From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V12 #188 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Friday, May 23 2003 Volume 12 : Number 188 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Adult Swim [Jeff Dwarf ] Re: all comedy, no boobs aside from Leno [Eb ] Re: all BUFFY 'n' Chris G., all funny is inadvertent [Jeffrey with 2 Fs J] Re: all comedy, no boobs for Eno [Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey ] the continuing comedy thread [grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan)] Comedians ["Charlotte Tupman" ] Re: all comedy, no boobs aside from Leno [Jeff Dwarf ] Re: 24 [HSatterfld@aol.com] Re: Mighty Superpowers (some oldie content) [Michael R Godwin ] Re: medicore [Miles Goosens ] At Feg, we take our comedy seriously. And our vampires moreso! ["Rex.Bro] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 19:34:59 -0700 (PDT) From: Jeff Dwarf Subject: Adult Swim "Rex.Broome" wrote: > Gene: > >>Adult Swim (Home Movies is hilarious. So is Sealab > >>2020, > I was obsessed with Home Movies > >>FAMILY GUY crossed the line.) > > Agreed 1 million percent, although Family Guy wasn't just > crasser, it was sloppier and more poorly made on every > level. I could enumerate every level on which it sucked, > but since nobody's sticking up for it I'll just say that > the fact that the characters had testicles for chins was > the LEAST of its problems. I would mention that Family Guy just took over the Home Movies timeslot during Adult Swim, but I'm afraid of what Gene and Rex would do. I like Family Guy, but not enough to make a huge stand on it's behalf. Mostly, I just liked the dog and the psychotic baby. And I found Home Movies boring. Nice idea, but the execution was just too understated. Not that it needed to go over the top, it just needed to find a top to set a glass or two on. ===== "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 19:49:40 -0700 From: Eb Subject: Re: all comedy, no boobs aside from Leno >Little Jay Leno running around grinning like >an idiot on Conan (definitely funny) has to be one of the >nastiest in house gags ever. I wonder if Jay even gets it. Didn't Conan stop doing that gag, ages ago? Or have I just missed the recent appearances? I figured that the Leno people nixed it. But yes, it was hilarious. And NASTY! Not that Leno doesn't deserve it. It never fails to amaze me how blatantly he can steal Letterman's gags without even a trace of embarrassment. Especially his versions of "Stupid Human Tricks"/"Stupid Pet Tricks." Though I think the most shocking theft I've seen was when Leno lifted Letterman's bit of showing lame Driver's License pictures borrowed from the audience. That gag is just *so* specific.... Boobs. This thread needs more boobs. http://www.muscleandfitness.com/mf/weider/images/arnold_schwarz.jpg Eb PS Haven't seen Adult Swim...don't even know what it is. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 22:39:16 -0500 From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: Re: all BUFFY 'n' Chris G., all funny is inadvertent Quoting Miles Goosens : > pro-medicore "Medicore"? Man, those dumb musical genre names ending in -core just keep proliferating, don't they. My favorite is Dr. Angina and the Defibrillators! ..Jeff J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society www.uwm.edu/~jenor/ADS.html :: "In two thousand years, they'll still be looking for Elvis - :: this is nothing new," said the priest. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 22:44:28 -0500 From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: Re: all comedy, no boobs for Eno Quoting Miles Goosens : > how I made it through the "this cartoon series' outrageousness goes too > far and will destroy civilization as we know it!" sequence of THE > SIMPSONS -> BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD -> SOUTH PARK and thoroughly enjoyed > each series, but thought FAMILY GUY crossed the line.) Sorry, but your mentioning B&B reminded me of one of my favorite micro-moments from the _Buffy_ finale (don't worry - *Miles* didn't mention _Buffy_ again, I did): Spike's drawing of Angel, which looked rather Butt-head-esque. ..Jeff, who's pretty sure the word "Butt-head-esque" has not yet appeared on Fegmaniax J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society