Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, everyone. For this Christmas, I will be posting Jimmy Fallon and The Roots (together with a children's choir) singing "Christmas Time is Here" from my favorite, "A Charlie Brown Christmas".

Unfortunately, it's not on youtube, only hulu and hulu is really finicky with embedding videos for some reason.




Does this work? Do you see anything? Is it a merry yule loggy time now?

*Sigh* the internet.

Anyways, here's video #2 in case that one doesn't work.




Self-explanatory:

Tonight Show - Will Ferrell is the New Santa

The "Santa" thing is old and tired. It's time for a new hipper, cooler Santa for the new Willenium.

George Lucas - Thug Life

Self-explanatory.


Incidentally, this is not the first time Lucas has used the "I'm making films that will not be seen" line. I think he's serious and it's so cringe-inducing.

Tonight Show - Jim Gaffigan's Holiday Toys

Jim Gaffigan (sans beard) has been researching the perfect gifts to get kids this Christmas and he's going to share his findings with the world.


For Christmas I want a calzone.

MST3K - Kickstarter Telethon

Buoyed by a star-studded "telethon", the MST3K kickstarter has ended with great financial success even if the event was hampered my major technical problems. Here's the rundown for anyone interested:

First, the goal was to reach $5.5 Million to make a full season of twelve episodes. They got that.

Then, the goal was to reach $5.9 Million to add a Christmas episode to the season of twelve. They reached that.

Then, the goal was to pass $5.7 Million on the kickstarter alone to have the record for the highest total in the history of kickstarter. They reached that.

Finally, they said if they get to $6.3 Million, they'll make a 14th episode and they just barely made it.

This was the highlight for me. This is the Game Grumps interviewed and then playing a video game MST3K style with Crow. The game they play? "Manos: The Hands of Fate: the video game". Appropriate.



Here's Patton Oswalt stealing the show in a segment that kind of encapsulates the whole night.

Best of the Worst - Double Down

On this episode of Half in the Bag, the gang breaks down the movie "Double Down". Don't let the hour running time intimidate you. Just start at 44:57 and watch for as long as you want.

For this episode, the normal cast is joined by writer Max Landis (3rd from the left) who wrote such films as "American Ultra" and "Victor Frankenstein".

Warning: The episode is slightly NSFW at parts.



HOW MANY CELL PHONES DOES HE HAVE?!

HOW MANY MEDALS DOES HE HAVE, RICH?! HOW MANY MEDALS DOES HE HAVE?!

Tonight Show - Harrison Ford

Harrison Ford on the Tonight Show to promote the new Star Wars movie.






It's nice to see Harrison Ford on a talk show acting like he cares to be there a little. In fact, it's nice to see him on a talk show acting like a living person on the planet. Often he acts like a hostage who's already given up the will to live.

In the second clip Jimmy says "We have to do a Greedo shot first". Such a great line and it seems the audience doesn't even catch it.

Tonight Show - The James Poyser Supercut

He's like the cat that ate the canary over there...

ELO - Mr. Blue Sky

Jeff Lynne's ELO performs "Mr. Blue Sky" on the Tonight Show. Can you believe this is a "web exclusive" and didn't actually air? The world is a strange place.

Tonight Show - Freestylin' With The Roots

This episode of Freestylin' with The Roots seems short - only 2 songs and 6 minutes - but it's good.



The first guest, Michael Keaton, argued that "Side Dish" should be released as a single.

MST3K is Back... Sort Of

Original show creator Joel Hodgson is bringing back MST3K, using crowdfunding to raise the necessary funding.


Someone did a good job at making the crowdfunding page entertaining for the fans. Some names of the rewards: "Hello. Thank You!", "Shirty the Shirt Sprite", "Big McLargehuge" and "She stole Mike's keyboard!". It also states "Finally, if we raise $1 BILLION – stay with me on this one – we’re going to adopt a real live teenage boy and “Truman Show” him into believing he is the Pumaman!"

A couple of the rewards are owning a Servo/Crow used in the show, having your own obscure joke used in the show and being listed as a producer.

Exciting news but there are a number of reasons to be... less excited. The host will not be Joel or Mike for sure and the robot puppeteers will likely be new as well. More importantly, what about the writers? The only person we know to be involved at all is Joel. That leads to the question, if the show comes back with an all new cast and all new writers, is it the same show?

I would argue "not at all" but, fortunately for me, I have money to spare on nonsense speculation like this.

Link.

Tonight Show - Will Forte Has His Beard Tested

In this very special episode of the Tonight Show, Will Forte (freakin' Will Forte) has his beard tested for poop. It's not quite opening Al Capone's vault but... what is?

Warning: This gets emotionally intense.

Continue? - Evil Dead Hail to the King

It's a very special Halloween episode of Continue, in which the guys confront their three biggest fears: Text, the Scoleri Brothers and unplayable controls...

St. Crispin's Day

Ahh October 25th is here again. 'Tis the season for holding your manhood cheap and the time to appreciate Brian Blessed in chainmail. And all things are ready if our minds be so.

Jimmy Kimmel - BTTF Reunion

Everyone's seen it by now, I guess, but just in case...


It's nice to see Biff again... and Huey Lewis.

Conan - Back to the Future

Conan tries some 2015 fashion with appearer of "Back to the Future 2" Elijah Wood.

Red Letter Media Watches the Star Wars Trailer

Red Letter Media films their live reaction to the new and final Star Wars trailer...

1 Week Until Double Ties

This is it. There's only one week left.

There are only 7 days left before weird Pepsi bottles.

Only 7 days left before "Jaws 19".

We only have 7 days to invent and manufacture the Video Simulacrum.

7 days to play all the remaining baseball games, resulting in a Cubs 5-game sweep of the World Series.

Only 7 days left until self-lacing shoes.

7 days left until double ties.

7 days till... the future.

And no hover boards.

Steam Train - Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

Normally I would post a Let's Play video because of some sort of humorous commentary. But the point of this video is simply that it's the most original, most creative idea for a video game I've heard of in a long time.

"Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes". Best viewed with a bigger screen size.

Where's Carl Winslow when you need him?

The Tonight Show - Phone Booth

Not the funniest comedy in the world but this is one of those bits that's especially good if you've ever wanted to see Shaquille O'Neal dance with Alex Trebeck in a phone booth.

FINALLY.



Hey, remember when Aaron Carter came out with the song "How I Beat Shaq"? And then he created the music video for "How I Beat Shaq" which allowed us to actually visualize what it was like during the encounter in which Aaron Carter indeed beat Shaq? Man, I'll never forget.

Tonight Show - Wolf Waker Suggestion Box

The HWolf HWaker returns...

The Wolf Waker awoke with a spasm, instinctively reaching for his harmonic spear. But the trusty weapon was gone. He blinked... then blinked again. All around him was a plain, white void, featureless and infinite. 

The last thing he remembered was searing quasar beams melting the diamond coating of his command module and the vacuum of space, itself, on fire. Perhaps the Androgen Codex had been correct, after all. For the first time in his life, the Wolf Waker felt trapped, dizzy and impermanent.

