Hotbox (2009– ) User Reviews

Hit Or Miss

[eatcrowepls · 5/10 · 4 August 2018]

This was a pretty hit or miss sketch comedy show so it was better than a lot of other Canadian sketch comedy series but still often disappointing with some sketches that were just off the rails or didn't have enough funny to them. The acting could have been better.

Lots Of Problems

[markgorys · 5/10 · 6 August 2018]

I'm sure they had a very small budget to make a daring sketch comedy show here, I like that it feels different from other sketch series and the animation was nice, but it never really came together. What was the animated story all about? The acting was often just too loud and over the top like they were yelling at us to laugh at the jokes. The writing was unique and interesting but not particularly funny. Still much better than a lot of other Comedy Channel shows.

F.U. Comedy networK

[cynthiabel2 · 1/10 · 13 July 2009]

I was spurred on to check this out after reading the message boards which F.Y.I. contain a lot more funny jokes than the show Hotbox has in it's first 7 episodes. Where did the people responsible for this piece of assbutter show come from? The star/producer/creator/loud fatso is from Punched Up. Three actors and two writers from Popcultured. One producer from Red Green and Jeff ltd. One producer from Stompin Tom, a country concert that at least had to be more funny than Hotbox. What real TV network would give new shows to the same people who already made so many bad ones? Does anyone like any of these shows other than the 60 year old alcoholic fishermen who like Red Green for some unexplainable reason? I'm surprised that all the Girls Will Be Girls girls haven't turned up in this show yet or maybe even they realize to stay away from this abortion.

Horrible, Horrible, Horrible.

[fembot1002 · 1/10 · 23 November 2009]

Hotbox is horrible. It is horrible, horrible, horrible. I have not seen one single funny joke on this show and have not even cracked a smile once.

Obviously this show is made for potheads but who wants such a stupid audience anyway? Has the Comedy Network just given up then, and said well maybe we can do okay with the worst audience there is? The sad thing is I don't even think there are potheads out there who would find this show even the slightest bit entertaining. There is nothing funny on this show.

Saying "creams" over and over while a guy rubs cream on himself isn't funny. It seems like it should be funny but so does the idea of Robocop selling cereal. Somehow the people on this show could not get anything funny out of any of their ideas. Probably because they're all potheads? They probably find themselves funny. Good thing because otherwise nobody in the world would be enjoying this show. Shows like Hotbox are why I am ashamed of Canadian TV.

Lame.... Please Apply Cement Boots And Throw In Nearest Lake....

[commonwealthofcanada · 1/10 · 19 August 2010]

This show was so lame! I am happy it is gone but still angry that it was ever on television to begin with. How does garbage like this ever get made? I am convinced the guy in this show is the son of the person who owns the station otherwise how does such an unfunny clip where a guy talks to himself in an owl suit get turned into a half hour show? Was half a minute not enough time to watch something awful we need to see it for a full half hour? The show wouldn't have even been funny if I had just smoked 18 pounds of the best pot I have ever gotten my hands on. I would still be angry watching this because I could pick out ten of my friends from class who have no training or experience but could go on television and just tell stories and burp--literally--and still be way more funny than this useless abortion of a television show. Never put this on the air again.

Not funny

[lisapyessmith · 12 June 2009]

This show is not funny and I was very disappointed.

There is not much more for me to say about it than that it is just not a funny show. It tries to be funny and has a lot of short segments but I have not found any of them to be funny and when there are that many segments stuck into a show and I don't like even one of them it is definitely a bad sign.

While I was watching this show I kept wondering when something funny would happen but it was just bad acting and trying to make the scenes funny just by having the scenes not make any sense.

It is the kind of show that I watch and know it is what I could have made when I was in the video yearbook club in high school, if somebody gave my friends and I a video camera and said to make a funny TV show we would do stupid stuff like that and I bet we would think it was hilarious but anybody else who watched it would say that it sucks.

If you don't think Hotbox is funny, you don't understand it.

