Category Archives: Intersection of the venn diagram of things that I love

2010/09/03 · 5:20 pm

Muppet Friday: Something Old, Something New, Something Drew

Just going to do a little bit of Muppet housekeeping and get out a couple overdue Kermit & Co related items as we head into the long weekend.

First, as widely reported last week (thanks, Yahoo! News), the original Kermit the Frog and some of Jim Henson’s other early creations have been donated to the Smithsonian, where they will sit alongside another more modern Kermit that has been on display for several years.  Many of the Muppets, including Kermit, are from Henson’s local DC television show Sam and Friends, which you may remember from “The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years” (because I certainly wasn’t around to see it when it originally aired in 1955). Scroll to about three minutes to see the Sam and Friends clips:

When there’s a crossover between two or more of our favorite things, like here, we like to think of it in terms of the intersection on a Venn diagram, where something awesome meets something equally awesome.  However, College Humor went ahead and took that idea a bit further, creating a Venn diagram by parsing out just one thing we love, that thing, of course being the Muppets.  Below, the Muppet Names Etymology:

I feel silly for never seeing this before.  And I have a human name.  So I guess I’d fall into the top left intersection.  Very illuminating.

Coming up next week: More Muppet news and/or links and/or old videos!

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2010/09/01 · 10:11 am

Not Very Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Random, Belated, Emmy Thoughts

The Emmy’s were handed out three nights ago, and in the internet world that’s about the equivalent of a fortnight, and everyone who can say it better than me has already said it better than me.  But, just to put it on the permanent record, and to get us ready for the impending fall TV season, we thought we’d follow-up with a few humble thoughts of our own, in concise bullet-point form:

  • Loved the opening bit, even if it was somewhat of a rehash of 6-Bee‘s glee club rendition of “We’re Not Going to Take It,” a performance that we still giddily cue up on our screen on a regular basis (as well as an audio version on our iPod).  But with Tina Fey, Jon Hamm, Joel McHale, Jorge Garcia AND Tim Gunn it was like the Ocean’s 11 all-star version of the original Late Night piece, and it truly demanded some freak out control.  Our worlds colliding, but in an amazing way.
  • Speaking of Jon Hamm, now that his comedic genius has finally been exposed to a wide audience (30 Rock is still critically adored but commercially ignored, his appearances in viral videos only legitimately reach a small segment of the online viewing public, and even two turns hosting SNL don’t necessarily make you a household name these days), can we start having him be funny full-time?  He’s so gifted, and so natural, it honestly feels like a waste forcing him to be so stoic and dour and cold on Mad Men (and we know we sound like a broken record on this, but we’re going to keep bring it up until it happens.  Or until Mad Men becomes a farcical satire.  Maybe in season 5).  Sure, he’s magnetic, sexy and mysterious on the AMC drama, but it’s when he’s allowed to do comedy that he truly lights up.  But after being seen dancing like an idiot on HDTVs all across the country maybe someone will give him a chance to headline a comedy.  Perhaps something in the Apatowian genre.  I think that’s a hit.

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Filed under Analysis, Century 21 Reality, Dillon Panthers, Freak Out Control, Intersection of the venn diagram of things that I love, LOST, Must See TV, Participation Award, Saturday Night Live, Top Scallop

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2010/06/08 · 9:33 pm

And Another Muppet + Someone Awesome Team-up! (Jimmy Fallon, You’ve Done It Again)

Jimmy Fallon, I like you more and more.

Ten years ago you were the object of affection of every girl in my AP European History class, and the envy of every guy (well, not every guy).  Then the constant giggling became kinda annoying, and then you went and made Taxi, and then you became sort of a joke.  And, to be completely honest, we were pretty skeptical when you were named Conan O’Brien’s Late Night successor.  Like the homecoming king who left the hometown only to flame out and return to work in his dad’s hardware store.

But damn if you haven’t gone and totally redeemed yourself.  But this isn’t really about you.  Rather, this isn’t really about your show.  We talked enough about that.  This is about you, once again, recognizing something brilliant.  In this case it’s the maze of pipes hidden inside of Studio 6B dressing room decorated by Jim Henson and his confederates 40 years ago, before an appearance on Jack Paar’s Tonight Show.  Fallon, love him or loathe him, appreciated the genius and made good on his promise to put the installation behind glass, and now the pipe-art is a new stop on the NBC Studio tour, as Fallon, along with Yoda, er, Frank Oz shows us here:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

And, just to show that the more things change the more they stay the same, and that everything is cyclical, here’s a 30 year-old video of Henson giving a tour of the pipes to Gene Shalit (!).  And look at that mop on Brokaw!

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Guess I’ll have to go on the Studio tour now.  Even though it’ll be awkward to return to network headquarters after NBC brass screwed me over and took my show away.

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2010/06/08 · 8:33 pm

This Could Only Be Better If It Somehow Involved Pizza AKA LOST & Kermit!

Many years ago two of my greatest, if not my two greatest, passions united in a music video. I speak of course of Weezer and the Muppets, joining forces for the “Keep Fishin’” music video. Unfortunately, by that time Weezer was already on their way to retroactively ruining the fanatical affection I harbored for them during my high school years. The union was still unimaginably cool, but would have required a little bit more freak out control if it was made just a couple of years earlier (or perhaps that’s the benefit of time talking, as well as the carnage inflicted by Make Believe and The Red Album*).

However, I have no such bitterness about this new, brain-exploding team-up, the latest in the “Lost Slapdown” series.  Yes, as odd as it may sound, God (and Disney corporate synergy) have brought together Lost and Kermit the Frog.

But although this is a monumental, colossal cross-over, I will not be getting a tattoo commemorating this meeting of Kermit, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, despite what some have suggested.

Make sure to check out the other Lost-Muppet joint ventures, including Pepe auditioning for the role of the Smoke Monster, Rizzo infiltrating the writers’ room and the Swedish Chef, an apparent avid Lost fan, running the ABC cafeteria.

*For a truly thought-provoking and thoughtful look at the devolution of Weezer, specifically Rivers Cuomo’s fall from ironic yet genuine songwriter to hackneyed hyper-self-aware song-crafter, we urge you to take a look at Chuck Klosterman‘s** essay on the subject in his anthology Eating the Dinosaur.  And just go ahead and read everything else in the compendium, because it’s all genius.

**And if Chuck Klosterman*** does anything with the Muppets I’ll flip out just as much, if not more.  Even if it’s an essay comparing Elmo to Helen Thomas.

***Just realized that “Klosterman” contains the word “lost.”  Whoa.

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