It's the Muppet Show! With our very special return to season two on the 45th anniversary of the original NYC broadcast. Ben and Pete continue their journey documenting what jokes land, debating which conceits confuse, and wondering from where some of these musical choices came. This week they discuss the show's secret Britishness, the worst … Continue reading Guest-starring George Burns!
Eratta
Guest-starring Avery Schreiber!
Ben and Pete examine the career and appearance of Avery Schreiber, and the ties between his comedy partner — the key writer on The Muppet Show — and his manager — whom he shared with Jim Henson. And yet, they find that this show featured some of the best writing of the season and some … Continue reading Guest-starring Avery Schreiber!
The Machinations of Memory
In the episode focused on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Ben chastised Anna for her desire to describe the cloaked, hidden machine that produced the Everlasting Gobstoppers as "a Rube Goldberg device". Ben quickly clambered up on his high horse to disabuse her of that particular description, but in doing so forgot some of … Continue reading The Machinations of Memory
A Third of Your Monthly Penance
While searching for a blog entry that might reveal the name of the typeset that was used in The Apartment's main title sequence, I stumbled upon a lovely, stream-of-consciousness post by Janielle Kastner, a writer and podcaster out of Texas. She, like me, drilled down into the finances of C.C. "Bud" Baxter, since he is so … Continue reading A Third of Your Monthly Penance
Dyscalculia
Somewhere in the Wikipedia page for M*A*S*H is the minor detail that the lovable scamps of the legendary 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital are based on based on author Richard Hooker's actual experiences in the 8055th. I'm certainly not claiming that the cognitive dissonance of trying to keep all those numbers from falling into a … Continue reading Dyscalculia
Verbal Typos and Other Word Salad
Nathan and Ben began their discussion of Episode 11 with a few choice confabulations in their vocabulary. First, Ben was confused as to whether "interleavened" was a word. It's not. Had he let the dough of his brain rise somewhat, he would have realized the word is the syllabically simpler "interleaved", meaning "with alternating layers". … Continue reading Verbal Typos and Other Word Salad
Uma Thurman is not a Ninja Turtle
There has been a mild splash in comics news recently as IDW's current publication of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise has announced a spin-off title featuring Jennika the new female member of the former males-only quartet. You might be forgiven for not thinking this is "news", per se, on multiple levels: new solo titles in … Continue reading Uma Thurman is not a Ninja Turtle
Peanuts Cartoon… skritch
On this last weekend's podcast (Ep. 5: Man's Crisis of Identity in the Latter Half of the 20th Century), Nathan dug deep into his childhood and recalled a Peanuts cartoon which, for some reason, he thought of and, even worse, decided to mention. Evidently it was an attempt to add to whatever conversational point wafted … Continue reading Peanuts Cartoon… skritch
Lest(er) I Forget…
While The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film did not seem to me to be a direct visual antecedent to Monty Python's Flying Circus, I have found direct evidence to the contrary: Terry Gilliam cites the film as inspiration for his animation storytelling methodology in FilmCraft: Directing (2012). And on Spike Milligan's death on 27 February 2002, he … Continue reading Lest(er) I Forget…
Omnibustop
Listener Missy Dustin has contacted us to correct us about our claim that Omnibus was the religious show that previously occupied Python's late-night timeslot. She tells us it was "not religious!" and links to the Wikipedia page. While the page she links to is that of an American TV program that went off the air … Continue reading Omnibustop
Farced Perspective 