He began piecing together what would be the greatest escape of his life and ultimately the salvation of Habitat 9. 

Behold the call of the Wolf Waker... 

The Tonight Show - Jimpire

It turns out that the behind the scenes of The Tonight Show are very similar to the show "Empire". I don't know why. See for yourself in this episode of "Jimpire".

The Tonight Show - Hello

Finally, a song reference I understand. I love the 80s, after all.

The Tonight Show - Wheel of Musical Impressions

Well, I don't know who this is... and I've never heard of "Cheerleader.... or "Can't Feel My Face"... And, frankly, I haven't bought a music album since 8-tracks were discontinued.... But I do know this: these impressions are excellent.

Game Grumps - Friday the 13th

Take a trip in the Wayback Machine to the late 80s. The Game Grumps attempt to play "Friday the 13th" for the NES.

As the title suggests, it's scary garbage.

The Tonight Show - Mugception

I thought this was cute. Jimmy and JT enter mugception.



Projection: Between the History of Rap segment with Justin Timberlake and a Jimmy vs Ellen Lip Sync battle, I'm thinking this is the episode they submit for the Emmy.

Late Show with Stephen Colbert - First Reaction

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: First Reaction

It was perfectly average. It felt exactly like a cable show that moved to a major network.

This has been: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: First Reaction

The Tonight Show Family Feud

The Tonight Show Family Feud with Alison Brie and Steve Harvey.

For context of one of the jokes, watch this clip first starting at 3:00. I suggest you do.

Game Grumps - Fishing

So, apparently after the Sega Genesis, the Sonic games got weird. Weird and bad. The series that was originally about speed and blast-processing introduced a big, dumb, slow cat. And the main ability they gave him? Fishing. Yes, Sonic Adventure DX is a Sonic game with fishing. And not just regular fishing, fishing with bad game mechanics.

The hot fishing action starts around 4 minutes in. Enjoy!

Bob Ross Is Back

Bob Ross is back, though not from the dead.

I'm a big fan but finding full episodes of "The Joy of Painting" was always somewhat tricky. There were a bunch of short clips on youtube but whenever full episodes were uploaded, they would usually be taken down.

Starting a few months ago, the official Bob Ross youtube channel started uploading full episodes and now it's easy. Just enter https://www.youtube.com/user/BobRossInc/featured into your youtube machine, dip into some Van Dyke Brown, mix in some Pthalo Blue and you're there!

There are only about 20 episodes up but more will be uploaded over time and it's the official channel so no deletions.

Happy Painting and God Bless.

At Least They Were Upfront

Sometimes a youtube suggested video can shed light on another youtube suggested video...

Click on the image to view normal size.

So it's not just a clever motto...

Movie Review: Shoah (1985)

Shoah (1985)

"The hollering and the crying and the shouting which was going over there on, it was impossible. Their cry and their holler was in your ears and your mind for days and days - and at night the same thing. From that howling, you could not sleep a couple night[s] of that. All of a sudden, everything stopped, like by a command."

"Shoah" is a 9 1/2 hour long documentary about the holocaust.

Here, the term "documentary" is stripped of its Ken Burns-like implications. The movie is real, yes, but there is no narrator, there are no historic photos, there is not a second of archival footage, there are almost no historians, there is no chronological re-telling of historical events, there isn't even much chronology at all... This is a movie as a series of interviews with eye witnesses. It's perhaps specifically aimed at those who would deny the history. In countless specific instances it says "Here is a victim, this is them describing things they experienced. Here is a Nazi officer, this is them describing what they did and saw. Here is a citizen who lived near the death camps, this is them describing what they witnessed first-hand."

The film is purposeful and stark. But there are some "stunt" interviews. In one sequence, the director goes to a bar and strikes up a conversation with a bartender there. The bartender does not want to talk on camera. We learn the reason he's being interviewed is because he's a former Nazi who worked in the camps. He does not wish to answer any questions. The "interview" started with innocent questions but he locks up instantly. It's as if he saw the camera and immediately knew what it was really about. I think he was living in constant fear of this very thing for decades.

There are also times when the placement of interviews is suggestive. An interview with a man who visited the Warsaw ghetto shows him recounting the horror in minute detail, clearly still reliving it once again, 35 years later. That interview is immediately followed by an interview with a German official who was partially in charge of the Warsaw ghetto. He says he doesn't remember much from the war period. Then, when the names of people he worked with everyday are read to him, he squints as if straining to remember. When a few dates are read to him, he writes them down so he'll have them.

The horrors of the holocaust might be easier to accept - perhaps - if we could attribute them to a few high-ranking Germans - or even if we could place blame on only the Germans. Some of the most deplorable moments of the film are when ordinary Poles are interviewed and asked how they reacted when Jews were being exterminated in their towns. Sometimes they're even asked what they think of the Jews today. It's evident that anti-Semitism was not limited to one country or one time period. And it's amazing how easily it can be found today - it only takes a few probing questions from some "everyday" people.

The heart of the documentary is obviously the interviews with the Jewish victims. The events they describe are unspeakable but they recount them anyway, many times out of an obligation to history. It struck me how rare crying was. There is crying, certainly, but most of the time they recount the events plainly and without flourish. It's as if there are pains so deep that there is no emotion left, they turn cold. In a way, this is more impactful - the events are presented, the emotion is left to the viewer.

In place of archival footage and photos, the interviews are interspersed with footage of the historical sites today. Overgrown grass, trees, some bricks, these are mostly quiet pauses that allow the viewer to reflect, to absorb, what has come before it. There is one shot though that startled me more than any other I can think of. There is a first-person shot that slowly creeps down the railroad track leading to the entrance to Auschwitz. It's such a simple shot but I don't think a more haunting, more nightmarish shot has ever been devised, or ever will. How could it?

As I said, "Shoah" is a documentary that eschews many of the trappings of conventional documentaries. But there is one holdover: the film begins with a scrolling text introduction. Within only a few seconds, the introduction sets the tone of the entire movie. In essence, the introductory text says... There was a death camp in Poland near the town of Chelmno. 400,000 men, women and children were sent there. Of the 400,000 people, 2 survived.

Youtube - The First Comment Song

The haunting "First Comment" theme. Haunting and mournful.

The Tonight Show - The Doobie Brothers

Michael McDonald reunites with The Doobie Brothers on the Tonight Show:


And the web-exclusive: the performance of "What a Fool Believes".

Karl Pilkington once said that he doesn't understand the point of a medley and I think I see where he's coming from. Why two half songs instead of one whole one? Isn't it selling yourself short to say that people can't get through the whole song? Was it some weird compromise between the "Doobie Brothers" camp and the "Michael McDonald" camp? Well, "What a Fool Believes" is great.

Workin' In A Cocktail Bar

Look, I love "Don't You Want Me" by The Human League. I do. But I just don't have much time for all the parts of the song that are not specifically about the cocktail bar. Fortunately, the good people of the internet have addressed this rather glaring problem and uploaded their results to The Information Superhighway.

Enjoy.

The Tonight Show - Phone Booth

Jimmy plays a new game, "Phone Booth", with Kevin Spacey. Let's reach out and touch someone.

