This week's Sound of Young America program bears the theme "Joke Warfare." Two brilliant joke warriors join us for the show, Terry Jones and Dino Stamatopoulos.
Dino is a legendary comedy writer, having written for many of the seminal comedy programs for the past 15 years. He won an Emmy for his first gig, writing for The Ben Stiller Show. He was one of the first writers on Late Night With Conan O'Brien, and wrote for HBO's Mr. Show. We talk with him about a musical he wrote about a dead baby and his new show on Cartoon Network's [adult swim], a social satire called Moral Orel. In our full interview with Dino (MP3 Audio), we talk extensively about his writing career pre-Moral Orel.
Terry Jones, of course, is one of the founding members of the legendary sketch comedy group Monty Python's Flying Circus. He co-directed Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and directed both Monty Python's Life of Brian and Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. He's also written two books on Chaucer, written and directed several other films, and composed several children's books. We talk with Jones about his years with the Pythons, as well as his career since. Monty Python's Flying Circus returns to PBS in April.
I recorded the interviews for this week's show yesterday. I had to get up early to interview Terry Jones of Monty Python (not that I was complaining). Later in the day, I interviewed Dino Stamatopoulos.
Dino is a real comedy nerd hero, but we bonded over our shared Python nerdiness. It won't end up on the air, and it's only like two minutes, but I thought I'd share it here. Dino met Jones when he was a guest on Conan, and talks a bit about the hilarious book he was promoting.
I always knew Literary Dandy Tom Wolfe was New Sincerity, but boy howdy, I didn't know HOW New Sincerity he was!
Mr. Castro also suggested covering the white floor mats with clear vinyl to keep them clean. Mr. Wolfe was delighted with this effect, which he compares to leaving the plastic on a new sofa. "It's not worth pimping out a car unless it has something a little tacky," Mr. Wolfe said. "You have to suffer for style."
Bob Edwards' XM radio show is being repackaged and distributed by Public Radio International to public radio stations as "Bob Edwards Weekend." It's the first show to move from satellite to terrestrial radio.
I'm happy for him. I get the feeling NPR knows they kind of screwed him when he was dropped from Morning Edition, and they still haven't been able to replace his warmth and gravitas.
Edwards came on The Sound in August, and was absolutely wonderful. He won my heart by saying that his favorite interview subject of all time was Randy Newman.
I will, however, say that he won't get far with me complaining about only having eight producers... I don't have anyone, and I have a full-time job!
One of our guests on the next Sound of Young America is Dino Stamatopoulos, a comedy writer who's written for many of the greatest TV comedy shows of the past 15 years.
As an introduction to Dino's work, I thought I'd share this video of him performing live a year or so ago with his former comedy partner, Andy Dick. Remember that this is live television.
9. If you’re mad at “Ms. New Booty,” it’s worth remembering that we’re all partially to blame—since Deliverance was a stirring, soul-searching work of art and no one bothered to buy it.
I'm still deciding on the song... on the one hand, I find it morally questionable. On the other hand, it gives me the urge to yell: "BOOTYBOOTYBOOTYBOOTY ROCKIN EVERYWHEYAH!" and that can't be all bad.
Also: at one point, of the Ying-Yang Twins has a couple that goes... "Sippin' on Petron... GLUG GLUG GLUG / Shortie's in a thong... WOAH WOAH WOAH," which is pretty f'ing hilarious. And I hate the YYTs.
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If you ask me, The Wire is the best show on television. It's so astonishingly well written that I almost can't believe it's a TV show. It packs all the wallop of a movie, but it takes advantage of the unique nature of episodic television.
The April issue of Playgirl, currently on stands, features more than the usual letters to Playgirl, articles, and photos of naked dudes. It features a photo spread of a naked dude we know: Brendon Small, co-creator of Home Movies and the upcoming Adult Swim show, Dethklok.
Brendon poses wearing nothing but a Viking helmet. Playgirl interviews him on a few subjects, including his dog Ernie, his commercial work and a little on the new show. It's all in the April issue of Playgirl, popping up on stands now.
