My friends know that I'm pretty difficult to please.. Talking to me about movies and TV shows is annoying, because I know what I like, I'm very particular, and I'm not willing to tolerate poor plots, predictable humour, and cheesy actors. In short, I'm what some people call "A prick".
That's alright though, I'm comfortable with who I am. The other thing that most of my friends know about me is that humour plays an integral part in who I am, and is something I'm constantly trying to learn more about. I appreciate humour in all of its forms, from arrogant and preachy humour (South Park), to sophistocated humour (Dustin Diamond), to random humour (Danger Bay, third season). Haha! I threw in humour in that list. Huzzah.
I consider myself open-minded about how the gestalt of humour is carried out, as long as it is well done and funny. I hate things that aren't funny but act like they are. I hate things that substitute any of the following for genuine humour: Shock-value, swearing, violence, stupidity, outrageousness, nudity, pop-culture references, randomness, and a bunch of other things.
All of the items on that list can be used within genuine humour, but taking them on their own, without understanding why something is funny, and simply assuming that something will be funny just because you used the word "poo" is annoying and stupid.
It has been a while since I've seen a good chunk of quality TV shows that really made me laugh, and I thought to myself that it's hard to just find a good show - I rely mostly on recommendations. That being said, I'm going to write here about TV shows that I really like that almost slipped past my radar.
Trailer Park Boys
What is it: Trailer Park Boys (TPB) is a mockumentary about life in Sunnyvale Trailer Park in Halifax, Nova Scotia ("The best fucking trailer park in the whole goddamn world", according to Ricky, one of the shows characters). The show follows the exploits of Ricky (Incredibly stupid, great at getting out of trouble, blissfully ignorant of just about everything), Julian (Seedy and devious, the brains of the operation, has moments of redemption), Bubbles (Sharpest man in the park, has awesome glasses, the moral balance of the show) and their day to day life in the park.
Why it's funny: Stupidity done well, great actors, nearly unbearable to watch.
- Stupidity done well
- Great actors
- Nearly unbearable to watch
I dismissed this show at first. See, stupidity done well is really funny. However, accomplishing this is a real rarity. There's already too much unintentional stupidity on TV already. If you don't believe me, turn on your TV at any time during the day, and change the channel to UPN. Did you do it? Good, you just lost the ability to do math. That's how powerful the wave of stupidity is that beams out of your TV from UPN. I saw that TPB made stupidity a central theme of the show's comedy, and avoided it.
Good stupidity has to be believable and outrageous, at the same time. It is both totally predictable and totally unpredictable, and when it's captured properly, it's almost too much to watch. This is written perfectly in the show.
You know what I hate? When the description for a character on a show falls into something like this:
"Ricky is the perfect mental case. An idiot that is both blissfully ignorant of his shortcomings and mildly aware of them at the same time, his crazy schemes are always getting him into trouble"
Crazy schemes? Nooooo! Crazy schemes are horrible right? They're easy to see coming, they're unbelievable, they're annoying. Well, that's a pretty good description of Ricky, one of the three main characters on the show. And he's hilarious. This is partially due to the strength of the writing, but also by how believable the actor playing Ricky is. I'm actually told by my friend Dave that Ricky and Julian are real life trailer park people, but I haven't been able to confirm this, other than the fact that the actors are never seen in public out of character.
I like shows that are hard to watch. It's almost like a challenge in my brain between suffering through the disgust and appreciating it for what it is. TPB is constantly walking the line between unbearable and hilarious, and it's like the constant feeling of freefall. Again, thanks to the writing and the actors, things never break into the realm of pure disbelief - it's just pulled off too well.
Curb Your Enthusiasm
What is it: Curb Your Enthusiasm (CYE) is a show about Larry David's life after making Seinfeld. He's now a multimillionaire, but his outlook on life and attitude haven't changed a fraction, and he treats people and expects to be treated exactly the same as before he made his wealth.
Why it's funny: Larry David, the casting, no scripted dialogue
- Larry David
- The casting
- No scripted dialogue
Another personal hero of mine - Larry David understands and articulate comedy better than anyone else I've seen talk about it. I appreciate Jerry Seinfeld very much, but it's Larry David's edge that I think made Seinfeld a truly great show (plus a lot of other things that I'll talk about some other time). Larry David plays a charicature of himself on the show, and is incredibly believable. He's someone that tries to have an open mind, but will snap it shut as soon as things start to get difficult, or he passes judgement.
Most of Larry's problems seem to be a direct result of his own interpretation of the golden rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto yourself, except when it's difficult or you're irritated with them". Jason Alexader's Seinfeld character George, (who was based on Larry David in real life) is vividly apparent in many of the Larry's actions, and equally as difficult to watch at times.
