By request, an interruption of the ordinary alphabetical order of things for a “dumb comedy week of the Neverending Film Festival” — a few comedies recommended by readers. None are really dumb, all were fun watching, and a few more remain.

After Life (first season, 2019)
15 Storeys High (2002-04)
I Love Boosters (2026)
UHF (1989)

After Life (first season, 2019)

Ricky Gervais made The Office, and Extras, and another show I think I’ve forgotten, and a few movies including The Invention of Lying. I’ve enjoyed all that I’ve seen, sometimes with caveats. Here’s another show he wrote and starred in, After Life, a comedy that delivers laughs, but mostly it’s morose.

Gervais plays Tony, whose wife has died of cancer. He’s grieving enormously, and keeps none of it inside. He’s ferociously acerbic to everyone — bitter, sarcastic, insulting, an open psychological wound. I can relate.

The show’s heartbreak is near relentless, interrupted only by bleak scenes at the shitty local newspaper where Tony hates his job, and visits to his dementia-hobbled father who always asks how Tony’s wife is doing, and visits to his dead wife at the graveyard.

Are you laughing yet?

You should be. It’s Gervais, so it’s funny, often damned funny. The weakest bits are when Tony explains his atheism to Christians, or gets cornered by street hoodlums, because you know Gervais isn’t going to let Tony lose in such situations. And the pop tunes on the soundtrack are perhaps too perfect. And inexplicably, the last episode of this first season includes a rerun of a scene from the first episode, not as a flashback, but like it’s happened all over a second time.

That last episode telegraphs the show’s second season, when Tony will be recovering from his grief, less dour and sour, and thus less interesting. Gervais screwed up one of his earlier series, Extras, by changing the premise between seasons, and After Life will suck if he softens it, so this first season is probably all I’ll watch.

These six episodes, though, are amazing television — a load of sadness and sarcasm tinged with beautiful moments of jawdropping wisdom and insight, about the true nature of love, grief, death, friendship, being human, and giving a damn. I wept more than once, and laughed a lot. Gervais is trying to go beyond mere comedy, and it’s the best Gervais I’ve seen. Maybe better than The Office.

Verdict: BIG YES.

♦ ♦ ♦

15 Storeys High (2002-04)

Brit comedian Sean Lock created, wrote, and stars in this dozen-episode British sitcom, as the endlessly weird but somehow relatable Vince (no last name, sorry, we’re on a budget).

He lives on the 15th-floor of a sorta shabby apartment building, and he’s taken in Errol (Benedict Wong) as his flatmate. As Vince explains, “All the neighbors are nutters,” and he’s right, but he forgets that he’s a neighbor too.

Vince is harsh and often wrong, his life is dull but reliably funny, and every episode delves into his nutterness and the matching nutterness of Errol and all the other nutters in the building. When anyone comes close enough to approach possible friendship, Vince pushes them away, usually with a droll, brittle remark. I don’t think the general kookiness of all these people is even exaggerated; it’s simply out in the open, when most people keep their nuttiness secret.

The jokes are not often obvious, and don’t follow the standard setup and punchline routine used by most sit-coms. There’s nothing I could recount that would sound as funny as it is, and honestly I’m still not sure whether Vince killed the swan, but the show never goes two minutes without a laugh. This is delightfully highbrow humor about lowbrow people, a top-notch overseas comedy that probably couldn’t be made in America.

Verdict: BIG YES.

♦ ♦ ♦

I Love Boosters (2026)

Major American retailers have recently been apoplectic about organized shoplifting rings — ‘boosters’, in modern parlance. Here’s a movie about boosters in Oakland, targeting a fictitious chain called Metro Designers, headed by a fictitious designer named Christie Smith (Demi Moore, surprisingly strong).

Despite the title, I Love Boosters is more a spoof of the fashion industry than of shoplifting, but it’s overstuffed with clever ideas — a teleportation machine allowing easier shoplifting, a tilted office building where Smith wrestles against gravity, a demon that sucks your soul out during oral sex, and the proverbial more and more. My favorite image is Corvette, head of the shoplifting ring, being pursued down city streets by a giant rolling ball of all her unpaid bills.

Still, the key word is overstuffed. Cinematic tricks are relentless, the music is whoops & slide whistles & nonsense lyrics, and nothing slows down long enough to allow much sense of a story. Written, directed, and produced by Boots Riley, it’s anti-capitalist, but the chaos, not the message, is the message. It’s exhausting to watch, and I became more and more eager for it to end.

Verdict: NO.

♦ ♦ ♦

UHF (1989)

Everybody likes Weird Al, and I’m part of everybody, so I like Weird Al too, and take no pleasure in assessing that his non-singing comedy UHF is not great.

Yankovic plays a schnook who’s inexplicably put in charge of his uncle’s TV station. A few smiles result, but mostly it’s stupid comedy at its stupidest. My biggest laugh by far was when a Twinkie gets cut in half the long way and a wiener added, so the Twinkie plays the role of hot dog bun. If I was a meat-eater, I’d try that.

Kevin McCarthy, Michael Richards, Billy Barty, Fran Drescher, Sue Ane Langdon, and Victoria Jackson are present. Only Richards accomplishes much, playing a dimwitted janitor who becomes a star.

Verdict: NO.

8/16/2026

Logo illustration by Jeff Meyer.
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No talking once the lights dim, and only real butter on the popcorn, not that fake yellow stuff.