Jensen!

:: LAUGH OR DIE

Jensen! is a show which is, simply put, simple-minded comedy in a Daily Show sort of fashion. Structured as it is, Jensen usually divides his show into two parts: an 'overwhelming' entrance as himself as the show host, where he usually pretends to calm the audience down because they are way too enthusiastic. If you look carefully, producers at the side try to make the audience go wild by sign language for 'this is the time you need to applaud'.

With my studio experience, it wouldn't surprise me if, just like other television shows, they pre-recorded the laughs. The recording of the laughs can be divided into three parts: a little laughing, lots of laughing, and laughing your ass off. This gets carefully mixed in between the shows, which gives you the impression that all jokes that are made are indeed funny.

:: DAILY NEWS

This is followed by some lame jokes, usually based on news and popular affairs. Jensen his daily news usually consists of badly edited videos of other television show and extremely poor quality videos ripped off of YouTube. This is amateuristic at most.

:: INTERVIEWS AND GUESTS

Jensen then fills his time with interviews, where it seems he tries to be as little compassionate as possible. On top of this, lame sex jokes about the length of his penis, the amount of women he has slept with, kinky stuff that goes on in the backstage room, are most likely to pop up every once in a while. As far as the guests are concerned, they vary from international stars to temporary famous people, such as the "Vegan Streaker", Dutch Idol candidates, "Boer Zoekt Vrouw"-candidates and in some cases politicians. Due to the fact the Dutch show-business is not comparable to that of the United States, the supply of truly interesting people is limited. This combined with the size of the country, the influence it has on political scale and the rather boring political situation in the country itself, makes the interviews rather dull.

In the situation where there is an actual celebrity, Jensen tends to ask rather simple questions, rather than having an in-depth interview. Unlike a normal interviewer, Jensen is quite politically incorrect. This could be seen as a definitive plus. Dutch TV tends to be rather conservative, influenced by religion and prudish. Jensen is none of that - however, he crosses the lines sometimes.

:: LIVE MUSIC

Artists that coincidentally perform on the show, usually lipsynch. A good reason for this may be that the studio sound was never meant to be used as an artists audio-decor. That might very well be. If artists really play live though, the act itself is worthless. Camera positions are poor, sound quality usually hits the extreme low points. Not to mention that the people who actually do sing live, are parodies (Dutch Idols rejects, for instance) or one hit wonders.

:: GOOD THINGS ABOUT THE SHOW + Very easy to watch, no brain activity involved + Progressive as opposed to the quite conservative Dutch television + Great guests coincidentally + The disappearance of the 'co-host' (I'd rather call him part of the studio decor) Jan Papparazi

:: BAD THINGS ABOUT THE SHOW - Repetitive jokes - Harsh language - No respect for people with disabilities - Prerecorded laughs - Uninteresting guests most of the time - Poor artists

OVERALL RATING: 5/10