So, by now we know how important I think believability is for humour. The easier it is for me to believe in something, the easier it is for me to buy into it, and the funnier it is when it's a ridiculous situation. Anyone can come up with a ridiculous situation like "Two rappers in outer space flying around". Making it believable is the hard part.
A good deal of humour comes from the casting of a show. You want actors that are believable in their roles (A good example of how to completely rape this rule is to look at the casting done for Scooby Doo (Now with 4 different varieties of Freddy Prinze Jr!)), and you need them to be able to pull off the timing and lines that are written for them. There's a two way relationship between the actors and the writers - the writers have to understand the actor and the character as a pair, and write lines for them that meet in the middle of this divide. The actors have to understand the writer has written and see why it's funny - if they're not good at this, their timing will be off, and what may have been hilarious on paper will be dead air on the show.
CYE has a bit of an exception to this rule, due to the fact that no dialogue in it is scripted (which we'll get into in a sec), but the casting is still spot on, and the actors do an incredible job with their dialogue. Since that is all improvised, casting the right people for the right roles is even more important.
People always ask how a show could even exist without a script. CYE has a script, it just doesn't contain dialogue. There's a general idea of what points need to be coneyed in each scene, as well as what needs to get done, but that's it. All of the dialogue is improvised by the cast.
This in itself has an intrinsic value to me, just because I really appreciate that kind of talent and ability. Beyond that though, the need for translating a writer's words into something funny on the show is removed - the actors (who are all hired because they are very talented, funny people) understand what funny is, and are free to directly make use of that talent.
Unscripted dialogue has a tendency to lend a much more realistic feel to a show as well. The reaction you get from an actor to a given line that they have studied and are anticipating is much different than the one you get from a line that was just improvised. Chuckles and laughs break out of the mouths of the actors, and this makes the dialogue feel much more believable (which makes sense, since it's a far closer model of how we all have conversations).
Mr. Show.
What is it: Mr. Show is the sketch comedy written by David Cross and Bob Odenkirk (a long with a few other people I think). David Cross is a personal hero of mine - he's very intelligent, he does his own thing, he's very funny, and he's willing to speak his opinion.
Why it's funny:
- Very good timing
- Excellent writing
- Very fluid
When I was a kid, I always read about comedians, and what the elements were to comedy that make something funny. Timing was always mentioned, but I never fully understood what this meant. Shows like Mr. Show have taught me what this is. Timing is a critical component of being funny. Waiting an extra three seconds can be the difference between really good laughs, or a dead joke floating in the water.
Mr. Show's timing is impeccable - unlike every other sketch comedy show I've ever seen (seriously, not once have I seen a show emerge unscathed from this), none of the skits in Mr. Show go too long. Saturday Night Live is notorious for this - you've gotten the joke, you see where it's going, there's nothing more to do, except that SNL lets the skit run on for another three minutes. Oh, I get it, now they're still trapped on a deserted island, and they're still going crazy, you're just showing me more of that. Haha!.
For the best and most clear example of timing I've seen, watch David Cross on Arrested Development. In the pilot episode, there's a scene of dialog between him and Jason Bateman where Jason says something to David along the lines of "Maybe you can go as a pirate" (jokingly), to which David pauses and finally replies with "I hadn't packed for that". The timing on this is perfect - David Cross is a pro!
This kind of pairs with the previous item, though timing relies a lot on the delivery of the actors, whereas writing is done statically before the show. Regardless, Mr. Show had a great writing staff. Every episode meanders in ways that are completely unexpected, and it's a constant surprise seeing which direction they are taking it. The best example I can think of is a sketch where the Dalai Lhama and his monks have to defeat the Fat Kid camp from across the lake in the 51st summer olympiad. The events? A two man baloon race (1 point for the victor), a bike race (1 point for the victor) and the freestyle rap-off (100 points to the victor). Booyah! You can't go wrong with a setup like that. Then to top it off, the fat kid's have hired a ringer to enter for them named "Professor Murder".
If you need more than this to convince you that you should watch this show, you won't like it, or you won't get it, or both - it's not worth watching if the above situation doesn't sound funny to you.
Mr. Show use transitions from one skit to the next, and does it seamlessly. The result is a much smoother show, and lets you stay absorbed in the show and its humour. When you break a scene, you give the viewer time to think about what they just watched and that removes them from the mindset of humour (remember, disecting humour makes it less funny).
The greatest show of all time, Arrested Development is not on here, along with a few other favorites, but these bad boys take a while to write, so they'll be included in a later update.
I put together a bunch of dance footage of things I've been toying around with last night, and will be writing about that as soon as I finish editing the clips and writing the entry. Things I'm covering this time are subtle movements, progress on my gliding, a few other things I'm working on, and a breakdown and critique of a new marionette walk I'm working on - should be pretty good.
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