www.uwm.edu/~jenor/ADS.html :: we make everything you need, and you need everything we make ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 21:37:01 -0700 From: Barbara Soutar Subject: Re: got funny (con't) Miles said: >I thought Catherine was very purposely being very Canadian. Tell me if I'm wrong here. > I didn't know there was a way of acting Canadian. Shows what I know, eh? and on a similar topic, Gene said: >How on earth do you pronounce Namaimo? > Nah-NIE- moe. I don't know what it means but assume it's a Native Indian word. I just came back from a high school band concert tonight. These kids are playing jazz from decades ago and really getting into it, Miles Davis even. The piano player had his right hand in a sling but managed to play with just his left. It sounded good to me! Barbara Soutar Victoria, British Columbia ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 20:24:48 +1200 From: grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan) Subject: the continuing comedy thread >>p.s.: aside from both being from Oklahoma, I do not get the constant >>comparisons of the Starlight Mints to the Flaming Lips at all. > >I TOTALLY don't get that. They don't sound remotely similar. But they're >from the same town (Norman), so they must sound alike... That's just more >proof to me that many music journalists have had prefrontal lobotomies. well, that explains why I always get Art Garfunkel, Lou Reed, David Byrne, and Frank Sinatra mixed up. >p.s. Three's Company? Not funny. a very VERY lame remake of the much funnier (but still not in the classic league) "Man about the house". "Rising damp", however, from the same era as "MatH" - yes, classic. And has anyone mentioned Reggie Perrin yet (the original British trilogy of series, of course, especially the first two - the 'centre for enlightenment' third series was pretty lame in comparison). At the risk of turning this into a list of classic Brit comedies, I'm forced to add "I didn't know you cared" and "The Beiderbecke Affair/Tapes/Connection", although the combined weight of these seems to suggest that Yorkshire is a very peculiar place... and "A very peculiar" reminds me of another one to add to the list... >Oh, and thanks for whoever mentioned 'Coupling" - one of my guilty >pleasures. perhaps I should point out that I mean the TV series here. Then again... >> >Around the Horn, though it's not on purpose >> >> Don't know it. > >It's on ESPN. basically, it's a panel show set up as a game >show, with 4 panelists/columnists: usually Woody Paige from >the Denver Post, Jay Mariotti from the Chicago Sun-Times, >and two from amongst the LA Times, Dallas Morning News, and >the Boston Globe. It's absolute train-wreck. this explains my confusion (and, it seems, that of others on the list). "Round the Horne" (note the added E) was a very funny British radio show that, among other things, gave the world Kenneth Williams. James ("I 'eard that... pardon?") 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: Fri, 23 May 2003 12:47:51 +0100 From: "Charlotte Tupman" Subject: Comedians I'm another big fan of Black Books: Bill Bailey, who plays the long-haired bookshop assistant, is one of the funniest actors I've ever come across. He does a great stand-up routine too, which includes some very funny musical interludes. I think there's a video available called 'Bewilderness'. Charlotte >------------------------------ > >Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 12:07:01 +1200 >From: grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan) >Subject: RE: funny or not > > >Have you watched "Black Books"? It's from the writer/creator of "Father > >Ted", Graham Linehan (who also did "Big Train" and had a hand in "The >Alexei > >Sayle Show"). If not, you should add it to your list of Britcoms to >watch. > >"Believe Nothing" is also quite good, and stars Rick Mayall (from "The >Young > >Ones") in a much more interesting role. > >you speak-a my language! I'll have to keep an eye out for "Believe >nothing", if there's a Big Train/ Father Ted/ Black Books/ Alexei Sayle >comparison implied, though Mayall has been in some incredibly un-funny >stuff (Bottom, for instance). > _________________________________________________________________ Tired of 56k? Get a FREE BT Broadband connection http://www.msn.co.uk/specials/btbroadband ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 04:50:09 -0700 (PDT) From: Jeff Dwarf Subject: Re: all comedy, no boobs aside from Leno Eb wrote: > >Little Jay Leno running around grinning like > >an idiot on Conan (definitely funny) has to be one of > >the nastiest in house gags ever. I wonder if Jay even > >gets it. > > Didn't Conan stop doing that gag, ages ago? Or have I > just missed the recent appearances? I figured that the > Leno people nixed it. He disappeared for a while, but has been back recently. Whether the hiatus was because they didn't want to beat it into the ground or because of Leno throwing a tantrum, who knows. I would imagine having Lorne Michaels as the executive producer helps give Conan some extra muscle if Leno gets too bitchy. > But yes, it was hilarious. And NASTY! Not that Leno > doesn't deserve it. It never fails to amaze me how > blatantly he can steal Letterman's gags without even a > trace of embarrassment. Especially his versions > of "Stupid Human Tricks"/"Stupid Pet Tricks." Though I > think the most shocking theft I've seen was when Leno > lifted Letterman's bit of showing lame Driver's License > pictures borrowed from the audience. That gag is just > *so* specific.... Missed that, though that's not all that surprising since I never watch. Jesus he's shameless. At least when Letterman does someone else's bit it's (a) someone who is no longer working and (b) talks about how he's doing one of Carson's (or Steve Allen's or whoevers) old bits. > Boobs. This thread needs more boobs. > http://www.muscleandfitness.com/mf/weider/images/arnold_schwarz.jpg > > Eb > > PS Haven't seen Adult Swim...don't even know what it is. A three hour block from 11pm-2am of more adult oriented cartoons airing on the Cartoon Channel Sunday-Thursday nights. http://www.adultswim.com ===== "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: Fri, 23 May 2003 07:53:12 -0400 From: "Stewart C. Russell" Subject: Re: got funny (con't) Barbara Soutar wrote: > > Nah-NIE- moe. everyone I've heard here pronounces it nan-EYE-moe. Weird. Stewart ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 09:06:38 EDT From: HSatterfld@aol.com Subject: Re: 24 Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey said: >Not really - I think last year, they weren't sure when the finale was >produced whether there was going to be a second season? When 24 was renewed, they decided to go with the ending where Jack's wife was killed, for purposes of character development during the second season. (Two endings had been filmed.) Hollie ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 15:50:07 +0100 (BST) From: Michael R Godwin Subject: Re: Mighty Superpowers (some oldie content) On Thu, 22 May 2003, Stewart C. Russell wrote: > eh? Round the Horne couldn't have been anything but, with Took & Feldman > as writers. You can currently find it on BBC7 digital radio, Wednesdays, 7.30. Every week, Rambling Syd Rumpo, Daphne Whitethigh, Julian and Sandy, Seamus Android ("Hallo there! Well then! All right! And this week, without further ado ... well then! And with that, back to the studio!") My instinct is that the earlier "Beyond our Ken" shows were funnier, but that could just be fond hindsight. On the Gene Wilder front, I agree that Fronkensteen is his greatest role, but the Producers is funny too. Two or three years ago I saw him on the stage in a Neil Simon comedy which was based around a team of scriptwriters putting together a show for Sid Caesar. It was OK, except you spent a lot of time wondering "Is that scriptwriter supposed to be Woody? Or Carl Reiner? Or Mel? And if so, is the other one supposed to be Larry Gelbart or Neil Simon?". Anyway, Gene played the Sid Caesar character and was pretty funny. "Bringing up baby" is the Howard Hawks film with Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, an intercostal clavicle, two leopards (one tame, the other wild), a dog, and the song "I can't give you anything but love, baby". Absolutely superb. - - Mike "I'll be with you in a minute, Mr Peabody" Godwin PS In my attempt to remain au courant with the latest films, I have recently seen "Hans Christian Anderson" (1952) - lousy film, fabulously good songs; "Calamity Jane" (1953) - quite good, and the songs are OK too, but "Take me back to the black hills, the black hills of Dakota" is much better than the film's hit song "Secret Love"; and finally "Play it again Sam" (1972) which really is one of the early funny ones, and thank the lord, Woody doesn't direct it, he just writes and acts alongside Keaton. No songs, though. Next one programmed on the video is "Sweet and lowdown" (1999!!!). ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 09:58:07 -0500 From: Miles Goosens Subject: Re: all BUFFY 'n' Chris G., all funny is inadvertent At 10:39 PM 5/22/2003 -0500, Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey wrote: >Quoting Miles Goosens : > >> pro-medicore > >"Medicore"? Man, those dumb musical genre names ending in -core just keep >proliferating, don't they. My favorite is Dr. Angina and the Defibrillators! They stick pretty close to the genre's conventions. Thank goodness they're not a "sounds like everything else on the radio" sellout like Jimmy Ate World and Ended Up in the Emergency Room. I hear Cholostomy Bag might pick up their fallen flag -- though I hope they sterilize it first. later, Miles ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 08:50:31 -0700 From: "Natalie Jane" Subject: In yellow socks, I box my gox. I box in yellow gox box socks. >But Wilco's not on the bill past the Left Coast, and I don't feel like >traveling to see a band coming off two albums for which I have little use. >If R.E.M. was coming here, I'd go see them. They're not, so I'm not. I was a little dubious about paying a large amount of money (the most I've EVER paid for any show ever - $67) to see a band I love (Wilco) and a band I loved in high school but don't love so much anymore (REM). My knowledge of REM stops at "Life's Rich Paegant" (with a smidgen of "Document," which I inexplicably sold a few years ago), and what I've heard of their recent stuff does nothing for me. But I've been assured that REM are touring to support a greatest hits album, so they'll be playing a lot of older stuff. So that's OK. And it'll be cool seeing them - I've never seen them live before. > >I don't think the Starlight Mints are nearly as rockin' as the Pixies, > >Oh, I agree, but that still means that the Starlight Mints rock a lot! :-) Yes, they do. I'm seeing them tonight! Hooray! I think this is one of the few shows where I actually want to see all three acts on the bill (rather than just the headliner). Speaking of which (and I'm putting on my cowboy hat and whipping out a copy of No Depression as we speak), I was thrilled to find out that Jay Farrar is playing here in July, along with Tim Easton, an alt-country guy with a lovely deep husky voice, of whom I am also fond. And they're playing at the Aladdin Theater, which is walking distance from my house! Maybe I can invite them over for a beer... >Okay - I'll stop before I rant about how Interpol sounds like Joy Division >only in a few stray moments... Oh, I think it's more than just a few stray moments, but I don't think the resemblance is quite as strong as everyone seems to think. >Oh, and about the boxing women thing: it's the hitting-people part I don't >get. Someone want to explain that, and how it can possibly be a good thing? Umm... I enjoy boxing, but I've never actually hit anybody hard. Sparring with people is extremely fun and challenging, hitting the bag gets out a lot of excess aggression, and before I stopped taking lessons regularly (I don't have the time these days), I had lots of nice muscles in my arms. Also, of course, it impresses guys. :P >As for pro boxing featuring women: sorry, just creeps me out...because I >know damned well a significant portion of the audience is just plain fucked >up and watching for entirely the wrong reasons. Yeah, women's boxing is extremely sexualized, which is pretty lame. Serious women boxers aren't taken seriously at all, either - I was inspired to start taking lessons after reading an article about a local woman boxer who worked her ass off 24/7 only to have all her trainers and promoters say, "She's pretty good, for a girl." Bleh. gnat "pretty good-looking for a girl" the gnatster _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 10:55:45 -0500 From: "Eugene Hopstetter, Jr." Subject: Re: Mighty Geekpowers (some Barcelona boob content) > From: John Barrington Jones > > It is my wife's least favorite Britcom, mostly due to all the jokes and > abuse with regards to Manuel, the servant from Barcelona. God bless the > idiot boy. Can not resist spouting Fawlty Tower quotes . . . "So sorry, he's from Barcelona." "I know ... no-sing." And where's the obligatory Holy Grail quote? No thanks, we've already got one-ah. It's-a very nice-ah. Buffy geeks ain't got nothing on Holy Grail geeks. