Review of Human Dog Productions

Way ahead of the curve, Michael Schwartz (“Mike”), John Van Torre (“V”), and Chris Weagel (“The Professor”) launched Human Dog Productions in 2001 from their base camp in a small town in Michigan. Covering the spectrum of comedy, documentary, and experimental video art, the team creates and manages several channels of online video content while dabbling in audio podcasts and traditional blogging.

Each two to four-minute video post is grouped into channels, called “Departments.” American King is one of the latest departments. It’s the vlog of fellow St. Claires, Michigan, resident Garrett Lambert, who shares tales, activities, and stray thoughts with the camera. Sara’s Corner is pretty similar to that. Divided into text and video, the Human Dog Productions team follows Sara as she goes about life in her hometown. Running from 2003 to 2006, The Adventures of Captain Dale was one of Mike, John, and Chris’ first endeavors, involving friends and family in a fictional sitcom series about a man named Captain Dale and his odd, monotonous life. The first and longest running series, the Lab

, features experimental comedy about random, crazy topics from a random, crazy doctor named Professor Chris Weagel 2005 saw a three-month-long series called The Summer of VanTorre, an episodic serial about a very boring summer with Human Dog Production worker John VanTorre. Each department is updated with a new video once every few days when the show is in season.

All of the Lab videos are indescribably bizarre, experimental nonsense that might be the best content on the site. One of the Lab Memos, titled Cut, shows a man giggling as he cuts out locks of his own hair, and not just on his head (it’s G-rated, but probably still not work safe).