Stereotypes Sink Comedy Revue

“Accompanied by Adults,” adult professionals and stage-wise kids in topical comedy sketches and improv, tries to be a revue for all ages.

Questionable material, not lack of talent, torpedoes the attempt.

Directed by Second City alumna Cheryl Rhoads, the show at the Groundlings Theatre is a mix of the good, the bad and the ugly.

Among the good, a rousing opener, accessible to children and adults, satirizes youthful Hollywood power brokers. “Itsy Bitsy Baby Bonders--we’ll raise your child so you don’t have to,” scores high marks for its edge.

The bad includes the cheap and trivializing. “Phone Terrorists” shows how the allies “really won the war”: Saddam Hussein “surrenders” when two little girls play two very mild phone pranks.

In “Car Pool,” driver Gen. Schwarzkopf picks up Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Chief Sitting Bull and Uncle Sam. The only pointed moment--needy Uncle Sam sells lottery tickets--is blunted by pointless crudeness: “Jimmy Carter” objects to “Nixon” because “he smells up the car.”

And then there’s the ugly.

A stereotypical old Jewish woman, Southern belle and Latino speak in heavily accented dialects while a young boy “translates.” The Latino says he “loves ’57 Chebbies,” “tacos and burritos” and has his “green card.” Translation: “I love any car that goes” . . . “I love food that gives me gas” . . . “I’m hiding from Immigration.”

Adults may dismiss such “humor” as merely witless. But it’s appalling for young children with more limited frames of reference.