From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V12 #185 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Thursday, May 22 2003 Volume 12 : Number 185 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: got funny? (con't) [Barbara Soutar ] Re: got funny? [Aaron Mandel ] Re: got funny? (con't) ["Stewart C. Russell" ] Re: got funny? (con't) ["Stewart C. Russell" ] Re: Use the force [Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey ] Re: Mighty Superpowers (some boob content) [Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey ] Re: (Almost) All Girl Comedy Kung Fu Smackdown (boob content? you bet !) [Eb ] Re: Mighty Superpowers (some boob content) [Christopher Gross Subject: Re: got funny? (con't) Miles said a lot of things, and this is one thing I can comment on: >Have yet to see the Goons > > I believe the Goons were exclusively a radio phenomenon. I don't think anyone saw them as a group, except in a live production. I finally saw A Mighty Wind last night, a low-key and wonderful movie. Some of the details are still hitting me today and making me laugh. It had emotional depth too... Note to Stewart, the only specific Canadianism I spotted was the reference to Nanaimo bars by Catherine O'Hara. Barbara Soutar Victoria, British Columbia ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 22:28:43 -0400 (EDT) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: got funny? On Wed, 21 May 2003, Miles Goosens wrote: > Funny: > THE DAILY SHOW Is it just me, or has The Daily Show gotten a lot worse lately? Suddenly Jon is doing Jim Carrey schtick for every other joke, and every episode opens with a "monologue" bit. Why? aaron ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 23:12:07 -0400 From: "Stewart C. Russell" Subject: Re: got funny? (con't) Miles Goosens wrote: > > Have yet to see the Goons any goons you can see will suck. It's all in the original radio stuff. Stewart ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 23:14:46 -0400 From: "Stewart C. Russell" Subject: Re: got funny? (con't) Barbara Soutar wrote: > > Note to Stewart, the only specific > Canadianism I spotted was the reference to Nanaimo bars by Catherine > O'Hara. Her accent, along with some of Eugene Levy's lines, occasionally had glaringly Canadian vowel sounds. Still a fine movie though. We-ell! Stewart ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 22:32:32 -0500 From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: Re: Use the force Quoting steve : > For ass-kicking females, one need look no further than many of the > zillions of Hong Kong films. There's *lots* of "girls who fight" out there - I mean, there's that Miller Lite ad, lots of women in prison movies...oh, that's not what you mean, probably... ..Jeff J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society www.uwm.edu/~jenor/ADS.html :: sex, drugs, revolt, Eskimos, atheism ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 22:42:47 -0500 From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: Re: Mighty Superpowers (some boob content) Quoting Eb : > What, no 24 and Buffy babble? Was anyone else really surprised that > 24 didn't have a "clean" ending, and is already pointing itself > toward next season's story? Not really - I think last year, they weren't sure when the finale was produced whether there was going to be a second season? As for Buffy, well, as usual, the first > half of the episode was a redundant, dreary, talky bore, but things > picked up in the second half. Awfully deus ex machina with the amulet > and ax, though. You know, I first read that as "mullet and ax" and was thinking, wait, whose poor hairstyle decision did I miss? You'd think by now everyone involved would realize that Buffy just doesn't do inspiration speeches very well. Wish they'd shown a reaction shot of someone doing something unspeakably boring just to occupy themselves - like, say, doing statistics or something. - --Jeff J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society www.uwm.edu/~jenor/ADS.html :: PLEASE! You are sending cheese information to me. I don't want it. :: I have no goats or cows or any other milk producing animal! :: --"raus" lp: Stereolab _ABC Music_ (incl. "Lo Boob Oscillator") ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 22:46:03 -0500 From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: Re: Mighty Superpowers (some boob content) Quoting Miles Goosens : > Not Funny: > Mel Brooks > Albert Brooks > Robert Wuhl > Robert Klein I'm guessing if there were a comedian named "Robert Brooks," you'd *really* hate him. Heck, over the last few episodes, even a lot of basic > low-level plot stuff (how did Buffy know where that temple was? where did > Dawn get the tazer? etc. etc.) Wouldn't the tazer have been amongst the cache of weapons they'd just picked up? ..Jeff