by Kolalo Shifter

Created on: June 25, 2010   Last Updated: June 26, 2010

“Hey, here's a fun fact. You're sleeping with a girl who was born when you were in Junior High, and yet there's a good chance she lost her virginity before you did.” That is one example of the many types of humor found on “Two and a Half Men” which is an extremely entertaining program. It contains life lessons and even psychology lessons all hidden with excellently written comedy, both dry and slapstick-like humor with some wordplay and sarcasm. Also, it isn't without a few characters with outrageous personalities. There are more than just a few, but Alan and Charlie are probably the most outrageous. “Two and a Half Men” is in sequence episodes, as it carries some events from episode to episode and has some “to be continued...” ones as well. Although this is true, you don't need to watch it in the order to understand. This show has brilliant writers and a “why didn't I think of that” attitude. If you like this type of almost universal humour, then you shall appreciate this show in addition to the variety of types of characters on it.

Charlie Harper has many strange character traits in order to bring humour to the show. Laziness is quite apparent as he is sleeping most of the day and hardly doing work. Additionally said on the show, “he fell into a pit of money”, as he writes jingles for television commercials, relatively easy for the huge amount of money he gets for it. Second, he is a hedonist, possibly the main theme of the show. “There is an endless stream of gorgeous girls running in and out of his life.” He also can't keep a relationship for long because of a psychological disorder stemming from his hatred towards his mother. Also, he hates his brother for staying in his house after Alan's wife threw him of the house Alan bought. Additionally, he doesn't consider his girlfriends' feelings when he breaks up with them; he has discussed his break-up methods and explanations many times, such as “I have a skin rash”. If the girl calls back, he says “Turns out it's not a skin rash and they won't let me come home."

Alan is another interesting character on the show. He is a people pleaser and attracted to a damsel in distress in order to help her. This true when he marries a 22 year-old just because he feels sorry for her. Another trait he has is being a control freak and doesn't just allow something to happen. His brother continually has one night stands with people somehow connected to Alan, and it ends up being Alan's fault. Furthermore, he tries to keep his girlfriends way too long. One example of this is when he gets married to a girl that starts to hate him, divorces, and gets thrown out of a house he bought...twice! Because of this, he is referred to as “Zippy” by Bertha, Charlie's housekeeper, as women hate him so fast.  Furthermore, he worries about what Judith, his ex-wife will say when she comes to pick Jake, their son, up from Charlie's house if Jake is not ready. She will yell at them no matter what their excuse is because Alan won't speak up for himself. “Zippy” is a strange character that adds a lot of the strange humour found on the show.

 Two and a Half Men is a superb show, having been on for over four seasons. It has superb humour, talented actors, an average plot/episode layout. When it first came out, it was a clever idea for a show, and now it has developed into a cleverly written show.

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