Yet Another Event in Television History

The makers of The Greatest Event In Television History are nothing if not frank. The first 3 Greatest Events In Television History were failures, they say. But even so, they're back with a fourth attempt at the Greatest Event in Television History.

This time, the goal is to meticulously recreate the opening to the hit TV show "Bosom Buddies". This has special significance for me because I loved the show when I was a kid. The part in this video with Billy Joel is priceless.

The Tonight Show - Yolanda Adams

Mix Tape Month continues with performance #2: Yolanda Adams.

POW!

The Tonight Show - Christopher Cross

Christopher Cross and The Roots perform "Sailing" on the Tonight Show...

Continue? - Super Tennis

In honor of Summer, the Continue? guys play Super Tennis for Super Nintendo. The game is fraught with sexual innuendo and Lexus commercials.


And as a special youtube Summer bonus.... It's Super Tennis! Best Summer Ever. Nailed it.

Tonight Show - Don Rickles

The man, the myth, the legend, Don Rickles on the Tonight Show. The whole interview is funny but this is what's available on youtube.

Tonight Show - Mix Tape Month

What was called the "Yacht Rock Party" has now perhaps been changed into Mix Tape Month. Instead of limiting themselves to the Yacht Rock genre, they're going to have "one of Jimmy's favorite [musical] guests" on to perform. And instead of one day, it's once every week for a month.

The lineup is:

Thursday - Christopher Cross performs "Sailing".
TBA - Yolanda Adams performs "Victory".
TBA - The Doobie Brothers reunite with Michael McDonald

That's it. Are there three weeks in a month? I think the quality control may be slipping. But that aside, I like the choices. I mean, all I need is "Sailing" anyway.

Tonight Show - Word Sneak

Jimmy and Jason Segel play Word Sneak.

Tonight Show - Tom Cruise Lip Sync Battle

This one was borderline for me but I thought I'd post it because RIP Goose. Jimmy and Tom Cruise have a lip sync battle.

I thought Tom should have done "Jump".

Tonight Show - David Wain and Michael Showalter

"Kenny Loggins' transition from yacht rock boy wonder to rockin' soundtrack king didn't happen overnight, it happened in one afternoon."


You may know these two from "Wet Hot American Summer" or "Childrens Hospital" or "They Came Together" or "Stella". No one saw "Stella" but they should have.

Tonight Show - Norm MacDonald's First Job

This man is a genius.

Movie Review: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Every year at New Year's when the clock passes midnight, groups of people will traditionally sing "Auld Lang Syne". But why? The original poem that the song is based on is about whether the past is worth remembering - whether the recollection of good memories is worth the cost of remembering the bad ones. The phrase "auld lang syne" can be translated "old times" or "days gone by". The original song goes:

Should Old Acquaintance be forgot,

and never thought upon;

The flames of Love extinguished,

and fully past and gone:

Is thy sweet Heart now grown so cold,

that loving Breast of thine;

That thou canst never once reflect

On Old long syne.

"Eternal Sunshine" asks the same kinds of questions though it revolves around a completely different holiday. The movie begins with one of the great first lines in all of film: "Random thoughts for Valentine's day, 2004: Today is a holiday invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap." The line is delivered in voice-over by the main character Joel, played by Jim Carrey. Joel is in a long-term relationship with Clementine (Kate Winslet) but is informed that she has chosen to end the relationship by having him erased from her memory. A small company named Lacuna, Inc. has discovered a medical procedure which allows people to safely have memories erased such that, to the subject, it's as if they never happened. Joel is so devastated by this news that he decides to have her erased from his memory also. The problem is the procedure is unstoppable and irreversible and part-way through he changes his mind.

The question that the characters face is the question of whether, in the final analysis, their relationship was really worth it. If all of their experiences with the other person - the euphoria, the fighting, the regret, the hurt, the togetherness - if it could all be summed up like an accounting ledger, does the end result turn out to be negative? If it is, then is a person better off wiping the ledger clean? "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" is, in some ways, an exploration of the Tennyson phrase "'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all" stretched over 100 minutes.

But while Joel is grappling with the question of whether his experience with Clementine was worth it, I wonder if the movie is posing an even larger question to the audience. I think the movie asks whether romantic relationships and romantic love IN GENERAL are really worth it. At least I think it hints that way.

Consider that the movie presents us with quite a few different relationships comprised of many different personalities with different parameters and different histories. Consider that with all its variety, there's one thing that holds true in every presented case: the relationship is not making anyone happier and the relationship is not making anyone better.

There is a man in the movie who falls in love with a woman only to find her with another man. There is another man pursuing romance through predatorial means. There is a married man who has an affair and by the end, his wife has found out the devastating truth and will probably divorce him. Another character is falling in love with a woman but finds that his love is unrequited. And then, there is one particular couple who Joel spends much time with (played brilliantly by Jane Adams and David Cross). This is one of those couples who seem to spend every waking hour of their lives fighting. In lesser movies, "fighting" denotes melodramatic screaming and slammed doors. But this movie is too smart for that. Here, the depiction is of a couple whose conversation is non-stop bickering - their entire lives seem devoted to cutting down the other with passive-aggressive digs. Each insult is met with under-the-breath muttering, each comment is met with a retort, no mistake goes unnoticed, no negative thought goes unspoken. It's a couple that we've all known or seen somewhere in our lives. It's exactly those relationships that you look at and think, "why are they even together?" After all, it can't possibly be worth it. Can it?

As Lacuna's machine goes through Joel's memories, erasing them one by one, it suddenly comes across the good ones and Joel is forced to re-live those as well. Joel realizes, of course, that he doesn't want to let go of those memories. One such memory provides my favorite visual in the movie: Joel and Clementine lying together on a frozen lake in the middle of winter and gazing up at the stars. Joel has one of the moments so rare in life: "I could die right now, Clem. I'm just... happy. I've never felt that before. I'm just exactly where I want to be." And Carrey gives it the perfect tone. But the moment is fleeting and soon that memory is gone.

A while later, Joel's remembering the day that he and Clementine first met. They're at a beach party and they sit together and stare out at the ocean. But this memory will soon be erased too. It's here that Kaufman uses the fleeting nature of Joel's memory to speak to the fleeting nature of life itself:

Clementine: This is it, Joel. It's going to be gone soon.
Joel: I know.
Clementine: What do we do?
Joel: Enjoy it.

As the mind machine traverses the synaptic connections of Joel's brain, we see the various events in Joel and Clem's relationship in a "stream of consciousness" order. The usual slow and predictable ebb and flow of human relationships is replaced by a collage of context-less episodes. We see a horrible fight mashed right up against blissful euphoria and we struggle to assimilate the two into a cohesive idea. It's reminiscent of "Slaughterhouse-Five", the classic story of a man who becomes "unstuck in time". One moment he's married, the next he's a child, the next he's fighting in WW2 - we have to consider his life as a mosaic rather than a portrait. It's a task we're not accustomed to and it doesn't come easy.