[sarah-21929 · 10/10 · 26 August 2019]

Hotbox is the most brilliant sketch, comedy show ever written. It's similtaneously nostalgic and ahead of it's time. I was stunned to see that the reviews on here are so largely negative. It's absurdist. If you think it's garbage, you've missed the point. Pat Thornton is the funniest man in Canada!

I give up

[Jamessimgame27 · 1/10 · 1 September 2010]

Im gonna be honest Im a MAJOR pot head and I haven't laughed once through the whole series. This is even worse then Tim and Eric who the hell wrote this a monkey? The show doesn't make ANY sense at all and I can't believe they let this air. Comedy Network needs to replace whoever in charge because I cant stand there schedule Just For Laughs reruns come on like 10 times a day and most of that's just 40 year old men whine about being married then there's 22 Minutes not the least bit funny ant there voices annoy me are they supposed to be pirates or something? And don't get me started about Red Green once again its made for 60 year old alcoholic fishermen and then there's Air Farce which is obviously a Mad TV rip off (the taxi guy is based on the depressed Persian tow truck man) and now there putting kids in the hall back on? They really need to appeal to younger generations if they want to be any good and hotbox isn't the way to go I hate to say it but Canadian comedy just isn't that good the only Canadian shows they have that are funny is Jon Dore and Hiccups other then that here's some shows they need: Family Guy, More Tosh.0, More South Park, Chappelle Show, More Mad TV... Umm thats about it sorry for going off point but I just needed to give my opinion on the Comedy Network.

A Bold Experiment

[christineackerley · 8/10 · 19 February 2019]

I get what a lot of people are saying here but I actually watched this show and appreciated it. Were all the sketches funny? No some were not. But they were all very short and there were ones that were funny so the show was not bad, the ones you don't like are over quick and you are on to the next one. Comedy is different for everyone and for some ridiculous stuff like this is funny because of how ridiculous it is. Even if you don't like the comedy in this show you have to at least admit it was different and a very bold experiment to do this kind of thing. Also remember this show doesn't have a budget like a big US show they can only do so much and make the effects etc look so good on a very small portion of the budget. I give this an 8 to hopefully bring up the rating a bit because this is not "the worst show ever" I hope to see more experimental stuff like this in the future. Seriously compare this to other Canadian TV comedy shows especially on the Comedy Channel and this does not seem bad at all.

Another Bad Comedy Network Show

[robertboylex · 1/10 · 8 October 2009]

This show is just bad, unfortunately there is no other way to say it. I know what they were going for and it was a good and interesting idea, take what has worked on other new shows like Robot Chicken and Tim and Eric Awesome show and try to do that. Have very quick, short, fast sketches one after another so that if it is bad no big deal because you are moving on to another sketch very soon. The problem is that every single sketch I have seen on this show has just been awful, I mean really awful. They have a french toast hawk who keeps attacking the same two guys in animated scenes when they eat their french toast, viciously attacking them, then a narrator saying "the french toast board says eat more french toast", seriously they have this in every episode and it is not nearly as funny as it sounds to read that description of it. The acting is terrible but the main problem is that the writing is either terrible on non-existent. The show was probably written by potheads for potheads but I don't think anybody likes this show at all, I'm sure there are people who do but I have never met one myself, just people who either haven't heard of this show or saw it but hate it like me. The only sketches I saw that were funny at all were ones that totally come from other shows, for example they have a couple decently funny sketches that are series of still shots but this idea is lifted right from the show Tom Goes To The Mayor or whatever that show was called. Anyone who watches Tim and Eric Awesome Show will recognize a lot of similar ideas here but they are weaker written and not as funny in presentation. This is a really bad show all the way around, frankly I don't see how The Comedy Network is still on the air after all the awful shows they have produced over the years. Other than Puppets Who Kill and Jon Dore's Show they have never had anything worth watching to offer.

