Sketchy comedy

3) Saturday Night Live

A staple of television, SNL will continue in its tradition of being the home of comedy. Through thick and thin (insert reference to Aykroyd and Belushi or Spade and Farley), the show has survived. It never ceases to surprise me that a late night variety show is one of my favorites.

Favorite Sketch - Jeopardy - The combination of a depressed Alec Trebek, topical impersonations, and a wickedly cruel Sean Connery are the ingriedients for prime hilarity. The inventive double entandra jokes merely add to the fun.

Would Futurama work better today instead of in yesteryear?

The early days of the Simpsons were a reflection upon the market of comedies at the time. It was an era of family sit-coms, the likes of Al Bundy and Bill Cosby providing America's laughs. By the late eighties, television viewers were surely feeling tired of the standard tropes of family-centric humor.

The Simpsons was a radical shift from what was on television. With extreme family dysfunction (to the point of child abuse) and the ludicrous lack of intelligence in nearly every character, the show subverted it's genre in a way few audiences had seen before.

A few years later, a cousin of The Simpsons hit the airwaves; its name was Futurama. The show premiered as a confluence of science fiction was permeating the networks. Several Star Trek shows abounded and a stream of lower budget nerd-shows were materializing all around. It seemed to be a prime time for the parody of this specific subculture.

The show was rife with geeky satire, from alien angst to robot idiocy (an entire episode was even devoted to Star Trek gags). The setting of the series allowed it to grow in ways that The Simpsons lagged. They had no requirement to follow America as it changed or even represent anything other than the ideas of the creators. Characters were allowed to grow and certain plot-lines could become serialized. It seemed that Futurama would have the possibility of surpassing its famous relative. Even the fickle critics enjoyed its ideas and wit.

What then occurred surprised Futurama's producers, media critics, and biggest fans: the series lasted only a fraction of The Simpsons life span. It was canceled relatively early, lost to the hazy realm of straight-to-DVD films.

The current climate of science fiction has changed from how it was those many years ago. The genre has sunk into the murk of irrelevance, outcropping into either campiness or inane superiority (sometimes a gross combination of the two). Like the sets of the Original Series, televised science fiction has become outdated. Even as visual effects allow producers to make their imaginary worlds more realistic, the stories can now merely strain believability in an effort to avoid clichés.

It seems that science fiction now occupies the same vessel that family comedies were voyaging in pre-Simpsons television. The degradation of this specific branch of entertainment is probably in the perfect place to be roasted by the satire of Futurama. If the shows' creators had waited until the post-climactic wake of the end of quality science fiction, maybe Futurama would have been the second bolt of lightning caught in a bottle.

All this has happened before, on many other blogs...

4) Battlestar Galactica

An obvious nerd choice is nonetheless an easy favorite. Space battles and moral ambiguity abound while a battered fleet tries to find it's way to Earth.

The best components of Battlestar Galactica were the dark character turns, amazing twists that few see coming (and that logically fit within the story), and the surprising optimism that shined through the death and dysfunction.

Favorite Revelation - Flashbacks to New Caprica - While the identities of the Final Five cylons were shocking, the greatest moment of surprise for this blogger were the memories of a party on New Caprica. The back story of those forgotten days exposed the few moments of happiness and pain that forever altered the characters to who they were after the exodus.

Hey, at least it isn't Buffy The Vampire Slayer...

5) Angel

While a television series about a vampire private investigator seems unoriginal (several shows have had this theme), Angel was more than unique.

Where the show was at its best was when it showed Angel's heroic deeds juxtaposed against the gruesome tales of his soulless alter ego, shining a light on how our personalities are the sum of both our triumphs and mistakes.

Best Villain - Puppets from hell - A group of demons masquerading as puppets on a kids show turn Angel into one of them. While giant monsters and sexy demons are fun and all, a puppet of the main character engaging in an epic battle is surely an entertaining concept.

One-and-a-half parents and three-and-a-half kids gets spot #6...

6) The Simpsons

A legend of comedy, the exploits of this family in the madcap town of Springfield have inspired countless catchphrases, sight gags, and numerous impersonations.

Each character has a specific brand of humor (Homer = idiotic, Marge = ironic, Bart = wild, Lisa = deadpan), all mixing together in a melting pot of hilarity. Where the show excels though is in the way that each joke blends seamlessly into the narrative of the story. Some shows, such as Family Guy, simply throw anything they think is funny in the story, expecting the episode to gel together without any manipulation, which fails more often than not.