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 11:17:22 -0500 From: Miles Goosens Subject: Re: In yellow socks, I box my gox. I box in yellow gox box socks. At 08:50 AM 5/23/2003 -0700, Natalie Jane wrote: >>But Wilco's not on the bill past the Left Coast, and I don't feel like >>traveling to see a band coming off two albums for which I have little use. >>If R.E.M. was coming here, I'd go see them. They're not, so I'm not. > >I was a little dubious about paying a large amount of money (the most I've >EVER paid for any show ever - $67) to see a band I love (Wilco) and a band I >loved in high school but don't love so much anymore (REM). My knowledge of >REM stops at "Life's Rich Paegant" (with a smidgen of "Document," which I >inexplicably sold a few years ago), and what I've heard of their recent >stuff does nothing for me. DOCUMENT is actually my favorite, but there's very little on the first five that I don't love. My own idiosycratic, oversimplified reading of the WB material: GREEN is hit or miss, OUT OF TIME is excellent, AUTOMATIC a snoozer, MONSTER a much-needed fierce corrective, NEW ADVENTURES an underrated near-great album, and... well, the less I say about UP and REVEAL, the better. I'll e-mail you my REVEAL review that used to be at toastmag.com before it went under. >But I've been assured that REM are touring to >support a greatest hits album, so they'll be playing a lot of older stuff. >So that's OK. And it'll be cool seeing them - I've never seen them live >before. Oh, if I hadn't seen them before, I'd be all over this tour, just like I'm going to trek out of town to cross another big "never seen" band off my list, Neil Young & Crazy Horse. I've seen R.E.M. as much as budget and geography would allow, which means... '85, '87, '89, '95x2, '99... six times. Sort of difficult to have done more since the bulk of their touring was when (1) I was underage and living in West Virginia, (2) of age and living in West Virginia, or (3) living in Nashville on a grad student stipend. Of those six shows, four were excellent, one was good but stymied by a crowd just there for the hits ('89), and one was for whatever reason a subpar show where they were outshone by opener Radiohead ('95 in Nashville, and let me tell ya, I had *no* expectations for Radiohead at the time, so this was a huge surprise to me). >> >I don't think the Starlight Mints are nearly as rockin' as the Pixies, >> >>Oh, I agree, but that still means that the Starlight Mints rock a lot! :-) > >Yes, they do. I'm seeing them tonight! Hooray! I think this is one of the >few shows where I actually want to see all three acts on the bill (rather >than just the headliner). My 1st exposure to the Starlight Mints was live, at a pop festival thingy here in town, and Melissa and I were instantly converted and thought that they outsparkled everything else on the bill that night. >Speaking of which (and I'm putting on my cowboy hat and whipping out a copy >of No Depression as we speak), I was thrilled to find out that Jay Farrar is >playing here in July, You may have seen Jay before, or you may have gleaned this from your brief stay on Postcard2 (fwiw, Natalie, I looked at that list for about a week a few years ago and came to all the same conclusions about it that you did), but I'm gonna warn you anyway: Jay has *zero* charisma live. Maybe even a negative value. Basically he stands there inert and inexpressive, be it when I saw him with Son Volt or when I saw him on tour w/just the virtuoso-ish Mark Spencer behind the excellent SEBASTOPOL. However, if you close your eyes, the music itself sounds *magnificent.