The Man Show is an American comedy television show on Comedy Central that aired from 1999 to 2004. It was created in 1999 by its two original co-hosts, Adam Carolla and Jimmy Kimmel, and their executive producer Daniel Kellison. The pilot was originally paid for and pitched to ABC, who declined to pick up the show.[2]
| The Man Show | |
|---|---|
| Genre |
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| Created by |
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| Directed by | Dennis Rosenblatt |
| Starring |
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| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 6 |
| No. of episodes | 117 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
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| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Production companies |
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| Original release | |
| Network | Comedy Central |
| Release | June 15, 1999 (1999-06-15) – June 19, 2004 (2004-06-19) |
| Related | |
| Jimmy Kimmel Live! Too Late with Adam Carolla | |
The Man Show simultaneously celebrated and lampooned the stereotypical loutish male perspective in a sexually charged, humorous light. The show consisted of a variety of pre-recorded comedy sketches and live in-studio events, usually requiring audience participation.
The Man Show is particularly well known for its buxom female models, the Juggy Dance Squad, who would dance in themed, revealing costumes at the opening of every show, in the aisles of the audience just before The Man Show went to commercial break, and during the end segment "Girls on Trampolines".
The first year of The Man Show featured beer-guzzling entertainer Bill "the Fox" Foster as the show's emcee. Foster specialized in chugging two beers in record time (sometimes while suspended upside down) and singing lewd drinking songs. He would close every episode by leading the audience in the German drinking toast Zicke, Zacke, Zicke, Zacke, Hoi, Hoi, Hoi!, a tradition that the show continued after his death from prostate cancer in 2000.
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | |||
| 1 | 22 | June 16, 1999 (1999-06-16) | January 26, 2000 (2000-01-26) | |
| 2 | 26 | June 18, 2000 (2000-06-18) | March 25, 2001 (2001-03-25) | |
| 3 | 26 | July 1, 2001 (2001-07-01) | March 3, 2002 (2002-03-03) | |
| 4 | 21 | August 11, 2002 (2002-08-11) | May 11, 2003 (2003-05-11) | |
| 5 | 11 | August 17, 2003 (2003-08-17) | November 2, 2003 (2003-11-02) | |
| 6 | 11 | May 2, 2004 (2004-05-02) | June 19, 2004 (2004-06-19) | |
In 2003, Kimmel and Carolla left The Man Show, with the hosting jobs passed down to comedians Joe Rogan and Doug Stanhope. With the hosting change came a re-composition of the show's theme song. The new pair hosted the show for two more seasons before it ceased production in 2004, after its final episode aired on June 19.
Kimmel went on to host his own late-night show for ABC, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which he has hosted since 2003. Carolla stayed with Comedy Central to host Too Late with Adam Carolla in 2005 and then became part of CBS Radio's Free FM experiment after Howard Stern joined Sirius Satellite Radio; his talk show, The Adam Carolla Show, ran until 2009. Carolla continues to do the show as a daily podcast and also co-hosted the Spike show Catch a Contractor. Carolla has appeared on Kimmel's program several times (more so than any other guest) during its run.[3]
Rogan continued to host Fear Factor for three more years after The Man Show was cancelled and eventually became color commentator for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, with which he has been associated since its early days. He also continues to tour as a standup comedian and began a podcast in 2012, eventually featuring influential in-depth interviews that frequently run three hours. Stanhope continues to perform philosophical standup comedy, hosts a podcast in Arizona, and remains one of Rogan's most frequent podcast guests.[citation needed]
In 2012, for the season 4, episode 29 of Tosh.0, titled "Virgin Trampoline Jumper", Daniel Tosh revisited The Man Show with hosts Joe Rogan and Doug Stanhope, in which they made the claim that the show still gets filmed. The hosts gave advice for a man who was 37 and still a virgin; they then set him up with a Juggy Girl.[citation needed]
In October 2017, several clips from the series began to resurface, including clips of Kimmel's impersonations in blackfaceofKarl Malone.[4] It wasn't until June 2020 that Kimmel issued an apology for the Karl Malone sketches in the wake of the George Floyd protests. "There is nothing more important to me than your respect, and I apologize to those who were genuinely hurt or offended by the makeup I wore or the words I spoke," Kimmel said in a statement, adding that he never realized that it could be viewed as more than "an imitation of a human being."[5]