2009/12/16 · 8:28 pm

Hanukkah Night #Seis: Jewing it up on “Late Night’

Like many, I was hard on Jimmy Fallon when he first embarked on his new role as Late Night host back in March.  And the criticism was well-earned.  He seemed ill prepared, unfocused, giggly, and generally too impressed by his guests to offer up anything that resembled an acceptable interview.  However, while his Q&A skills are still raw, he has proven to showcase some of the best, most off-beat sketches on the late night talkies (take a note, Mr. Leno).  From Zack Morris‘ truly satisfying visit to the truly weird  “Let us play with your look” to the truly pitch-perfect Hills knock-off series “7th Floor West,” Fallon has taken advantage of the freedom of the 12:35am slot, and has begun to put together a pretty unique, entertaining show (and the place where revered mid-90s indie-rock heroes come to reunite.  See: Sunny Day Real Estate, Jawbox).  Which is all a long way of saying that Andy Samberg visited set the show last night under the guise of Jimmy’s cousin “Jewey Fallon” in order to spread a little Hanukkah cheer.  And you know what?  In comparison to Samberg I kind found myself liking Fallon as much as I have since 10th grade, when he was the new prince of SNL.  Go figure.

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However, as usual, The Roots were the best part.  Just.  Killing.  It.

And if that wet your whistle watch (or rewatch) Fallon and Kimbo Slice wreaking havoc in a commercial for breakaway furniture.

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2009/12/15 · 11:26 pm

Hanukkah Night #5: Jew They Know It’s Christmas

Moving away from Muppet news (however briefly), tonight’s Hanukkah post comes from musician and frequent The State collaborator Craig Wedren.  Back in the dark ages of 2005, Wedren and some of his closest friends (including State-alums David Wain and Joe Lo Truglio, as well as Paul Rudd, Zack Orth and Matthew Zickel) recorded a cover of the holiday classic “Do They Know It’s Christmas,” complete with the requisite lead singer impressions (including a couple Paul McCartney’s, and a Mel Gibson thrown in for good measure).

Listen to “Jew They Know It’s Christmas”

And, yes, we know.

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2009/12/15 · 11:01 pm

Muppet Monday Continues into Tuesday! Jim Henson: The Movie?

(and, yes, I realize that it is now Wednesday on the East Coast.  Deal with it.)

Doesn’t it just keep getting better and better for the Muppets?  If not for Bronson Pinchot, I’d say they were having the comeback of the year (but maybe they take the crown for best comeback of the last two months).

“Hollywood” released its annual “Black List,” the list of the top ten “favorite” unproduced screenplays.  #1?  The Muppet Man, a biopic of Muppets creator Jim Henson.  Described as “Man on the Moon, but with puppets,” it sounds quite intriguing, and as it’s set up at the Jim Henson Company, we know that it will be a faithful and fitting tribute to Henson’s life (good thing they didn’t sell the rights to Henson’s life story to Disney; we wouldn’t want a glossy Mickey Mouse version).  Even though the list isn’t exactly a “best of,” let’s hope the script is fast-tracked and the film is in theaters soon.  Seems like the perfect time.

And who to play Jim Henson?  Well, Man on the Moon star Jim Carrey seems like a possibility, based on his experience with biopics, but mostly on his grizzly beard (not to mention that Henson and Carrey share a first name!).  Or maybe James Cameron is interested in getting in to the acting game, at least before starting on the Avatar sequels (and they also share a first name!!).

No word on who would play the Swedish Chef.  But I am available.

Via Vulture

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2009/12/15 · 1:37 am

Hanukkah Muppet Monday: The Secret Connection Between ‘Growing Pains’ & ‘Sesame Street’

You didn’t think I’d let a Muppet Monday falling on Hanukkah pass by without posting some sort of hilarious video or funny picture or insightful essay relevant to both the Muppets and Hanukkah, did you? Well, it’s Tuesday now, so I guess you were sorta right.  But, still, a little faith would be nice.

I stumbled upon this video that combines perhaps the two things that I love most in this world: The Muppets and Growing Pains.  This video features Jeremy Miller (aka Ben Seaver, aka the cute kid who grew into an awkward bespectacled teen and was quickly supplemented (supplanted) by a young Leonardo DiCaprio) visiting the Jewish version of Sesame Street, Shalom Sesame, and hosting a Hanukkah inspired game show spoof entitled “Dreidel of Fortune.”  Watch and…well, watch.

I guess this means that Jeremy Miller is Jewish too.  Not nearly as exciting as the same news about Alison Brie.

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2009/12/15 · 1:14 am

Muppet Monday!

For the past few weeks, starting with the days around Thanksgiving and the hoopla over the Muppet’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” video, I’ve been posting Muppet-related entries every Friday (I think).  However, today, we usher in a new era of Muppet posts, “Muppet Mondays,”* a hopefully weekly addition to Jumped The Snark (however, this certainly does not preclude the possibility of posting Muppet-related material on days other than Monday).

The inaugural Muppet Monday post is not just a viral video, but something much greater than yet.  Yesterday, even though I’ve been visiting Southern California for the last 12 years and have been living here for the past 7 months (to the date, in fact) I had yet to visit the original Happiest Place on Earth, Disneyland.  Well, that all changed about 36 hours ago.  And sure, I enjoyed myself on the two Buzz Lightyear rides, was charmed by the Monsters, Inc attraction, was thoroughly spooked by Pirates of the Caribbean, and napped during the Finding Nemo submarine tour, these all paled in comparison to what was the clear highlight: Muppet*Vision 3D.

Continue: I see the show, my life is complete. Also, the Muppets & Disney, what could have been…

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2009/12/12 · 5:02 pm

H(appy + anukkah)!!!!

Sorry about the title, just took the GREs and I must have factoring on the brain.

