The XYZ Show

If you're expecting to see an African version of Spitting Image, then you'll be severely disappointed. The only similarity is in the puppet design, which I assume are decent likenesses of the political figures they portray. However, the puppeteering is clumsy and slow, making the whole production look amateurish. As faras the humor goes, MAYBE this is funny in Africa, or if you're really in touch with world politics. I found it boring. Kind of like someone tried to do "The Daily Show" with puppets and African news stories. As a fan of Spitting Image, I would suggest you not waste your time. On top of everythng else, the show's title doesn't make sense, unless it's supposed to be the opposite of an "abc" children's show, in which case it's just stupid.

The latex gives some what real-ish quality to the puppets but the characters are styled after typical caricature type drawings. In one segment the puppets are completely still and they are dramatically less horrifying. Its when they start mimicking human movement and waving around those little clubbed hands that move around more like a shovel that these things become terrifying. I can't really comment on the subject matter because the delivery is very dry and I don't know enough about african local politics. It is interesting to see the jokes made about the sex boycott from a more first person perspective than we have had in the west. The experience would be similar to this. It would be like having the audio book of Steven Colbert's "I am american and so can you" while a grotesque caricature of Colbert in latex pretends to read it to you. If you don't understand the details of american politics and culture you would miss a lot of the comedy and just stare at the freakish puppet. Jim Henson really knew what he was doing when he made puppets out of felt. Avoids the uncanny valley that fake people have to deal with and its pretty much a standard for puppets. Even the comedy show Crank Yankers does it. Sorry for being long winded but those puppets are horrifying.