Dead-on.
You Remind Me Of The Babe (and David Bowie’s Codpiece)
In honor of tonight’s outdoor viewing:
And a little flashback to what has become one of our top viewed posts.
See you out there!
Filed under Flashback!, Local Flavor, Muppets
Out of Hibernation
We accidentally took some HiberNol, knocking ourselves out for 2-3 months.
Vodpod videos no longer available.But we’re back. And we feel great.
It’s merely springtime for Jumped The Snark. Stay tuned.
Filed under Count Bleh, Saturday Night Live
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.
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.
‘Survivor: All-Stars’ Finale: Hey, Jealousy (And Tom Westman!)
About 3/4 of the way through the Survivor finale I turned to my viewing companion and said “If Sandra wins it might just ruin the whole season for me.” A season, that up to that point, had been arguably the greatest in Survivor history. But he calmed my fears, assuring me she wouldn’t win, and I thought “yeah, you’re right she’s not winning.” It was just a moment of weakness where I let a worst-case impossible scenario appear to be a viable outcome. But I quickly blocked out that preposterous notion.
Well, the good news is that, three nights after the finale aired, I do not feel that the season was ruined by virtue of its final vote. However, the bad news is my nightmare came true. Sandra won. For the 2nd time. The castaway who has never won a single challenge won a second time.
NEVER WON A SINGLE CHALLENGE. IN TWO SEASONS. And this time around she didn’t win by being slightly less worthless than a glorified girl scout. No, this time she beat out Russell and Parvati, arguably the greatest strategist and greatest social player of all time, respectively. So what gives? How could this possibly happen?
Filed under Analysis, Century 21 Reality, Tribal Council
He’s Good Enough For Michael Scott And He’s Good Enough For Me
We don’t post enough (or any) Mr. Bean on this site. That’s going to change. Starting now.
The Charlie Chaplin of our time. I mean it. For reals.
Filed under Good Humor
Muppet Tuesday Nostalgia Corner In Memoriam: Jim Henson
As Entertainment Weekly so generously reminded me, this week is the 20th anniversary of the passing of Jim Henson. It’s sad to think that he’s been gone for so long, but it’s a testament to his work that I was not quite seven years old at the time of his death and yet he had already made an inedible, lifelong impact on me. He’s been gone for 20 of my 26 1/2 years, and yet in those first 6 1/2 he shaped the person I am years later. I remember even then being aware of this death, and saddened by it, and worried that it meant the end of the Muppets. In fact, it might have been my first experience with death; at least I can’t recall anyone passing before then.
And I still remember being moved by his memorial, which, per his request, was a celebration and not a dirge And it still moves me to this day.
And to the credit of the Henson family and the Muppet family they soldiered on, and soon after the memorial they allayed my fears with a special television tribute to Jim, promising me and all the despondent, confused young fans that Muppets would live on. The fact that they confronted his death head on was somewhat difficult for a 6-year-old to comprehend, and somewhat overwhelming, but it was also somewhat appropriate, for Henson made entertainment for both children and adults alike, and I’ll always appreciate the honesty in which the Muppet team handled his death. It was immensely sad, but also immensely inspirational.
For many years now my email signature has been a Jim Henson quote, “When I was young, my ambition was to be one of those people who made a difference in this world. My hope is to leave the world a little better for my having been there.” I think I first came across it when I read a Jim Henson biography at about 10 years old and it resonated instantly, so when I was young that was my ambition too. And it still is.
Because of Jim Henson I hope to leave the world a better place. And if I can make a hundredth of the difference that Henson made then I’ll feel like I accomplished my goal.
Thanks, Jim. 20 years later you’re missed more than ever.
However, Henson wouldn’t want his Jumped The Snark in memoriam to end on such a treacle note. And the good news is that it doesn’t need to: the Muppets are on the verge of returning to the spotlight. We’ve missed a lot of Muppet news over the past month and a half, but things continue to look up for Kermit and the gang. And luckily another one of our favorite Jim’s, Jim Hill, has taken the liberty of rounding up the latest Muppet developments over on his blog. Things are looking up.
20 years later, and the Muppets are still going strong. Jim would be proud.
Filed under In Memoriam, Muppets, Nostalgia Corner
200 Posts And Counting (Slowly)
Well, we did it, finally managed to hit 200 posts (actually, this happened about two weeks ago, but I didn’t have the time to acknowledge the feat). Back when I started selling copies of this blog out of the trunk of my ’73 Chevy Nova I never thought it would amount to anything. Now look at it. Over a year old. Amassing literally tens of hits of a semi-regular basis. And now passing the double century mark for posts (even if 75% of them were Late Night with Jimmy Fallon videos or Muppet news (and one of them actually was both).
Unfortunately, for the last six weeks our attention has been occupied elsewhere, and, as you may have noticed (or maybe not, if you’re not one of the three regular readers of this blog), our posts have basically come to a screeching halt. And while output will remain slim for the next few weeks, we here at Jumped The Snark are committed to Jumped the Snark, and fully intend to ramp up our commentary on NBC Thursday night comedies, just in time for the end of their seasons. But as there’s no such thing as a summer vacation for TV anymore, there will be no summer staycation for Jumped The Snark.
In addition, months ago we privately challenged ourselves to deliver 365 posts within the 2010 calendar year. We hit the ground running, but then were hampered by a cross-country move, and then got back in the rhythm only to be slowed once again by a new roadblock. As of press time, we’re only at 79 posts so our work is cut out for us, but we want you to know that we fully intend to fulfill this promise to you that you only just found out about 20 seconds ago.
And yes, this post counts.
And just to make sure, here’s an awesome video that’s full of worth:
Filed under Count Bleh
Dick Wolf, You Were Warned
Dick Wolf, panda bears and paying by check.
Name three thin in danger of extinction.
In the infant stages of this blog I predicted that the Dick Wolfosphere was in danger, mostly because at the time NBC was favoring unfunny, middle of the road, inexpensive talk shows (see: Jay Leno Show, The) and exploitative, middle of the road, inexpensive reality shows (see: Biggest Loser, The). Well, in the wake of Jay Leno’s failure (and after being rewarded for said failure with his old job) it then seemed that Wolf’s brand of populist pleasing, headline ripping, middle of the road yet relatively expensive gritty cop dramas would be safer than ever.
BUT, as you all probably know by now, that’s not the case, as NBC has pulled the plug on the original Law & Order (that’s a clever metaphor for how old Law & Order is). Dick, I hate to say it, but I told you so (again).
Sure, they canceled L&O only to immediately greenlight Law & Order: Los Angeles, but I’ve still been proven right in my prognostication.
But what’s that you say? TNT might strike a deal to air new episodes of the original? Well, yes, we forecasted that too, back in last November when TNT saved Southland. Flashback!
Of course, the big question is what does this all mean for Dick Wolf? Well, TNT already airs syndicated episodes of the flagship Law & Order franchise, so perhaps Mr. Wolf will bring original episodes of the series here when NBC replaces his show with Dateline: To Catch a Biggest Loser.
Eerie, isn’t it?
Sorry, Dick, it’s not personal. Trust me, I don’t take any pleasure in this. My chances of landing an extra gig in New York City have just been reduced by half. We’re all losers here (but you more so).
Filed under Count Bleh, Flashback!, Who's the Boss?
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