f one thing is abundantly clear by the time Pauly Shore’s newest collection of shenanigans concludes, it’s that he is incalculably, hopelessly obnoxious. “Pauly Shore’s Natural Born Komics: Miami” (a Sketch Comedy Movie) is a beefed-up version of what was seen on Showtime, though the home video version also dares to include deleted scenes, bloopers, and plenty of uncensored mischief. Although Shore manages to invoke a couple of genuine laughs (and really no more than that) with his stand-up routines, the editing and content in the skits are so objectionable that viewers will surely tire of the project’s design only just before they tire of MTV’s original “jackass” himself.

There is no plot, so a synopsis is hardly applicable. Shore simply cuts together the film with two brief segments from his stand-up show in Miami (and a third in which he says “goodnight” to the audience) with ridiculous sketch comedy footage filmed on the beaches and streets of the Florida town. A skit called “Cockblockers” opens the show, which foreshadows the main draw of Shore’s comedy: Pauly Shore himself. Instead of utilizing random people from the scenic beaches, he continually plays the role of the main character in each segment. This becomes exhausting immediately, because Shore can’t act, and his overexerted attempts at trying to coax laughter are nothing short of pitiful.

“Spunk’d” is the only semi-creative idea in the feature (which is probably why it’s used twice) and is basically a reversed “Punk’d.” Instead of Ashton Kutcher playing tricks on celebrities, Pauly Shore’s Kutcher-rip-off has his celebrity friends play tricks on regular people. The first victim is a valet attendant who sweats over the towing of a car that he parked. The driver and his friend are furious, to say the least, but when the fake cops show up to plant cocaine on the nervous valet, it’s too farfetched even for the victim to believe. The second “Spunk’d” segment involves songwriter T-Pain getting embarrassed over Shore’s shockingly unabashed girlfriend, who prances around in nothing at all. This one is much less inventive, but a good excuse to show some female nudity for the target audience.

“Chubby Girls Gone Wild,” a visit to the Versace Mansion, and a Greta Van Susteren spoof round out the poorly chopped together bits. The number one problem with all of Shore’s antics in Miami is that they are not amusing – and they’re wholly unhumorous. Special appearances by Vivica Fox, Charlie Murphy, Ruben Studdard, and Steven Bauer are thrown in to give the feeling that celebrities actually wanted to participate in Shore’s silliness, but even as they joke about their distaste for his actions in one of the sequences, it’s apparent that most of their disgust is authentic.

The entertainment value in “Pauly Shore’s Natural Born Komics: Miami” all but vanishes when he’s unable to derive laughs, especially when he trips and strains over the attempts. Some of the ideas could have been funny if they’d been taken in a slightly different direction, but it seems that his intention was to be as annoying as humanly possible, to substitute for cleverness. And he definitely succeeds.

– Mike Massie