Unsought Input

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  Over on Neil Gaiman’s web journal there is all sorts of news about his newest novel, The Graveyard  Book, due out by the end of the year. If you weren’t sure, I am pretty excited about this whole affair with Mr. Gaiman being one of my favorite authors of all time. A quick little quote from his site quoting Kurt Busiek talking about the novel:

THE GRAVEYARD BOOK’s title is an homage to THE JUNGLE BOOK, since TGB is about a boy whose family dies, and who winds up being raised in a graveyard, by ghosts, and the other things that lurk there.

The boy, named Nobody (”Bod” for short), learns many things, discovers odd places and curious people, deals hesitantly with the world outside the graveyard and eventually has to deal with the forces that killed the rest of his family, and who are still looking for him. I won’t say much more about the plot, because hey, it’s not going to be out for months.

But I think it’s likely Neil’s best novel yet. It has a great deal of warmth, whimsy, dark fantasy (verging on horror), adventure, charm, suspense, monsters, ghouls, a witch, school bullies, policemen, ancient burial mounds, knife-wielding killers, dancing, mystery, trouble, a dash of romance, life lessons, and a creature named Silas, who is both what he seems to be and not. And the most endearingly dangerous and threatening ancient terror you’ve ever met. The story’s engaging, there’s a real sense of menace, and it builds to a strong and satisfying climax.

Either way, it’s in my things to check out list. If you are unfamiliar with Neil Gaiman’s work you can read American Gods for free on line. Personally, I like American Gods and it’s sequel Anansi Boys the best of his work. You can read the whole novel. In fact, I insist you read the whole novel. It’s free. The whole book. And it’s a pretty big book. You can read a few pages a day while at work or before bed. Whenever. But it’s free and it’s available and it would be a shame not to take advantage of it.

Which brings me to my next little subject, has anyone heard of Endless Reflections, the Sandman graphic novels? That link right before this sentence was something I stumbled upon which makes me think that there might be a TV series for the Sandman comics. How cool would that be!? If anyone has any news, please post in comments. I looked all over wikipedia and his site with no avail. I really hope this isn’t just a joke, I think this would be the coolest TV show.

A few months back we wrote about the comedic possibilities of super heroes confronting real life.  In the last few years there has been a flood of super hero comics, movies, and TV shows and many of them place people with extraordinary abilities in ordinary situations.  Witness the blockbuster Spider-Man movies, or heroes like Hiro from Heroes.

But beyond the world of fiction, what kind of super powers can we find in real life?  Sure, it’s fun to come up with speculative pseudoscience explanations for Superman’s heat vision, but that’s not likely to produce any results.  Even non-powered heroes like Batman rely too much on poor comic book physics and unrealistic survivability to produce real-life counterparts.

We’ll find our real-life super powers in less obvious places.  In the 1980s Marvel had a character named Cypher, or more properly Doug Ramsey.   Doug wasn’t known by his super hero name because his power wasn’t flashy or very useful in battle - Doug was genetically gifted with the ability to understand languages.

This amazing ability to learn languages (along with numbers, dates, etc.) is something you can find in real life, often linked with disabling autism.  Often, but not always.  Watch the video to see the life of Daniel Tammet, the boy with the incredible brain.

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Magician Criss Angel will join Uri Geller on Phenomenon on NBC. The show is billed as American Idol for magicians and “mentalists,” but that’s not really interesting. Within the next few years there will be an American Idol-style show for every profession, hobby, and pursuit in the history of man.

What’s interesting is that Geller, who has for years gone on TV all over the world claiming to have psychic powers, is still able to get on TV at all. He’s been caught cheating and had his powers debunked so many times it’s not even funny anymore.

He was probably most famously exposed by James Randi (The Amazing Randi). Watch the video below for some entertaining history.

Yes, that’s right, Geller is so busted that he flaked out on Johnny Carson. In 1973. That’s more than 30 years of being busted.

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NOOOOOOOO!!!!!  Just watch if you haven’t seen this already.