WOW grate stuff

[freemoney420 · 10/10 · 5 December 2009]

man this show is awe-sum.... so funny.... it re-mines me of dose great coma-d's (HA ,D).... like tom green flick, Fred got fingered.... i would compare it's amazing to like Simpson after season 8 and family guy........ people be hating on this show but its way batter then other so-called ,d's like curb enthusiasm (old man just yelling HA who even cares so old)...... or stupid movie doc strange love....... Kubrick no know how to make movie he should take a lesson from Seth r-o-g-e-n........ anyway-z hotbox is super awesomeness. ha the creams and also music pants l-o-l. i just imagine ifs b-ball cops had creams and pants....

Funnier than you're lead to believe.

[psypeterson · 7/10 · 17 July 2009]

I was going to rate this show 10 just to balance out the score, but that's not being honest.

To be blunt, this show could be funnier. Some of the sketches are lame, and just leave you scratching your head. However; the majority of this show is leak-in-your-pants hilarious. It's best to keep in mind that the comedy styling is crude and ridiculous, depending heavily on the "WTF?" factor reminiscent of shows like Weird T.V. If you're not into comedy which comes at you from left field, you'll most likely hate this show.

P.S. to earlier comment: Badmouthing potheads on the Internet is like like stealing money from the homeless; you don't get much out of it, and it makes you look like a petty idiot.

Not Funny

[brandonbrown · 1/10 · 4 July 2009]

Okay, first I want to clear something up from one of the earlier comments that only Pot Heads would like this show. And just from them saying that I can tell they haven't so much as had a hit. I am an admitted pot head, and I found this show god awful. I was high when I first watched it, and nothing. Smoking pot doesn't mean you think ANYTHING is funny, and can mindlessly laugh at anything. We're not mindless. We have a conscious mind when we're under the influence. Sure, you might laugh a bit more at funny things. But, they still have to be funny. So, don't speak for us unless you've walked in our shoes, please. Thank you.

Anyways, this show is awful. I don't see how it got to the pilot stage. I want to personally go to the Comedy Network and just tell the person in charge of Canadian talent what a shitty job they're doing. This? Tim & Eric? Running old episodes of Royal Canadian Air Farce, This Hour has 22 Minutes and Red Green? WTF? They had a little something with Jon Dore in the first season, but watching the second one I don't know what's happening. Just for Laughs has had tons of Canadian Comedians that were hilarious over the years. Unless they've just been turning down the Comedy Network for a chance at their own shows all these years, they should be picking some of them up. Do they want people to think this is what ALL Canadians think is funny? Do they want Canadian viewers to look at it compared to American Comedy shows (not the chubby husband, hot wife kind) and think "why don't we have something like this?" Hell, Fox has canceled better shows than most of the Canadian shows that run for more than 10 years.

The sketches look like they've had about 5 minutes of work put into them. If they're going to be that lazy about it, they should at least take some improv classes. I'm not going to support a show that lets sketches like "Music Pants", "Basketball Cops", that Cream thing pass as regular sketches. What ever they're paying these actors, writers, etc. It's too much...

one of the worsts shows ever

[tealetown · 1/10 · 11 October 2009]

i am a stoner pot head and i still think the show is garbage, it tries to be funny but just isn't, i mean at-all, i watched 3 episodes in a row and now even a chuckle more disgrace and embarrassment for the cast and crew....its close to if not the single worst thing on television in a comedy category by far, nothing compares to the stupidity of this show, i am a slapstick stupid but clever comedy loving guy, this show is the complete opposite of any of those....... not one ounce of comedy here just plain only garbage, comedy central is better than this and i hope they drop it soon, very soon... i get sick just watching the stupid ads for it.......not funny poor animation, and that fat owl guy is just not funny....

Hotbox Sucks

[johnjohnsemails · 2/10 · 16 September 2010]

Hotbox is a terrible show. I guess it is cancelled but it was so damn bad I still want to post here and say please if you are thinking about returning to do another year of this show don't, it is an awful show and nobody likes you. How can a show on the comedy network be so completely not funny, they try so hard but there are no funny moments I have ever seen on this show. I hate this show and I hope it is never on TV again. I give it 2 out of 10 instead of 1 because there are shows on the comedy network that are even worse like popcultured, punched up, and girls being girls. What the farking cowpoop is wrong with the comedy network.

