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Here’s a classic example of why this recent trend of hiring celebrities with no actual improvisational experience to host game shows can be a bad thing:
The setup: This is from this last Wednesday’s episode of Minute To Win It, hosted by noted celebrity chef and perpetual Jersey Shore: Midlife Crisis Edition applicant Guy Fieri. The contesti had just finished off Level Seven, and Guy was setting them up for the Surprise Tearful Reunion that they do far too often on that show.
It’s not in the clip, so: The start of the statement is “These two just rocked the house with $125,000…”
<YouTube clip of Fieri proudly stating “And I just rocked the house…WITH YOUR MOM!” long since deleted.>
I wonder how long they had to stop tape.
I’m sure a couple of The Four Of You have seen Superdickery.com, a wonderful time waster that started out as a gallery of actual examples (taken out of context, of course) of Superman being, well, not so nice by modern standards.
It is in that spirit that I offer this excerpt of Christopher Kimball, founder and editor of Cook’s Illustrated magazine and host of the Cook’s Country TV show, showing his appreciation when his neighbor Axel drops in with a fresh-cooked batch of his wife’s macaroni and cheese…
<YouTube clip of Kimball berating Alex crap mac-and-cheese long since deleted.>
“Does it taste better than it looks?” “No.” And poor Axel just stands there and takes it.
See? Dick.
Just a thought on a Thursday morning:
When you’re an entertainment show running a promo about Gary Coleman and the reactions to his death from the Diff’rent Strokes crew, expect people to misread a graphic trumpeting "Secret Wills."
I was wondering why Todd Bridges would have a stand-in. Just saying.
At the end of May, Fine Living Network breathed it’s last breath, and from its ashes rose Cooking Channel.
"What the hell? I’ve never even heard of Fine Living Network," I hear you say. You would not be alone. (And now you know why it folded.)
All of this is under the umbrella of Scripps Networks Interactive, who also own a good-sized chunk of Food Network.
You in the back, again, yes, speak up: "Wait a second. I used to watch Food Network. It was cooking shows all day long. This company already has a Food Network, and now they’re starting up a Cooking Channel? Again I say: what the hell?"
Exactly. Anyone whose watched Food Network lately knows that it has about as much to do with food and cooking anymore as MTV has to do with music. With the exception of anything with Alton Brown on it, it’s a lot of Sandra Lee opening cans, Guy Fieri being a douchebag, and Rachael Ray doing, erm, whatever the hell Rachael Ray does.
And so Scripps has decided to rebrand FLN as a cooking channel. Because the one they had isn’t a cooking channel anymore.
And I’ve been watching the last couple of days. Near as I can tell, Cooking Channel is about 30% new content, coupled with about 70% old shows that used to air on Food Network back when it was, um, about food. I swear sometimes it looks like they just went into the vault, whipped out a 10-year-old FoodTV aircheck, and slapped it on the VTRs.
And even at that it’s still miles better than anything Food Network has done over the last couple of years.
So when the MTV runs their course with Jersey Shore 3: Revenge of the Snooki, Yo I Herd You Like Wacky Stuff Done To Your Car, and My Awful Goddamn Special Teenage Entitled Spoiled Brat, I’ve got an idea for them: thirty years ago, you used to see these short little mini-movies that singers and bands and such would make. Sometimes there would be some dialogue, but usually it was just one of their songs playing and the band or singer would make like they were singing along while they did stuff related to the song (most of the time). You could just show those, one after the other. It would be like listening to the radio (or your iPod, for you little bastards who are still on my lawn who don’t know what radio is), except with pictures.
Get four or five people to introduce them in shifts, you’re good to go. (You couldn’t call them "DJs," though, since they’re not really playing discs. You’d need to come up with another name for them. I wonder if anything rhymes with "D.")
Boom. Cheap programming. My ideas are available for franchise opportunities.
(Yeah, I know. It’ll never work.)
We’re in the fifth go-round of Hell’s Kitchen, right? It seems to me that the show’s been around long enough now to be established.
So why is it that none of these people can, you know, cook? And I’m not talking about highfalutin’ complicated dishes, I’m talking basic staples.
