Comedy Central Promotes Its Continente Comedia Feature With Lame Siesta Mundial Trailer

Aug 14, 2012
6:10 PM

Let's just say that of everything that is in the following video below, the only thing that really made us laugh was the old lady that kept screaming "¡FUERA!" After that, we were a bit perplexed about what this whole Siesta Mundial was all about.

Luckily we have smarter blogger friends and since Mi Blog Es Tu Blog sent us this video and then wrote about it, it got us thinking. (Then our friends at Pocho posted the video, and it goes us thinking even more.) First, watch the video.

Now read the background from MBETB:

You guys know I’m all up for funny & irreverence. But there are things that -when done badly- are just not really that funny.

Take this commercial via Wieden + Kennedy Sao Paulo, Brazil, which actually made it to the short list of Cannes and pitches Comedy Central as a TV channel “as serious as we are.” It kicks off with the following copy:

“Between 1 pm and 3 pm in the afternoon, there are more people taking siestas, than there are people working in Latin America.” 

What do you think, is this witty or just dumb?

For us, we love great, smart and intelligent comedy, and quite frankly, we think this one is lame and falls under the category of poor execution and lack of authenticity. The whole thing felt forced and tried really hard to be popular. Instead, it just falls flat, and now MBETB, Pocho, and us are probably going to give the video more play that it deserves, even though it got selected at Cannes. WTF.

In the meantime, Comedy Central continues to push its brand into the Latin American market. Only problem is that the majority of its featured programming is just translated and dubbed from the English mainstream. It does have a section highlighting Latin American standups (which you can't even see in the US, so suck it and #NoMames, Viacom), but there is no sign (yet) of an REAL and AUTHENTIC comedy product that has the same production value and quality that gets exported from the US. (And we KNOW it is out there.) Instead, you get Brazilian ad agencies using some stereotypes stuck in the 50s to get people to chuckle, when it fact, they could have done so much more, like just having the old lady yell ¡FUERA! in different settings or hell, almost anything else cultural that actually PERTAINS to Mexico, instead of a contrived image of the Lazy Mexican that fails. This is what happens when you hire Brazilians to do a Mexican's job. Where is the Mexican Chappelle when you need him?

And for those of you who will do the typical knee-jerk "you're offended and you Rebels are sad excuse?" This is what we do: we explore what media is doing out there and how brands miss the mark on its content and products. Comedy Central could have done a better job with more creativity. That is all we ask.