this show so you don’t become the next “Train 48” or “Beachcombers” that’s kept alive simply to fulfill some bullshit CANCON regulation. You’re capable of, and owe it to yourself to do better.

  9. The worst actress from Corner Gas chosen for the star… boring, unattractive….. ( Brent’s mother on corner gas was much nore attractive).. ( its in the mind ) Robertson is much worse than someone in a Grade 7 or summer camp skit… The only fix for the show is to get rid of her, get some more interesting second stringers. Brent is ok as the straight man

    1. What is up with Butt’s character having a Mexican wife on a Canadian sitcom????? She should be French, or Asian or Indian. That seems so American !

  10. I said that this was a really pathetic show, but please forgive me. I love it!! Me and my boyfriend watch it. The show is sweeter than his fine ass

  11. Nancy Robertson was not funny on Corner Gas but on Hiccups she’s weird and annoying. I agree, the show sucks, is crap, will be cancelled, etc. Dan for mayor is funny and I think that there’s enough there to work with to make a story of him actually being mayor. If I never see Robertson on TV ever again, that would be just fine with me.

  12. Anyone who appreciates Hiccups is either deaf, dumb, blind or all of the above. How can you praise a show such poorly put together as “Hiccups”? In contrast to her witty and deep character on Coner Gas, Nancy Robertson plays Millie whom I assume has some sort of mental handicap. She is constantly shouting and acting like a complete idiot with the lack of finese that it would take to make anything her chareter does funny. Brent Butt, who I can say in all honesty is a very funny man plays the goofy, unfunny Dirko or something. I won’t say much about the poor quality acting of the backup charecters, but one other issue I (and anyone I’ve talked to) have is that we are led to believe Butt is met to a very attractive smart woman with whom he has absolutly no charisma with. This show is an utter failure and I hope is cancelled after, or during, season 1.

    1. Why on earth would you criticize, offend and insult anyone who likes this show?? Grow up and keep your comments about the show itself, not the people who watch it.

  13. you guys are dumb! Hiccups is funnier than dan for mayor. Dan for mayor sucks so bad! Anything with brent butt is good. so go suck an egg!

  14. Corner Gas was one of my favourite programmes so was glad to hear some of the actors were back with new shows – I’m not from Canada, and didn’t realise these programmes existed till last week. Have just watched Dan for Mayor and Hiccups and liked them a lot. Funny, likeable characters, good plots, production, etc. What’s everyone whingeing about? Also, it’s not a competition as to which is better – I think they’re both great. Possibly, Canadians are overly critical of their own shows.

  15. After seeing about ten episodes of Hiccups, I have to wonder what the hell they’re thinking. The show is just awful. It’s like the guy at the bar who tries way too hard to be the center of attention, begging for laughs and never coming close to funny. Plus, the show has no focus at all. Is it about Millie? Is it about her publishing company? Is it about Stan and his wife? You can’t even say it’s an ensemble, because even ensemble shows need something to tie it all together…like a small Prairie town with eccentric inhabitants. So what’s Hiccups about? And why doesn’t Brent Butt understand that stupidity isn’t funny? None of the characters behave in any remotely realistic or relateable way. Just pathetic.

    actually, the show might just make a star of emily perkins, who really stands out.

  16. I love Hiccups, it`s one of the only shows on tv that actually makes me laugh. I love all of the negativity on here though, it`s quite entertaining lol.

  17. I totally agree with chantale. Hiccups is so damn funny, the whole time i laughed so hard i wanted to poop my pants (a joke, calm down) i already bought the whole season off iTunes. And for the record, Dan For Mayor SUCKS BALLS! The premise is stupid and will last for 2 seasons tops, and they couldn’t pick a less funny, sad, boring cast.

  18. also, Millie is the funniest character i’ve ever seen on tv. In Carry On Camping, She was so stupid and hilarious, especially “Do you think the singing cats will be there?” HA!

  19. ok before i say anything about hiccups i say this: brent butt is frigging hilarious! anyone who disagrees can go dicuss your reasons with oncoming traffic. now to buisness

    yes, hiccups isnt all that good. theres none of the chemistry that the cast of corner gas had. brent maes a great staright man, but the rest keep trying to be funny by themselves, not playing off each other for better humor. nancy is quite terrible in this series. there was no way i could believe that the way she acted was because of temperment, she was just wierd for the sake of being weird, nothing more. she was much better on corner gas. dan for mayor is slightly better, but i agree that the story is gonna get screwed soon, as it will lose its premiss and only last about 2 seasons tops.

    now i take my leave, but remember that corner gas is a great acheievement in the comedy world, and if anyone has anything bad to say about it, i will kick your ass…….jackass!

  20. HIccups is a terribly unfunny show. What a disappointment (to the cast) it must be to go in to work every day and have to turn out an unwatchable, unfunny show. The performances are wooden. There is a lack of relationship between the characters. Paula Rivera as the wife offers nothing of skill or spontaneity to her role. The talented actors and actresses in this country must be heartbroken when this is this kind of crap that emerges and gets PICKED UP on network television. This show does not represent the talent, skill or imagination of artists in this country. Enough already!

  21. Hiccups is terrible. All Nancy Robertson does is mug for the camera. Her quirkiness is more annoying than enduring. Butt acts like he can’t wait for this series to die the death it deserves. Dan for Mayor is passable but mostly boring. The supporting cast is so bland they might as well ne invisible. The success of Corner Gas was remarkable and well deserved. That in itself doesn’t mean that CTV should throw tons of money at Brent Butt so he can showcase his wife in a such a vanity project. CTV execs should be fired for these atrocious shows making it to the air.