Before we answer that question, take a look at the video below. This is Jon Stewart interviewing Chris Matthews about his new book, Life’s a Campaign: What Politics Has Taught Me About Friendship, Rivalry, Reputation, and Success:

This is very different from most interviews with authors touring news and talk shows in support of their new book. The most obvious difference is that Stewart has a strong opinion and actually takes Matthews to task for what in the book. Most interviews consist of fluffy questions like, “so what inspired you to write this book” followed by 60 seconds of uninterrupted marketing while the interviewer casts loving gazes the author’s way.The most shocking thing for me, though, is that Stewart has actually read Matthews’ book and come up with his own, very informed, opinion about it. It sounds disgusting, but I don’t think I’ve gotten this impressions from any “real news” shows in the past.Take a look at The Daily Show interview with Alan Greenspan:

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Here is a PSA from Winnie the Pooh and his show Pooh’s corner that featured actors in costume’s against a green screen and looks like it cost $5 per season. It’s really creepy to watch them talk about kids being touched because the costumes are smiling the whole time so it looks like they’re really into it. Considering neither one of them is wearing pants either is it really appropriate for them to be talking to kids like that?

Corner Gas
On WGN Superstation in the United States:

In a Nutshell: (Clerks+Seinfeld/It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) + Northern Exposure

I’m absolutely tickled by what Canada has been serving up on the box lately. Sure, they gave us SCTV, The Kids In The Hall and The Red Green Show, but it’s been an awfully long time inbetween those and their latest offerings: Trailer Park Boys (2001-2006), Corner Gas (2001-present) and Little Mosque on the Prairie (2006-present). While TBP didn’t get much of a showing in the US, and Little Mosque on the Prairie might not ever have a chance here (it totally should), America is finally getting a full taste of Saskatchewan’s answer to Seinfeld - Corner Gas. WGN, which has been a part of most basic cable packages for years, picked up Canada’s favorite show (now in its 5th season in Canada) and put it in heavy rotation.

You really don’t want to miss this one, folks.

The premise is very simple - it’s about a small town in Saskatchewan called Dog River (population ~500). The town center is a gas station run by Brent LeRoy (Brent Butt) that he has taken over from his retired father, Oscar (Eric Peterson). The station is connected (think “truck stop”) to a small diner called Ruby’s, which is now run by a displaced Torontonian named Lacey (Gabrielle Miller). Brent’s unemployed but forever-scheming friend Hank (Fred Ewanuick) hangs out at the gas station, as does the rest of the town. Brent’s sole employee Wanda, his mom Emma and the two town cops round out the cast. Plot lines revolve around little schemes and happenings in the town.

As I said - extremely simple. However, the writing, acting and even the editing makes this show extremely compelling and even - dare I say it - laugh-out-loud funny! I know this makes me sound like TV Guide but honestly people, I try not to steer you wrong here (please ignore my previous attempts at liking Studio 60. We all make mistakes.) I was ready to not believe the hype, but the first scene of the first show caught me off guard and made me let out a huge guffaw. Yes, I guffawed out loud. It’s that good.

You’ll note in the In A Nutshell description, I liken the show to Clerks (about goofy characters who hang out all day at the convenience store), Seinfeld (a show about nothing, with terrific acting), It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (today’s Seinfeld) and Northern Exposure (fish out of water in a sleepy northern town).

Corner Gas is more like Northern Exposure and less like Seinfeld in that it has sympathetic characters. On the flip side, it’s a little more edgy than Northern Exposure and zero drama. Fast camera breaks to illustrate stories and the geekiness of some of the characters’ conversations bring it back into Clerks and …Philadelphia territory. And, the amazingly deadpan dry humor of writer/star Brent Butt rounds out the perfectness to make it a show entirely worth watching. I guarantee you’ll like the freshness of it and at the same time find it to be a style you feel comfortable with. Extremely dry sarcasm and unapologetic Canadian-ness makes it hard to look away. And don’t worry if you miss a few episodes - they’re completely self-contained.

This show has made all of Canada go ga-ga for Gas for the past 4 years, receiving numerous awards, breaking new ground (first show to have Canadian Prime Minister guest star, first show to release a previous season on DVD before a new season is out, etc) and I’m guessing it’s second only to Hockey Night In Canada. This could very well be Canada’s The Office or The IT Crowd, so be sure to jump on the bandwagon early before America turns it to shit.

Well yesterday were the the MTV Video Music Awards which featured a bunch of rich and famous celebrities partying and having more fun then you ever will. The big news was Britney Spears comeback at the beginning of the show. Of course in traditional crazy Britney fashion she totally bombed. First off she lip synced to her new song which apparently she didn’t even know the words too, performed a horrible routine that looked like she was going to topple over several times and also featured sexy paunch.