Really Bad Show, Unoriginal & Unfunny

[melissajanesanderson · 2/10 · 3 September 2009]

Hot Box is a really bad show, I have watched many episodes with my friend who works at CTV (CTV owns the Comedy network) and every one of them has failed to make me laugh even one time. I am a fan of Sean Cullen and there have been his parts and a few other short sketches that are kind of interesting or at least not bad but most of the stuff in this show is just terrible, not just not funny but unoriginal and so bad it makes we want to turn the channel and never turn it back. A lot of the show's style comes from Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job which is an awesome show but Hot Box can do that style but doesn't deliver anything funny like Tim and Eric do. It is basically a bunch of quick, short clips with most of them very weird but not funny weird, just stupid. I guess it is a show for potheads but you know someone who is a pothead will laugh at anything that doesn't make it good. The production value is good, there is a lot poorly produced but they obviously did that on purpose the way Tim and Eric would do a cheesy infomercial like from the 1980s they do that style of stuff, but also a lot of animation scenes etc that are extremely well produced. Still this show is just awful I haven't seen a less funny show in quite a long time.

This kind of comedy belongs in the 90's.

[mcmillan542 · 24 June 2009]

The average viewer can tell just by watching some of the ads that this show just isn't anything more than random commercials with corny ideas. Keyword is RANDOM. It's a shame really, because I rather liked that "Owl and The Man" shorts by this show's director, the only decent actor.

From RANDOM ideas like musical pants, to basketball cops, anyone watching ads for this commercial would be well advised to take this show at face value and expect the same poorly written sketches all the way through. It's just that sort of Family channel comedy that combines two different things to make something lame.

Surreal and funny as hell, often

[j_loome · 10/10 · 25 September 2010]

It's like "Tim and Eric", except funny.

In other words, most of the sketches are two-minute parodies of form; the icy hit-man who talks about his groceries; the bear who gives a press conference in which the media just goes negative.....even though he's a bear and can talk; the wise owl who lives with the average joe, and has to put up with his inane drivel.

It's insanely dry and times, but there's pretty much always a point.

You have to get the show. If you don't, it's meaningless drivel to you. But it's absurdly deep, working on levels the guys from South Park could only dream of, and unfortunately that makes it inaccessible to a lot of people.

The worst!

[pbrackage · 1/10 · 19 June 2009]

This show is so bad. I totally agree with the above comments that it gives the air of being made by junior high kids as a joke. It looks horrible and cheap. Like it was shot by a cable access employee. But, aside from that it's not funny or entertaining at all. What happened to good Canadian comedy? Kids in the Hall, for example. Heck, I even think some MTV commercials are more clever and appeal to my generation (twenties). These kinds of shows were made for cheap, but they were so smart. I watched 3 episodes of this because I happened to tune and will avoid watching it again at all costs. I think the comedy network should have been smarter then to air this.

Misunderstood, but bravely original

[untouchableshockey · 8/10 · 10 March 2010]

A lot of people have been really slagging HotBox, and perhaps rightfully so in some aspects, but I think this show signifies a great step for Canadian comedy. Canadian comedies will always be burdened with the same problems: low production value, low viewer-ship, and tame/lame comedy aimed at ageing baby-boomers. Here is a grassroots Canadian comic named Pat Thornton with this twisted, and distinctly FRESH sense of humour who takes the things that normally hinder our homegrown shows, and he makes them work for him. He uses the cheapness of the production itself as part of the satire, which in my mind is frigging brilliant. When epic groups like Kids In The Hall, Second City and Monty Python are spoken of, they are synonymous with terms like "ground-breaking", "daring", and "trail-blazing". I'm not going to go as far as to put HotBox into that kind of timeless company, but I do believe it will be remembered as "a step in the right direction". Are there some weak skits in the mix? Yes. There are, but the absolute gold far outweighs the stuff that was too random to catch on. I believe comedy network is giving this show a genuine chance to grow, and that is the kind of support small-time Canadian productions need. A lot of people have a hard time enjoying something different and new, so say what you will about the creators and cast of HotBox, but they ARE daring, they ARE ground-breaking, and I think when people look at the state of Canadian comedy, particularly television sketch comedy, they will consider HotBox somewhat of a trail-blazer.