Anyway!  Happy Festival of Lights!  Hope you have your menorah ready to light, latkes ready to burn,  dreidel ready to spin, and Hanukkah gelt ready not to eat and eventually just throw away a month from now.  It’s the most wonderful time of the (Jewish) year!  As such, enjoy this clip of Stephen Colbert listening to the merits of Hanukkah, and, ultimately, deciding it’s not for him:

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For night #1 I received socks, which might sound hackneyed and lame but is actually a gift I look forward to every year.  Cause, hey, who can’t use a good pair of socks once a year?

But I received an even better gift later in the night:

Turns out that Community‘s Alison Brie is a member of the tribe! (for those of you who eschew for those puerile 22-minute network comedies you might  know her better as Mrs. Pete Campbell on Mad Men)  And don’t worry, I cross referenced with IMDB and Wikipedia to make sure Brie, and not just the character, is Jewish.  And it turns out that as a child she performed at the Los Feliz Jewish Center, just a hop, skip and a jump down the road from here!

Boy, they didn’t have girls like that at Temple Beth Shalom.

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2009/12/11 · 7:00 pm

Friday Nostalgia Corner!

It is Thursday?  Gnome it’s not!

A Nicktoon before there was such a thing:

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If only life was like this.

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2009/12/09 · 2:51 pm

Gentlemen, Start Your Crocs!

It’s finally arriving tonight: the Top Chef finale! (unless, of course, Bravo teases us and airs a rerun instead as they’ve been known to do.  Just to screw with me.  But it seems pretty official that it’s happening tonight.  If you consider the blogosphere official.  And facts.  Assuming you think facts are official)

It’s a six-legged race between one Voltaggio, another Voltaggio and the one that’s not a Voltaggio (Kevin!).  Here’s how it stacks up:

The Favorite: Kevin.  The man has just been nails all season, delivering simple, yet elegant food (like a nice cardigan).  He’s the Iceman of Top Chef, except impossibly polite (and not kinda homo-erotic).

Who Do I Want To Win: Bryan.  Love the fact that he seems incapable of displaying human emotion.  It’s not that he’s a robot.  He clearly has a heart, it’s just that you can’t tell if he’s ecstatic or livid or asleep.  But his food has uniformly looked delicious and complex without being smug.  And how cute was it when he bought that stuffed animal for his daughter?  Aww!

Who Do I Think Will Win: Michael.  He’s been running neck a neck a neck all season with his brother and Kevin, but his biggest competition may have been his own ambition (see what I did there?).  He’s the biggest risk taker of the three, and having the chance to do the traditional progression we’re betting that he’s going to be able to pull it all together and truly wow the judges with intense flavor profiles and interesting textures and avocado foams and other words they say a lot.  Also, if he doesn’t win, someone might get hurt, whereas Bryan and Kevin will be gracious losers.  So for the sake of the judge’s own safety (and Padma’s ‘lil bear cub), they might hand the title to Michael V (ah, just kidding, Mike!  I’m sure you won’t hurt anyone if you lose.  We’re just having a good time, that’s all!).

While you count down the minutes on your egg timer until the finale, you can check out Jen talking about how she’s become an inspiration to Philadelphia’s female youth (take that, Rocky!):

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2009/12/09 · 12:37 am

Apparently Billboard Didn’t Drive Around in My Maxima During College

Because if they did they would know that Vanessa Carlton is much more than a One-Hit Wonder.*

I take umbrage with this:

I mean they say it right there, there was a little song called “Ordinary Day,” which, as I recall, was no slouch.

And has Billboard never heard of “White Houses?”  That song only went all the way to #1 in China.  And here I thought Billboard was supposed to be the authority on music.  Guess I was wrong.  Guess it’s China.

Evidently Billboard wasn’t in my car when we rolled down the windows and blasted Vanessa Carlton while waiting on the Wendy’s drive-thru line at 1am all those times.  Their loss.

The full list of alleged “One-Hit Wonders” of the 2000s.

*Her list of hits is even longer if you confuse her with Michelle Branch as I often did (do).

via Vulture

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2009/12/08 · 6:52 pm

Way to Ruin Christmas, ‘SNL’

So maybe now we know why SNL seemed particularly Kristen Wiig-light this past weekend.

She must have been working on new Gilly material, as the Washington Post reports that Wiig, as Gilly, will host a “brand-new”* two-hour Christmas** special entitled “SNL Presents: A Very Gilly Christmas.”  Which basically translates to “SNL Presents: A Series of Repetitive Bits Sandwiched Between the Same Christmas Sketches We Have Been Showing for Twenty Years.”

We really have no problem with replaying the Christmas classics, but hosted by Gilly?  In Seth’s Meyer’s own words, really?!?! I had begun to think the tide was turning against Gilly (and somewhat against Wiig as well, which is unfair, because one should not confuse the character for the performer), but apparently she’s as popular as ever (or at least NBC and/or SNL thinks so).  It’s just hard to imagine what kind of “new sketches” they’ll develop for the special.  As the article notes, “A Gilly sketch is a very structured thing. It’s always set in a classroom where an uncertain teacher (Will Forte) questions his students (Kenan Thompson, Bobby Moynihan) on the source of some trouble making;” this passage is just intended to describe the sketch to the uninitiated, but it’s also achingly true.  It’s just a carbon copy structure with all the same set pieces, just rinse, wash and repeat.  Of course, there will be some  Christmas themed Gilly-antics, but don’t expect her to improve upon her already limited vocabulary (but maybe expect someone to get impaled by a Christmas tree?).

Well, at least with this special there’s no danger of the host coming out as the Love Guru.

Set your DVRs for Dec 17 at 8pm.  Regardless of what I said here, I will.

More: Bonus video! And footnotes!

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