Category Archives: Gratuitous Search Term Bait

Gratuitous Search Term Bait of the Day: WTF Took Us So Long to Listen to WTF?

Last Monday on the WTF podcast host Marc Maron presented his riveting interview with comedy legend Gallagher, which finally gave us the impetus to listen to the much buzzed about podcast.  The interview, which ended early when Gallagher took offense to Maron’s “douchey” tone (as Gallagher’s manager later described it) and stormed off, was truly a fascinating discussion about comedy, even with Gallagher’s digressions about photons and electrons.  We enjoyed the interview so much that we wrote about it here last week (we also basically report on any half-way relevant Gallagher news), which is why today’s search term is “gallagher wtf.”

But the best part about that interview is that it introduced us to the world of the WTF podcasts, the archives of which are packed with even more interesting, enlightening, insightful interviews about comedy.  We soon downloaded the WTF app to our Droid and while spending 2 hours in traffic one day and an 1 1/2 hours the next we consumed Maron’s discussions with the likes of Dave Foley, A.D. Miles, Rob Corddry, and Ken Jeong.  They were all no holds barred interviews that touched as much on the principles of comedy as much as they did on personal foibles, psychological defects and inner demons.  Basically, comedians are fucked up.  But on WTF they’re completely open and honest about it, simultaneously making the world of comedy both appealing and repulsive.  But, like the podcast, there never seems to be a dull moment.

We could also sing the praises of Maron, but we’ll leave that to this New York Times profile.  So instead we’ll add that we’re psyched to listen to his interviews with Judd Apatow, David Cross, Adam McKay, Ira Glass and Mike Birbiglia.  Meanwhile, you should go to the WTF website or iTunes and subscribe to the podcast immediately.  AND if you still need some convincing, here’s a few recent interviews that we really enjoyed:

Dave Foley:

Ken Jeong

Tom Lennon

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Filed under Best Show You're Not Watching, Brilliance, Good Humor, Gratuitous Search Term Bait, Greendale Human, Interweb, Judd Apatow, Other people's stuff, The State

Gratuitous Search Term Bait of the Day: Dungeons & Pegasuses

Today’s search term is “snl pegasus mural,” which means that someone was looking for this middling, often painful, somewhat baffling Saturday Night Live sketch:

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But it’s not our job to just give you what you asked for.  No, our job is give you what you didn’t even know you wanted.  To show you something better.  To light up the path towards brilliance.  And with that in mind here’s a far superior Pegasus-related clip from last night’s phenomenal Dungeons & Dragons-themed Community:

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[And see what happened next here]

From the first ten seconds of this episode you could tell it was going to be special, and it was just another example, in what has become a long line of examples, of how Community is totally redefining what it means to be a television comedy.  The way they play with genre while still keeping the characters consistent is a marvel, their ability to reinvent themselves without sacrificing the greater story arcs truly remarkable.  Basically, they’ve gone ahead and blown up our conception of a network sitcom, truly breaking new ground, blazing a trail.  Freeing Draconis and shining a light on brilliance.

Perhaps there hasn’t been a show that has mixed this much deft comedy with as much genuine heart since Freaks and Geeks.  Which is why we would be remiss not to bring you that one of a kind show’s own Dungeons & Dragons-centric moments.  In many ways, these stories are two sides of the same coin:

Now if we could only see a showdown between Carlos the Dwarf and Hector the Well-Endowed.

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Filed under Brilliance, Discos and Dragons, Geekery, Gratuitous Search Term Bait, Greendale Human, Intersection of the venn diagram of things that I love, Saturday Night Live

Gratuitous Search Term Bait of the Day: Hail to the Chef

Well, after a Muppetless week, you’re going to get a second dose tonight, along with another helping of blog stalwart SNL, as today’s search term is “swedish chef andy samberg.”  But since we’ve already done a Swedish Chef post for this feature, and we sample enough Andy Samberg on this blog, we’re going to blend SNL and culinary expertise to bring you this little entree, one of our all-time favorites:

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And if you had your heart set on Andy Samberg as the Swedish Chef, here’s a little dessert.

 

 

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Filed under Good Humor, Gratuitous Search Term Bait, Muppets, Saturday Night Live, Top Scallop

Gratuitous Search Term Bait of the Day: Keeping up with the Joneses

It’s getting late and we had a long day (and, more importantly, we have to watch Top Chef and there’s pizza waiting), so we’re going with a search term staple today, “rashida jones.”  Here’s the lovely Ms. Jones appearing on the brilliant Jeannie Tate Show, created by and starring Liz Cackowski, the former SNL and current Community scribe you might best recognize from Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

And if good comedy’s not your thing, here’s Jones on the cover of Vanity Fair‘s 2011 Hollywood Issue.

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Filed under Good Humor, Gratuitous Search Term Bait, Greendale Human, Internet Killed the Print Media Star, Saturday Night Live, Yasmine Bleeth

Gratuitous Search Term Bait of the Day: Dynamic Duos

What a treat tonight!  Someone out there searched for “benry and fabio,” which means what you were really looking for was this:

But perhaps we were mistaken.  Perhaps what you were looking for was a shot of that famous scene from Lost when Benjamin Linus, aka Benry, and his fellow other Fabio turn the donkey wheel and are magically transported to Tunisia.  Well, don’t worry, because if that’s the case we got you covered too.

Jumped the Snark, your one stop shop for all things Benrys and Fabios.