J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society www.uwm.edu/~jenor/ADS.html :: This album is dedicated to anyone who started out as an animal and :: winds up as a processing unit. :: --Soft Boys, note, _Can of Bees_ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 21:02:38 -0700 From: Eb Subject: Re: Further reading >It's slightly "dishy" What sorts of "gossip" did SCTV yield? > >>Ummm, first Pop Will Eat Itself reference on Feg this year? Century? > >Ever? I'm pretty sure that I mentioned PWEI once in the past, when there was a thread about artists in our collections who just "don't fit" with anyone else. Eb ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 21:07:29 -0700 From: Eb Subject: Re: (Almost) All Girl Comedy Kung Fu Smackdown (boob content? you bet !) >after a while you realized that it was actually Flaherty >portraying one sorry guy at a crappy TV station who was both the newscaster >*and* the vampire. Uhh...I didn't interpret it that way, at all. I think Flaherty was just a versatile actor portraying two different on-air personalities at a crappy TV station. I don't think there was any implication that "Floyd Robertson" was hosting Monster Chiller Horror Theater in disguise. Just like I don't think "Johnny LaRue" was secretly "Dr. Tongue" or The Guy with a Snake on His Face, etc. Eb ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 00:34:28 -0500 (CDT) From: Miles Goosens Subject: Re: Re: (Almost) All Girl Comedy Kung Fu Smackdown (boob content? you bet !) Eb: >Uhh...I didn't interpret it that way, at all. I think Flaherty was >just a versatile actor portraying two different on-air personalities >at a crappy TV station. I don't think there was any implication that >"Floyd Robertson" was hosting Monster Chiller Horror Theater in >disguise. Just like I don't think "Johnny LaRue" was secretly "Dr. >Tongue" or The Guy with a Snake on His Face, etc. Eb - While you're right about the John Candy characters, you must have missed the episode that makes it absolutely explicit that Count Floyd and Floyd Robertson inhabited the same skin. Unless I hallucinated it, we were shown this beyond the shadow of a doubt. [sounds of Googling] Yup, it's the one where Floyd comes back from rehab. Go to http://sctvguide.ca/episodes/sctv_s41.htm#Show_6 and scroll down to segments 17 and 18. later, Miles ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 20:03:21 +1200 From: grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan) Subject: Re: comedy >I'd add Bill Hicks, George Carlin, Peter Sellers/the Goons, Peter Cook, >Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, Richard Pryor & Rudy Ray >Moore to my list of extremely funny people. Newer funny people I like are >Doug Stanhope, Mike Myers, Jimmy Fallon, Jay Mohr, Eddie Izzard, Robert >Shimmell, Carlos Mencea, Henry Phillips and Jack Black. Chick comics who >crack me up include Sarah Silverman, Cheri Oteri ("Simmer down, now!") and >Nicole Sullivan from MadTV. well, I recognise about 10% of the names I've seen in past posts on this subject, so I'll add some that I find funny that the rest of you haven't mentioned (maybe they're not known in the US - who knows?): Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, Tracy Ullmann, The Goodies, Alexei Sayle, Jasper Carrott, John Clarke (brilliant, but unknown outside Australia and NZ - ditto "Kath and Kim"), "The Young Ones", Fry and Laurie, Ronnie Barker, "Alas Smith and Jones", "Big train", "Black books", and - very occasionally - Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer. >>Peter Sellers/the Goons, Peter Cook, > >Have yet to see the Goons, though I know I should, nor have I seen the >allegedly classic Cook/Moore material -- *hated* Moore in 10, ARTHUR, etc. >Sellers gets a resounding "Funny!" Hear, not see - the classic radio comedy show. Though an early grouping of Pythons and Goodies-to-be produced many a laugh in "I'm sorry, I'll read that again", they never reached the pinnacles that the Goons climbed the insides of. As for the late Dud, by the time of 10 and Arthur, he was a pathetic watered down version of the glorious comedy of "Not only, but also" and "Beyond the fringe". Try the movie "The wrong box" , or maybe the original of "Bedazzled" for a more reasonable idea. James James Dignan, Dunedin, New Zealand. =-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-= .-=-.-=-.-=-.- .-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-. -.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-= You talk to me as if from a distance =-.