There's a musical example of this too. If you can get past the fact that William Shatner is involved, there's something interesting to be found in the oddball non-hit "In Love" by Fear of Pop. The song tells the story of a relationship from two perspectives. The background singers (Ben Folds) are singing lyrics from the the relationship at its peak ("Hold me in the morning / and tell me I'm / The only one alive"). Meanwhile, the lead "singer" (Shatner) is speaking from some time after the proverbial plane has crashed into the proverbial mountain ("I can't tell you anything / And I can't commit / You're right / I can't commit ... To you!"). The back-and-forth flow of the song between the vocalists forces shuffles and intertwines the two perspectives. It leaves us to try to reconcile diametrically opposite feelings from the same person but from across two different points in time. In theory, it's all up to interpretation. Personally, I have to give the Shatner side more credence, though. Have you heard that guy? That guy is angry.

At the end of the movie, it's up to Joel and Clementine to reconcile the extremes of their love/hate - to come up with their own "sum of experiences". The last scene of the movie is yet another one of those scenes that feels utterly unique to "Eternal Sunshine". Joel and Clementine (who think they've just met) listen to audio tapes of themselves listing all the things they hate about the other person and all the memories they don't remember.

Joel [on tape] And the whole thing with the hair - it's all bullshit.
Joel: I really like your hair.
Clementine: Thank you.

They hear the pain and devastation they're capable of causing each other but they decide to give a relationship a(nother) try anyway. It's an ambiguous ending, technically. One could view it cynically and say that it's literally a case of "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Who are the brain-erased versions of Joel and Clementine, we might wonder, to think they know better than the versions of themselves that lived and learned and experienced? They're being willfully ignorant - they're still following the siren song of physical attraction even after they've seen the consequences.

But I don't see the ending as cynical and I don't project that the movie is trying to be either. I think, I hope, that the ending of the movie drops a hint that they've learned the one thing that will "break the cycle" they're in...

Joel: I can't see anything that I don't like about you.
Clementine: But you will! But you will. You know, you will think of things. And I'll get bored with you and feel trapped because that's what happens with me.
Joel: Okay.
Clementine: ....Okay... Okay.

By accepting the other's flaws, by acknowledging their own flaws, they've moved beyond their own selfish, self-centered thinking. For the first time they have the possibility for a relationship that's both self-less and forgiving. Thinking back, for all the poisonous relationships we've seen throughout the movie, that's the one thing no one had figured out. With people, as with memories, acceptance is absolutely invaluable - often, good and bad are hopelessly entangled.

9/10.

Conan - Paul Rudd: The Tradition Continues?

Whenever Paul Rudd is on Conan, he sets up what we think will be a real clip from his latest movie but in actuality, it's always a clip from the 80s movie "Mac and Me". But now he's in a big summertime blockbuster and the pressure is on. Will the streak be broken?

Tonight Show - Do Not Play (Record List)

Jimmy tells us what records to avoid in the segment "Do Not Play".

Tonight Show - Jon Glaser

Legendary Late Night with Conan O'Brien writer Jon Glaser appears on the Tonight Show and he's still pumped for the women's World Cup win. HE'S PUMPED.

Space Cop Trailer Released

The folks at RedLetterMedia have just released the first trailer for their upcoming movie "Space Cop". If you like space and you like cops, this is probably the space coppiest movie you'll find anywhere!

The description puts the release time as "To be released soon. When it's done."

Hello, Noram...

I fell into a Norm MacDonald youtube hole today and thought I'd post this clip. This is one of the "Conan highlights" that you see over and over, ad infinitum. But, as is the nature of highlights, you don't get the context of the broader picture. Thankfully, someone's posted more of the interview Conan conducted with "Melrose Place" star Courtney Thorne-Smith.

The thing that made it great was that it wasn't just a single joke but a series of interruptions. When Conan finally challenges, "Do something with that, you freak" and Norm does, it's just the icing on the cake.

Conan - Girl's Night Out

Conan takes his female staffers to see the new horror movie "Magic Mike XXL".

Brocktoon Update II

A while back I watched a life-changing episode of Mr. Belvedere where we all learned about the ravages of Alzheimer's Disease. Well hold on to your butts because there are yet more problems that need to be addressed in sitcom form. Namely, AIDS... It's time to talk about AIDS.

The episode begins with a comic relief subplot not related to the AIDS. Kevin is attempting to sew and having trouble with it (he keeps sticking his fingers with the needle). Between the sewing and the muffins he's baking in the oven his father starts to worry about his son's sexuality. Don't worry, he's just taking Home Ec. for an easy A. Now, am I just reading too much into this but does it strike anyone has strange that an episode about AIDS brings up both homosexuality and needles in the first few minutes? Is that irony? Is that some weird dark humor from the writers? Should I be offended? I'm so uncomfortable right now.

So anyways, it turns out Wesley's best friend has been pulled out of school because he has AIDS. [Note to writers: there are many ways to ham-fist a lesson into a TV show comedy, you don't necessarily need a cute little kid to get a death sentence.] Wesley doesn't know what AIDS is and reacts inappropriately. The parents of the show sit him down to drop some knowledge...

"Wes, AIDS is a disease and your friend is pretty sick."
[...]
"You're saying he might be sick for a whole week?"
[Here the parents, incompetently look to their butler to help]
Brocktoon: "Maybe two."
"Boy, no school! Lucky duck!"

At this point in the conversation Wesley runs away and the parents let him continue to live with misconceptions. What was the entire point of having the talk?! Why not clear up the misunderstanding, what else is more important for them to do at this point?

Oh well. Without proper guidance from his parents, Wesley goes to school and here's what the kids have to say. AIDS makes your arms fall off, AIDS is easy to catch, you can get it from touching, "A sixth-grader told me you can get it just by talking on the phone". I never even considered that one.

So, I'm going to fast forward to the end because this is getting too long and I still need to google whether AIDS can be transmitted via the phone. Wesley faces various challenges and eventually decides to do the right thing but now the President's Day Pageant at school is coming up and it's time to do something stupid.

While on stage as Abraham Lincoln, Wesley interrupts his own speech to bring his AIDS friend up on stage. Panic fills the room. Wesley tries to educate us but several kids come from backstage to yell at him. One of the parents stands up from the audience and tells their child to stay away from the kid with AIDS. And this is the scene that makes the episode worthy of the National Film Registry. This is the kind of uncomfortable that can't be replicated anywhere else in the world. The awkwardness goes to 11. And in case that scene isn't enough for you, it's followed up by a scene where Wesley and his friend discuss possibly putting together a bucket list of things to do. His friend tells him that he doesn't have enough time left to do the things he wants to do. That actually happens.

The episode ends, as every episode ends, with Mr. Belvedere writing in his diary. He says, "I suppose at this point I should write something profound about life and death. But you know something, I'm really not in the mood". Fade to black. That's it? OK? Uh, what? I think I just watched the writers give up. Oh, and then the credits go with the goofy regular theme song instead of the downtrodden version that the Alzheimer's episode got. I don't know what to read into that.