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Filed under Gratuitous Search Term Bait, LOST

Gratuitous Search Term Bait of the Day: Electric City

Remember in the cold winter days of December 2005 when “Lazy Sunday” premiered and basically made YouTube an inextricable part of our lives?  That was a seminal, society altering, comedy-changing moment.  Well, that’s not what people were looking for on our blog, they were searching using the term “michael scott dick in a box.”  But, unfortunately, we don’t have that, a combination of Steve Carell’s Office character and the cultural successor to “Lazy Sunday” that became a phenomenon in its own right.  But, what we do have is a combination of Michael Scott and “Lazy Sunday.”  So, here we go, the ode of suburban Pennsylvania, “Lazy Scranton”:

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Filed under Dunder Mifflin, this is Pam, Gratuitous Search Term Bait, Saturday Night Live, Virulent

Gratuitious Search Term Bait of the Day: Ladies Night

Over on the wonderful Splitsider it’s “Women in Comedy Week,” so perhaps that’s why today we had the search term “best female cast members in snl history.”  If that’s the case, we welcome those readers.  And if that’s not why you’re here, we’re still thrilled to have you.

What would bring you to this site would most likely be a pair of in-depth SNL posts we’ve presented in previous years.  The first, Lorne Michaels Dismisses Michaela Watkins and Casey Wilson & It Makes Sense: SNL Past, Present and Future, we put together in the fall of 2009 to address concerns of SNL restricting its female constituency.  The second, The Real Women of SNL: They are Fambily; Plus: a Totally Unnecessary Look Back at the History of Female Not Yet Ready for Primetime Players, we posted last November following the SNL compilation special celebrating its female cast members, capitalizing on the momentum begun when Betty White hosted earlier in the year.  We think that both posts are two of our best, most informative pieces, so we’re happy to have the chance to link to them again.  And, for further reading, we recommend The Groundbreaking Women of Sketch Comedy, one of contributions to the aforementioned Women of Comedy Week on Slipsider.

And, of course, we’re going to leave you with an SNL sketch focused on the female contingent.  But instead of looking back on the past greats, let’s look forward to the future of women on SNL:

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Filed under Gratuitous Search Term Bait, Saturday Night Live, Yvonne Hudson

Gratuitous Search Term Bait of the Day: A Heroes Welcome

We’re going to cheat a little tonight.  Our search term for this post is “tom westman heroes,” but, as much as we absolutely adore Lt. Tom Westman, we’ve already welcome him twice to this daily feature.  And, more importantly, there’s bigger Survivor matters at hand right now.  So we’re going to use that search term as an excuse to bring you this, the first official Boston Rob/Russell promo for Redemption Island:

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“I’m going to need a bigger torch” = AMAZING.  Bring it, Probst!

Can.  Not.  Wait.

(Also, quick thought: Are Russell and Boston Rob really Jacob and the Man in Black?  Think about it)

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Filed under Freak Out Control, Gratuitous Search Term Bait, Impatience, LOST, Makes You Think, Tribal Council

Gratuitious Search Term Bait of the Day: By George, We Think They Got It

A rather odd search term today, part of which we understand, part of which we’re not so sure about, as one of today’s top phrases was “jason feeny.”  Certainly, we could see why someone would end up on this site by searching for Feeny, as Boy Meets World’s Mr. Feeny (as portrayed by the esteemed William Daniels) is one of our all-time favorites, someone whom we should write about more.  We’re thrilled if this is where searching for “feeny” takes you.  And we cite the name “Jason’ at least once a week, thanks to our preferred SNL cast member, Mr. Jason Sudeikis.  But “Jason Feeny?”  We don’t know who that is.  So since you get enough Sudeikis on this site (for example, earlier today, for no reason at all), we’re going to devote this post to the distinguished, debonair,  George Hamilton Feeny.

In a post we hope to craft soon we’re going to argue that the shows that comprised TGIF (Family Matters, Full House, Perfect Strangers) weren’t entirely terrible.  They certainly had their deficiencies, and no one would confuse them with truly smart, groundbreaking television.  But they had their time and their place, and we’re important shows of their era.  However, the cream of the crop from that block was Boy Meets World, which joined the TGIF line-up in 1993.  In fact, it’s probably the only real quality show from that group by most criteria, and while we would accept a case that Full House and Family Matters were lackluster sitcoms, we’ll go to our graves defending Boy Meets World.

Lasting seven seasons, just barely making it to the new millennium, the show (through a few time jumps) followed Cory Matthews from elementary school to college, often reinventing itself in the process.  Over its run the show featured new characters and locations, and even a change in comic sensibilities and personalities, but the one constant was Mr. Feeny.   He started as school teacher to Corey, his brother Eric, his longtime love Topanga and best friend Shawn, then became their principal and finally their professor.  But through it all he was their mentor, their guide, dispensing equal parts wisdom and tough love.  So it was fitting then that the series ended with those children, now grown, thanking Mr. Feeny for teaching them, for caring about them, and for shaping them into who they are.

Did you cry?  A little bit?  That’s okay.   Us too.

Two more Feeny moments and an overdue thank you…

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Filed under Feeny, Gratuitous Search Term Bait, In defense of:, TGIF

Gratuitous Search Term Bait of the Day: Pants, Eh?

We really don’t know why people have been searching for “50% off first pair of bonobos jan 2011,” but evidently they have been, and we’re a little embarrassed that it’s brought them to this blog.  But instead of dignifying bonobos any further, we’re going to offer up a Friday bonanza, three pants related sketches starring Michael Ian Black, who seems to have some sort of predisposition for slacks and sweats humor.

To start, “Pants,” perhaps the first great sketch from The State:

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And two more pants-centric sketches from Michael and Michael Have Issues:

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This reminds us, we really should get a pair of sweatpants with pockets.  So useful.

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Filed under Gratuitous Search Term Bait, The State