I recently watched a few episodes of Just Shoot Me! and couldn’t help but wish someone would, in fact, just shoot me. Anything really to put me out of my misery. It is confounding to think this sitcom lasted some seven seasons despite it never being funny or even interesting at any point while on air.
Is this what people thought was funny around the turn of the century? I didn’t get it back then. I certainly don’t get it in 2023. If we’re being honest, there doesn’t seem to be anything to get when it comes to Just Shoot Me!
Now, it is important to note that not every program from the NBC golden era of TV shows holds up to this day. Frasier and Friends still hold up. On the other hand, Mad About You was very much a specific moment in time. And there are others, such as NewsRadio and 3rd Rock from the Sun, which are more about individual sense of humor more than anything else.
But Just Shoot Me! wasn’t a niche or a moment in time. Nor does it withstand the test of time. Mostly, it existed to inflate the ego of David Spade. Seriously, his character is well endowed, married a supermodel and can evade taxes. These all seem like his personal fantasies.
It’s not just Spade’s character that is annoying. Maya, Nina and Elliot are all so stupid. Everything they do makes you want to find a gun and shoot yourself. Not every person in a comedy needs to defy basic logic at every possible turn.
When you compare Just Shoot Me! to NewsRadio, the two have very similar premises (media workplace comedies) but are executed much differently. The former tries too hard to maintain a semblance of reality which makes the characters all seem stupid.
The latter leans into an over-the-top world which makes the characters’ antics believable even though it would never happen in reality. Simply put, someone doing something stupid when everything around them is crazy makes sense in a weird way. It also helped that NewsRadio’s cast was much better.
There is nothing redeeming about Just Shoot Me! It has no bright spots or anything that makes it worth sitting through. It is just a lousy sitcom that has only gotten worse with age. But at least David Spade was able to pretend he had a big penis and models were into him. That is a good reason for television to be produced, right?
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