PAT THORNTON FOR PM

I Watched it live with the Cast

[jennaspivac · 1/10 · 6 August 2009]

It was at a bar on Bloor west where they watch all the shows when they air on TV and cast members are there. It was hosted by the chubby guy from the show and another guy who was supposed to be in the show (I didn't see him in the show so he may be in other episodes) and there was also another cast member there who I think performed stand up comedy after we left. There were 12 people there including the hosts themselves and we watched the show as it aired on TV. As we watched the show we felt obligated by politeness to laugh every time the hosts laughed at their own jokes on TV. After the show most people left leaving only 5 people behind to watch a free stand up comedy show after the TV broadcast, as we got ready to leave we watched the beginning of this show and it was even worse than the TV show. It was really different the great idea to watch a show with the cast there live but it was just sad because the show was so bad and they loved their own show so much, in person they seem nice and were funny but then the show was so bad and the stand up comedy after the show was just brutal, but as I said we left shortly after it started so maybe it got better.

Perfect timing

[skittishdog · 10/10 · 1 July 2009]

Just when all my favorite shows were playing their season finales Hotbox showed up to save my summer. I don't have the comedy network but I watch the show every week online. Even if I don't love every segment I do love the show overall and I think its a cool step for the comedy network to have made this. If you haven't checked it out, you're missing out! I really hope enough people watch this show because I would hate for it to be another great show that goes un-watched. More Canadians watched Arrested development the first time around so I know as a country we respect and appreciate great comedy. It is awesome to see real production value on sketch comedy in Canada. I love the puppets and cartoons. (I want a rage rabbit T-shirt)

Big Zero

[fluxlegend · 1/10 · 1 August 2009]

If it were possible to give a 0 rating I would've done it.

Just plain bad.

Not only is it supposedly a comedy, it is also a fail in acting and entertainment.

A waste of any network time slot and many more worthy shows could easily take its place.

Normally I enjoy a variety of comedies in style, but this show just doesn't appeal to anyone not stoned or with half a brain.

They had their chances with this, I gave it a shot in multiple viewings, but not once did it entertain or cease the pain of its awful entirety.

Utter Crap

[bcritch4 · 1/10 · 15 June 2009]

This show is the worst thing i have ever seen. It looks like high school kids tried to make a show and failed utterly. But a stupid company said. OH MAN! REAL ACTION ROBOT CHICKEN! THIS IS AWESOME! And the audience said WTF. What is the point to this show? None. There's no plot. No reason to watch it. Who are the characters? Who cares. But i myself am not stupid and i know exactly who the market audience is and who could possibly enjoy this show.

Pot Heads.

No brain losers who will laugh at anything when they're baked out of their mind. Their attention span is too short so the short clips work great for them. What a masterpiece. Master Piece Of Garbage.

Yep. It's Terrible.

[greengenes · 1/10 · 23 June 2009]

I guess my opinion really isn't needed here since all these other people have already chimed in with their own opinions and they are all the same but since I already went to all the trouble to create an IMDb account and come to this page I might as well go ahead and do it.

Yes I created an IMDb account just to complain about this show and that on it's own should tell you how bad I think this show is because I have never taken time before to actually get up off my arse and find a website on the internet dedicated to TV shows then find that show and sign up for an account just so I could tell how much I think the show sucks even though I know probably nobody will ever read this. Well maybe other people who hate the show but then again I don't see how anyone could like it except the let's say lesser intelligent guys who are in it.

There is nothing good about this show including the bad performances the bad writing and not to mention the complete obvious lack of direction. I guess it is supposed to be funny because it's so bad? Whatever this show sucks.