-=-. And I reply with impressions chosen from another time -=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=- (Brian Eno - "By this River") ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 02:14:38 -0700 (PDT) From: Jeff Dwarf Subject: Re: Mighty Superpowers (some boob content) Miles Goosens wrote: > At 09:57 AM 5/21/2003 -0700, Jeff Dwarf wrote: > >Miles Goosens wrote: > >> However, Catherine O'Hara is certainly the Best. > >> Sketch. Comedienne. Ever. > > > >At least the top 5. Dare I say Gilda? > > I liked Gilda a lot, but I think Catherine was/is both > more versatile and more funny. Also, as far as I know, > Catherine didn't have an inexplicable stalker-like crush > on an older, terminally unfunny star of Mel Brooks and > Richard Pryor movies. It's close AFAIC. I'd probably go along with O'Hara this week, but it's close enough that I can't agree with it being as beyond dispute as you put it. As for Wilder, well, I've liked him in exactly four movies: the three Brooks movies and Silver Streak. Other than that though, I'll pretty much concur. > Hey, I think Molly Shannon's the best thing SNL has had > in its long, dark, endlessly unfunny last decade -- and > at the very least, Molly jumping around in those > impeccably slit skirts waving at the camera as the > credits roll was by far the most entertainment I've > gotten from the show in a long time. :-) I like Cheri > too, and think that she and Molly came as close to > persevering over utterly crap material as anyone could. Maybe, though they are both way too burned into my brain as some of those recurring characters that SNL plows into the ground. Plus Ana Gasteyer ate them both for breakfast. So does Tina Fey. > On the other hand, I cannot fathom why anyone thinks Will > Farrell is funny in the least -- I mean, I've heard > several people, including Conan O'Brien, introduce him as > "the funniest man alive," and not in a knowing "Al > Franken Decade" sort of nudge-nudge way. Whereas for me, > his mere presence on the screen is enough to have me > looking for a handy brick or shotgun. The only good thing about Will Farrell is that he isn't Chris Kattan. > Schneider and Sandler were fine as bit players in the > "transitional" cast (the one that still had Hartman, > Carvey, Myers); it was when they went from occasional > flavors to being the focus of the show (see also "Spade" > and "Farley") that their severe limitations were > revealed. Hartman and Myers were great. Myers still can be, if he doesn't get caught up being Austin Powers for the rest of his life. The only good thing about David Spade and Chris Farley is that they weren't Chris Kattan. > Frosty Kimmelman was hot, Not necessarily.... :^ ===== "Being accused of hating America by people like Ann Coulter or Laura Ingraham is like being accused of hating children by Michael Jackson or (Cardinal) Bernard Law." -- anonymous . __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. http://search.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 02:27:09 -0700 (PDT) From: Jeff Dwarf Subject: Re: Mighty Superpowers (some boob content) Miles Goosens wrote: > Funny: > Coen Brothers movies > SCTV > MONTY PYTHON > THE KIDS IN THE HALL > Marx Brothers Preach on, brother. > Three Stooges Eh. > BRINGING UP BABY Si. > Jackie Mason The only good thing about Chris Kattan is he isn't Jackie Mason. > Mitch Hedberg Frequently. > Denis Leary He's Donovan to Bill Hicks's Dylan. > Not Funny: > Mel Brooks Before 1975, brilliant. Since then, eh, with occasional moments. > Albert Brooks That he lacked the good sense to remain Albert Einstein says everything. He sucks less than his brother, Super Dave though. Maybe they're the Gallagher brothers of comedy. > Gene Wilder Not anytime since the Ford administration, no. > Robert Wuhl The only good thing about Jackie Mason is... no wait, I've beaten this joke to death. Now, send in fooking Mango. > Robert Klein > Martin Mull > Fred Willard (though spot-on funny in A MIGHTY WIND) > SOAP Disagree to varying degrees. > Robin Williams post-1987 > Billy Crystal post-1987 Amen. Same thing with Whoopi. Call it the curse of Comic Relief. Others that are funny: Greg Proops, though hosting that dating show loses him lots of points Bob Newhart, especially the second show Cheers The Simpsons, though it's significantly below it's own peak at this point George Carlin Around the Horn, though it's not on purpose Not Funny: Martin Short Jiminy Glick Martin Short Jimmy Kimmel Martin Short Sarah Silverman Martin Short And do we even need to say Jay Leno stopped being funny around the same time Bette Midler finished singing to Johnny? ===== "Being accused of hating America by people like Ann Coulter or Laura Ingraham is like being accused of hating children by Michael Jackson or (Cardinal) Bernard Law." -- anonymous . __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. http://search.