* I just don't want you to think you're going to get something live that's a comparable experience to Wilco, which boasts live wires Kotchke and Stirrat and Tweedy's sly, smart stage presence. later, Miles ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 12:34:23 EDT From: HSatterfld@aol.com Subject: today's humourous RH typo Woolworths UK is carrying the new double CD "Robyn Stings": http://www.woolworths.co.uk/common/product.jhtml?pid=20106305 Hollie ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 17:51:09 +0100 (BST) From: Michael R Godwin Subject: Re: Mighty Geekpowers (some Barcelona boob content) On Fri, 23 May 2003, Eugene Hopstetter, Jr. wrote: > Can not resist spouting Fawlty Tower quotes . . . > > "So sorry, he's from Barcelona." > > "I know ... no-sing." "Your rat, sir?" I too have to vote for Flowery Twats as my favourite TV comedy. Along with "Not Only ... But Also", "The Goodies", "The Young Ones", the "Q" programmes and "Not the Nine O'Clock News" (though a lot of that is too topical to look at now). I really liked Chris Morris in "The day today" with those pointless interviews with Brian O'HanraHanraHan. "Drop the dead donkey" was funny till Haydn Gwynn left, but then it went soap opera, though Stepehn Tompkinson still had some comic moments. I was never a big Python fan, though I enjoyed the 'Holy Grail' and 'Brian' films (their other films were appalling). I always felt that many of the sketches were re-hashes of material from "At last the 1948 Show", "I'm sorry I'll read that again" and "Do not adjust your set" - groovy photos at As far as old stuff goes, my favourite is "You'll never get rich" and its cartoon doppelganger, "Top Cat". But I haven't seen "I married Joan" for more than 40 years, which I thought was hilarious when I was about 9. - - Mike "Lazlo Lazlo" Godwin ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 12:07:52 -0500 From: Dolph Chaney Subject: medicore As funny as the made-up bands are, it strikes me that there IS one "hip" band that the genrefication actually fits -- Clinic. dolph ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 12:21:51 -0500 From: Miles Goosens Subject: Re: medicore At 12:07 PM 5/23/2003 -0500, Dolph Chaney wrote: >As funny as the made-up bands are, it strikes me that there >IS one "hip" band that the genrefication actually fits -- >Clinic. And Nurse With Wound. later, Miles ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 10:45:52 -0700 From: "Rex.Broome" Subject: At Feg, we take our comedy seriously. And our vampires moreso! Miles: >>I liked the song "Springtime for Hitler." That's pretty much it. Brooks' sense >>of humor is just not my sense of humor. Okay, that could happen. The Producers, to me, succeeds because much of the humor is situational and character-derived instead of parodic in that usual, somewhat facile Brooks style I was used to, so I was pleasantly surprised by that; meanwhile, the parody is actually good. Wish he'd stuck with that formula. (He acquits himself pretty well opposite Bancroft in the underrated "To Be Or Not To Be" remake, but then it's on to Men in Tights...) >>"Parodic" elements make up a much smaller proportion of THE DICK VAN >>DYKE SHOW, and make enough internal sense that they're easily followed >>even if you've never seen a variety/sketch show from the '50s. That's true, and that's why I said "not quite the same thing". But the vibe of a variety show might as well be vaudeville to the youngsters-- that sensibility is farther gone than that of, say, the Rat Pack, which has kind of been kept alive by various kitsch revivals and comebacks over the years. Really, we're debating points that (A) are probably immaterial unless both or either of us know more about psychological makeup of modern youth than I suspect we do, and (B) aren't going to impact either of our levels of enjoyment of the show on their own. I want me my DVD's. Fun discussion, though... I liked how a suprising amount of people came forth with points backed up by specific citations of characters and sketches. Viva feg. The DVD box sets are getting out of control, man. I just don't make the bank to pick up all of the ones I want. The movies I don't worry about, but I have my doubts that some of these TV Complete Season boxes are gonna stay in print or be worth reissuing down the line. And have you ever picked up a "used bin" DVD box? They are invariably way thrashed-looking, even the ones just released a few months back. What do these people *do* to these boxes? I have 35 year old LP's that look less abused. >>[Alias] Plus they move on in short order pretty quickly; it's not like they do >>seventeen minutes of slo-mo Sydney-in-lingerie (though that would be a nice >>DVD bonus) before getting