Tonight Show - Brainstorm

Jimmy Fallon engages in Brainstorm with Arnold Schwarzenegger:


I've seen people give this bit flak for being a ripoff of Carnac but EVERYONE is doing Carson bits anyway, I don't see a problem with this example.

Tonight Show - The Mets Bucket Hat Guy

The Mets Bucket Hat Guy is back.


Each time they do it, the lonely, mournful walk away gets more exaggerated. Will they eventually run out of material? Only time will tell.

Movie Review: Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music

Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music (1970)

When asked about what it was like to be at Woodstock, the people I've heard, in second and third-hand accounts, will tell you how it was muddy, there wasn't enough food, it rained and there weren't enough places to shower or go to the bathroom. Asked about what it was like to play at Woodstock, the artists will tell you that the sound was bad, artists cancelled at the last minute, the playing order had to be improvised sometimes and notable acts obviously performed stoned (to their dismay when they heard the tapes). But the event has become the defining event of a generation that one simply HAD to be at - probably partly due to generational nostalgia but probably the release of the documentary movie "Woodstock" played a large part too.

I remember seeing clips of "Woodstock" on PBS when I was a teen. I've always appreciated the music of that time but found the presentation of the movie a bit silly. Much of the movie consists of split-screens two or three frames wide - I suppose they thought they were really being "far out there" when they thought of that. And the interviews with everyday concertgoers - aren't they just stoned out of their minds? These people thought they were starting a revolution?

But watching it now, I was completely missing the point. I laughed at the extent to which it was "of its time" but that exactly what's to love about it. It's dirty and spacey and experimental because it's a product of that time. The split-screen (most of the time credited to Martin Scorcese, though he credits director Michael Wadleigh) IS amazing - it creates the sense of the "bigness" of the event. The interviews with flower children ARE valuable because they give a sense of the people living in that time and place. Even when a revolution fails, it is nonetheless interesting to examine the attempt.

Some of my favorite interviews in the film don't even involve hippies (at least directly). The film crew goes around to talk to the townspeople who live in the Woodstock area and ask the invariably old people what they think about all these visitors descending on their home. Many of the old people don't like it and say so. I was wondering what the intent behind these interviews is. Are we supposed to laugh at the "square generation" as they "don't get it"? I don't think so. I'll take the filmmakers on their word that it's an honest attempt to capture a spectrum of opinion.

And then there's the music.

Watching the Director's cut, at almost 4 hours long, there's a good deal of music that I don't care for. And many of the best bands are not even featured. The Band were so unhappy with the sound, they refused to allow the video to be released. As I said, they were not alone - The Grateful Dead and Creedence Clearwater Revival were others with similar stories. Carlos Santana is in the movie but his performance is under the influence of mescaline - he thought it was safe to take it and then was told he was going on stage early. But even with all of these drawbacks, the music soars. Crosby, Stills and Nash do the entire "Judy Blue Eyes" suite. Sly and the Family Stone are amazing. Joe Cocker does "With a Little Help from My Friends". And, of course, Jimi Hendrix gets significant screen time. It occurred to me watching it this time that when he comes to "the rockets' red glare" and "the bombs bursting in air" he extends the section to actually express the rockets and the bombs bursting.

There's more than a little distance between me and the Woodstock generation. Far from a muddy pit, I watched the concert from my couch. I was, I admit, occasionally distracted by my laptop and I had no trouble using the restroom. But it is Summer and, over the four hours that I watched "Woodstock", the day slipped into night and I felt no need to turn on a light. Watching in the dark, bathed in a stream of images from that historic event and soaking in the great music, it did feel like a magical experience, it did feel transcendent even if the strongest thing I had ingested was iced tea. Oh, and it just started to rain.

8/10.

Tonight Show - True Confessions Fallout

Tonight Show - True Confessions

To promote the new season of "True Detective", Colin Farrell and Vince Vaughn play "True Confessions" with Jimmy. Each of them reads a confession from their past that could be true or it could be a lie and the other two have to guess which one it is.

This game feels like it should be called "Good Cop/Bad Cop".

Conan Reviews Video Games - Halo 5

Conan and his team, Team Coco, challenge Team Silicon Valley in the won't-be-released-for-a-long-time Halo 5. Treachery is afoot!


This video gives me a queasy feeling as it reminds me of playing Halo, myself. Those were dark days. In other news, I've been watching Silicon Valley recently. It's pretty good.

Conan - New Spotify Channel

Conan has a new Spotify channel at http://teamcoco.com/spotify. Before they upload the Minty Candy Cane Theme, they're first uploading playlists containing every musical guest that has ever appeared on any Conan talk show. The playlists are divided by year.

Someone in the youtube comments requested the Cameltoe Annie Theme. That's a deep cut.

The first ever musical guest? Radiohead playing "Creep" in 1993.

Announcement Video.

Seinfeld Doesn't Like Talk Shows

Jerry Seinfeld explains why he doesn't like doing talk shows and probably won't be on them in the future.



I don't think there's anything particularly interesting, funny or revelatory here, exactly. I think it's no secret that talk shows do pre-interviews. It's just a matter of degree. And there are pros and cons each way.

Letterman, on one end of the spectrum, didn't rely on the pre-interview hardly at all and the result was a genuine conversation that might be boring, might be awkward or might be amazing.

On the other end of the spectrum is Conan, who'll always get the funny interview but it's utterly artificial. Anytime you hear questions like "You were on vacation recently, I wonder if you enjoy foreign breakfasts." or "You're pretty popular, I bet you have some interesting conversations with toll booth operators", it should be obvious to anyone on the planet who's given it even a second of thought that this is not a real conversation - he knows there's a funny story there and he wants the monkey to dance.

Terms of Service Endearment

For the first time since its cancellation the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 returned to Comedy Central. Now the makers of Rifftrax, they appeared as guests on "At Midnight".

I haven't been watching "At Midnight", although I am a fan of host Chris Hardwick. But somewhere along the line, it changed format from a late night talk show to a sort of faux-comedy-game-show. I don't understand that plus I very much doubt that these jokes are "off the cuff" and not prepared beforehand. Still, the bottom line is: it's funny.

This is the one clip available on youtube:



The whole show is very funny, you can watch the full episode here.

Late Show - Buzz Aldrin at the Daytime Emmys

The Late Show posted this video as part of the buildup to Dave's show but I didn't notice until now. Remember the time the Late Show sent Buzz Aldrin as their special correspondent to the Daytime Emmys? Here it is.

Brian Regan has a bit (and special) entitled "I Walked on the Moon" which is very similar. I wonder if this was the inspiration.

Best of the Worst

Here's a podcast/youtube show worth trying out. In "Best of the Worst", four people watch three bad movies, discuss each one and then try to determine which one is the "best of the worst". Usually they'll also determine what the worst movie was and destroy it. The three bad movies are usually random VHS tapes and they're almost always in the sci-fi, action and horror genres.

The show is done by redlettermedia. Some of you may know them for the Mr. Plinkett Reviews or Half in the Bag show.

The movies they discuss have bad language, violence and nudity so, by extension, this show is NSFW kinda.

BOOYAH

Found this today at Whole Foods.

