I still can’t tell if it’s the Huruwitz/Vallely/Arnett/Cross-love, but certain words just keep jumping out at me and making me feel so warm on the inside.
The voiceover. The dysfunctionally rich. The main sane grounded character. The crazy puns. Oh, the crazy puns.
Regardless, I will keep watching.
It’s got a lot more heart than AD, that’s one big difference.
A social hacker, that is.
That’s all I got for this week’s HIMYM. It wasn’t very good.
From this episode of this american life. Joss Whedon on stage performing a commentary on his commentary…
I love it. The meta is awesome.
// Yes, I’m catching up on my podcasts. A week old, but hopefully it’s new to some of you.
A bit of spoiler, but I don’t think I’m giving too much away. Besides, these days, I think I’m in the minority of people who watch Saturday Night Live fairly regularly and care about it.
I was very pleasantly surprised by this week’s episode, which can be summed up by this line.
“Wait a second… You’re the frigging Closet Organizer guy, aren’t you?”
I don’t remember a time when a multi-sketch callback was used on Saturday Night Live. Monty Python’s Flying Circus had a couple here and there, and HBO’s Mr. Show had only sketch transitions with callback.
But in Saturday Night Live? Someone comment if they have seen it before. I’d like to find that episode and watch it.
Callbacks in sketch shows make me enjoy the show all the more. I’d like to think that more effort was made to ensure that all associated sketches would melt harmoniously into one giant ball of funny. In this instance, Will Forte’s and Jon Hamm’s characters reliving the past infomercial sketch, followed by the suggestion to go home and help clean out a closet… hilarious.
Just wanted to share. Here it is on Hulu.
I have a huge love for comedies, especially sketch comedies. Saturday Night Live (and MadTV, yes… I was a MadTV fan) has been a favorite of mine for as long as I can remember liking sketch comedies on television.
I don’t think I’m alone in saying this: Saturday Night Live has become less funny and relevant. The more talented and experienced cast members have moved on to other shows and movies, and the new members that have joined haven’t really proved themselves yet. I do enjoy the political sketches (which is why I watch The Daily Show religiously), but the rest of the show could just be replaced with Digital Shorts. But even the Digital Shorts are becoming hit-or-miss, with the majority of them being misses.
Even with these mixed feelings, I watch pretty regularly. On some weeks, I’ve seen them via an actual television (which let me see the f-bomb droppage in real time), but mostly I’ve caught them on Hulu.
As I’m writing this, I’m watching “SNL Presents: A Very Gilly Christmas” which aired this past Thursday in place of NBC’s comedy lineup. Gilly, a recurring character played by the talented Kristen Wiig, serves as a transition between the some of the better holiday sketches put on by SNL. (I really don’t like this recurring character, by the way.)
One of the main reasons I keep watching is the hope that the show will actually get better… Maybe even return to the good ol’ days when the show was hilarious from start to end.
But maybe this wasn’t the case. I wasn’t alive when SNL started, when the cast members were called “Not Ready for Prime-Time Players.” Really, the great sketches that I’ve come to love and respect have been passed through many filters of producers and critics. Maybe if I actually saw them all I would feel differently about the good ol’ days.
Nostalgia is such a strong force. And actually, I feel it already with the early 20th season of SNL, when I got introduced to the show back in middle school. It was around the time when I finally felt comfortable with the English language, as well as started to dive deeper into the American experience.
Oh those days… so much to write on those days…
Yesterday night, I started rewatching an episode of Firefly (while weeping uncontrollably at the cancellation of such a great show).
At around 1:20 on the fifth episode (not by airdate), Safe, a conversation occurs between a young Simon Tam and his Dad, Gabriel Tam.
Simon: Did you get my wave?
Gabriel: I got it. Your text shorted. I got the whole thing during a board meeting. Thank you.
Simon: If I had a dedicated source box, it wouldn’t short out. I lost half my essay.
Gabriel: Yes, and you would’ve have access to any “tyen-shiao duh”* that filtered in from the Cortex. I absolutely forbid it.
**According to this awesome compendium of Chinese phrases in Firefly, “tyen-shiao duh” (天曉得/天晓得) means “Heaven Knows What”.*
Recently, a bunch of invitations were sent out for Google Wave, a new communication project by Google. For a moment, I thought maybe it was possible that Google Wave was somehow inspired by this little conversation… but instead, I thought little of it since the idea of a “wave” seemed just ubiquitous enough in general sci-fi.
Turns out, Someone from Whedonesque already made the connection:
The presentation includes the lead programming engineers and project managers making multiple Firefly/Serenity references and even the “Wave” program itself prints the words, “Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!” at the bottom of the screen when it unexpectedly crashes (it’s still in development).
A couple of fun little notes, if this little conversation actually took place in a world where Google Wave has united all communication.
“Your text shorted.”: I think that the word “text” means something else here. Any ideas?
“I got the whole thing during a board meeting.” Maybe Gabriel didn’t set his settings properly… but I’m fairly certain that as things are today, it won’t push things to you, unless you’re logged in. Maybe there’s some awesome third party apps action going on. Or… maybe you’re logged into Wave all the time.
“… A dedicated source box…” Since the whole thing is open source (and quite a bit of XMPP magic, might I add), I wouldn’t doubt that a dedicated “source” box would be fun to play with.
“I lost half my essay.” That still happens? I’m pretty sure Wave starts saving things as soon as you start typing them. Regardless, are applications not able to save every single character that we type, including all the fun metadata (when was it typed, where in the universe it was typed, even… how hard it was typed on the keyboard)? Heck, do we even type anymore? I’m already missing the point by thinking about the future in such present terminology.
“… Filtered from the cortex.” Too open? Parental controls?
I’m having too much fun with this. And actually reading the comments from the Whedonesque post, there seems to be a bit more references to waves.
Not only is this post discussing the nerdy in a fictional universe, it’s also a friendly reminder for you to go back and rewatch Firefly. Chances are if you’re reading this, you have already done so multiple times.