Most memorable joke - When visiting a candy convention, Homer steals the Venus De Milo of gummy bears, to the chagrin of the candy vendors. As they form a mob to chase him down, Homer is able to MacGruber a grenade out of a can of pop and some pop rocks. The resulting explosion saves both the day and his candy treat.

Tuesday Morning Live!

Early this morning, I just read the last page of the book Live From New York.

I've never been a fan of backstage drama, so it surprised me that I found Live From New York such a pleasurable read. Making it enthralling was that most of those who told the story were as immersed in the life backstage as much as the people they were talking about.

The authors Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller weaved the narrative together, crossing between major players and bystanders. Their presence in the book seems at once both negligible and overarching, remaining invisible when a cast member relates their affection or disdain for a colleague and yet their hand is noticed when they spin various accounts together around a single theme or event. The integrity of the book lies in the fact that nearly every passage involved a first hand incident, purging the text of the rumors that are usually spun in such a chronicle. Each speaker is allowed to have their own voice, not edited over by the authors or truncated by publishers.

Where a story written in this manner about the senate or a fast food chain would fail, Live From New York shines. Eight-ninths of the tale is told by the comedians responsible for making Saturday Night Live funny. The everyday details of their lives are perked up by the witticisms of their commentary. Even the tough content like drug abuse and the deaths of cast and crew are tinted with an appropriate amount of humor and irreverence. What are especially poignant are the simultaneously honest and touching memories of Belushi, Gilda,O'Donoghue , Hartman and Farley, all shown in their glory and failings. The book smoothly entwines their deaths in among what was going on at the show, making the comments feel both immediate and meditated.

While the reflections copied down into this book share some hilariously grim stories, it has also encouraged me to not give up my dreams of being a comedy sketch writer. The legends of Saturday night are given a humanizing portrayal, grounding and reaffirming a belief that quality television can be made by real people. When a book is able to be simultaneously cynical and optimistic, it easily deserves my accolades. That means Live From New York earns a "schwing!" from this blogger.

What became of you, David Brent?

It may seem clichéd to have three posts about comedy in a row, but at least they aren't about science fiction.

7) The Office (BBC)

I enjoy Micheal Scott's idiocy, Dwight Schrute's zaniness, and Jim Halpert's shenanigans just as much as the next guy/gal/thing. Their comedic timing is spot-on and are probably the funniest thing currently on TV, but they still don't compare to the original.

David Brent's blunders are not simple comedic gags but instead are humorous explorations of society and the blunders of everyday life. Gareth Keenan may be a tad wacky but isn't an off the wall weirdo who freezes cats alive and believes in werewolves. Tim Canterbury's tomfoolery consists of simple impulsive high jinks to lessen his boredom, not pranks involving hours of forethought. Each character is grounded in the reality we exist in.

Best Moment - During a training session, David Brent retrieves his guitar after being questioned about his musical talent. He then performs the song Freelove Freeway, to either the bemusement or annoyance of everyone there. With Gareth singing along, the ode to love proved that David Brent is a comedic genius.

While the fans of the American version are a force to be reckoned with, the series set in England holds a higher place in my heart.

No need to wait...

Due to general laziness, I decided to extend the Top Nine Television Shows I Have Ever Seen over the course of, you guessed it, nine posts.

Without further explanation... here's number eight:

8) Friends

I may be a simple country blogger, so many of the fads of the day hold little interest to me. I never danced the macarena or joined Oprah's book club. The only facet of my life that ran parallel with popular culture was a fascination with the show Friends.

I remember yelling "We were on a break!"at kids during recess (even though I didn't know those who I said it to). Hours after the last episode was over, I was still laughing at Joey's buffoonery and finally getting Chandler's snide comments. Pondering whether Ross and Rachel were every going to hook up was one of the last things I thought about before going to sleep.

Favorite character - Chandler - As a kid, Ross was my first choice, probably due to the fact that I am a nerd too. Now that I have grown up a tad, I've found that Chandler's witty remarks are my favorite parts of the episodes. Often times I wish I was half as sharp as he was over the years. The best comparison would be that Ross was what I recognized myself as; however, Chandler is who I want to become (without the kooky family troubles, messed up relationships, and smoking habit).

And now for something slightly different...

Looking back on all those years in front of a television, I realize now that it has been well spent. I've sat through mounds of crap TV, from four-fifths of Star Trek: The Original Series to any episode of CSI: Miami I ever set my eyes on. When assessing all those hours of televised drama, I realize now that the good actually outweighs the bad.