SWEET SASSY MO-LASSIE! GET OUT THE CHECKBOOK AND PAY GRANDMA FOR THE RUBDOWN.

STU-POT!

Continue? - Batman

After the show begins on a religious note (?!), the guys at Continue move on to more mundane topics like mechanical forks, the Axis Chemicals on I-95 and being cool in the 90's.

They also play Batman.

Conan - Staff Reviews

Conan conducts the annual staff performance reviews.


I don't understand how anyone can question Jordan Schlansky's work. The guy has various tasks and duties!

The Last Late Show: The Video

There's no way to embed it but you can see the last episode of the Late Show in full here.

I'm posting a couple highlight clips but I can't recommend enough watching the full episode. The whole episode is highlights and besides that, it's kind of historic television.


Given that this is the remote chosen for the last show, I guess this is the one they think is the best remote of all-time. That seems strange to me but I can't think of a better one off-hand... "Dave works at Taco Bell"


This is just amazing.  I can't imagine the amount of work that went into it.

The Last Late Show: First Take

The last Late Show with David Letterman just aired and I thought it was fantastic. It's hard to imagine a more perfect hour of television. It was amazing how it could be so funny and yet how it could be such an emotional an experience.

From the time I was made aware that David Letterman existed I wanted to watch every piece of television of his that I could get my hands on. I have so many great memories wrapped up in the show - not just watching (alone, mostly in my bedroom), but sharing it with friends and talking about the jokes. It's impossible to see the old clips of the show without remembering where I was in my life when it first aired and what I was doing. For these reasons, I couldn't help but be swept up in a wave of nostalgia and the bittersweet look at an era that is officially gone. As of tonight, it's gone.

Dave is nothing if not unpredictable and so one of the things I've loved to do through the years is "play the Dave" and try to predict things. One of the things I would have predicted about the end of the last show - that I would have predicted wrongly - is that he would end the show sitting on a stool. Jack Paar signed off for the last time while sitting on a stool, Johnny Carson signed off his last show while sitting on a stool, I thought Dave would make that nod to tradition but it didn't happen.

But there was one thing like that, I think. If you read the reviews of the show tomorrow (and, really, why would you?) it's altogether possible that they will cite the "A Day in the Life of Dave" segment as the only weakness and an "uncharacteristic" one at that. But in his final days Johnny Carson did a segment like that and so Dave's doing it too.

Conan - Letterman Goodbye

As anticipated, Conan's on-air goodbye and "thank you" to David Letterman. Very emotional.

Late Show - Best of Bill Murray

This is amazing. There isn't enough time or detail in any of the clips to really do them justice but the sheer number... the sheer number of amazing clips from over the years is so impressive...



The full Bill Murray interview (this interview) is worth watching but doesn't exist as a separate clip. You can see it within the full episode here.

Late Show - Best of Rupert Jee

On David Letterman's second-to-last show, Rupert Jee makes one last appearance.

Rupert Jee goes right back to the "old days" of the show where part of the fun was putting people on TV who had no business being on TV - and by extension, making celebrities out of people who were simply "normal" people. And Rupert Jee always seemed like a just a really nice guy.


Watching these clips again, I'm amazed at how quickly it feels like it's from an ancient era. Not due to the video quality or technology, the entire zeitgeist is gone forever. Today the "comedy of annoyance" feels mean-spirited, whereas back then it was just the cutting-edge of comedy. Not only that, this is cutting-edge comedy that still feels new and fresh today - and how often does that happen? I was uncomfortable watching it then, I'm uncomfortable watching it now.

"It was my thumb."

Conan - Letterman Tribute

Well... sort of. I'm still waiting for Conan's ON-AIR Letterman tribute. As of the time of this post, Conan still hasn't mentioned on his show. But he recently wrote a tribute in the form of an article for EW.com.

You can read it here.

A notable portion:

"Dave’s show was that rare phenomenon: a big, fat show business hit that seemingly despised show business. Dave didn’t belong, and he had no interest in belonging. He amused himself, skewered clueless celebrity guests, and did strange, ironic comedic bits that no one had seen on television before. Everything about that show was surreal and off-kilter. Where late night television had once provided comfort, this man reveled in awkwardness. Cher called him an asshole. Andy Kaufman ran screaming from the set. Chris Elliot lived under the stairs. Throughout one episode the entire show rotated a complete 360 degrees, for no reason whatsoever. By 1985, when I graduated from college and was ready to try my hand as a comedy writer, Late Night with David Letterman had been the Holy Grail for several miraculous years."

Tonight Show - Jimmy's Dave Tribute

Jimmy Fallon isn't much of a speechwriter, of course, but it's from the heart. Dave's last show is tomorrow night.

Late Show - Norm MacDonald

Norm MacDonald performed stand-up comedy one last time on the Late Show with David Letterman. If you want to see the entire performance, you can see it here. But an interesting thing happened on his last joke...

[Original Link Broken]

Link to the Moment.

Late Show - Last Show Approaching

David Letterman's career on late night is quickly coming to an end; his last show is May 20th. In an interesting interview, Dave talks about what it all means, his heart surgery, the scandal and reveals that he's been taking anti-depressants.

This was the part that I found most interesting:

As the end nears, Late Show has dug into its vaults to replay a sampling of vintage comedy bits, some almost Dada-esque in their absurdity. (On a recent show, a 1993 clip found Dave cruising Manhattan making mischief with his car phone, as when he alerted a news-radio station that traffic was backed up on Amsterdam Avenue, then corrected himself: 'Oh, I think it was just a red light.')
Those old clips make him nostalgic for the Lettermanesque-ness he may have since outgrown.

'I realize what the old show was, and we haven't being doing the old show in years,' he says.  

'And that's all because of me.'

I have to agree. Not that I've been saying that it's "all because of him" but that my reason for losing interest in the show is because it had changed. It wasn't that Dave was old or that his competitors were so much better or that he couldn't produce "the viral videos", it was that they simply stopped doing The Late Show.

I imagine there'll be many such clip montages in the episodes leading up to the final show, so I look forward to that.

Continue? - The Shadow

In the 80s, when the family sitcom reigned supreme, there would invariably be that one episode where there was a power outage (or a hurricane or an emergency) and the characters would be forced to remember old episodes in the form of a clip show.

Well, the tradition continues...

Tonight Show - Extreme Jack Black

Whatever surprise this bit might have had is ruined by the title of the youtube video. Well anyways...



For comparison:



If anyone asks your favorite Extreme or Beethoven song (and, honestly, at some point probably EVERYONE will be asked that question) I suggest you consider this lesser known track.

TV - Other Space

A foreign intelligence has invaded the ship and suddenly every crew member is experiencing their wildest dreams as very real hallucinations. Zalian Fletcher suddenly finds a tuna fish sandwich on the ground and begins to eat it. Later, crew members discuss this occurrence:

"So your #1 fantasy is to find a tuna fish sandwich on the ground?"
"It... doesn't have to be on the ground."

"Other Space" is a science-fiction comedy (more comedy than science fiction) whose first season is available on "Yahoo! Screen". Like the classic "Red Dwarf", each episode finds them encountering some outer space phenomenon with hilarious consequences.

