Mr. Birchum

Daily Wire's Mr. Birchum is a lot of fun and it's pouring the footers for something truly special.
72/1001410547
Starring
Adam Carolla, Megyn Kelly, Roseanne Barr
Creator
Adam Carolla
Rating
Not Rated (aprx. TV-14)
Genre
Animation, Comedy
Where to watch
DailyWire+
Release date
May 12, 2024
Overall Score
Rating Overview
Story/Plot
Visuals/Cinematography
Performance
Direction
Non-Wokeness
Rating Summary
Giving full voice to Carolla's unique and sometimes bitter deconstructive humor, with Mr. Birchum, Adam Carolla and The Daily Wire fearlessly and hysterically dismantle the Radical Left. Forget, dumb fat idiots like Peter Griffin and Homer Simpson, Mr. Birchum can see his feet and run the rough-in for an HVAC, all while taking down woke clowns with simple hard work and common sense.
Audience Woke Score (Vote)
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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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1 Vacation
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Mr. Birchum Review (E1: Welcome Back, Birchum!)

Episode 1 rating breakdown Daily Wire and Adam Carolla's Mr. BirchumThe 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)

Episode 2 rating breakdown Daily Wire and Adam Carolla's Mr. BirchumOn 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.

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James Carrick

James Carrick is a passionate film enthusiast with a degree in theater and philosophy. James approaches dramatic criticism from a philosophic foundation grounded in aesthetics and ethics, offering insight and analysis that reveals layers of cinematic narrative with a touch of irreverence and a dash of snark.

14 comments

  • Jared

    May 6, 2024 at 12:05 am

    Man I hope you review this cause I may need to get daily wire if this is good..I am intrigued!

    4
    8

    Reply

    • James Carrick

      May 6, 2024 at 12:05 am

      The review will be up on the morning of the 8th.

      1
      3

      Reply

      • Jared

        May 6, 2024 at 12:05 am

        Thank you for all the good work !

        2
        5

        Reply

  • Jared

    May 8, 2024 at 5:40 pm

    Thanks for the review ! Definitely want to watch this.

    Are they only releasing an episode a week ?

    Reply

    • James Carrick

      May 8, 2024 at 6:04 pm

      I’m not sure. I know that the pilot premieres on the 12 and is free to watch.

      2
      6

      Reply

      • Jared

        May 8, 2024 at 6:06 pm

        How did you see it already ? They sent you a review copy ?

        Reply

        • James Carrick

          May 8, 2024 at 6:44 pm

          Yes. Actually, they invited me to the Hollywood premiere but I couldn’t make it.

          2
          3

          Reply

          • Sweet Deals

            May 10, 2024 at 8:26 pm

            If the producers of the show sent you an advance copy to review, it means they recognize that you’re important enough that your opinion matters. Congratulations.

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            4

          • James Carrick

            May 10, 2024 at 9:48 pm

            Thanks. They actually invited me to the Hollywood premiere but I couldn’t make it.

  • Jared

    May 13, 2024 at 12:22 am

    I caught the premiere. I can safely say this show won’t be getting me to subscribe to dailywire+. It wasn’t bad or anything but it didn’t make me laugh and I thought the jokes were all lazy and easy.

    Reply

    • Sweet Deals

      May 24, 2024 at 10:16 am

      I stood in the same room while others were watching the first episode. I normally don’t watch adult-oriented animated comedies. Every character is either ignorant, agitated, and other exaggerated negative qualities that make them unlikable by design. I get the impression that the talent that produced this cartoon comes from the same pop culture ecosystem/echo chamber as the people who make the mainstream shows. I thought that Birchum suffers from the same bad habits and vices as other mainstream adult cartoons except the main character is a rude conservative stereotype.

      It takes a lot more than simply mocking cheap woke stereotypes and regurgitating political talking points to make something funny, or even “based” (That’s what shallow woke comedians do when they can’t write good jokes; they regurgitate a political talking point and expect the audience to clap on cue). I don’t want a recycled plastic knockoff of a popular mainstream show with a phony wooden veneer glued on. I’d rather have something crafted from solid oak. Back in the day when Tim Allen’s Last Man Standing was popular, the first season started out slow but the show matured significantly by the sixth season when the show focused more on how the family cared for each other despite their differences and challenges rather than relying on cheap social and political humor. But live-action sitcoms are all about family dramas getting neatly resolved in satisfying ways. I don’t expect that from an adult animated comedy.

      Reply

  • JC

    June 27, 2024 at 4:17 pm

    Do you have a brain tumor ?

    Reply

  • Me

    July 18, 2024 at 4:12 pm

    Your reviews are usually on point but this is one of the bad ones. This show is just as bad as leftist shows that force political beliefs down your throat. Just because I agree with the politics in the show does not mean I want a lecture when I’m wanting to be entertained. What happened to DW making entertainment with a capital E? This is just more political bs just like the leftist political bs pushed in media, except this time it’s right wing

    Reply

    • James Carrick

      July 18, 2024 at 4:18 pm

      We can’t always agree.

      Thank you for sharing your perspective. That’s exactly why the comments section exists.

      Reply

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