A lot of people are saying its unfair to criticize her for her appearance because she has had to kids, but considering 99.9% of Britney’s success was do to her looks and not musical talent I think it’s a fair criticism. Also nobody told her to have two kids with a wanna be rapper back up dancer.

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According to BusinessWeek, the Lunesta ad is one of the least-skipped commercials on TV. This is an important metric for advertisers. Ever since TiVo and other DVRs have made it easy for people to jump past commercials, advertisers have tried to find ways to get them to watch.

If you look at the rest of the the list, it’s hard to see what makes a commercial less skipworthy. I have a theory in the case of Lunesta. I think people don’t skip because they are mesmerized by the soul-eating Lunesta butterfly. Watch the video:

…And now you tell me: doesn’t it look like the butterfly brought that woman the sweet gift of a quiet death? Every time that commercial comes on, I point to the screen and yell to my wife, “That butterfly is going to steal her breath!”

Apparently I’m not the only one creeped out…

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A favorite show of mine, The IT Crowd plays on British televisions on Channel four on Friday Nights. The first season came on in February of 2006 with six episodes and the second season just started not too long ago, and by that I mean last week. This show is hilarious and should be watched by all. In fact, here is a short clip of humor to make you giggle like a small school child.

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A new reality show on CBS this fall will feature forty children running their own ghost town. Does this Lord of the Flies rendition sound like an actual quality reality show? I think so. Here is the trailer for the new show this fall.

But, according to the parents of the children sent off (to win thousands of dollars these parents signed the rights to send their children on a six week survivor trip) to live in this western ghost town in the middle of the desert, things did not turn out so well. (more…)

Just like for Harry Potter, here are some fun videos for the release of the Simpsons Movie on Friday.

Two guitars at once, playing the Simpsons theme. Very Nice.

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Now that the 2006/2007 fall TV schedule is over, it’s time to ponder what it is about television that we like so much. Is it watching people do stupid things on reality shows? How about steamy hospital dramas that have more sex than medicine? Is it comedies about fat, dumb husbands with hot wives that hate them? All of these things are well and good, but they don’t really give me what I’m looking for.

I like all types of comedy, but oddly enough, my favorite is physical comedy (oddly enough, I say, because it’s a well-known fact that women don’t “get” The Three Stooges). Perhaps I DON’T like The Three Stooges - but I do enjoy me some fallin’ down. I like people smacking themselves in the face with doors and I like people throwing themselves around the room. What makes it funnier is to see it in the middle of a sitcom where everything else is “normal” and actors get by on witty lines. It’s the physical comedians within these groups that make certain shows stand out. And, of course, there’s the stand-outs on Saturday Night Live. While I tend to consider it a bit easier to do physical comedy on a sketch show, I’ve included the standouts from that show as well.

The following is an in-depth look at physical comedy throughout the past 40 years. You will note that Dick Van Dyke and Lucille Ball, while mentioned, are not on the list. We’ll call them the far end of the “modern” scale and look past them to those they inspired.

You’ll also notice that to keep your attention, I have sprinkled a bit of nudity throughout the article. Enjoy!

20./19. (tie) Chris Farley/Will Farrel & John Belushi/Dan Akroyd - For many folks in their 20’s and 30’s, Farley and Farrel epitomize physical comedy. For the preceding generation, it’s Belushi and Akroyd. The main draw for all four of these guys is their size - seeing them take their large frames and hurl themselves through dance routines (Farley’s Chippendale, Belushi and Akroyd’s Blues Brothers, Farrel’s cheerleader) or bandy about the set in a “large” fashion (Farley’s Matt Foley, Belushi’s samurai, Farrel’s hot tub lifeguard) cemented them in our minds as guys who based their comedy on the idea that big guys doing most anything is hilarious. While they could possibly be near the top of just any “physical comedy” list, for the purposes of this list (which focuses on television), we’ll give them their rightful place near the bottom for using the unbridled comedy venue of late night, weekend, sketch comedy television to hone their skills.

18. Molly Shannon - A former SNL cast member NOT known for her movie career, Shannon makes it in to the top 20 by taking some seriously badass falls. Her work as the character Mary Katherine Gallagher was mindblowingly physical - launching oneself into a pile of boxes or chairs on “live” TV is much more impressive than doing it in a movie or even a taped sitcom. All that, and she’s wearing a short skirt! She also added a lot of dancing and gymnastics to her other characters such as Sally O’Mally (”I’m FIFTY years old!”). She probably won’t be remembered as one of the best SNL cast members of all time, and her career went pretty dead after she left the show - but she gets an A+ for effort for slinging herself around with the boys of SNL.