I was first attracted to the show because the cast features none other than Joel Hodgson, of MST3K fame. But a second big surprise is that he's also joined in space by a robot pal played by Trace Beaulieu who played Crow, his space robot pal in that show as well. A third big surprise is that one of the female leads, Tina Shukshin, is played by Milana Vayntrub (of Let's Talk About Something More Interesting though more people will recognize her as "the AT&T girl"). Actually seeing these three people interacting in the same show makes me scared that the producers have actually tapped into my dreams somehow and are putting it on screen. What am I, the Lathe of Heaven? [Obscure PBS referencessss. No one ever gets them.] In the second season, watch them to be flying in the A-Team van and add a Philadelphia Eagles sub-plot.

I found "Other Space" to be pretty funny and would recommend giving it a watch. The show's creator is Paul Feig who was one of the minds behind "Freaks and Geeks". The sci-fi is well done and there's lots of solid comedy despite the somewhat cheap budget. The main strength of the show is the character acting - there are some great, offbeat deliveries and one suspects there's some improv going on. The pace/editing of the show is very quick, which I find troubling, but that may just mean that it rewards repeated viewings and would be great for quoting with friends.

MST3K Trivia Tidbits:

 - Joel's sporting long hair which is something that he did in the very, very early days of MST3K. His character, as well as some aspects of the show (and therefore the hair), were originally inspired by Bruce Dern's 60s hippie spaceman character in the movie "Silent Running".

- Trace Beaulieu's robot character is named "A.R.T." In the early days of MST3K they would read fan letters. One day, a child sent in a drawing of the show's characters with each of them neatly labeled. The picture of Crow was labeled as "Art" for reasons that no one of the show could understand. For the rest of the series, Crow would periodically be called Art as an inside joke.

Tonight Show - Bottom of the Charts

This is a great example of comedy that's so stupid that it's funny.



That's a deep cut, referencing the Crash Test Dummies. Who remembers the Crash Test Dummies? That, plus Pee Wee's timing is off.

Tonight Show - The Hawkeye Theme

This one's kind of borderline but I found it to be catchy and cute. Hawkeye is a little insecure about his lack of superpowers and decides to sing about it using the singing power of song...



The man bowls over 70!

The Official Space Jam Website: Still Existing

Would you like to flashback to the 90s? Do you remember what it was like to be on geocities? Would you like free screen savers and browser icons? Have you forgotten what it's like for a website to have frames?

Then head on down to the official Space Jam website which is inexplicably still a valid destination on the Information Superhighway. Simply point your browser device to:

http://www2.warnerbros.com/spacejam/movie/jam.htm

Where are the MIDIs?

And press enter and -- Zing!-- you're there! Check your connection before downbringing the trailer - it's 7.5 Megabytes, so be prepared to wait a while! Don't forget to call the toll-free number to buy the soundtrack on cassette. Order now and get a web-surfers-only special!

[Thanks to Red Letter Media for this tidbit]

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Tonight Show - Emotional Interview

Jimmy sits down with Robert Downey Jr. for an "emotional" interview.

GMM - Weirdest Workout Trends

Today on Good Mythical Morning, Rhett and Link review the weirdest workout trends. Not covered: Jazzercise.


"Oooh, they're gonna hip hop, Link! They're gonna hip hop!"

Conan and Jordan Schlansky in The Room

Conan and Jordan Schlansky play a game where two people locked in a room have to solve a puzzle in order to escape. Tommy Wiseau is not involved in anyway.

Hogan's Heroes : Breaking

I'm watching an episode of Hogan's Heroes from Season 5 and in the episode "the gang" has to retrieve something from Klink's safe. So Newkirk puts on the stethoscope and breaks into it.

Come on, this is Season 5, they should simply have the combination memorized by now. What are we supposed to think, that Klink is changing out his safe every few days? Heh Heh.

The Tonight Show - Louis C.K.

How rare it is that "The Dana Carvey" show gets mentioned in any capacity but how sweet it is. Louis C.K. tells a story about the time when he was head writer for "The Dana Carvey Show" and Jimmy Fallon auditioned to be in the cast.



I've always thought I should make a post dedicated to "The Dana Carvey Show" but I probably never will so I might as well summarize it briefly here.

"The Dana Carvey Show" was a tragically under-watched, underrated, under-appreciated show that was cancelled after just 7 episodes. It was probably my favorite show of the mid-90s.

Look at the talent involved. The writers/performers for the show included:

Louis C.K.
Robert Smigel
Dana Carvey
Stephen Colbert
Greg Daniels (Parks and Rec, King of the Hill, The Office)
Steve Carell
Spike Feresten (SNL, The Simpsons, Seinfeld)
Charlie Kaufman (yes, THE Charlie Kaufman, Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)
Jon Glaser (Late Night with Conan O'Brien)
Bob Odenkirk
Dino Stamatopoulos (Late Night with Conan O'Brien)

And ALMOST Jimmy Fallon.

Brian Stack Leaves Conan

Thursday was long-time writer Brian Stack's last show. Stack joined in 1997 during the "Late Night" days and was a mainstay actor in sketches and bits. Some of my personal favorites were: Clive Clemmons, Hannigan (the traveling salesman), Artie Kendall (the Bing Crosby-esque singer), Brian LaFontaine (the creepy lounge singer), the singer of the Minty theme, WikiBear and Frankenstein.

The best-of tribute to him is not available on youtube but can be watched on the Conan website here.

This feels like a huge loss. He, along with Robert Smigel, Jon Glaser, Andy Blitz and Brian McCann seemed to be the heart of the show that I first fell in love with in the late 90s. And of those, Stack was the last one left.





"Hitlery-hoo???"

The Price Is Right

Still pretty smooth.

The Late Late Show - Corden's First Episode

The new host of The Late Late Show is James Corden and his first episode aired last night. You can watch it here.

Although I've stated it many times, I'll mention again how a late night talk show can't be assessed based on the first episode - it's a marathon not a sprint, and boy is it a long marathon. He had the big comedy piece with loads of celebrities and it went well (see below) but he's not going to have that every night. And his first guests were Mila Kunis and Tom Hanks... he will also not have those guests every night.

That aside, how was the first episode? It was good. The monologue was short but heartfelt - he thanked his predecessor Craig Ferguson but didn't thank Craig Kilborn or Tom Snyder (more on that later). The guests were obviously good. He has Reggie Watts as his band leader. He has no desk and they actually had both guests come out at the same time. It's unclear whether that's going to be the norm or whether that's just for the first show.

The second comedy piece (see below) was also very good. One gets the feeling that they'll be going for the kind of comedy pieces that go viral on youtube instead of the usual "desk" routines (well, there's no desk, so...). Again though, you won't have Tom Hanks every night.





I love the fact that they went with a Willy Wonka/Golden Ticket reference, I'm a big fan. But there's something strange and coincidental about that. When Craig Kilborn's first episode as host was about to air, this is one of the commercials that aired:



And this wasn't the only one, it was a whole campaign of several different commercials. There was even one with Vince Vaughn that you can watch here.

