Do I just not get good comedy, or is the Broken Lizard crew possibly one of the more overrated comedy troupes who just can’t avoid releasing a theatrical turd? Nah, I’m still sensible, Broken Lizard is consistently crappy, and “Beerfest” is really no true exception. “Beerfest” is the story of the underground world of sports involving… beer, and our two saps are introduced to this world after their grandfather (Donald Sutherland?!) dies doing what he loved: drinking beer. After their own club house goes under, they’re drawn into the illegal world of beer sports, and now have to defend the honor of their late granddad.

Apparently not going for the type of comedy that makes you laugh, “Beerfest” is that film that presents a great concept with very little delivery of the actual gags it lines up for us. All of the attempted madcap humor falls awfully short, and unlike the previous efforts, I was just bored. I was stinking bored. I actually considered drinking at one point just to ease the boredom. “Beerfest” is one of the flatter entries from the troupe, as it really just bases itself around beer humor that not even the beer drinkers will find funny. How many burping jokes can you see before you just want to contemplate prohibition?

And even when the film’s writers attempt a plot, all we’re actually provided is purely repetitive sequences of beer drinking, with “plot” serving as nothing more than padding to just provide more beer jokes. How can you enjoy a film that really runs out of material after a half hour and then force feeds you more of the same jokes for the other ninety minutes? The attempts humor are torturous at times, and just utterly monotonous the rest with various shades of jokes that are stupefying and just plain stupid. Which is funnier, the drinking games in the African American campus, the drinking games in the white frat, or the drinking games in the competition. The switch and slide interchangeable jokes matched with the convenient changes in setting to present the illusion of a new joke becomes an easily irritating routine on the writer’s parts, and I just wasn’t fooled. When you take away the characters and settings, it’s just three beer jokes in succession that wears thin in a matter of minutes.

2006 was a bad year for comedy, and “Beerfest” is another in a long line of mediocre comedies that barely pulls a giggle from me and ends up being as enjoyable an experience as cirrhosis of the liver. While I appreciate the ambition behind the Broken Lizard crew, they’re really short on actual laughs yet again.

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