Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Digman!’ on Comedy Central, An Adult Animated Comedy with Little to Bring to the Genre

There’s precious little to laugh about when it comes to archaeologists. They’re typically seen as all-important, knowledgeable additions to teams that investigate things like mummies, crazy artifacts, and other spooky happenings. So it’s odd that anyone thought that an animated comedy based on this premise might make sense. Digman, created by Neil Campbell and Andy Samberg, takes it one step further.

Set in a world were archaeologists are celebrities, it follows the titular Rip Digman and his misadventures after the death of his wife — and the end of his time in the field. Technically, that’s what it’s about, but as usual with these kinds of shows, it’s more about how dumb and incompetent Digman really is. And with that, it checks all the boxes for adult animation, and it only gets worse from there.

DIGMAN!: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: The camera pulls out to reveal “one of history’s most lethal super volcanoes,” Rip Digman narrates. We see the volcano’s internals as Digman stares as a golden idol nestled within. It appears that Digman and team members are exploring the volcano. But just as Digman takes the golden idol, the volcano begins to erupt as he and the rest of his group pull off a daring escape.

The Gist: Rip Digman (Samberg) is the former top dog in a world where archaeologists (inexplicably called “arkies”) are massively popular and enjoy near-celebrity status. The first episode kicks off in 2011 as Rip and wife Bella (Melissa Fumero) and friends are exploring a massive volcano. When Digman takes a sacred idol from the volcano, everything comes crashing down around them. Bella’s life comes to a quick end, and Digman’s then-assistant Zane (Guz Khan) moves on to take a job from a rival museum right under Digman’s nose.

Flash forward to 2023, and Rip has been fired from his job at the Smithsonian. He’s no longer the dazzling “arky” everyone once worshiped him as, even though he has his own small entourage. He’s gotten fat and he’s no longer being called on for excavations, adventures, or journeys to seek out sacred artifacts. As such, he’s down in the dumps. But thanks to one irritatingly chipper student named Saltine (Mitra Jouhari), he learns about a competition held by billionaire Quail Egan (Tim Meadows) that could be the answer to all his problems. Digman makes a decision to compete against rival Zane to see who can emerge as Egan’s new museum’s head archaeologist. Of course, nothing goes as planned, and that’s where the craziness begins.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Adult animated comedies are a dime a dozen, and Digman feels just like every single one that surfaces each season or show. The unattractive character designs will bring to mind series like Brickleberry or F is for Family, while the humor feels juvenile in all the wrong ways, with dated pop culture references and vulgarities that do little to add to the total package. It’s very familiar in that manner, but in a bad way.

Our Take: Digman feels like a one-trick pony expanded into an entire series. At one point, someone heard Samberg’s impression of Nicolas Cage, thought it might be funny to listen to for 20 minutes at a time, and pitched what is, for all intents and purposes, a National Treasure parody.

But as spot-on as the impression is, it can’t carry an entire series. Of course, that isn’t the only issue here. The main problem is that, as many meth jokes as Digman wants to tell, as many sexual digs it wants to take at its protagonist, it just isn’t funny. There are whiffs of humor here and there, but it never actually becomes funny.

As with many other animated sitcoms, the jokes come a mile a minute, but they rarely if ever land. The fact of the matter is, a story about a world where archaeologists are celebrities just isn’t interesting, nor does it make for any particularly funny situations, even if it tries to lean on Indiana Jones or National Treasure parodies.

There’s little reason to care about Digman himself or his associates, especially Saltine, which an insufferable Mitra Jouhari somehow manages to make even more irritating. That character is also one of the worst perpetrators of saying the word “arky” every other sentence, which is doubly infuriating because no one actually calls archaeologists this. She’s playing her part well, but Saltine was written to be perhaps one of the most annoying characters I’ve seen in a comedy since the entirety of the Big Mouth cast.

Is there an audience for comedies about archaeologists? Is there a reason to care about Digman’s plight when he’s just another bumbling yet sarcastic ne’er-do-well who wants to get back on his feet after falling from grace? Nothing about this series says yes. And honestly, your time would be better served actually learning about historical digs and finds from prominent members of the “arky” community than waiting patiently for something to laugh at that never actually comes.

Parting Shot: Before the episode closes down, Digman happens upon his dead wife, frozen in place, and vows to bring her back. He tells her not to worry about him being faithful, because the only dating he’s interested in is “carbon dating.”

Sleeper Star: Comedian Tim Robinson shines in the few scenes he gets as pilot and handyman Swooper. The voice he’s famous for in shows like Netflix’s I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson is on full display here, and no one pulls that off like Robinson. It’s hard not to wish he were the main sidekick character instead of the painfully boring Saltine.

Most Pilot-y Line: After a quick flash forward to the future early on in the episode, a news anchor has some mad trash to talk about Rip, albeit indirectly. It also gives us a picture of what’s going on overall in the world of Digman. “It’s been 12 years since Rip Digman let his wife Bella die. In that time, Rip’s former assistant Zane Floyd has gone on to become the greatest arky in the world, while Rip was fired from his job at the Smithsonian and is now a has-been, a nobody, a real ‘where are they now?’ situation.”

Our Call: SKIP IT. Digman misses the mark in essentially every department. Its jokes fall flat, its premise can’t hold up an entire series, and the word “arky” is overused to a maddening degree. Samberg can only entertain with his Nic Cage schtick for 15 minutes at most, and there’s little other reason to tune in. This is, like many of Comedy Central’s animated efforts, unbelievably bland, and it’s a real shame.

Brittany Vincent has been covering video games and tech for over a decade for publications like G4, Popular Science, Playboy, Variety, IGN, GamesRadar, Polygon, Kotaku, Maxim, GameSpot, and more. When she’s not writing or gaming, she’s collecting retro consoles and tech. Follow her on Twitter: @MolotovCupcake.