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 08:09:19 -0400 From: "Maximilian Lang" Subject: Re: (Almost) All Girl Comedy Kung Fu Smackdown (boob content? you bet !) >From: Eb >Reply-To: Eb >To: fgz >Subject: Re: (Almost) All Girl Comedy Kung Fu Smackdown (boob content? you >bet !) >Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 21:07:29 -0700 > >>after a while you realized that it was actually Flaherty >>portraying one sorry guy at a crappy TV station who was both the >>newscaster >>*and* the vampire. > >Uhh...I didn't interpret it that way, at all. I think Flaherty was just a >versatile actor portraying two different on-air personalities at a crappy >TV station. I don't think there was any implication that "Floyd Robertson" >was hosting Monster Chiller Horror Theater in disguise. Just like I don't >think "Johnny LaRue" was secretly "Dr. Tongue" or The Guy with a Snake on >His Face, etc. I disagree, I was always under the impression that Count Floyd was also Floyd the newscaster. Max _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 08:09:27 -0400 From: "Stewart C. Russell" Subject: Re: Mighty Superpowers (some boob content) Jeff Dwarf wrote: > > Around the Horn, though it's not on purpose eh? Round the Horne couldn't have been anything but, with Took & Feldman as writers. Stewart ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 08:29:06 -0400 (EDT) From: "Jonathan Fetter" Subject: Re: got funny? It's not just you. It seems that half of the show is Jon doing "Stewartisms." Plus they lost several of the better "reporters." Furthermore, I got tired of the obvious editing of interviews. In addition, I'm done. Jon > > Funny: > > THE DAILY SHOW > > Is it just me, or has The Daily Show gotten a lot worse lately? Suddenly > Jon is doing Jim Carrey schtick for every other joke, and every episode > opens with a "monologue" bit. Why? > > aaron ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 10:34:15 -0400 (EDT) From: Christopher Gross Subject: Re: Mighty Superpowers (some boob content) On Wed, 21 May 2003, Miles Goosens wrote: > The BUFFY finale was, to me, something of a dud, Well, I quite liked the Buffy finale. Of course that's practically a given. I was guaranteed to like it *unless* it was a significant disappointment, and IMO it wasn't. It was played sort of fast and loose and there were a couple of dei ex machinas and numerous unresolved plot questions; but they hit all the important points, provided a suitably dramatic conclusion and brought the series full circle without necessarily bringing Buffy's story to an end, so I was happy. I liked the high level of humor, even though not all the jokes were very good -- it would have been a mistake to make it too serious. I liked the way Buffy killed Caleb. I liked Buffy's realization that she's not ready for a serious relationship (and did anyone notice the way Angel's face went into shadow as he was saying goodbye? All kinds of things can be read into that). I liked the little girl playing softball. I *loved* the dramatic conclusion to Spike's story. This whole year he's had a soul but hasn't gotten to do much with it, but that was more than made up for at the end. And the conclusion to the Spike-Buffy relationship was satisfyingly poignant. And I really loved how the original four came back together -- they've always been my favorites, and it also harked back to the classic early seasons. Perhaps most of all, I liked it when Buffy realized at the end that she gets to remain the Slayer AND have a chance for a real life. It was all very ... satisfying. And the more I think about it, the more I appreciate the good parts and the more the sloppy parts fade into insignificance. > especially after they > went through all of Season Six setting things up that they didn't... > seem... to... have... time... to... get... back... to... I... guess... > because... of... all... the... talking... this... season. Until > Buffy's plan went into action around the 30 minute mark, Melissa and I > were yelling stuff like "40 minutes left, let's move it along!" When I was watching the first half of the episode, part of me was aware that a lot of talking was going on, but I didn't mind because none of it repeated itself or otherwise felt like filler (the way it has at some points over the season). And so much happened that at the end of the episode, I was like "It's over ALREADY?!" Of course things are different when you're watching by yourself (with a big "do not disturb for ANY reason" sign taped to your door). But everyone agrees it was better than last week. That Guardian character was the worst part -- she was both unnecessary and given lame dialogue to spout. I actually liked most of the other conversations in that one, though. Give me a good Scooby talk over a cool fight scene any day. On Wed, 21 May 2003, Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey wrote: > You'd think by now everyone involved would realize that Buffy just > doesn't do inspiration speeches very well. Wish they'd shown a > reaction shot of someone doing something unspeakably boring just to > occupy themselves - like, say, doing statistics or something. Ooh, Jeff is