If I’m going to throw myself at the mercy of Chef Ramsay, there are three things I’m damn well going to make sure I know how to do flawlessly before I even fill out the application:
- Cook perfect scallops
- Make a risotto
- Prepare Beef Wellington
Five years in, Chef has those three items on EVERY menu he’s EVER had on the show, and we still have jackbags who can’t pan-fry a freakin’ scallop. Come ON.
Look. If I’m going to be on Survivor, I’m damned well going to make sure I know how to make fire. I’m not going to go on The Amazing Race if I’m agoraphobic, because I know at least one task is going to involve being up really really high. And I’m not going to be on Big Brother unless I know how to jump into a giant salad dressed like a cucumber. (Wait, what?)
(Aside: could that BE a more frightening picture of Julie Chen? And Les Moonves has to hit that. Yikes.)
Shlomi? Vince The Shamwow Guy’s last name is Shlomi?
Man, I love it when I don’t even have to write the schtick…
Whoever does the Flash development for the BBC ought to get a +5 to their Saving Throw vs. Pop Culture for this one…I give you the BBC’s Media Player:
If any of The Four Of You haven’t seen the viral video of The Shining as a heartwarming chick flick, go watch it now. I’ll hang out. See you when you get back.
Pretty clever, innit? There are a couple others like that floating around YouTube that people have put together.
That said: the following IS NOT EDITED. This is exactly as it aired during an episode of Who’s Line Is It Anyway earlier today:
Her insane abusive husband is stalking her! Isn’t that ADORABLE!
From a Reuters article about the TiVo-on-a-Comcast-cable-box:
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Digital video recorder company TiVo Inc said on Tuesday the roll-out of its services is a “little behind” schedule.
The timeline they originally announced was “mid-to-late 2006.”
God, I love my TivoHD.
Last night I was working some magic with my Tivo, mainly because the Zap2It folks (who provide the data that Tivo uses to create their own guide data) haven’t figured out that MLB Extra Innings is now NHL Center Ice, and as a result my Sharks games are attempting to record on a channel four lower than they should be. Basically, until they get this fixed, my Tivo thinks it’s in Federal Way. This marks the first time I can think of that I’ve ever actively wanted anything associated with me to THINK it’s in Federal Way, much less actually BE there.
So, because of this, I had to go through the rigmarole of telling the Tivo which channels I actually get as opposed to what they think I get, so it doesn’t decide I want to see Weapons of Ass Destruction 4 and record 234 minutes of black screen on the pr0n channel, instead of the acting talents of Alexis Amore, Jasmine Byrne, and the acclaimed star of Monster Meat, Mandingo. (What?)
And because of THAT, my TV happened to be on a channel called “The Word,” which their own press kit proudly touts as “The Urban Religious Channel.” I quickly shouted down the urge to bounce up a channel and see if I could come across The Deaf Albanian Midget Cooking Channel. (I hear they’re delicious if you marinate them in a little teriyaki sauce first.)
Anyhow, it just so happened that I fired up The Word at exactly the right time to meet this man.
Yep. Leroy Jenkins. Priceless.
Well, not exactly priceless…in fact, looking at the Products section of his site (I’d link you there if it wasn’t all Flash), we find that his services come with a very specific price….$20 for a one-liter bottle of his Miracle Water. (But only $100 for a case of 24! That’s a savings of almost 80%! I’ll take six!)
Best part: his Web guy is taking full advantage of his doppelganger for SEO purposes, as shown in the metatags:
<meta name=”keywords” content= “Miracle Water, Healing Water, Faith, Testimonies, Book of Acts, Reconstructive Miracles, Healings of Leukemia, Healings of Sickle Cell Anemia, Healings of Seizures, Healings of Heart Disease, Healings of HIV, Healings of AIDS, Healings of Cancer, Healings of Broken Necks, Restoration of Hearing, Restoration of Sight, Resurrection, Nine Gifts of the Spirit, Gift of Prophecy, Gift of Tongues, Discerning of Spirits, Word of Knowledge, Word of Wisdom, Healings, Faith Magazine, Faith Books, Faith DVDs, Praise and Worship CDs, T-Shirts, Leeroy Jenkins, world of warcraft, Reverend, God, Christianity, Rev. Leroy Jenkins, Phoenix Arizona “>
Anyhow, I dunno where I’m going with this; I just wanted to share the white-hot rush of joy I felt when I discovered that Leroy Jenkins is a real person.
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