Me So Horny...For Justice

I was a fan of Chris Elliott as soon as I saw him on Late Night with David Letterman in the late 80's.  All of his recurring characters cracked me up - The Guy Under the Seats, The Regulator Guy, The Conspiracy Guy, Marlon Brando, etc...all were excellent.  But it wasn't until Get A Life that he became one of my all time favorite people on earth.

Chris Elliott's performance as not quite normal mentally, thirty year old paperboy living with his parents was nothing short of genius.  It was very odd show though and I am not too surprised that it didn't attract more viewers (although it did beat Seinfeld in rating during the first season), and it definitely didn't help that Fox kept changing the day and time that it was on.  Still, it holds very fond memories for me and I wish dearly for the complete series to have an official DVD release.

Following the cancellation of Get a Life, the world was treated to Cabin Boy...which I found wonderful but most others seemed to hate.  Again, the oddball comedy was just a little to strange for most people.  Since that time, Chris Elliot has been all over the place with guest appearances and small parts in hundreds of movies although most people seem to remember him best as Woogie in There's Something about Mary or the cameraman in Groundhog Day.  Each time I saw him, it filled my heart with a little joy but yet I was always left unsatisfied.  Most rolls just didn't have enough Chris Elliottness in them - the extremely goofy, oddball, strange humor that I loved from Late Night, Get a Life, and Cabin Boy.  However, certain looks and gestures would still make me crack up in remembrance.

Hopefully that is all about to change.  Hopefully, that empty spot in my soul for that special, bearded, bald guy will be filled with [adult swim]'s new show - Eagleheart.  It looks like a Walker, Texas Ranger spoof and man do the teasers hit me in the right spot.  It has been a long time since Chris has been the lead in a comedy show and I think he is a great fit for [adult swim].  I hope it is a long run.  Check out the teaser's below and be sure to check out the show on Feb. 03, 2011 at Midnight/11pm central.  I'll be watching.

Ape Puppets and Big Schlongs

I don't watch MTV.  Besides flipping past hoping for some videos, I have maybe watched an few hours worth of MTV in the past couple years.  Jersey Shore - sounds horrible, so I never watched.  16 and Pregnant - although I like the idea of slutty teens, knocked up teens really not a turn on.  True Life - bleh.  My Super Sweet 16 - why would I want to watch something about spoiled rich kids. Etc...  Flipping to MTV makes me feel like Bowman in 2001: A Space Oddity -  "The thing's hollow -  it goes on forever - and - oh my God - it's full of Shit"

However, when I was flipping past this last weekend I happened to catch a commercial with Warren the Ape.  Warren the Ape from the awesome show "Greg the Bunny."  Warren Demontague - the drug addicted, gun toting, helmet wearing ape puppet.  You may know that I am a sucker for muppets and puppets...so obviously I was already in.  The commercial talked about Warren's new show coming coming next Monday (June 14th) - right after the show about the kid with the big schlong.  I don't know if you can imagine an ape puppet saying schlong out of the blue, but let me tell you that it is awesome.  I can't wait to see the Warren show.  I hope Count Blah and Tardy the Turtle make a guest appearances.


The show about the kid with the big schlong happened to be The Hard Times of RJ Berger.  It happened to be premiering the following night, so I decided that since they were giving a show to Warren a show that MTV might actually be onto something that I like.  I went in with low expectations and found it to be pretty darn good. The idea almost seems generic at first - the dorky loser and his chubby friend each in love with the various high school hotties, but both invisible to everyone except to get picked on by the jocks.  Typical high school drama...until RJ is accidentally depantsed in front of the crowd at a basketball game.  The losers' fortunes start to change when everyone realizes that RJ has an extremely large penis.

Obviously, sophomoric humor - dick, fart, and sex jokes abound.  A lot raunchier than I would have expected, almost like watching a TV version of the American Pie movies.  I am not always in the mood for this type of thing but at the right time it is pure gold.  I would suggest checking out episode one which I am sure is being re-run over and over on MTV all week.

The Chubby Kid, the Slutty Free-Spirit Girl, the Lovable Dork, the Hot Girl, and Hot Girl's Jock Boyfriend

TV. Better.

Better Off TED

Hetero Life-Pal CT tipped me off to this show the other week. It is a new show on ABC, Wednesdays at 7:30pm. Which was the time slot of Pushing Daisies...so I am not happy about that but at least it is not a cop, lawyer, or doctor show. Of the newer shows that I have seen, this would be my choice to replace Pushing Daisies if it is indeed dead.

Better Off TED, focuses on Ted a Middle Manager/Team Leader of a research team at Veridian Dynamics. VD, is a large company that has it's hands into everything - consumer products, space exploration, industrial foods, and weapon systems to name a few. VD is the kind of large corporation that researches whatever tickles its fancy at the moment, morals, laws, ethics be damned. VD considers nothing impossible...for the right price. Want to weaponize a pumpkin or create cow-less beef? They can do that. Ted is a nice guy working and tries balancing the company's profits with the morally questionableness of some of its experiments. The kind of company that sends you a copy of the bill for any personal calls you made at work each month...not because they want you to pay for them, they just want you to know that they know.

