Mike Tyson vs. Mike Tyson

This is a video a long time in the making. The actual Mike Tyson faces off against Mike Tyson in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out.



Obviously he's going to lose. Of course. But I was actually surprised by how well he did. As far as we can tell, he's never played the game before in any capacity and he actually lasts longer than I think I would by dodging some of the punches.

By the by, Mike Tyson was on the show to promote his new show "Mike Tyson Mysteries". If you haven't seen the show, it's worth checking out. It's a 70's-style cartoon show (like a "Scooby-Doo" or the Mr. T cartoon) where Mike Tyson travels the country in a van to solve mysteries. Helping him are his 18-year-old Asian daughter, a 19th century English ghost and his pigeon (voiced by Norm MacDonald). If that's not an interesting set-up for a show, I don't know what is.

Tonight Show - Bradley Cooper

This is a great bit of silliness but it can use some setting up.

Bradley Cooper was recently spotted by the paparazzi wearing an Eagles visor and having his hair straight up (he's a big fan). But while his hair is real (or so he says), there are people who sell football visors with fake hair already attached for bald people. Jimmy and Bradley wear such visors for this interview and then try to discuss the very somber play The Elephant Man...

Tonight Show - Word Sneak

Jimmy plays the game "Word Sneak" with guest Steve Carell.

Sim City Attack Ads

It's getting to be that time of year when the political ads start heating up. At stake this November is the Mayorship of Sim City. Both sides have released aggressive attack ads to gain the advantage...

Conan - Jordan Schlansky Counseling

Jordan Schlansky is getting married.... to a human woman. But Conan thinks it's important to get marriage counseling...

Late Night's 100th Episode And I'm Outta Here

On Monday, Late Night with Seth Meyers celebrated its 100th episode. I've watched every minute of every episode and I've tried to post the highlights of the show here. Given that the number of highlights has been maybe one or two clips over the span of 100 hours of television, you can imagine what I think of the show.

The internet is replete with antipathy (or so I've heard). There are "h8ers" and "trolls" and "this person OWNS this other person" and most things seem to "suck" in one way or another. I don't think this iteration of Late Night sucks, I don't even think it's bad. It's just not very funny either.

So I've watched all 100 episodes but I'm stopping here.

The big cautionary tale in this area is when Conan O'Brien took over Late Night. The show was not very funny, Conan got the reputation of not being funny and the show was consistently in danger of being cancelled. And look at him now.

But Conan's failure was a different kind of failure. Conan was trying new and extremely experimental types of comedy and the danger of experiments is that they often blow up in your face. In the early years Conan was striking out but he would go down swinging. If I saw that with Seth Meyers I'd be completely on board. But I don't see that. I don't see anything new, groundbreaking or even very interesting. It's just "safe" and on an even keel all the time. It's middle-of-the-road. It's a type of talk show that takes all the tremendous highs and lows of trying new things - things that may "hit" but may "bomb" - and flattens them all out into comedy that's always slightly amusing.

Seth Meyers' show reminds me a lot of Jack Paar, which means I should love it. But Paar told stories with more emotion which evoked heightened reactions. Paar added weight to the show by inviting politicians on and asking them probing, even challenging, questions (contrast that with the dumbed-down lovefest that Meyers recently had with Nancy Pelosi... or better yet, don't). Most importantly, Jack Paar had Jonathan Winters. And if Seth Meyers ever gets anyone like Jonathan Winters I'll be right there watching again.