Dr. Ken or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Hate Ken Jeong

Can we do away with the laugh track already? I mean seriously, the thing has been a blight on television for long enough, giving writers a safety net for terrible jokes by letting the home audience know when something was supposed to be funny. I can’t think of anything more insulting to my intelligence then being told when to laugh. I mention this because in this post I will be looking at ABC’s new sitcom Dr. Ken, a show where the first example of canned laughter comes 5 seconds into the episode. And what could have been so funny that the audience fell into near-hysterics, almost from get go? Well, a character wearing a hoodie walks into frame, and says “Rain, are you kidding me?”. It’s all downhill from there.

Dr. Ken is the brainchild of its star Ken Jeong, a man you might remember as that unfunny character in The Hangover. Or maybe from being the least funny actor on Community. Though his worst performance was reserved for Transformers 3, where he was one of the best parts of that movie, accentuating how terrible the Transformers franchise really is. But anyway, Dr. Ken is said to be about Jeong’s real-life career as a doctor before he became a comedian. What it actually is, is an unsatisfying mélange of various sitcom tropes and clichés. A bad-mannered family man as the main character. Check. A wife who is basically there just to say “I told you so” at the end of every episode. Check. An array of wacky side characters, each with a single defining trait. Check. It’s like if you took The Honeymooners, subtracted any effort for quality, and moved the family from lower New York to upper class suburbia. Though that description would be apt for almost all post-Cosby Show sitcoms… I may be rambling. Wait, wasn’t this assignment supposed to be about advertising?

I saw Dr. Ken on Friday, October 16 at around 8 PM. I had never seen the show before so I ended up jumping in at the third episode, but I’m willing to bet I didn’t miss much. Most of the commercials seemed to focus on an older audience, specifically parents. We have ads for Verizon and Sprint describing their new family plans, Hawaii vacation ads for you and your kids, and plenty of other commercials that feature a traditional, happy, nuclear family. The older audience theme continues with several advertisements for medicine and multivitamins, including Theraflu and Xifaxan. There’s also the obligatory car ad brought to us by Chevrolet, and a yogurt ad that’s convinced only middle aged housewives eat the stuff. All of this makes sense when we consider the nature of the show. A traditional sitcom, shot on hollow sets in front of a live studio audience, depicting a family in turmoil. It’s a dime a dozen, but I suppose if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The episode had nearly six million viewers, and the show’s Facebook has over 250,000 likes. These facts get more depressing the longer I think about them. There’s also an official twitter account that's updated daily with clips and pictures from the show, for its surprisingly low 18 thousand followers. Most of the retweets the page gets are from a small and loyal group of fans, who seemingly have a legitimate love for the show’s humor and simple family values. Like David Lay/@DLaysWorld, who tweets,

“@DrKenABC @kenjeong  @AlbertTsai #HappyThanksGiving fromAustralia. It's so entertaining can't wait to watch it. You rock Albert &Ken”,

or Marven/@MarvenEuler, who enthusiastically writes,

“@DrKenABC @kenjeong #DRKEN#dunkfail Looks funny, can't wait to see it @alberttsai”.

The poor, misguided souls. 

Anyway, back to why this show is the worst thing to happen to television since the Star Wars Holiday Special. Ken Jeong plays the title character of course, a discourteous doctor, husband, and father. He’s like Dr. House without the wit, intelligence, drug problem, or really anything that made House a compelling character. Ken has a wife (played by Suzy Nakamura), two children (played by Krista Marie Yu and Albert Tsai), co-workers (played by Tisha Campbell-Martin, Jonathan Slavin, and Kate Simses), and a boss named Pat (played by Dave Foley). Poor, poor Dave Foley. The Kids in the Hall royalties must not be paying like they used to, since his net worth seems to be 500 grand in the hole at the moment. At least it’s nice to know someone on this program used to have talent, with emphasis on the used to part. Now he just kind of smiles at the camera, reads his lines, and cashes his check. So sad. Foley’s character ended up being the main focus of the episode I was unfortunate enough to watch. The plot centers on the fact that Pat changed the hospital’s work schedule so all of Dr. Ken’s co-workers had to come in on Saturdays. Ken tries to alleviate this issue by having a meeting with Pat, only to discover Pat’s wife has recently left him, and that he is trying to seriously injure himself for her attention. A cheap imitation of hilarity ensues. There’s also a b-plot about how the kids in the son’s class are calling him insulting nick-names. This side story doesn’t really get resolved, so much as it quietly peters out in the hope that the audience isn’t paying attention. And why would they be, it’s not like the show is funny or anything.

On the subject of humor, Dr. Ken has some of the worst jokes I think I’ve ever heard on primetime television. In fact, it feels wrong to even call them jokes, because they don’t follow any sort of set-up/punch-line structure. Most of the show is just Jeong incessantly mugging at the camera, and spouting groan worthy attempts at catch phrases. It’s as if he’s actively trying to blur the line between self-parody, and honest-to-god contempt for the audience. But even with his clown-like antics, the show is still so unintentionally mean spirited. Every joke feels like it’s meant to be at the expense of someone else. For example, a recurring joke in the episode is that Ken keeps bossing around a hospital valet named Juan, who is, of course, played by a Mexican actor forcing an overly flamboyant accent. The only time we even see the valet is when he’s being ordered around by the doctor, doing things like parking his car, and getting him bagels, which Juan calls “Jewish donuts”. There’s also the issue of Ken’s gay co-worker, who we know is gay because he talks with feminine mannerisms, loves the mall, and hugs his male friends for an uncomfortably long time.  It’s a far cry from being Will and Grace bad, but it’s unfortunate that gay characters in sitcoms are still one-dimensionally defined by their sexual preference. But that’s not to say I think any of the writers are racist or homophobic. These problems are more likely the result of laziness and a lack of talent then hate.

Okay, so what did I like about the show? Very little is the short answer. I guess the actresses who play the daughter and the wife do as much as they can with the material they’re given. The show makes up for this near-competence with the child actor playing the son, who must to be a nephew of a producer because there’s no other explanation for why they put him in front of a camera. I don’t enjoy ridiculing a kid for his acting chops, because he has to be trying his best, but he just sounds so wooden and awkward in every scene. It’s like he’s an alien in a human suit.

I’ve bitched about this show for a little over a thousand words now, so I think I’m done. It’s safe to say I would not recommend that people, or any sentient life for that matter, watch Dr. Ken. My disdain is warranted apparently, as the show currently holds a 7% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 26% on Metacritic. And I’m still not convinced those positive reviews are written by real people. Seriously, two of them aren’t even actual critiques. One’s a “Fall TV Preview” of a variety of shows including Dr. Who and SNL, while the other is a website analyzing how appropriate Dr. Ken is for children. Essentially every other review on RT is negative, with some relying on painful medicine puns like “Dr. Ken will make you sick”, or “Please, someone, pull the plug”. That last one’s a bit too morose, I feel. I would not have advised a pun involving a mercy killing.
Shows like Dr. Ken almost make me feel guilty about making negative remarks towards The Big Bang Theory. Almost. If I were a visitor to the U.S. from another country, and I saw this show, I would go back home. Actually, I would probably just assume America had a weird sense of humor and too much money to burn. Anyhow, I think I’m going to take a break from network television for a while. It’s not a safe place to be right now. Maybe I’ll watch The Wire again. Yeah, that’ll be nice.

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