Each episode begins with a VD commercial, which are usually twisted spoofs of BASF commercials (if you remember the "We don't make the products you use, we make the products you use better" commercials). "Power - we make that, Technology - we make that, Cows - um, we don't make that...but we did make a sheep." Always funny.

BOT is like a corporate version of The Big Bang Theory...with science and technology being laughed at but unlike Big Bang, the characters geekiness is not the central comedic theme. Better Off Ted, focuses more on the corporate greed and moral-lessness of the company in general...and the ideas that come from that "We want to freeze Phil for a year, because we think that we can."

• Humorous spoofs of real life companies - check



• Geeky science humor - check



• Research analyst who steals all the coffee creamer - check



• Company trying to figure out why it uses so much creamer - check



• Ethically questionable company willing to perform experiments on its own employees - check



• Mass of lab grown meat name Blobby (don't name it, then you won't want to eat it - don't you remember Chester the Carrot?) - check



• Ideas that seem really funny and implausible until you realize they are based on real world studies - check


• Company that uses its daycare service to have the children do such fun activities as "paint the lines in the parking lot!" - check


• Portia de Rossi - check

All in all, a very entertaining show. Only three episodes in, you can easily get caught up on-line before the next airing.

A Few of my Favorite Things

Although I am mostly dead inside and walk though this life like a zombie who has lost his will to feast on brains, there are a few subjects that agitate my cold, thick blood into a state similar to passion. These include (in no particular order):

• Pinball


• Hockey


• Shoes


• Books


• Music


• Quirky TV shows


• Puzzles/Games/Trivia

There are others...but these are the main passions in my life. For my own amusement, I am going to try to start profiling one of my favorites here each week...figure I am already doing a "Hate" post, might as well do a "Love" post too. Unfortunately, love is always more difficult for me than my default emotion of hate...and so I don't know if it will have a standard day of love like I do hate.

This is one of my loves:

Quirky TV Show: Pushing Daisies

Pushing Daisies is a very stylized show and might take a little getting used to. It reminds me of Tim Burton style, but not sad, depressed, dark Tim Burton - this would be a Tim Burton who is happy and loves bright, bold colors...odd architectural design, odd coloring, little touches that make it seem like a dream. I think a lot of the look has to due with Barry Sonnefeld directing and Bruce Cohen producing (he did produce The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, so he can have horrible taste too - although I admit that Stephen Baldwin as Barney was an inspired choice and has led to me renaming him Barney Baldwin).

The show is really well written and often has a strange way of telling the story. For example, flashbacks will have the narrator giving the exact age of the participants (i.e. - Ned is exactly 9 years, 5 months, 23 days, 8 hours, 12 minutes, and 4 seconds old). I am not sure why I find this so appealing but it is...it is just an odd level of detail that adds a lot to the story for me. The writing isn't straightforward funny like a sitcom like The Office, but it does have a lot of much more subtle humor and the drama and characters are well written enough to be believable and endearing.

So what is this show all about? Ned is a pie maker. The show is about him and his co-workers and a private eye who helps them solve murders. What that doesn't make sense? No, not really...until you hear that the Ned (the pie maker) can bring the dead back to life by touching them. This is also how he makes pies, turning rotten fruit into the most lively and delicious fruit you have ever tasted. But like with Mogwai there are rules:

1. Touch a dead thing once and it becomes alive


2. Touch the thing brought back to life again and it is dead forever


3. Bring something back to live for more than 60 seconds - something comparable must die in its place (bring a dog back to life, an animal about the size of a dog will in turn die...how the victim is picked is unknown but it must be in close proximity)

The gist is that Ned along with a private eye, bring murder victims back to life to find out who killed them, thereby solving the murder and collecting rewards. Follow the rules and everything is great...but like in Gremlins rules are broken and everything gets complicated and that is where the fun starts.

Complications (just a few):

• Ned has brought his first girlfriend Charlotte (aka Chuck) back to life after she was murdered.


• Ned loves Chuck but can not touch her again...ever (he also hasn't been able to touch his dog in about 20 years).


• Ned's co-worker Olive is secretly in love with Ned and therefore jealous of Chuck but doesn't understand their relationship since they never touch


• Chuck's aunts, who raised her after her father's death (accidentally killed by Ned after he brought his mom back to life when he was 9 years old), think that Chuck is dead but love pie from the Pie Hole


• Chuck's aunt is secretly her mom

It all makes for a good show (though it sounds horrible...but again it might take a little getting used to. It is one of my favorite shows of the past couple years and the only show I watch on ABC (Wednesdays 7pm Central). Unfortunately, it is strange enough that I think it has a hard time finding an audience and is probably in danger of being canceled (although I really hope not).

• Reanimated corpses - Check


• Aunt who wears an eye patch (which always matches her outfit) and used to perform as a synchronized swimming mermaid - Check


• People who keep nothing but cheese in their refrigerator making their young niece think it is called "The Cheese Box" - Check


• Private Eye who knits in order to relax - Check


• Unrequited love - Check


• Amusing deaths - Check


• Always a twist - Check


• A restaurant named The Pie Hole - Check

It can't really be explained without watching, which is why it is probably in trouble...but give it a try.