BUDDY (2026)

When we first saw the trailers for Casper Kelly’s Buddy (2026), our first thought was “This looks terrible“. It looked to us like a Barney horror spoof that would not exist without the darkly comedic satire Wonder Showzen (2005-2007). If you’re unfamiliar, Wonder Showzen was a late night MTV parody show of 70s and 80s children’s educational television programs like Sesame Street (1969-present) and The Electric Company (1971) that oozed biting societal critiques or “offensive, despicable content” depending on your P.O.V. But aren’t we all a bunch of trusting fools sometimes, and being unable to ignore a flood of online positive reviews pointed at us we thought, “Alright perhaps we’re wrong, let’s give ‘er a go.” Well, Buddy, as expected, rests on said single gimmick. It opens as an uninterrupted, fuzzy VHS-era lampoon of a 90s children’s show that could have made for a passable sketch years ago, however the novelty wears off long before the first act concludes. Once the film runs out of self-satisfied cleverness and nostalgia, it collapses. This paper-thin idea is then stretched into an obnoxious and inexplicable bloody mess, with no traces of the commentary that made the Wonder Showzen era of alternative comedy brilliant. If you want genuine, subversive puppet horror, skip this bloated unfunny feature and just watch or rewatch what MTV did decades ago.

WATCH OR NOT: NOT