17./16. Sarah Chalke/Zach Braff - You don’t generally find good physical comedy in today’s sitcoms. Heck, with all the reality show buzz, it’s hard to find a sitcom at all. But along with being brilliantly written and acted, Scrubs holds up the current television schedule with a little bit of physical comedy thanks to Braff and Chalke. From the beginning, Braff has been taking shots to the head from inanimate objects and riding his scooter through seemingly solid objects. And of course, he’s been through the Ritter/Van Dyke school of falling down. Chalke gets her position on the list for being the hottest chick on television (or so I’ve read) to take the occasional fall or just flail around hopelessly.

15. Don Knotts - Knotts gets his points basically for being extremely funny-looking and putting it to use in a comedic fashion. He’s funny just when his hair is out of place as Barney Fife. He’s funny when he’s scared. Funny when he’s drunk. Funny when he’s trying to be macho. His high-pitched excited voice and spindly frame serve as a template for actors like Zach Braff (16), Andy Dick (13) and Michael Richards (10) as he fully embraced his end of the comedy spectrum as “that weird little guy.” Later in his career, on Three’s Company, he kept up his reputation as being a sort of “rubberband man” with his his bug-eyed facial expressions and slow-wittedness. While Knotts didn’t do as much falling down shtick as others known for their physical comedy, his ability to play out “anxious” through facial expressions and mannerisms sets him up as a true modern physical comedy legend.

14. Ellen DeGeneres - Before Ellen was known as a lesbian, she was known as a great female physical comedian. Able to clumsily dance and sing her way through her sitcom (and now even her own talk show), she brought back the clumsy female lead we really hadn’t seen since I Love Lucy. Although the sitcom itself wasn’t really anything to write home about, the classic setup of miscommunication -> “madness ensues” was made more palpable and fresh by having DeGeneres herself do the pratfalls and play the dummy. DeGeneres plays as a female Don Knotts doing the comedy of Jerry Seinfeld and getting herself into situations similar to Lucille Ball.

13. Andy Dick - It would appear that while Andy Dick played America’s favorite spazz on television (Newsradio), he was also quite a spazz in real life. The Newsradio writers obviously put this to good use and used Dick as a punching bag for the show - during the second season, every show opened with Dick’s character falling down for some reason or another. While this didn’t carry through to the following seasons, falls, smacks and flailing were a part of Dick’s repertoire throughout the rest of the show’s run. Combine that with the perfectly clueless nature of Matthew Brock, and this little gem of a physical comedian shines. Much like Scrubs, which adds more humor to its already awkwardly-humorous setting (a hospital) by adding slapstick, Newsradio brings a new facet to making office life humorous by adding physical comedy in the form of Andy Dick.

12. Chevy Chase - Really not known for his work on TV…but his stint as a cast member on Saturday Night Live solidifies him as one of the most memorable physical comedians in modern TV history. Why? Well, I am a huge fan of the prat fall and no one does it better than Chase. While Chase is known as a terrific prick and was definitely not a favorite amongst fellow cast members, he sure did a hell of a job falling down on camera. He didn’t even resemble Gerald Ford in the least bit, but he ingrained the image of Ford as a clumsy boob for all future generations. Chase did the “fall of the week” during SNL openings…and that’s why he’s number 13.

11. Steve Martin - Like Chase, Martin isn’t known for his television work anymore, but he’s so good he’s remembered for being a cast member on Saturday Night Live (which he wasn’t). Martin is the modern equivalent of a Vaudeville man, using props, songs and incredibly lame humor in his act. He’s very much the guy who made the “fake arrow through the head” funny and danced around like a complete buffoon singing about King Tut. Martin’s physical appeal is in his lanky body and large voice, accompanied by his self-deprecating humor. His physicality in the “wild and crazy guys” alone earns him a spot on this list for funny catch phrase, funny costume, funny accent and funny dance.

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We’ve shown you the total awesomeness that are Japanese obstacle course competitions. And we’ve brought you the true power and spectacle of Hard Gay. So now head three minutes into the video below to see the Beyond-Ultra-Power-Awesomeness that happens when you combine the two.

Bonus Awesomeness awaits when the British announcer points out that Hard Gay’s competitor “takes one to the old happy sacks”.