What caused this catharsis was that I just saw the very last episode of The Wire. I was moved shocked, happy, and sad, all at the same time. In the spirit of recognizing good television, I decided my Top Nine would take a serious note by looking at the Top Nine Television Shows I Have Ever Seen.

9) Star Trek: The Next Generation

Though this show had it's rough spots (first and last seasons mainly), it led the way for an entire Franchise to grow. After ST:TNG launched, gone were the times that trekkies were merely nostalgic for the days of old but were instead able to look forward to all that would await Star Trek.

Best Episode - The Best of Both Worlds - The balanced action premise also took Jean Luc to new depths as the Borg returned to their dramatic peak. The events of this episode started a dozen trends included in every other series: cliffhangers, large events changing the scope of the galaxy, character issues left to be resolved (or complicated further) in later episodes, and the recursion of successful enemies.

Posters Note: I plan to continue this list by posting once a day. I realized I should probably be posting steady if I want to get a good audience. I also wish to apologize for posting so sporadically in the past.

Star Trek: The Search for Plots

Five Series (a Sixth Animated Series); Ten Movies (soon to be Eleven); Numerous Novels, Comic Books, Video Games, and a bunch of Fan Fiction to boot.

Yes, this is a post about Star Trek.

When looking at the Star Trek Franchise from a writer's perspective, it seems rather daunting to attempt to pen new Star Trek stories. The people who wrote for it say, for the most part, that it's over because it is simply too vast a world to add to. It might even be logical to say that Star Trek should be allowed to end where it was instead of dragged on infinitely to the point of absurdity, but I am not Spock.

Star Trek stopped where it was at because the writers forgot a key idea of writing: One must both look to the future and to the past. In Star Trek, plenty of mistakes are there to be learned from, and there are numerous places to continue from. What some shows forget to do is address both what was behind while moving forward, some remaining in over used Star Trek plots and others going out to the edge of the galaxy and entering into mere science fiction.

Is creating a prequel a good idea? Going back to the roots of characters and explaining motivations seems entertaining enough, but it also appears to be an idea that has a limited life span. Much of the movie will probably be satiating a desire for in-references that only Trekkies like me will recognize. The movie (and any possible spin offs) also won't be able to move far enough away from the original series, which could loom over the film like a bad ion cloud. Something like Star Trek needs room to grow and breathe to truly show its value. What would the world be like if Star Trek was never made because they didn't like the first pilot?: probably a bit more cheerless.

I'm sure there are ideas for Star trek movies that don't rehash the original characters. I could think of a few right now...

Other Star Trek Series Movie - There were three other shows that could each be thrown into film in some way, continuing a set of stories within the universe that aren't entirely limited by what has come before. Let Deep Space Nine be the set of some deep-space political-intrigue, or show one last voyage for Voyager. Heck, Enterprise might even be able to have an actual ending instead of the crap they showed as a series finale.

Klingon Centric Movie - Everybody loves Klingons, and they have been fleshed out enough that the people, once consisting entirely of stock warrior characters, could be given some real dramatic trappings.

All New Cast, Ship, Aliens Etc. Movie - There are always newcomers willing to act in anything, advances in special effects to be used for grander explosions, and moral issues to be addressed under a thin vale of fiction. Combine these three aspects and you have some pretty bad science fiction, but great Star Trek (which is in no way an affront to Star Trek; things that work for Star Trek are lame in science fiction and things cool in science fiction are often bad ideas for Star Trek).

In the spirit of Star Trek, there is Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations, meaning Star Trek will always have places to go that make sense within the confines of the Franchise. An important question to be asked is whether writers are brave enough to try their hands continuing a legacy.

Spring break is over, now for the back-to-school bends... with yet another Top Nine

Here in small-town, Mid-western, everything-slathered-in-cheese-and-on-a-stick Minnesota, spring break has sadly come to an end. Now for the sad return to schooling.

Now that I am back, I guess I better start blogging too.

I've been reading up on all the science blogs and recently saw Hypocritical gomers of Oklahoma, unite! Reading about the cat fight that is Darwinism vs. creationism, I decided I might as well join in the debate about disbelief of all things scientific and religious with Top Nine Things I Don't Believe* (and a brief explanation why):

9) Global warming. (Yeah, things are getting warmer, but maybe it's just the warmth you feel after a good long hug from God.)

8) The world was created in six days. (If God was all powerful, He must have been pretty lazy that week when he made Earth; maybe He was tired after trying and trying to get Jupiter right but simply couldn't get rid of all the spots.)

