If you’ve been anywhere, turned on your T.V., or visited a website in the past few months, then you’ve already been assaulted with TBS’ aggressive advertisements for The Bill Engvall Show. Bill Engvall, one of the comedians who achieved fame as part of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, apparently has his own sitcom, and it’s been on the air since last July. And it’s Emmy-nominated.

(I know, “Blue Collar Comedy Tour” and “Emmy-nominated” really don’t go together.)

Engvall plays a family counselor whose own family is always getting up to some crazy hijinks. Whee! Since the show’s been renewed for a second season, TBS is falling all over themselves to bring in more viewers. If you show up early for a movie, expect the theater to play a Bill Engvall preview. If you visit an entertainment website, count yourself lucky if the promo isn’t on autoplay.

And now, TBS has sunk to a new low. On a recent Family Guy rerun, they interrupted the show just to advertise Bill Engvall’s sitcom. “Well, isn’t that the point of a commercial break?” you ask. Oh, I envy your naivety. It wasn’t during the commercial break. It was BEFORE the commercial break. Observe.

I don’t know about you, but I’m programming my Tivo RIGHT NOW!

As we all know, the best way to win over fans of a T.V. show is to interrupt their show with ads for your show. Right? It makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

Ignoring the fact that the Family Guy audience really doesn’t seem like the target market for a Blue Collar Comedy spinoff, this just smells like bad marketing. Pausing a show in mid-sentence for an ad? As victim Jason Kottke put it, “I’m sorry that the DVR is ruining your business model, but can you kick the bucket a little more gracefully?”

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