Mr. Birchum

Submission 5,608

Overview

Mr. Birchum is an animated television series created by and starring comedian Adam Carolla and produced by conservative media company The Daily Wire for their DailyWire+ streaming service. The series follows high school woodshop teacher Dick Birchum as he "attempts to navigate a world he doesn't comprehend," with plotlines and jokes that often revolve around conservative social commentary and anti-woke sentiments. The show premiered on May 12th, 2024 and was widely criticized by critics and audiences for its animation style and humor. Later in May, the series' characters Dick Birchum and Karponzi, a stereotypical liberal teacher, became the subjects of gay shipping fan art online.

History

Before the animated series, Birchum was a character who appeared on Adam Carolla's prank call television series Crank Yankers. Birchum was portrayed as a Vietnam War veteran with an obese wife who was interested in carpentry, voyeurism and guns. Purportedly, an animated series starring Birchum was pitched to Fox in 2011, but was rejected.^[15]

Mr. Birchum was first teased on the DailyWire+ YouTube^[1] channel on December 4th, 2023, with a video showing several voice actors for the show, including Adam Carolla, Danny Trejo, Rob Riggle, Roseanne Barr and Patrick Warburton, voicing their lines, garnering over 474,000 views in five months (shown below, left). On May 7th, 2024, the first trailer for the series was released on YouTube,^[2] garnering over 600,000 views in three weeks (shown below, right).

The trailer was also posted by @JeremyDBoreing on X,^[3] who wrote, "For decades no network would touch
@adamcarolla’s animated sitcom “Mr. Birchum” for fear of offending the wrong people. Fortunately, we love offending the wrong people," garnering over 5,100 likes in the same span of time.

The first two episodes of Mr. Birchum premiered on DailyWire+ on May 12th, 2024, leading into weekly releases. The show features a voice cast including Adam Carolla, Brett Cooper, Kyle Dunnigan, Tyler Fischer, Megyn Kelly, Alonzo Bodden and Roseanne Barr.

Reception

Three weeks after its premiere, Mr. Birchum held a 3.7/10 rating on IMDB^[4] with roughly 600 reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes,^[5] the show's first season held a 56% rotten user score, with no reported reviews from critics.

The show received notable criticism on X^[6]^[7]^[8] following the release of its trailer, with some finding the approach to conservative-leaning humor ham-fisted in comparison to shows like King of the Hill, which also features a conservative protagonist. Some also criticized the animation style (examples shown below).

On May 16th, YouTuber^[9] Ls Mark posted a video criticizing the show, titled, "The Daily Wire’s TERRIBLE Anti-Woke Cartoon," garnering over 482,000 views in two weeks (shown below, left). On May 23rd, YouTuber^[10] Saberspark posted a critical video titled "Mr Birchum: A PAINFULLY Unfunny Conservative Cartoon," garnering over 600,000 views in a week (shown below, right).

Online Presence

Birchum x Karponzi / Mr. Birchum Yaoi

In late May 2024, artists began to share fan art depicting Mr. Birchum in a relationship with Karponzi, a character from the show who is portrayed as a stereotypical liberal and teaches at the same school as Birchum.

For example, on May 24th, X^[11] user @amberthealt posted a drawing of the two kissing in the style of the Yoshi and Toad kissing meme, garnering over 1,500 likes in a week (shown below, left). On May 26th, X^[12] user @handsplasticx posted similar ship art that gained over 6,500 likes in five days (shown below, right).

On May 28th, X^[13] user @VelvetWonder posted, "can we all agree that mr birchum is queer media now," garnering over 3,600 likes in three days. On May 29th, X^[14] user @iksiudodi_ posted a piece of fan art, writing, "I made mr birchum woke," garnering over 8,700 likes in two days (shown below).