by Jeff Alan, Contributing Writer
Most people don’t voice the deep dark thoughts or ideas in their heads, but Tom Segura decided to make an entire Netflix series about it. Bad Thoughts marks the first major television series for the comedian, bringing a host of different actors and actresses to his aid with hilarious results.
The series serves as a sort of sketch show with six 20-something-minute episodes bringing two or three short stories apiece, and some carrying on into other episodes. For example, one story follows a government contract killer who — after botching a job he was hired to do — makes mistake after mistake when trying to cover his tracks. Another is a mother and father who witness their child’s grade school presentation, only to be horrified to see that the outcome is a result of Segura’s veteran father’s recollection of the Korean War. And one final sketch depicts a country superstar whose fame is waning due to his fans’ lack of connection to his music, so he kidnaps innocent people to harness their true stories to have better “inspiration” for hit songs.
The show is crude, completely wild, and at times disturbing, yet I found myself cackling with laughter more often than not. Fans of Segura’s hit podcast Your Mom’s House — which he does weekly with his wife, Christina P — are familiar with Segura’s twisted senses of humor and entertainment, and can go into this series knowing that it could be a fun ride. But for a person going in blind, it could take a sketch or two to truly understand the comedy being laid out in front of them. Once you understand the direction he is going, though, you tend to start expecting the unexpected, and are brought on a crazy ride every seven to 10 minutes.
Fans of Your Mom’s House, and the YMH Studios world they have cultivated, will be happy to see numerous Easter eggs, guest stars, and stories that have been brought up or featured on their library of podcasts and shows: stars like Kirk Fox (who frequently opens for Segura’s standup shows), Ryan Sickler, Bobby Lee, and Johnny Pemberton (multiple-time guests on Your Mom’s House,and friends of the comedian), and Rob Iler and Daniella Pineda (Iler having a show on the YMH Studios catalog called Not Today, Pal, and Pineda having been used in other short films produced by the YMH team). And as for Easter Eggs, the storyline involving the country music star is a direct and obvious callback to Tom and Christina’s podcast where they jokingly — but also somewhat seriously — bring up the fact that they believe country musician and star Garth Brooks is a serial killer based on his awkward demeanor on social media videos, and the fact that his past tour schedule has lined up with several murders that happened in those cities around the same days. Does it sound far fetched? Absolutely. But that’s the way Segura’s brain works, and what brought this series into his head and onto the screen.
The sort of stories and comedy are without a doubt insane and inappropriate, but if you’re a fan of comedy in its truest form, Bad Thoughts is a must watch. Even if you’re not a die-hard YMH fan like I am, there is still plenty about the show to get you laughing harder than you thought you would. Bad Thoughts is the result of giving a comedian control to make a show that is different from what we usually see from comedians. And I hope to see other comedians stepping into this sort of lane to give us even more interesting stories.
Rating: Loved It
Bad Thoughts is currently streaming on Netflix
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