7) Bill Gates is a good person. (A man that rich has to be corrupt. He probably just paid Times Magazine to make him and his wife the people of the year, and threw in a few PCs so that Bono was on the cover to boot.)

6) Gravity is real. (There is a reason why they call it a 'theory', and that is that it is a load of crap.)

5) The number 10. (The reason is obvious, isn't it?)

4) "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" could be, in any possible way, good. (Jackman growling like a small weasel [actually, according to wikipedia, it 'is the largest land-dwelling species of the ... weasel family, though that won't stop me from defaming them] is enough to get me to shy away from theaters until producers get smart enough make a sequel to African Queen with Bogart and Hepburn clones.)

3) Lee Harvey Oswald ever existed. (Oswald is really just a corporate creation made of wax and vodka as a ploy to get ticket sales for all the movies made about the assassination.)

2) The Big Bang. (All those years of watching blockbuster movies and then seeing that real cop chases are boring and actual space battles don't have fancy special effects has made me cynical about anything involving huge explosions.)

1) The existence of Elves. (I know that all the people of Iceland are going to be pissed, but I am going to take a stand and say that Elves aren't real [what Icelanders think are Elves are actually Dwarfs].)

* This is an official disclaimer that I, Alden Kascak-Harth, am in no way responsible for any of the opinions expressed here (except for the funny ones).

Calculus Blues shift up to a green-yellow combination...

In the spirit of being depressed, I had Calculus this morning and we were getting back the last quiz we took. Prepared for the worst, I was ready to curse all mathematicians past and present for raising expectations so high. As stories like these usually go, I was more than pleasantly surprised to get a good grade on the quiz. While 'good' doesn't seem like the grand remark you would expect (unless you did expect it, but I am not pandering to whatever audience you belong to...), 'good' is many steps up for a student who dreams of 'merely adequate'.

To commemorate this monumental occasion, I have decided to compose the list of the Top Nine Ways To Tell You Are Bored In Calculus.

9) It seems like a good idea to fake a sneeze and see if anyone interrupts the class with a 'Bless you' or 'Gesundheit'.

8) It becomes easy to make juvenile sexual innuendo out of any mathematical statement the professor makes.

7) You find yourself attempting to come up with a mathematical equation that would illustrate at what exact moments the minute hand crosses over the hour hand.

6) An invisible gnome appears on your shoulder and encourages you to steal things.

5) Adding up the number of students in your class, subtracting those wearing the color magenta, dividing by the number of ceiling tiles, and squaring it all by how many times the teacher said 'um' in the last minute gets you 23.

4) You begin to wonder whether your professor has an accent or just starts drinking early.

3) Seeing the theorems on the board makes you reminisce of your favorite technobabble from an episode of Star Trek.

2) You come up with this list during class lectures.

1) Calculus begins to make sense.

Star Trek: The Wrath of Fhans

Early this morning, I felt the need to check up on Star Trek news. I had gone to trekmovie.com to see if there was anything interesting and found a new article about the future game Star Trek Online. It was detailing the facets of a Klingon ship players would be able to fly. I scrolled down to the comments section, reading through what other people wrote to see if any had generated the same opinion I had of the design. What I found was a grudge match in which Trekkies battled for the position of who could complain the most about the design, the game history, other posted comments, past television series, the current economy, and even a few insults thrown towards the Klingons. I was majorly depressed.

What happened to Trekkies being the 'nicest fanbase of the universe' (okay, I don't know if this title is real)? The Star Trek Franchise is based in kindness, tolerance, and understanding, not loathing and detestation. In the words of the Black Eyed Peas, "Where is the love y'all?"

If I wanted to hear hateful speech directed towards fans of Star Trek I would talk to all my friends; I don't want this kind of despicable bigotry coming from people who actually like the shows (Star Trek: Voyager sucked big though).

We all need to work together if we hope to see this franchise continue. Maybe quoting a rap artist was a bad move when trying to talk to Trekkies (they prefer orchastrel music with the only lyrics to be a stern captain waxing poetic) so I will leave you to ponder the words of the great Klingon warrior Kahless, "Destroying an Empire to win a war is no victory... and ending a battle to save an Empire is no defeat."

The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Well, snow is melting here in Mankato and my olfactory bulbs are saying "Spring is in the air, Alden." In the spirit of nature, I have decided to go inside and hop onto the computer to blog.

