jwbblog: If you ask me, Jeeves, art is responsible for most of the trouble in the world*

Thursday, October 11, 2007

If you ask me, Jeeves, art is responsible for most of the trouble in the world*

A thousand pardons for the lack of bloggering this week. Been really busy waxing maple leaves.

In our house, we really like "House"--the show in which Bertie Wooster plays a misanthropic American doctor. However, I worry that it has become a wee bit predictable. Tom Watson, from NewCritics (an excellent blog, btw), has crystalized my thinking in the following (with a few amendments by yours truly): "strange accident/incident/collapse…a tough diagnosis…the first treatment…cardiac arrest and bodies flopping around like beached fish in distress…much angst…strange procedure…crash number two….angry family/friend/lover showdown usually involving hospital administrator [in low-cut blouse]…cure or death…pensive House looking into middle distance [or playing guitar]." Also, the weird sexual tension between House and Cutty is growing tiresome.

If one is going to name a movie after a Metro stop--for the uninitiated, the "Metro" is the subway in DC, much as the "T" is the subway in Boston and, as I understand it, the "FU" is the subway in NYC--this is not one of the better options. But perhaps others will differ.

I've been fascinated on occasion by various forms of "goldenageism"--in which one is given the impressesion by someone who doesn't really know what they're talking about that the grass was always greener in the past than it is in the present. Anyway, from this guy, we have a new variant--the SNL Fallacy: "The SNL Fallacy is when people look back in time at something, just see the highlights (since the lowlights and filler inherently fade away and are forgotten), and see that time period as superior to the current one. People always claim that Saturday Night Live "used to be better." And they've been saying that ever since shortly after the show started. But that's because what sticks out in their head is Eddie Murphy doing "Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood" and not the rest of the filler sketches that were on that night." So true. Also, Seth Rogen--not very funny, but, then, he's Canadian.

More anon.

*Here's the full exchange:
Wooster: "If you ask me Jeeves, art is responsible for most of the trouble in the world."
Jeeves: "It's an interesting theory, Sir. Would you care to expatiate upon it?"
Wooster: "As a matter of fact, no Jeeves. No The thought just occures to me, you know, as thoughts do."

Posted by jwb at 6:09 AM

7 Comments:

Bram said:

Two addendums:

1. Enjoyed House for a month or two; the only thing that the plot synopsis is missing is the time at which each of those things happen. You can set your watch by the second reversal.

2. And I submit to you that even in the good old days, SNL isn't even that good at the time. It's the next morning, where the funny sketch from the night before becomes the catchphrase for the day (week, year).
at 10:14 AM

Anonymous said:

And I sumbit in turn, we need a Fastlane channel. That's quality entertainment.
at 1:39 PM

jwb said:

What's Fastlane?
at 1:55 PM

Marty said:

Do you really want to bait me with the mention of 'unfunny Canadians'? Do you really want to get me going? Okay: what about Jim Carrey? Mike Myers? Kids in the Hall? SCTV? Any one of which I would rather watch than SNL. And those are just the ones who've made it big south of the border.

There was a theory bandied about a couple years ago as to why it was that Canadians produced such an inordinately large share of America's greatest comedians. It went something like this: Canadians have all the knowledge of America that Americans have, plus they possess an ironic detachment (and thereby comdedic insight) on American affairs that only not being American can give.

By the way, did anyone know that Aristophanes was Canadian?...
at 11:51 AM

"Everybody shut up and pay attention to me."

Thursday, October 11, 2007

If you ask me, Jeeves, art is responsible for most of the trouble in the world*

Posted by jwb at 6:09 AM

7 Comments:

Bram said:

Anonymous said:

jwb said:

Marty said:

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