Testees

A series focused on medical experiments would have to stretch to reach beyond the obvious, simple humor found in absurd side effects and physical discomfort. Testees, executive produced by South Park writer Kenny Hotz (who also created the vile Kenny vs. Spenny), doesn't even try. The show mines its jokes from placing its test subjects in the most unpleasant, unusual bodily distress that the writers can devise -- including male lactation, extreme flatulence, and enormously swollen genitals -- and then seeing how much they can actually get away with showing on camera.

There's plenty of gross-out humor, which sometimes crosses the fine line between lowbrow funny and simply offensive; the factor that pushes many of the jokes over the edge is their emphasis on humiliation. It's not enough that the characters must suffer; their corporate masters at Testico seem to relish demeaning them by, say, skimping on the lubricating jelly when inserting a test drug or by forcing them to grovel for the privilege of abusing themselves. If it sounds like they're selling their bodies, well that's how it looks, too.