It's the same show so why do I think it's strange and coincidental? Well Corden didn't thank Craig Kilborn for starting/continuing the show. Seems like if he was even slightly aware of the show's past, he would have done that.

The Tonight Show - Piccolo Girl

This is one of those "feel good" clips that you can send to your grandma or aunt. I won't explain who the Villanova Piccolo Girl is because it's already in the clip but she sits in with The Roots for the night.

Movie Review: Saturday Night (2014)

Saturday Night (2014)

Filmed in 2008, premiered in 2010 and officially released in 2014, I'm surprised that I had never even heard that this movie existed until today.

"Saturday Night" is a fly-on-the-wall documentary that follows the cast and crew of "Saturday Night Live" for the production cycle of one episode (one week). The host (John Malkovich) is introduced on Monday and from that point they have 5 days left to write and produce an hour and a half of  live television.

This movie is exactly what I was expecting and exactly what I wanted. You always hear the lore of SNL - about how the writers stay up all night to try to squeeze out sketch ideas, how sketches can be killed by one bad rehearsal, how no one can memorize the lines because rewrites are happening right up to the time of going live - but you ONLY hear about it, there's never been a way to see it up close. In fact, most of the inner workings of SNL seem to be pretty well shrouded in secrecy. This movie really takes you inside and places you in the middle of everything that's happening.

Directed by James Franco, the film is extremely low budget but I get the feeling that that has more positives, in this case, than negatives. For one thing, I think a full documentary crew would be seen as too intrusive to the show and wouldn't be allowed access to begin with - better to have a few people with handheld cameras. But it also helps to shed the weight of being "a documentary". I don't need an interview about what Chevy Chase did in 1976 and I certainly don't need the backstory of how the show began. The movie is simply: how are these people going to get a show to air this week? Will it be funny? And the handheld cameras, unsteady as they may be, suit the stressful, hectic feeling perfectly.

7/10.

This movie is very hard to find (I thought) except that while writing this review, I found it's on Hulu. That was easy. You can watch it (with commercials) here.

Continue? - The Ken Burns Tetralogy

One of my favorite recurring bits on Continue? is when they spoof Ken Burns documentaries. Below are all four times they've done it. All of which were edited by Josh Henderson.

First is one of my favorite episodes all-time, "Sammy Sosa Softball Slam" which parodies "Baseball". Also the ending (which I won't spoil) is so great.



In "Super Conflict" they tackle "The Civil War" (though there might be some "The Great War" in there) and it's another excellent ending.



This is probably the weakest episode, "Rising Zan". Also probably "The Civil War" though the music is from "Baseball".



"Guerilla War" doesn't reference any specific Ken Burns documentary, it's more of an amalgam. But Ken Burns does have a documentary called "Vietnam" due to be aired next year. This episode is notable for the fact that it's the first appearance of any other character other than Granola Daniel.

Tonight Show - Will Ferrell is Little Debbie

Uhhh.... well.... I guess, Will Ferrell is Little Debbie.

IMDB 250

In addition to the current IMDB Top 250 list, the IMDB website also created several historical lists across the history of their existence. They take a snapshot of what the IMDB 250 looked like at the end of the year 2002, for instance, and call it the Top 250 2002.

If you've watched all the movies on a particular list (and you have an IMDB account), they'll award you the "badge" for that list. This is what my profile looks like as of today:

2015 Cardboard Classic

The rules of the Cardboard Classic are simple: make a sled using only cardboard and glue. And yet, ever year the sleds get more and more creative and impressive.

And yet for how funny and crazy the event is, it seems to me to be the best kept secret going. I would think this thing would be "known" by now. I would think that each year's video would be another viral sensation. As of now, this video has only 467 views. I don't mind being in on a secret, I'm just surprised.

I Was with Coco

Todd Levin is a former writer for Late Night with Conan O'Brien and the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. He wrote an article for GQ about what it was like during the Conan/NBC debacle called "I Was with Coco. It's pretty interesting but not a ton of new information... Read it in full here.

Mr. Belvedere Update

In this week's episode of "Mr. Belvedere", the writers decided to go dark. I mean, there's "a very special episode" dark and then there's "ALF's Christmas Special" dark. This was borderline "ALF's Christmas Special".

So, in the episode, Wesley is hanging out in an old folk's home. I don't know why, I missed the beginning. I'm guessing the reason he was there was that it was in the script. But then an old woman gives him money. Ok. But then the old woman accuses him of stealing the money. What's the deal?

It's time for a dramatic monologue from the special guest star. "I think I have Alzheimer's Disease.", she says but doesn't care to find out for sure. But then what happened with the money? Well, by accusing him of stealing, Wesley won't like her anymore and so won't have to suffer through her long, slow descent into madness and death. Yeah, it's much better to make a child feel guilty and give him the feeling that he let you down before you died.

Fortunately for little Wesley, this plan doesn't reach completion. Some time later, he finds out what she did and why and goes back to visit her in the home. Wesley's a really memorable guy, and love conquers all, so it's time for the happy ending that the 80s deserve. Wesley goes back to the home only to find that not only does she have no idea who he is, but she also isn't even able to function as a human being anymore. Time for Mr. Belvedere (Brocktoon) to take him home.

And that's it. Have fun, kids.

Well... technically, that isn't entirely true. The show still ends with Brocktoon writing in his diary and they have him looking particularly silly drinking tea out of one of those beer-dispensing plastic helmets. But it feels like an empty gesture and the credits roll to a dour rendition of the theme song with a particularly mournful clarinet. "We might just live the good life yet", I mean, that one old lady from the episode definitely won't but, you know, we might.

Conan in Cuba

Conan became the first person to film an entire late-night talk show in Cuba. The whole episode is nothing but remotes so it's obviously great and worth watching. You can watch the whole episode here.

But, for what it's worth, I thought I would post my favorite segment. This woman's attitude is priceless.

Continue? - Kid Dracula

The Continue? Guys and Dom play "Demon Castle Special: I'm Kid Dracula", a nintendo game that was only released in Japan. They struggle to reconcile the great gameplay with the varying levels of racism.

GMM - The Mystery of UVB-76

This is going to be slightly out of context, if you want the full context you can watch this first. But I thought this mystery of UVB-76 was particularly interesting as it sounds very much like something from "Lost".

Tonight Show - Jimmy's SNL 40 Story

Jimmy tells the story of what happened to him at the SNL 40th Anniversary party. I'm sorry I missed it.



You can tell they had a long night because later in the show, Jimmy mentioned that Edward Norton was on the show and he came out for his interview. Once everyone determined that it wasn't time for the interview yet, Ed had to go back from whence he came.

Conan - Triumph and Jack Again

Earlier Triumph and Jack McBrayer were on NBC to promote their new show and now they're on Conan to deliver the jokes that NBC wouldn't allow...



You can hear Triumph's special Andy jokes here.

Tonight Show - Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

Triumph on the Tonight Show. Triumph the Insult Comic Dog has a new show on Adult Swim in which he co-stars with Jack McBrayer. In this clip, Jack explains the premise of the show...