Archive for the ‘comedy’ Category

Saturday Geeking Picard, Sinking Who, Batwoman Crisis, Where’s the Orville? John Wayne vs Baldrick and Two Down Four to Go

Posted: January 25, 2020 by datechguy in comedy, culture, entertainment

I haven’t taken the time to watch Picard because I refuse to sign up for CBS all access and it seems to be the general consensus is that Patrick Stewart is excellent and while it’s a tad woke it could have been a lot worse.

I really get the feeling that there are a lot of Stewart fans who really WANT to like the series because they want to like him, combine that with the fact that he’s a generally good actor playing an iconic character the he originated and you get fans almost desperate to cheer it.

What does it say about what the woke have done to a series when “Couda been a lot worse” sounds like a victory lap?

Meanwhile Doctor Who continues to crash and burn with rating sinking to McCoy era numbers and worse. The fact that rotten tomatoes keeps clearing out bad reviews makes it even worse in terms of appearance that they have somehow decided to sign for yet another series after this one.

It seems the woke folks at the BBC are determined to purge the last of the old fan base to leave the series pure without it to the point where we are actually seeing people say it’s beyond redemption at this point and better off cancelled.

I have a feeling all of his was avoidable but you get a real feeling that these guys hated their customer base more than the liked the franchise, and frankly the didn’t like the franchise all that much.

The same crashing and burning is taking place in Batwoman. The rating weren’t all that good to start and Crisis on Infinite Earth’s Crossover managed to eat up a lot of oxygen (the whole multiverse idea which now allows the possibility of every single person who ever played any DC character to cross over is big, particularly when you consider that there is at least one comic “universe” where the DC & Marvel heroes co-exist) but once it had to stand on it’s own woke feet the burn began again and the rating are finding new frontiers of holes.

Now it’s possible that even the lousy ratings it has generates enough funds to pay for the series and if it does then they can continue to play the woke game as long as they want (sort of like Doctor Who) where it continues to be a niche show for a niche market, but if that’s not the case and it remains the CW version of the WNBA only surviving because the larger franchise is willing to take a hit to prove its woke credentials it remains to be seen how long it can go on.

With so many longtime franchises committing woke Seppuku the wait for the 3rd season of The Orville has been excruciating. You would not think that one of the wokest lights in Hollywood would be producing practically the last show that can be enjoyed just for being good but McFarline has done it not allowing his woke message (yeah it’s there we all see it just like we did in every series of Doctor Who Pre-Whitaker ) to overwhelm actual storytelling.

The wait is harder because I’ve actually reached the point where we don’t know if the temptation to go full woke is there. He’s reached a point of wealth and celebrity where it doesn’t really matter but I get the feeling he hold just enough of the geek/fanboy inside of him that he doesn’t want to screw over others the way the other franchises have.

Hope I’m right.

Was looking for a free movie on Amazon Prime and settled on Brannigan one of the last pictures John Wayne made where he plays a Chicago Cop to travels to England to pick up a fugitive, John Vernon of Dean Wormer fame.

There is one scene particularly made for comedy geeks where Wayne the acting icon meets encounters someone you would not expect to see in a John Wayne Movie

Yes that’s a very young Tony Robinson before he became a comic icon as Baldrick in the Black Adder series doing a comic pratfall for Wayne. You never see him asked about it in interviews which I find rather strange, but just seeing the two of them together given their histories is enough to make me laugh

Finally with Terry Jones dead the Pythons now have two down and four to go. Combined with Neil Innes recent death it’s a big blow to fans however given their ages not all that surprising.

I suspect it will cause a lot more interest in John Cleese’s visit to Worcester in a few weeks as the realization that the number of chances to actually see these guys in person is dropping exponentially.

I must confess that when I heard he had Alzheimer and Dementia all I could think of was him in the fourth series of Python in drag with a weird umbrella like hood over his head doing an odd dance in the street and ask “given the characters he has played over the years how can anyone tell the difference?”

Ricky Gervais Does the Impossible

Posted: January 7, 2020 by datechguy in comedy, culture, entertainment, Vive L'Empereur
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I went to the Doctor’s on Monday to get an update on the shoulder (I start therapy later this month, looks like Surgery is off the table for the moment) and something amazing took place as I entered the x-ray room.

The x-ray tech was talking about the golden globes.

Now if you are my age you are old enough to remember when the award shows of Hollywood were a big deal, who can forget that moment when John Wayne finally won an Oscar.

But this century, and particularly over the last decade as Hollywood has become more disdainful of the people who actually buy the tickets interest has dropped to the point where absolutely nobody cares and so politically correct that a ten year old tweet can doom a promising comic.

Then came Ricky Gervais who came on the air Sunday to host the golden globes and gave an opening monologue for the ages.

I’m writing this post at 2:24 PM on Monday afternoon and as of this moment this video has over 2.3 MILLION views.

As you might guess this monologue didn’t please Hollywood, the response of Lorraine Ali of the LA times (via the Washington Examiner) was typical:

Well, you say you’re woke, but the companies you work for in China — unbelievable. Apple, Amazon, Disney. If ISIS started a streaming service you’d call your agent, wouldn’t you?”

The commentary would have meant far more if Gervais himself had been brave enough to drop the tired agitator shtick and, for once, read the room.

In that critical moment Lorraine Ali revealed that she did not know who the room was.

