Big Bang” has proved itself to be a dependable treat. The characters have become humanized and multidimensional, their relationships are believable and well-sketched, and the one-liners and jokes are consistently funny. (The ratings reflect the show’s creative upswing: “Big Bang Theory” has gotten its highest-ever ratings in its third season.)
I especially enjoy that there are different flavors to the comedy. Some of the humor is quite whimsical or even silly, and plots don’t always go where you think: Howard Wolowitz’s recent blind date went from epic fail to total win once he and his date bonded about having overprotective mothers.
I might miss tonight’s episode due to a Knights of Columbus meeting but that doesn’t mean that you have to. Oops, my meeting is next week.
When he first talked to me about working on the show, Bill Prady told me that I’d be playing a “delightfully evil version” of myself. This sounded like a lot of fun to me, but it was more difficult to find that character than you’d think. When I’m playing Fawkes on The Guild it’s easy to slip into his kilt and be a jerk, but wearing my own clothes and essentially playing a stylized version of myself made it a real challenge to hit “delightfully evil” without veering into “not committed to being delightfully evil” or “just plain evil.” Keeping that twinkle in my eye, and knowing that Wil Wheaton (The Big Bang Version) is planning to scam Sheldon from the moment he sits down, was essential to this particular characterization working out, and I didn’t completely find it until we’d run the episode a couple of times.
The episode was very funny and the semi cameo was really good. I’d love to see him as a semi-recurring character.
Take a peek at it here:
It is very hard to be depressed when you have stuff like this to laugh at, that is why no matter politicallyinsane they get I’ll always owe the python’s a debt of laughter. Amazingly they can still surprise me with things I haven’t heard:
The others remembered how, when in Germany to perform their stage show, And Now for Something Completely Different (in German!), they decided to make a day trip to visit the concentration camp, which had been converted into a Holocaust museum. They arrived to find the gates closed. Standing outside, Chapman puffed on his pipe and blurted out a suggestion: “Tell them we’re Jewish.”
They were let in.
I’m sorry but who else could make a joke like that?
Having covered-by-proxy the feminist bases, I’m now going to indulge my curiosity and ask the group at large (including everyone in Finland — hei, ystävyys kotona Suomi!) the thing I’ve been wondering ever since I saw Meghan’s picture: what’s up with her boobs? I’m not criticizing or attacking or snarking; I’m just trying to figure out what the deal is. Are those implants? The shadowing is very weird.
I’ve avoided telling this story because it sound wrong but she has given me courage so I’ll repeat the story as I told it in comments over there:
I can’t tell that story without my Passion of the Christ story…so here goes…
My mother is VERY Catholic. When the Passion of the Christ came out I took her to the first showing, as we sat down, a man with a seeing eye dog sat in front of us. Considering the movie was in Aramaic and Latin that was rather odd, but anyway…
…when the movie was over everyone left very somberly. I asked my mother what she thought, she said she was VERY impressed…
…she couldn’t believe the dog had sat quiet through the entire movie. When ever the subject of the movie she talks about the dog, she still can’t get over it.
Last year my son and I went to a Sarah Palin Rally in NH. She was really impressive and authentic. At the end she was signing autographs (both my son and I failed to get one) as the crowd thinned I saw her from the waist down for the first time…
…and I still shake my head. I’m from a big Italian family, I went to a Catholic school I have known and do know more women with 5 kids or more than most people these days.
Her hips are the wrong shape. When you’ve had 5 kids your hips have a particular shape, her’s are wrong, they just don’t fit the paradigm. It still makes me shake my head. It’s like Babe Ruth’s legs; they make her look weird. They’re just all wrong!
I think Sarah Palin is awesome, I would support her as a national candidate over any other candidate. No pol has ever matched my positions as close or impressed me more…
…just don’t get me started on her hips. I’m my mother’s son.
My son still laughs at me when I go on about it. I don’t talk about the BBC interviewing me on camera, I don’t talk about the disgusting counter rally of teenagers, or the professionalism of the secret service that really impressed me. Not about her fine speech and the fact she radiates competence. Not that she reminds me of my mother and big sister as the type of person who gets things done.
…not THE status quo which is democratic control of congress but A status quo, making sure that waves are not made with particular interests.
The thing about power is it waxes and wanes, sooner or later the Republicans will again control the house and/or senate. Sooner or later they will be Chairmen of committees that have spending and taxing power and that means sooner or later interests will shower them with money and favors to retain their particular interests.
The problem is if you get candidates who actually take conservatism seriously then that type of business as usual becomes harder and said power brokers loose face with the money men who might God forbid withhold their largess or even worse support the other guys!
This is why NY23 is significant. There are likely internal reasons why Dede Scozzafava was selected but like Newt’s endorsement is short term thinking (unless his primary concern is the gravy train). If the party discourages conservatives they will see more of this.
The republican party is happy when it comes to the tea party movement generating negative ratings for the president and challenging him so they don’t have to do it. About actually electing conservatives that will challenge Republicans to actually live up to the fiscalresponsibilities that they espouse? Notsomuch.
I should note that you get the same dynamic from the other side. The far left is strung along for money to preserve majorities by electing democrats in “purple” districts but those same candidates balk at the radical agenda and the people who put up the money rightly cry foul. The hypocrisy is the same but one significant difference exists.
The conservative principles of the tea party protesters:
Fiscal responsibility
Support of Military victory and the Troops
Judeo-Christian values
Lower Taxes
These appeal to the great mass of the American public and are often publicly declared even by progressives.
The liberal principles of progressives:
Government Socialism
American defeat abroad and support of repression
Secular humanism ridicule of Judo-Christian values
Higher Taxes
These can NOT be declared openly without electoral defeat except in the most radical areas such as San Francisco.
You will on occasion see “progressives” espouse some or all of the conservative values while running to get elected, you will never see a conservative espouse the 2nd.
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