invoking a different sort of Godwin's law.... For what it's worth, a couple of episodes have poked fun at Buffy's inspirational speeches. "Storyteller" comes to mind, when Andrew is filming the group, Buffy starts a speech, and Andrew says "She'll be going for a while, so let's talk about me instead...." > Quoting Miles Goosens : > > Heck, over the last few episodes, even a lot of basic > > low-level plot stuff (how did Buffy know where that temple was? where did > > Dawn get the tazer? etc. etc.) > > Wouldn't the tazer have been amongst the cache of weapons they'd just > picked up? Nah, they were too busy hauling out bodies to haul out any weapons.... I suspect Buffy gave Dawn the tazer at some point mid-season to use in case she ran into some Bringers. That's just a guess, though; we were never shown it onscreen. But the real question is, how did Dawn turn the car around without stopping long enough to switch seats with Xander? ... I'd agree with Miles that there were a lot of loose plot threads. The DEM pendant is the biggie; but why was there no resolution of Joyce's warning from "Conversations with Dead People"? How do they know the First is really defeated -- it raised one army, why can't it raise another? How did Anya, Giles and Robin manage to decapitate Ubervamps when Buffy found it so hard? Etc. But none of that really bothers me. And frankly, we can find similar flaws in even the best episodes from Buffy's golden age. Sorry, no boob content. Oh, wait, now there is. - --Chris ______________________________________________________________________ Christopher Gross On the Internet, nobody knows I'm a dog. chrisg@gwu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 08:31:47 -0700 From: "Natalie Jane" Subject: "a dimension torn free from the future" Donnie Darko... slight spoilers... >To Richard Kelly's credit, removing those scenes made the audience do much >more of the work themselves, and it created a film that admits varying >interpretations, which in this case I think is a Good Thing. Given your >complaint about "plot strands [not being] tied together well," I wonder if >you would have liked DONNIE DARKO better with those deleted scenes left in? >:-) To say more would be spoiler-ful. The ambiguity didn't bother me so much (I think I figured out what happened... maybe?), it's that it seems like he just forgot stuff - like the old lady, she was obviously a big plot point, but somehow she just faded out of the picture. And as I mentioned, the revelation of who "Frank" was, was a massive anti-climax. "Frank" was so frightening and eerie, and when his identity was revealed, I thought, "Is THAT all??" Ah, well, best to just forget about it and drool over Jake Gyllenhaal. Yum. :P n. p.s. Chicks who kick ass content: *I* am a chick who kicks ass - I've been taking boxing lessons for almost a year now - so don't you forget it! p.p.s. Apropros of my Flaming Lips subject line, I am going to see said Lips tomorrow night and I am VERY VERY EXCITED... a full report will be forthcoming, of course... _________________________________________________________________ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 09:32:51 -0700 From: "The Mammal Brain" Subject: Fwd: [Lars-von-Trier] i've seen Dogville Yesterday, i've seen Dogville. I live in Belgium, and it was released wednesday here. Even if you are familiar with Lars' work, you wille be surprised. It's extremly strange, and the story very dark. It's a very important film, something you will never see again, realy. And yes, there is a dog... I think it's a masterpiece. _________________________________________________________________ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 10:09:56 -0700 From: "Rex.Broome" Subject: Bringing the funny... to its knees! On Glen's "funny" list: >>Cheri Oteri ("Simmer down, now!") Ouch. Being reminded of that bit knocks her waaayyy out of my "maybe funny" column. Mel Brooks... The Producers is really unassailable. Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles are both terrific until their respective last thirds. After that he seems to have settled for hitting the ground sucking. Miles: >>Rex, while I wholly agree with what you say about the continuing "SCTV >>network" continuing characters and their plotlines (and you cited exactly the >>example I would have), do you really think a 22-year old who's seeing these >>shows for the first time is going to sit through all these parodies he or she >>doesn't get? Complicated question. At 22 I would have, but I'm not most people. A sophisticated 22-year old getting turned on to "A Mighty Wind" might go back and check out Spinal Tap etc. as well as SCTV. And one attuned to the type of work done by O'Hara & Levy in that film might zero in on just that extended-character development aspect of it, getting a chuckle out of the surrealism of a "Deliverance" parody along the way. But I guess I'll never really know since I'll never be 22 again. >>I'm not sure I'd watch a parody show from the '50s where I didn't understand >>2/3 to 3/4 of the content just to enjoy the continuing character bits. Well, not quite the same thing, but for most of my life I thought of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" as a bland, spouses-sleep-in-separate-beds type of thing until my wife got me to watch it, and it's the showbiz parody bits that I enjoy the most. But again, I have little aversion to vintage material, so I'm different from most people. I still find it odd that in 2003 your average Star Trek fan has never even seen more than a few episodes of what is now called "TOS The Original Series"... you know, the one which was actually called, um , "Star Trek"? >>like my mom is gonna let her 15 year-old rent MIDNIGHT COWBOY! :-) I think I was mayber 16 when my dad rented it for me. He was just a big Rizzo Ratso fan and was tired of me not getting his impression. >>t's a great performance. Also, there were lots of things about the character -- >>his general affect, his gait, his looks, his distractedness, his difficulty in >>relating to people -- that reminded me strongly of my dad. I'm really interested to know what he drew on for the character. The fact that Levy was the cowriter must mean he really wanted to get that guy out there. Them there Alias club scenes: I dunno, there was a visceral kick to them the first, I dunno, twelve or thirteen times I saw them, but it has faded (and I just picked up the show in Season 2)... I'm just waiting for the fight scenes, which I do enjoy. Most of the other "over-the-top" things are fine and Bondy for me; won't catch me bitching about technical details or loopy plot leaps. The club entrances are just... pandering. Not just the flesh and the derailment of momentum, but the "what's the label pushing this week" music being packaged as "hip"; same thing probably applies with the fashion. Bleh. What I love is when they have fun by bucking that trend (Sydney as an old woman, etc.)... the "alias" is even less motivated, but it's always entertaining. I bet I would've disliked the first season when it was heavier on the "Felicity" part of the "Felicity-meets-La-Femme-Nikita" equation. I just don't know why it's so common to think an idea/genre/concept can be improved by placing it in High School/Early College and casting Young Hotties. Pet peeve of mine which blocked my entrance to the Buffy cult as well. "Popular, attractive young people have problems, too!" Doubtless true. But at least, unlike the rest of us who have problems, they are popular, attractive and young, so I figure they'll pull through without my watching their show. - -Rex "except for Teenage Pebbles & Bam-Bam, that was ace" Broome ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 13:30:54 -0400 (EDT) From: Christopher Gross Subject: Re: Bringing the funny... to its knees! On Thu, 22 May 2003, Rex.Broome wrote: > Pet peeve of mine which blocked my entrance to the Buffy cult as well. > "Popular, attractive young people have problems, too!" Doubtless true. But > at least, unlike the rest of us who have problems, they are popular, > attractive and young, so I figure they'll pull through without my watching > their show. Not that it matters, but the heroes of Buffy were the UNpopular kids at their school.... - --Chris ______________________________________________________________________ Christopher Gross On the Internet, nobody knows I'm a dog. chrisg@gwu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 12:49:58 -0500 From: Miles Goosens Subject: Re: Bringing the funny... to its knees! At 01:30 PM 5/22/2003 -0400, Christopher Gross wrote: >On Thu, 22 May 2003, Rex.Broome wrote: > >> Pet peeve of mine which blocked my entrance to the Buffy cult as well. >> "Popular, attractive young people have problems, too!" Doubtless true. But >> at least, unlike the rest of us who have problems, they are popular, >> attractive and young, so I figure they'll pull through without my watching >> their show. > >Not that it matters, but the heroes of Buffy were the UNpopular kids at >their school.... Yeah, that conceit about Buffy herself being the popular prep kid pretty much ended in the original 1992 movie. When Buffy relocated to Sunnydale, she toyed with the idea of joining the "cool kids" clique (i.e., Cordelia and Cordy's then-current cheerleading crowd), but the combination of making friends with nerdy outcasts Xander and Willow and, well, getting drawn back into being the Slayer put the kibosh on that very quickly. Within the third hour of Season One, if not sooner. Rex, if you think this is 90210 with vampires, you couldn't be much more wrong. later, Miles ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V12 #185 ********************************