Canada has a long history of great comedy, and these days Toronto houses a really exciting alt-comedy scene. Some of the folks from that scene are coming to LA en masse to do jokes, and they (politely) begged me to tell the world about it, since they're scared no one will show up. So here goes:
One thing they don't mention is that a number of the violations took place during "safe harbor" hours, which run from 10PM to 6AM, and are supposedly when kids are asleep. Thank God someone is protecting adults who only get one channel and have to watch TV from seeing simulated, no-nudity teen sex on CBS' "Without A Trace" (fine: $3.6 million).
Of course, broadcasters want clearer rules, but clearer rules (like, say, a list of words you can't say and body parts you can't show) would amost certainly violate the constitution, so that's a non-starter.
Yes, South by Southwest is upon us again, that annual celebration of indie rock types celebrating themselves and each other.
Anyway, let's say we were there (we're not... also, why are we using the royal we?). We would probably take a long look at the hip-hop lineup, then buy our Devin the Dude tickets.
Like most other folks who love hip-hop, I love Run DMC. They redefined the form in the mid-80s, brought it to a whole new audience, and their style and energy still can’t be matched. I saw them in concert in high school, and I still treasure the Adidas Superstar I took off my foot so they could sign it.
But this new DMC single is one of the worst songs I’ve ever heard. And I really mean that. I’m stunned at how awful it is. I thought it would be bad, and it blew away my expectations. I feel like it isn’t real, it’s so terribly terribly terrible. DMC is a bad rapper, and he had the mind-explodingly bad idea to hook up with Sarah McClachlan. And then he was like, "how about you sing "Cat's in the Cradle?" And it got WORSE from there. None of this is a joke. It’s like the Battlefield Earth of songs, only without the creepy charisma of John Travolta at his craziest.
I was at a friend’s house, and it came on TV, and I just sat, slack-jawed, for like three minutes, feeling my soul being sucked out and spit back in.
I can't figure out what's more offensive, Scientology or South Park. I can't believe people still think these guys are geniuses. Remember Baseketball? The greatest thing they ever did was dress up like women for the Oscars? Wow that was original. The Comedy Team of Over and Rated. Laurel and Hacky. Dressing up like women? That's crazy. That's off the hook. And who can sit through South Park? The animation is horrible. I know. It's supposed to be. Great. Their voices are horrible. Every time I try to watch an episode my head hurts from how unfunny it is. I'm not saying they have never been funny, but close. They have made me laugh for a total of 45 seconds. If that interview is indicative of anything, it's how boring and ignorant and personally repulsive they are. Really? Things aren't so bad with George W. Bush. You would have to be a cretin or a right wing ideologue or George W. Bush at this point to believe this. Stop driveling. Maybe he should stop pretending to read about World War II and read a newspaper from today.
But sometimes things reach a critical mass, and the more you learn about people, the less you can like them. I just reread that interview and got more annoyed. Calling Paris Hilton an ugly stupid whore? They are really edgy. Who are they going to go after next? Michael Jackson? And he just realized that Paris Hilton was a model? And he's concerned about the kids all of a sudden? And then they put down Rob Reiner for taxing cigarettes by saying hey dude, let people have cigarettes. Rob Reiner taxing cigarettes is exactly the opposite of not letting people have cigarettes. He's not saying you can't smoke. He's just saying tax it more. Agree or don't agree, but at least be coherent enough to understand the point you're making. I think all drugs should be legal, and they should also be taxed. See how easy that was? If he's so concerned about people having enough money to buy cigarettes, he should start his own cigarette smoking charity fund for poor smokers. But that would be too "liberal" for him. They claim to be against Reiner because he's a rich guy from Malibu. Where do they live? The Pacific Palisades? And they think they're libertarian because they're cool with "gays." I'm sure the "gays" are thrilled. Holy Moly. I'm sorry, but these guys are just plain ignorant.
Is Andy right, or is he just hating on their game? Your thoughts?
