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If you got 100 people in a room, would you be able to get some answers on human behavior if you give them the right experiments? That’s the idea behind 100 Humans, a comedic science series starring stand-up comedians Zainab Johnson and Sammy Obeid and Alie Ward of Brainchild.
100 HUMANS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: One hundred people, of various ages, ethnicities, genders and sexual orientations stand on a grid outside an office building. They’re all wearing plain blue sweats with “Human #XXX” on it, with “XXX” being their given number.
The Gist: The idea behind 100 Humans is that the same group of 100 nameless people who are “dressed like they just got out of rehab” are subjected to experiments that try to derive some answers on human behavior. Hosts Alie Ward, Zainab Johnson and Sammy Obeid conduct the experiments, provide some snarky commentary in voice over and interview experts that can comment on why we’re seeing certain results from the various experiments.
The first episode tries to figure out what we as humans find attractive. Experiment #1 tries to prove the old theory that the best dancers are the most fertile. Yes, that means they get a brave group of men in the crowd to actually give a sperm sample, and then anonymously dance for an appreciative crowd. But between the donation and the dance-off, there are a few more experiments to do.
Experiment #2 tries to figure out if people in uniform are more attractive than people out of uniform. So one group talks to people in uniform in a speed dating situation, and the second group talks to the same group, using the same script, out of uniform. The uniforms range from cops to soldiers to fast food workers. Not surprisingly, cops and soldiers in uniform were seen to be more attractive than the same people out of uniform.
Experiment #3 shows a group of humans mugshots of average-looking people and, given the crime that Ward describes to them, they decide on what sentence to give. The second group gets the same three crimes, but the mugshots are of more attractive people. Guess who got the lighter sentences?
Experiment #4 presents one group with two average-looking people telling a boring story, then the other group gets the same two people, but telling the same story in a funny way. The idea is to find out if being funny is more attractive.
Then we get the dance-off. It’s… interesting. But after that dance-off the sperm results are given, and there are some surprises.
Our Take: Normally, we like this kind of show, where scientific theories are explained and examined in a funny way. And this show did elicit a chuckle or two, especially when Johnson made a few references to balls during the dance-off. But there was something about 100 Humans that was off-putting. Actually there was a lot of things we didn’t like.
First, the same group of nameless humans are used in each of the eight episodes. And, while we get the idea that they should be nameless and dress alike, the whole show feels vaguely dystopian, where these random people are subjected to these sometimes-embarrassing experiments just for kicks. The hosts have to tread a fine line, especially during their voice overs, of being funny without making fun of the people that they’re watching, and sometimes they fail at that, making the show sound more mean-spirited than helpful.
And we’re not sure about the validity of the experiments. When you change two variables, the crowd and the people they look at/talk to, does this really give you conclusive results? They may not; the experiments may just be designed to be entertaining rather than be scientifically rigorous. So maybe there we’re being too literal with our criticism.
The interviews, conducted by Obeid in the first episode, feel like Daily Show-lite stuff, where the interviewer is supposed to look like a bit of a tool, but in doing that, it feels like the comedy is being forced, like when he asks an expert if he’d get a higher sentence if he committed a crime in summer, when his skin would be darker.
But the overall problem is that, at least in the first episode, the experiments aren’t meaty enough to devote about ten minutes each to. The repetitiveness involved in each experiment makes the episodes drag, and the dance-off was interminable, as we saw at least 30 seconds of each of ten contestants. Maybe adding an experiment would help pick up the pace, or at least experiments designed with more interesting action might have helped. But there was too much sameness for too long.
Sex and Skin: Nothing.
Parting Shot: At the end of the night, the hosts tell the 100 humans to “get some rest,” because more experiments are on the way.
Sleeper Star: It feels like some of the humans are funnier than the hosts, at least in the little snippets we were given. Then again, we figure the producers picked people with the most telegenic personalities for this group.
Most Pilot-y Line: Nothing specific, just an overall feeling that there was a whole lot of filler in this episode.
Our Call: SKIP IT. You will likely learn something from 100 Humans but you’ll also alternately be bored and despair at how dehumanizing (pun intended) the show really is.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.
