The Internet has certainly made the world a much smaller place, and with the Internet has come new advances in technology and software. Macromedia's Flash has gone from just a means of making a rather intricate and slick looking website to something just a little bit more. Would be animators have taken to the program in droves and have started doing their down short films, all digital of course. Everyone has seen these on the web at some point and although the program certainly isn't without its limitations, what can be done has been at times quite amazing. National Lampoon has taken some of the best online animation from TheRomp.com and compiled them not only on DVD, but on UMD as well, a format that more and more companies are starting to jump at the chance to release discs for.

The Best of The Romp puts together shorts that some have seen and love, and other that you may not have even been aware existed. Think of this as being the online equivalent of Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation. Ah, but wait, let's place that more into the category of Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation, a highly celebrated event that has brought some of the most disturbing and hilarious bits of adult animation to fans everywhere. Since this is an anthology all done by different creators and with different cartoon (if it is indeed safe to call them that) this makes the review a little more difficult. However, I think the best way to tackle this one is to simply look at the shorts themselves.

Bill & Ted: You're probably thinking excellent and bogus just based on the name, but this isn't the Bill and Ted that you know from cinema. This is none other and Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy, with appearance by Marion Barry, George W. Bush and a number of other political figures. Political satire has always been a part of comedy whether its involving the stand up of George Carlin and Lewis Black or television shows like The Daily Show. In the three shorts we find Bill and Ted living together as roommates with frat boy mentality, not too much of a stretch. You'll find them holding their own keg party in Bill & Ted's Full on Ragin' Kegger!!!! They make a trip to the moon in Da Man on Da Moon and even finding a way to make George W. Bush look foolish (not that he needs much help) in the third and final installment Freedom Fighters.

Bill & Ted is the brainchild Josh Faure Brae, but there a number of problems that I have with the shorts. The first and most important is that the shorts simply aren't funny. The material is certainly dated, but I have a feeling that even if I had seen these online four years ago, I still wouldn't find any humor in them. Bill & Ted not only tries to occasionally borrow humor for the films of the same name, you'll find imitations of Beavis & Butthead in these bits of animation as well as tired jokes that certainly weren't very funny when I heard them the first and are aren't any more hilarious now. The only thing that I really enjoyed about Bill & Ted was the animation, which looks a great deal like it was lifted from the pages of Mad Magazine, but Bill & Ted failed to even make me crack a smile.

Getting What You Want will Bill Bilkman: Bill is a complete and total loser. Think Leisure Suit Larry, but getting some action, if you know what I mean, and Bill has the means to show us all how to get what we want, and that's money. First, Bill shows us how we can all own the house of our dream in the aptly titled Owning Your Dream House for Under $150. Bill then moves on to inform all of us how to amass a fortune on the Internet in Starting Your Own Money-Making Website and Bill follows that up and shows how to sell other products in Making Money Through Your Friends. Finally, for those that are still at a real job, Bill tells us all how to deal with it in Making the Most of Your Job.

Simply by seeing the opening animation, some might think that this is a series of shorts from Bob Cesca (a name I will get to again a bit later) sure enough, he is the creative force behind the animation. Bill however is the creation of KP Anderson, and although the first bit isn't too funny, nor is the fourth one, the rest and great. Bill's way to make money online is, what else, pornography, and it involves a woman and a donkey. The third installment involves prostitution, but why these work is that the way Bill explains everything, it sounds casual enough, but Bill isn't trying to peddle family wares here. There are certain to bring a smile to your face.

Coach Bigot: What do you get when you cross a Southern Cajun with the mentality of Archie Bunker? Coach Bigot of course, a man who is in charge of . . . . a little league team. Coach Bigot is the result of a joint effort by some of the bigger name in the world of Flash animation. While the stories aren't given names, at least not on the UMD, you will find a number of racist situations in the shorts certain to offend a number of people while amusing others. I have to say that I do find it funny, quite a bit so actually.

Tardz: Set up as something of a drama, put with the main emphasis being comedy, or at least what passes for it, Tardz main characters are of course the mentally challenged, but in roles like doctors and lawyers. I don't have a problem with people making fun of those suffering from retardation, and in fact we've been planning on making our own film here at Underland Online that deals with the same type of approach, but Tardz just isn't funny and in fact, it's retarded. Art Brown and Terry Gatens, the creators, have a long way to go not just with the joke but the animation, which, in this instance, is completely terrible.

Officer Krupt: Follow along in the adventures of a corrupt police officer who is just trying to follow in daddy's shoes. There is some decent animation here and it's a very interesting approach. The shorts have a sort of noir look about them and use a good deal of sex and violence as the highlight, but animation aside, it's another series that I didn't find amusing, though it's great to look at.

The one thing that really made Flash animation a viable form of media online was a certain collection of shorts made by Bob Cesca. You might recall a certain heavy metal band complaining about people downloading their music and launching a crusade that might have taken down Napster but opened a literal Pandora's Box of peer-to-peer sharing services. Napster Bad might not be on the UMD, but the follow up, Metalli-Cops and the parody of We Are the World are both featured. It's still mildly humorous, but probably not to the degree that it was a few years back. Still, having not seen them in quite a while, it was a treat to see them again, and any of the Metallica parodies can be put into the category of classic Flash animation.

The final segments on the UMD are Sex in the Inner City, and it would be obvious what the joke is here. Perhaps I would have found a bit more humor in these had I watched the series, but I really failed to see the humor in these.

I'd really have to say that the Romp UMD is something of a mixed bag, but for some, it's really going to depend on the comedy you like. Let's just give an example with other releases. People think that Anchor Man is a hilarious film, but I fell asleep and found it to be ridiculous. Some people love Adam Sandler and I'd much rather see him impaled on the end of a stick. Romp has a few bright moments, but for me, I can't honestly say that it's the type of thing that I would sit down and watch time and time again. Romp certainly isn't the Sick and Twisted festival, and you're liking of it is really going to depend on your sense of humor. For some, it's going to be worth a look while others are going to find themselves straight-faced from start to finish. I'd say check some of the mentioned shorts out online before purchasing the UMD, then make your decision.

-mike-