Adam Carolla is a multifaceted entertainer known for his comedy, podcasting, and television-hosting roles. One of his notable characters, Mr. Birchum, is a grumpy and eccentric woodshop teacher who first appeared on the LA-based KROQ radio’s “The Kevin and Bean Show” in the 1990s before becoming a regular character on “Crank Yankers,” a comedy series in which prank calls are reenacted by puppets. Mr. Birchum’s cantankerous demeanor and outrageous interactions with callers made him a fan favorite.

Mr. Birchum (Season 1)

Mr. Birchum is a no-nonsense remedial high school Woodshop teacher from a saner time. With no patience for woke BS and no filter, he lets you, his students, and anyone else in earshot know exactly what he thinks about pronouns and what you can do with them.

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Mr. Birchum Review (E1: Welcome Back, Birchum!)

The single most important question about any comedy is, is it funny? If so, virtually, all a show’s weaknesses can be forgiven. Thankfully, Mr. Burchum is, and its weaknesses are few.

Sure, the pilot episode hasn’t quite found the series’ rhythm, resulting in some uneven pacing, and some secondary characters don’t yet smoothly fit into place, but this is pretty standard for programs such as this. Besides, the show offers more than enough laugh-out-loud moments to make up for these early growing pains.

Adam Carolla voices the titular character, and while there’s a reason The Aceman never graduated to Hollywood A-lister, his comfort with the material mellows his usual presentation-style performance, as Birchum basically espouses shortened versions of Carolla’s signature rants. Further aided by his always excellent comedic timing and, most importantly, his hilarious lampooning of the world around us, his minor warts as a performer can be easily forgiven.

The rest of the star-studded voice cast is perfectly adequate, and with talents like Rosanne Barr and Jay Mohr (just to name a few) on board, they will almost certainly continue to gel as the season fully finds its voice. However, there is one among the cast who shines like a rainbow sun in unicorn heaven. Stand-up comedian Tyler Fischer plays Mr. Karponzi, an avatar for every radical progressive nutbar idea floating around the current cultural toilet bowl.

Fischer, who I’m almost ashamed to say didn’t appear on my radar until I reviewed another Daily Wire original—Lady Ballers—is a superstar waiting in the wings. His pitch-perfect delivery of the archetypal man bun-wearing gender catchphrase Libs of TikTok-horror show of an educator is the very definition of side-splitting, and his is hands-down the best performance on the show.

Overall, the inaugural episode of Mr. Birchum is generally well done. While not groundbreaking, its animation is simple and clean, stylistically falling somewhere between Big City Greens and The Simpsons with hints of King of The Hill. This first episode’s writing is a little uneven, with many situations feeling forced around Carolla’s irritated soliloquies rather than occurring organically throughout, but the groundwork for something special has clearly been laid. When all is said and done, Adam Carolla and The Daily Wire have a clear path ahead for growing Mr. Birchum into a classic adult cartoon series.

WOKE ELEMENTS

How ‘Bout No?

• What’s more no than no? Double no? Dr. No?

Mr. Birchum (E2: Thank You for Your Meal Service)

On Veteran’s Day, Mr. Birchum and his ex-Navy pals bar/restaurant hop, taking advantage of the free food and booze being served to those who served, only to be ambushed by a group of retired Army grunts on the same mission.

Unfortunately, episode two of Mr. Birchum was a bit of a disappointment. Many of the jokes landed with a thud, being inartfully telegraphed and feeling artificially set up and gracelessly knocked down.

Thank You for Your Meal Service also shows some unfortunate cracks that may need more than spackled to fix. Many are aware of the recent controversy surrounding Candace Owens‘ less-than-amicable split from The Daily Wire. Owens, once a rising conservative star for the network, was originally slated to lend her vocal talents to Mr. Birchum, only to be replaced at the bottom of the 9th by former ESPN anchor Sage Steele. Unfortunately, the scenes between Megyn Kelley’s Mrs. Birchum and Steele’s Deena were as poorly performed as they were written. With woodenly exposited dialogue that reads like recycled Twitter/X talking points, the two shared no chemistry and exhibited less range. Moreover, their B-plot didn’t enhance the episode’s primary arc and felt tacked on.

Kelly’s Birchum continues to not quite gel with the program. She’s an Obama-voting universal healthcare proponent with all of the “white guilt” in which liberal suburbanite women love to wallow, but she’s neither Mr. Birchum’s enemy nor ally and instead seems nearly completely independent from the main action, as though a competing program has been inter-spliced into this one.

It’s still early in the show’s run, and there’s more than enough talent behind the program to carry the season and series, but hopefully, they quickly figure out the winning formula.

WOKE ELEMENTS

In The Navy

• This episode introduces Mr. Birchum’s gay ex-Navy buddy. It’s mostly for laughs, as Mr. Birchum jokes about him being the “kind of “gay that is okay” because he served during the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” era.