on to the fighting. :-) That's true. Honestly, thinking it over, those scenes don't really bother me or hang me up when *watching* the show. I think they just stick out in my mind later as kind of obligitory or formulaic, which is no biggie except that the rest of the show is so engaging and unpredictable. I do like it. I'd pony up for the Season 1 DVD's anyhow, partly to see the Young Hotties do a fast fade. And hey, though I could care less about Dixon's Magic Bomb, I did just about lose it when his cover was as the techno DJ at the Hottest Club in City X. Here's this guy in his forties who works full time at what he thinks is the CIA and has a family on the side, and yet somewhere along the line he's had time to keep up his Mad Skillz on the Wheelz of Steel to the point where he can spin *and* radio intel to Sidney at the same time! Go, Dixon! That bit required some quick fanwank: he musta smuggled in a DAT player with a Paul Oakenfold set on it and mimed the whole thing... right? >>I think you'll just get over this someday and start watching and liking BUFFY. >>Could be in 2017 or something, but it'll happen. Dollars to doughnuts. Happens all the time. Just gotta let the mania calm down. I think the girls might dig Buffy way more than when I try to uncork "The Prisoner" on them when they're teenagers. Whether they're popular and gorgeous or not. ____ Eb: >>No, I wasn't being "sarcastic." I was asking about the show's gossip Sorry, dude, got it wrong again. You're exactly right about the kind of stuff in the book. Thomas is really self-effacing and goes into all these crazed fights that ensued over details he now admits were preposterous. It really rang true to me as a portrait of a young, talented group of people who just get too full of themselves and psychically bent against their best collaborators. Really good stuff if you've ever been in a similar situation. >>Now did I hallucinate, or did someone say Cheri Oteri's >>"Simmahdonnow" bit was FUNNY? I think someone did, but I'm trying hard not to remember who so I won't hold it against them. >>I might participate in this thread a bit more avidly, but I'm >>coincidentally just getting out of an *identical* thread in another >>off-topic forum, where I was sneered at ad nauseam for daring to say >>that I think Fawlty Towers is totally pedestrian and run-of-the-mill. Well, at least you learned your lesson and didn't open yourself up to ad nauseum sneering in *this* thread. (Actually, I can see why you would hold that opinion, but I think you're confusing "pedestrianism" with "conventionality", especially in contrast to Python; the sitcom in and of itself is not an evil thing. But I bet some jerk said that in that other thread, right?) >>out every wigger cliche Ummm... ahhh.... wellll... yeah. Okay. ______ JBJ: >>p.s. Three's Company? Not funny. Amen. But you know what is funny? The recent discover of Ritter's nutsack hangin' out in one of the episodes, unnoticed in countless viewings for decades. Or did that turn out to be an urban legend. Oh, someone mentioned Bob Newhart? Funny. A few years ago my wife had to edit a Bob Newhart career highlights reel together for an awards show. She described it as both the most fun and most difficult such reel she ever had to do, if that makes sense. Someone else mentioned Howard Stern. If you need a keynote speaker for a symposium on Shit That Is Un-Fucking-Funny, there's your guy. Scrubs: funny. Early Letterman: very funny. I'm surprised more hasn't been said about this. The early, "who's-even-watching-this" incarnation of Late Night was incredibly important to me. I'm not of the crowd who thinks Letterman sucks now, but that really weird early stuff was so singular... for better or worse, the genesis of a lot of the "postmodern" comedy of today. ___ JeFFrey: >>I'll stop before I rant about how Interpol sounds like Joy Division >>only in a few stray moments ButtheysoundliketheChameleonsinalltheothermoments! (ducks) >>and about how the Strokes sound like the Velvet Underground even less >>often Butthat'snotbecausethey'renottrying! (runs away) ___ Jeff D: >>Huh. That's sorta like hearing Christina Aguilera has a few >>buried _Hips and Makers_ type moments on her latest records. (brain implodes) ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V12 #188 ********************************