Whizzing Right Along

[rain_gryphon]

So, Bob Denver has bitten the dust. The only three television comedies that I really thought were genuinely funny (and that have even come close to holding up over the years) were Gilligan's Island, Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies. They're all driven by the interactions of the characters (and their fixed delusions), rather than by stupid one-liners and putdown jokes.

*****

MFM apparently had a lot of hurricane refugees in their hotel.

*****

Dept. of Synchronicity

An outbreak of Teh Furry Drama at MFM this weekend revolved around someone pissing on someone else's car. Saturday afternoon, some of us who didn't go to MFM went out instead to play miniature golf and eat at the Chinese buffet here in Columbus. A discussion in the restaurant parking lot revolved around whether it would be acceptable to piss on and around a car to insult the obnoxiously territorial microdog who was inside. Calmer judgement prevailed, though, and our party, at least, didn't pee all over the car.

dakhun reports that there was much belching at MFM. An outbreak of belching after the restaurant visit resulted in an agreement to have a belching contest at next year's Morphicon.

Coincidence, or is there something about the current state of the fandom that results in spontaneous outbreaks of belching and car-wetting?

Comments

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

It's worse than that. Someone also pissed INSIDE someone's car at MFM.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/tokala_husky/18928.html

[patch-bunny.livejournal.com]

OMG, that is *so* funny. :D

[xolo.livejournal.com]

he stole that dog's shift key too...

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

The contacts were shorted out by piss.
Or he was too startled by the belching to hold it down every time.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

*snerk!* :D

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Well, sitcoms can span a range indeed.. I don't know if you were as taken with the show as myself, but I felt Futurama to be one of the more clever US comedies of recent years, sadly left to the not-so-tender mercies of Fox's scheduling wizards. (Read: monkeys throwing darts. I told you those simians would never amount to anything)

How was "Andy Richter Controls the Universe"? I've heard some decent things about that, but I know very little about it, and haven't even seen an episode yet.

Ah well. While I'm at it, I'll wish for the second Buckaroo Banzai film too. ^_^

[xolo.livejournal.com]

For some reason, cartoons always reside in a different part of my mind than 'TV shows'. I'm not sure why that is. Futurama's funny, though, for much the same reason that the old Sherwood Schwartz productions were. It's kind of depressing that cartoons now have more character development than live action shows.

I've never even heard of "Andy Richter Controls the Universe".

[ruwhei.livejournal.com]

You know, interestingly all the shows you mentioned dealt with people from one aspect of life forced into a different aspect of life.

1) Gilligan's Island
Civilized people forced into a Primitive Existance.

2) Green Acres
Civilized people who chose or are forced into a simple existance.
(Za-Za forced, her husband chose willingly)

3) Beverly Hillbillies
Primitive people who attempt a Civilized existance.



Is that just the type of show you want, or is there deeper meaning?

[xolo.livejournal.com]

I never really thought about it in those terms, actually. What I enjoyed was that the characters have these deeply-held convictions about how the world should work, that are generally in conflict with the concensus reality. What mainly fascinates me with the Beverly Hillbillies, fur instance, is that they have their own internally consistent way of viewing reality, that can't be fully reconciled with that of their neighbors, but can't be proven objectively wrong, either. In some ways the Clampett's version of reality is a better adaptation to circumstance than that of their neighbors. Green Acres works exactly the same way, except that the minority and majority roles are reversed.

Gilligan's Island is somewhat different, in that the characters seem to be cooperating to actively maintain a social order that each of them knows is maladaptive to their circumstances. It causes them grief again and again, yet for some reason that's the central anchor of their existence. Gilligan's Island is a very strange, even scary sort of show if you start thinking too hard about what's happening. I generally watch it on a very superficial level, to see the characters pursue their predictable follies. Watched that way, it's funny. There's just something appealing about the setwork there too - the sandy floor with the obviously fake jungle. I enjoy that for some reason.