Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Gay Stereotype

Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire, a new series debuting this week on Comedy Central, might be set in a medieval time of wizards and warlords – but it has a very modern sensibility, and an equally modern sense of humor.

When Krod Mandoon, the title character and a self-proclaimed freedom fighter, is giving his band of companions “notes” after a particularly disappointing battle, the hapless wizard Zezelryck complains of a “hostile work environment.”

“We’re freedom fighters!” says an exasperated Krod. “All of our work environments are hostile!”

In short, Krod is part fantasy satire, and part office workplace comedy, but with a slightly different kind of office. And like the actual The Office, it even includes a gay character, Bruce (Marques Ray), who eventually ends up joining Krod’s band.

The cast of Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire

Thursday’s one-hour pilot has moments of genuinely inspired lunacy, much like Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the classic movie comedy that this project most closely resembles.

In a joke whose sensibility seems to come straight from Monty Python, when the evil Chancellor Dongalor threatens to kill one villager every minute until Krod comes out of hiding, a villager rightfully asks, “How will you mark the time to a minute? Even our most accurate sun-dials are approximate at best.”

And the openly gay comedian Matt Lucas, as the series’ vain, clueless Dongalor, has the Python’s droll deadpan down pat.

Alex MacQueen as Baranabas and Matt Lucas as Dongalor

That said, much of the humor is of the pun and pratfall sort. The emperor is “Emperor Zanus”; a horse-buggerer is named “Horse Draper.”

Emperor’s anus? Horse raper?

When Krod first meets Bruce, he is the boy-toy of a general Krod is rescuing from Dongalor’s dungeon. Krod is surprised that the general, who is married, has suddenly paired up with a guy.

“Do you know how long I’ve been locked up in this dank and fetid dungeon?” the general asks.

“Yeah,” Krod says. “Two weeks. And it’s co-ed.”

Later, Bruce passes important instructions to Krod from the general. He “passed the prophecy down to me orally … and anally.”

Next Page! Is Bruce offensive?