Loyal listeners who recall our Holiday show may remember Song Poems. They're kind of an amazing phenomenon. Here's the deal.
Hucksters placed ads in the back of general interest magazines (like Life) saying that major music publishers were looking for lyricists. You could send your sample lyrics to a certain address, and they would be evaluated by trained professionals to see if you had talent. Folks would do this, and of course, anyone who sent something was automatically deemed to "have talent." The people who placed the ads would write back, saying that if the consumer would pay for the cost of recording, they would have trained musicians write a song to the lyrics, record it, and distribute it to song publishers.
What's interesting about this scam was that the "record companies" would actually write and record the songs, and in many cases they were shockingly competent. The drug-addled folks behind the music would record dozens of songs a day. The combination of the bizarre amateur lyrics and compelling pop arrangements thereof is solid gold.
The Museum of Television and Radio is one of the world's greatest things, so why wouldn't they have a great blog?
Their "Blog Potato" only offers a couple posts a week, but they're almost always thought-provoking (though I must ask: whither radio?). Today, a thoughtful few paragraphs on the "New Quality Drama"... the 21st century's answer to Hill St. Blues and thirtysomething.
These programs are also distinguished by frequently top-notch writing, which sometimes attracts A-list movie actors and directors looking to make a “quick and dirty” artistic statement. Journalists love to write about these shows, as their preoccupation with the zeitgeist dovetails nicely with any state-of-the-culture pieces that have been assigned by features editors. Their demographics are to die for. They’re smart, stylish, relevant, and I watch them compulsively.
Well, not exactly, but David Cross sat down with Neal Brennan (Chappelle's Show) and David Wain & Michael Schowalter (Stella) to talk about writing comedy at a very expensive event last year in New York. Luckily, Wain is a nice fella, and he scanned the transcript/article that resulted for all of us to read.
Seriously, have you ever been to the Smithsonian? It's amazing! I mean, the art museums are only pretty good, but they have the actual Spirit of St. Louis! Space capsules! Mr. Rogers' sweater! It would be quite easy to spend two weeks there. And it's free! Totally free! God bless the USA. KEEP IT UP, THE SMITHSONIAN: AMERICA'S MUSEUM. Like this post? Click here to subscribe to the blog.
Where did these awful shoes come from? They're the new corporate-logo polo shirt, the ultimate sign of stylessness. They're Birkenstocks without the subculture, leaving only the ugliness behind. Most often seen in countless generic versions, or on the feet of embarassing funeral and job interview participants. Hang It Up, Merrell Shoes. Like this post? Click here to subscribe to the blog.
My girlfriend says it's good for me, but how is that possible when it is so delicious? And now I can get it at Costco? KEEP IT UP, CARROT JUICE: THE SODA OF HEALTHY DRINKS. Like this post? Click here to subscribe to the blog.
According to news reports, Isaac Hayes has quit South Park, citing objections to the show’s strong anti-Scientology stand. I’m no Scientologist, nor am I a Scientology apologist. I, personally, am an aetheist, but I do work at a church, and if you made a list of religions, Scientology would be one of the few that I had more negative than positive feelings about. And I have generally positive feelings about South Park, which I think is typically a very bright (though crude) satire.
That said, I’m a bit disspointed by the early reactions to the story, which have come down strongly against Ike. The South Park team has pointed out that Hayes had no apparent problem with skewering other people’s religions in the show – after all, the short film that landed South Park on TV centered on a fight between Jesus and Santa. They say South Park has made it a policy to skewer everything on the cultural landscape, without exception, and Hayes is drawing the line now due solely to self-interested.
I buy that, pretty much completely. But I still respect Hayes’ decision. Since when is it unreasonable to value your own religion more highly than others when it comes to decisions about your own life? Hayes isn’t starting a war, or even advocating censorship. He just doesn’t want to participate in a show that has demonstrated contempt for his faith (nutty though it may be).
South Park is a brilliant show, but it’s also very mean-spirited, and Hayes is a significant part of its public face. If I were in his position, I probably would have quit, too.