My mother's influence over my life has not waned as of my leaving the nest. Though she can no longer dictate over the minutia, she has turned to suggesting many things to occupy my time with when not studying. And suggest she has, from ideas of how to do my homework to strategies of how to socialize with the ladies.

One recent suggestion was to read the novel The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. My mother works at a high school with many Native American (yeah, I'm PC, not a mac) students and felt that it gave her a good perspective of their day-to-day ordeals. She naturally wanted to enlighten me also, so she hounded me to read it too (actually she just suggested it once or twice; in the spirit of melodrama, I have decided to embellish most of the facts of this story a tad). Now that I have completed the novel, here is my review:

Sherman Alexie has written a heart warming tale of learning to grow past circumstances to get a better life. The main character Arnold has had a lot of troubles in life: a birth defect, household issues, and an ever-present sense of death and decay. He lives on a Native American reservation in Washington, an area filled with desperation and despair. His community is not one that encourages success of any kind, instead persuading its people to remain in the practise of wallowing in the defeat of their culture. A talented kid like Arnold, who is both artistic and intelligent, finds out that he cannot remain on the reservation without abandoning the hopes and dreams he had been cultivating as a child.

While written for young teenagers, the story portrays the large themes of abandonment, exploration, and grief. Though some of the dialogue is juvenile (using the term 'boners' to describe processes in the learning experience), that is to be expected due to both the target audience and the age of the narrator.

The story provides a wealth of characters that subvert the usual stereotypes that they are at first accused of exemplifying by the narrator. The plot grows naturally from what is expected of the setting, and a few surprises are thrown in to boot. On the whole, Sherman Alexie's award winning novel is a recommend read by this blogger, earning an "Alden's Choice Award".

Battlestar Galactica vs. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Now for the obligatory Star Trek post:

I've watched a bit of this show called Battlestar Galactica, and I must say that it is some of the most enjoyable television viewing I've had in a good long time. With dynamic characters, realism (to a degree of course, it is Sci-Fi), and a compelling plot, this show has wormed its way into my cold-television-viewing-heart. After analyzing much of the characteristics of the show, I have come to the realization that there might be one major reason I like this show: It is the reincarnation of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, my favorite show of all time.

To explain this comment, I must elaborate the back-story of these two series. The Star Trek franchise was growing due to great reception of The Next Generation. TNG had done many things to create such high interest in the show, including but not limited to: more serialization of story (not ending each episode with a complete ending to the plots but instead allowing the plot line to be furthered later in the series), deeper characterizations, and combining the two to create amazing episodes (The Best of Both Worlds, Tapestry, and Reunion to name a few). Over the course of the show, the Star Trek universe became a richer, more complete place. To capitalize on TNG, the producers and studio decided to start another spin off.

This new show was to be set on a station orbiting a world established in earlier episodes of TNG as being devastated by an evil occupation, giving the Federation officers a big job of rebuilding a demolished society. They would not be able to make decisions and then leave to go off to another planet, but would instead face the consequences of their actions. Though this was hailed as not being true to the original concept of exploring the unknown, the show did explore many previously unknown places of the Star Trek universe such as justified hate, moral ambiguity, and of the horrors of war.

What enamored me to the show was not the engaging space battles or the fanciful Sci-Fi stories (though they had a few good ones of both), but instead the amazing growth of characters. These were not the cardboard cut-outs of the Original Series or the underdeveloped people of TNG (yes, Picard, Riker, Data, and Worf went somewhere, but what about the others?). The heroes of Deep Space Nine ended up fundamentally changed by the end of the series. The best part about their changes were that they were not altered on whim or just grew new interests in order to expedite story; they grew from the conditions around them naturally. That is what I believe makes a good show (space battles help with that too).

Battlestar Galactica is along the same lines of a spin off, but actually is a reboot of the previous show. It took the more interesting elements of the old show (isolationism, genocide, and space battles) and added a healthy dose of realism. The characters are grim, the situation is doubtful, and everybody has a good chance of not making it.

The story of BSG starts with the annihilation of the majority of the human race and chronicles the tales of the survivors who attempt to escape the danger. Everyone must adapt to the situation or die, and adapt they do. Some take drugs, some have random promiscuous relationships, others die (and that happens a lot). This show grabs the tragedy by the bumper and doesn't let go. We are never allowed to forget the holocaust of the first episode simply because these characters couldn't forget either. Unrelenting, BSG takes drama to another level.

I would continue this comparison, but I am getting tired, so look forward to Battlestar Galactica vs. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Part II.