  22. Am I the only one who can’t comprehend what Paula Rivera (Stan’s wife) is saying in most of her lines?. Her heavily accented English is never really explained. Is she married to one of the writers or CTV execs?
    Corner Gas was funny for the first couple of seasons and then essentially got stupid. I always admired John Cleese who shut down Fawlty Towers after 10 or 12 episodes after acknowledging that things get stale after that many shows.
    Hiccups and Dan just have two many disjointed plots and disjointed characters. Robertson’s mugging and big raspberries every episode get old real fast.

  23. Dude, all I gotta say is Taylor Rimes.
    He is so douche that the show is hilarious.

    All of the characters have NOTHING going for themselves except Millie; and she is temperamental and childish; funny stuff.

  24. Over all, I am so disappointed with both Hiccups and Dan. I hope CTV puts an end to our misery of pretending that this is greatness and allow both shows to die after this season. I love Brent, Nancy and all the Corner Gas cast. The acting and story lines in these 2 new shows is bland and boring. What’s up with the Mexican wife of Brent Butt in a Canadian show?? To be more accurate, she should be French or Asian or Indian. Mexican is just way too American.

  25. I really, really wanted to like this show (Hiccups) but really dislike it on too many levels to even pick on, point by point.

    In a television world where the comedic bar has been raised so highly by Larry David, there’s no way but down and out for shows like this.

    1. Larry David???? ARE YOU FUCKING OUT OF YOUR MIND. That guy is so boring and not funny. You must be one of these snobs that came here with their critics and they don’t know what is funny even if it bit them in the arse. Hiccups was meant to be light and funny. You people just take things too seriously and should no watch real comedy. It is beyond your snobish little minds.

  26. hiccups = mediocrity at its finest, PLEASE EVERYONE CHANGE THE CHANNEL ON THEYRE ASS SO THEY GET CANCELLED, lets boycott this garbage out of our canadian reputation

  27. Wow! A lot of nasty, mean spirited people commenting here.

    Neither show was up to the level of Corner Gas. But, like baseball, you’re not going to get a hit everytime up to bat. My best guess is the network was in a rush to get the stars back on air that they selected the best of a bad lot of ideas and began filming.

    I hope they’ll get another chance but this time, wait for the right ‘pitch’ before trying for that next big hit.

    YMMV

  28. As a Brit who appreciates Canadian humour (I loved the incomparable Due South with Paul Gross, for instance), I have to say, after watching a couple of Corner Gas episodes (the 1st two), I have no idea what all the fuss is about. I thought it was rather boring. Interesting context, yes, refreshingly non- “aspirational” (cf. formulaic American tradition of “shiny-toothed angsty yuppies with ‘relationship’ issues”), yes; makes you smile in a few places, yes; not trying to sell you some phoney (see Hollywood) (im)morality, great…

    I see the potential, but there is something lacking in the delivery. The direction, editing and a fair amount of the scripting are lackadaisical and inconsistent.

    Canadians need to better showcase that endearingly quiet, knowing, easy-going, dry-but-not-cutting wit of theirs by adopting some of the tightness and production ethic of American shows… Due South was very well produced, directed, written, edited etc. So the skill is there!

    Dan for Mayor is not a half-bad show, though I accept the premise has a short shelf-life. It was funny, but again it needed tightening up. Like the other shows, it doesn’t zip along quickly enough and there are a few too many shallow areas in the dialogue. The characters are fine but they lack pep.

    The talent is there, the ideas are there, Canadian humour has something to offer that American humour signally lacks…

    Meh, it’s only TV, eh…

  29. both shows sucks, dan for mayor is a bit better but still not very good, corner gas is 1,000,000,000 times better, why cant brent butt make a show simular to corner gas, at least something in a small town

  30. I might be a little late being that both shows have already been cancelled, but here’s my two cents: I LOVED Corner Gas, I never understood the whole “let’s-pull-the-plug-after-six-seasons-ala-Seinfeld” crap, they really should’ve kept it going. Yeah, a few episodes sucked, but all-in-all it was a well-loved Canadian sitcom and rightly so.

    “Hiccups” and “Dan For Mayor”, well I certainly wanted to like them, but was hesitant, especially after seeing the previews. Nancy Robertson’s character on Corner Gas, “Wanda” was entertaining at best, on Hiccups, just awful. Seriously, you just want to smack Millie Upton for being some mentally deficient, annoying fucktard. Her antics made the show unwatchable. I like Brent Butt but the premise of having a “Life coach” hanging around all that much made the whole situation unbelievable. The arguement about Stan Dirko having a Hispanic wife was pretty thin, firstly because we have Hispanic people in Canada and secondly I found her very cute and charming. Whatever. The rest of the cast were pretty decent, especially Emily Perkins.

    “Dan For Mayor” was slightly better. The show was built on a shaky, weak premise, but certainly had more promise than Hiccups. The major weak link was the unfunny writing and the ultra-annoying antics of the “Mike” character (can’t remember the actor’s name). Also changing the situation around with having the photocopy repair guy suddenly owning Fern’s was kinda lame too. And what happened to the missing 3 female cast members from season 1? Whatever. Onto bigger and better things….

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