Lorraine Ali thought his “room” was the assembled talented but self righteous celebrities who gain their wealth and influence by pretending to be what they’re not for the pleasure of the people who actually build and do the things to keep the world going. But that was not his room, nor is it the room of any TV host as I explained the next morning on twitter

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For the first time in decades people are talking about the golden globes both the night of the golden globes and the next day and while I don’t know if the ratings improved as the night went on I suspect more than a few people tuned or streamed in to see if Gervias had more to say, he did:

And in fact in a post show poll over 71% wanted to see him come back next year.

Golden Globes viewers have spoken, and they want Ricky Gervais to host “every year.” A whopping 71% of fans who voted in our recent poll said he did an “amazing” job overseeing the 77th ceremony on NBC. To compare, 9% thought he was “good, but forgettable” while the remaining 20% of haters voted that he was “awful.”

The funniest reaction came from this fellow:

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because NOBODY is more marginalized that Hollywood actors.

Now don’t let anyone be fooled, Gervais is a man of the left, he remains such a man but he was hired to do a job and part of that job is to produce buzz for this show.

If I’m NBC I would have make sure people were talking about if the would be signed next year and then with a month or two before the event sign him and watch the buzz begin and the ratings sour.

Trump impeachment leads my list of recent legendary flops

Posted: December 15, 2019 by John Ruberry in Always look at the bright side of Trump, business, comedy, culture, elections, elections, entertainment, fun, media, News/opinion, nfl, Sports
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By John Ruberry

Here’s a list of great flops in recent times. Feel free to add your own in the comments section.

Here we go.

Trump impeachment.
Battlefield Earth movie.
The XFL. (Yes, a revival is planned.)
Jussie Smollett’s hate crime.
Joe Walsh’s Republican primary challenge against Trump, as well as those of William Weld and Mark Sanford.
New Coke.
Cop Rock TV show.
Watermelon-flavored Oreos.
Heaven’s Gate movie.
Bernie Madoff.
Jar Jar Binks.
The Cleveland Browns firing Bill Belichick.
ESPN becoming woke.
Theresa May’s call for a snap parliamentary election in 2017.
Cheetos lip balm.
Paris Hilton.
The Big Ten conference inviting Rutgers to join.
Anything related to Anna Nicole Smith.
Mars Needs Moms movie.
Manimal TV show.
Jeremy Corbin’s term as head of the Labour Party.
Pontiac Aztek.
The San Diego Chargers move to Los Angeles.
Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign, “I was born to be in it.”
Google Glass.
CNN’s decision to become the impeachment network.
Rosie O’Donnell on The View.
Michael Avenatti’s presidential run.
Enron.
Motorola Rokr phone. (I was given one of these by my employer at the time. It was truly a dreadful device.)
Heinz purple ketchup.

Now some of these debacles can also double as hoaxes, such as the “racist assault on Smollett. And of course the impeachment of Trump, which of course is stumbling along despite the lack of evidence that a crime was committed.

Witch-hunter in chief in the House, Adam Schiff, dabbles in screenplay writing. Perhaps a Schiff-scripted movie might make it on a future list.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Anthony Jay & Jonathan Lynn Prophets of Yesterday’s Impeachment Hearings

Posted: November 16, 2019 by datechguy in Always look at the bright side of Trump, comedy, entertainment, politics
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I was actually wasn’t all that surprised with what I saw when I saw the article above or watched the sample of yesterday’s impeachment hearings that I was willing to waste with.

That’s because the whole argument of the left against Trump was made on TV 33 years ago by two of the funniest men who ever wrote about politics in my favorite episode of the best sitcom ever about the political world:

Sir Humphrey: So what’s the foreign office worried about then Dick? Haven’t you got the Foreign secretary eating out of your hand?

Sir Richard: Oh yes completely house trained.
Sir Humphrey: Heh, so what’s the problem?

Sir Richard: The Prime Minister’s the problem. He’s starting to mistrust our advice when the foreign secretary gives it to him.

Sir Humphrey: Ah.

Sir Richard: He’s every beginning to question foreign office policy.

Sir Humphrey: Surely not?

Sir Richard: We even see a danger of the cabinet pursuing it’s own foreign policy.

Sir Humphrey: But that’s absurd the country can’t have two foreign policies!

Yes Prime Minister A Victory for Democracy 1986

As far as the deep state is concerning the government is theirs to pursue the policies that enrich them and theirs and pols in general and particularly one like Donald Trump in particular have no business interfering. How such people are viewed are summed up breifly at the end of that scene.

Sir Humphrey: You know what happens when politicians get into Number 10; they want to take their place on the world stage.
Sir Richard: People on stages are called actors. All they are required to do is look plausible, stay sober, and say the lines they’re given in the right order.

Donald Trump has this silly idea that he is not there to enrich him and his family, after all he was already damn rich to begin with. He has the idea that he is the president elected to do a job and intends to do it, with or without the help of the deep state.

Trump’s no fool, he has had to deal with these types all his life. That’s why they were always willing to praise him and he was always willing to grease them when they asked for decades. He knows who and what they are.

I suspect if the deep state kept their head down and even if they didn’t work with him simply allowed him to do his job then they would still be anonymously intact and nobody would know a thing about Hunter Biden & Co. or any of the other stuff that is going to come out when all of this is done. Their reputations would still be intact.

They choose to fight, it was a very bad call.

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