The good folks at Lebowskifest, the wonderful festival dedicated to "The Big Lebowski," have announced their first-ever Fest in Austin, Texas, which I understand is a very hip town. Tickets go on sale March 15th. They just finished their LA Fest, and the original Fest in Louisville is in September. Truly these are men who believe in something.
Sound of Young America listener Nathan Smart wears a lot of hats, but one of the most, uhm, interesting is as the sole proprietor of an outfit called "Indie Rockapella."
Nathan, who has little discernable musical talent, plays MP3s of indie rock tunes into his headphones, then vocalizes each track, one by one. Bass... drums... lead vocals... and so on. At the end, he has a bizarre amalgam of hit indie rock tune and outsider art piece.
On this week's Sound of Young America, I made a difficult snap decision to let Nick Adams say "the N-word." It's the focus of a full chapter of his book, and having given the audience fair warning, it seemed only reasonable to me.
I let the word through once before on The Sound, and that was when I played Randy Newman's song "Rednecks." I got a call in the studio afterwards, from someone who was quite upset about it. I talked with the guy (who was black, and had tuned in after the warning I'd offered before playing the song) for a few minutes, and helped him understand the satirical thrust of the song, and he reconsidered his stance.
In my book, "Rednecks" is one of the most biting pieces of racial satire in the late 20th century, and maybe the single best to come from a white person. But it does use the n-word, and repeatedly so (see the lyrics at the bottom of the post).
Randy Newman approaches songwriting as a short-story writer would approach a short story -- the authorial voice is by no means direct. In "Rednecks," he writes from the perspective of a salt-of-the-earth Southern racist. He said he wrote the song after he saw Lester Maddox, the infamous segregationist, being ridiculed on a network talk show, and imagine himself in the place of someone who agreed with Maddox, rather than someone who was sympatico with the host & audience.
As the song unfolds, Newman invites us to be scornful of his narrator. Indeed, the narrator seems to invite the scorn almost upon himself.
But as the pile of scorn gets higher and higher, it starts to get unmanagable. In the second verse, the harshness is getting broader, and it starts to make the listener uncomfortable. The only saving grace is that chorus -- and specifically, that use of the n-word. In fact, that use of the n-word makes us, particularly if we're white northern sophisticate types, more, and not less comfortable with the song.
In the third and final verse of the song, Newman springs his trap:
Now your northern nigger's a Negro You see he's got his dignity Down here we're too ignorant to realize That the North has set the nigger free
As he tumbles into a list of Northern ghettos, we listeners start to realize that this isn't a satire of dumb racist southerners. Instead, this is a satire of arrogant, intellectual, liberal northerners. And because of the structure of the song, we the listeners are implicated in all of this -- we're the ones he's talking about. All the smugness we felt as we laughed at lines like, "he may be a fool, but he's our fool" is now turned against us.
In that final vamp, it becomes an indictment of the listener, and of one of the great race issues that white people hate to acknowledge... that racism isn't solved by our liberal platitudes, and it isn't everyone else's problem. Racism isn't something that happens "over there," and it isn't caused by "them." We can't get out from under the responsibility that easily.
Last night I saw Lester Maddox on a TV show With some smart ass New York Jew And the Jew laughed at Lester Maddox And the audience laughed at Lester Maddox too Well he may be a fool but he's our fool If they think they're better than him they're wrong So I went to the park and I took some paper along And that's where I made this song
We talk real funny down here We drink too much and we laugh too loud We're too dumb to make it in no Northern town And we're keepin' the niggers down
We got no-necked oilmen from Texas And good ol' boys from Tennessee And colleges men from LSU Went in dumb. Come out dumb too Hustlin' 'round Atlanta in their alligator shoes Gettin' drunk every weekend at the barbecues And they're keepin' the niggers down
CHORUS We're rednecks, rednecks And we don't know our ass from a hole in the ground We're rednecks, we're rednecks And we're keeping the niggers down
Now your northern nigger's a Negro You see he's got his dignity
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