[Pamp Culture] oh is there a rapsball happening?

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > [Pamp Culture] oh is there a rapsball happening?

Pepe Silvia Browne: Jan 1, 2007

je1 healthcare posted:

It coincided with standup comics getting on television and having to abide by FCC regulations and network censors, whereas in nightclubs they could drop any slur or obscenity and at worst piss off a venue

i don't think you really understand what i'm saying but ok

# ? Apr 30, 2024 02:25

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# ? May 17, 2024 15:19

Good Soldier Svejk: Jul 5, 2010

To bring this around to pop culture stuff - I saw a broadway show for the first time a few weeks ago and I have been overtaken by the desire to learn more about musicals.
Apart from Sound of Music, Cabaret, and Chicago which we just watched (and the classic Blues Brothers) what's next

Something about The Music Man really calls to me, and The King and I
anybody got any favorites they want to love on

# ? Apr 30, 2024 02:40

Blood Boils: Dec 27, 2006; Its not an S, on my planet it means QUIPS

Jackson's fellowship is the best of his bunch but doesn't feature less CGI than the rest lol c'mon

what kind of backwards rear end noob thinks "if I enjoyed it then the sfx must have been practical and vice versa no need to check and avoid embarrassing myself"

Real heads know PJ never met a special effect or camera trick he wouldn't use. Just like he never met a plotline he could resist bloating

# ? Apr 30, 2024 02:41

the milk machine: Jul 23, 2002; lick my keys

the music man is very good and you will marvel at how much the simpsons monorail episode is a love letter to it

sound of music of course

watch the 70s Jesus Christ superstar and then also watch the john legend one from a few years ago. there's also a british one from the 90s-00s that makes some funny choices

the London Sweeney Todd with Angela Lansbury is terrific

the lion king stage production is amazing but I'm not sure if there's a watchable recording

also watch Across the Universe, it's the same director as the lion king and also the person responsible for the spider man musical fiasco you may remember from several years ago

also: moulin rouge (the Nicole Kidman one not the cringe new one) and also Richard Gere Chicago

the milk machine has issued a correction as of 02:48 on Apr 30, 2024

# ? Apr 30, 2024 02:44

the milk machine: Jul 23, 2002; lick my keys

Blood Boils posted:

Real heads know PJ never met a special effect or camera trick he wouldn't use. Just like he never met a plotline he could resist bloating

yep to all this but two yeps to the first part

# ? Apr 30, 2024 02:46

Good Soldier Svejk: Jul 5, 2010

the milk machine posted:

the music man is very good and you will marvel at how much the simpsons monorail episode is a love letter to it

sound of music of course

watch the 70s Jesus Christ superstar and then also watch the john legend one from a few years ago. there's also a british one from the 90s-00s that makes some funny choices

the London Sweeney Todd with Angela Lansbury is terrific

the lion king stage production is amazing but I'm not sure if there's a watchable recording

also watch Across the Universe, it's the same director as the lion king and also the person responsible for the spider man musical fiasco you may remember from several years ago

Lion King is always showing somewhere so I'll note that as a "next time it comes around"

Rest of this is added to the list
My wife is also hyping up Fiddler on the Roof all of a sudden

also we have tickets to Bye Bye Birdie this summer

Honestly I feel like watching "Rent" in high school poisoned this beautiful artform for me for so long and I've got a lot of catching up to do

# ? Apr 30, 2024 02:48

Spergin Morlock: Aug 8, 2009

# ? Apr 30, 2024 03:10

Zedhe Khoja: Nov 10, 2017; sürgünden selamlar
yıkıcılar ulusuna

Hadestown wasn�t bad but some of its politics were eye rolling. not Sorkin or LMM bad but kind of annoying. still worth a watch/listen

# ? Apr 30, 2024 03:11

Spergin Morlock: Aug 8, 2009

i hear Hamilton is really good

/ducks

# ? Apr 30, 2024 03:12

F Stop Fitzgerald: Dec 12, 2010

rewatched Black Narcissus because of the thread and drat that is a good looking flick. every shot is the coolest poo poo ive ever seen. like the earlier poster said its surprisingly critical of the cultural imperialism for being a british film from the 40s, while still being nice and racist. now i gotta rewatch Col. Blimp

# ? Apr 30, 2024 03:25

loquacius: Oct 21, 2008

Good Soldier Svejk posted:

To bring this around to pop culture stuff - I saw a broadway show for the first time a few weeks ago and I have been overtaken by the desire to learn more about musicals.
Apart from Sound of Music, Cabaret, and Chicago which we just watched (and the classic Blues Brothers) what's next

Something about The Music Man really calls to me, and The King and I
anybody got any favorites they want to love on

Newsies is the most leftist American musical which isn't saying terribly much

Just rewatched Fiddler recently and I think it's worth seeing if you haven't

# ? Apr 30, 2024 03:47

Some Guy TT: Aug 30, 2011

Al! posted:

tried to watch the knuckles show because of all the excellent cast and i liked the little hilltop zone he had set up at the beginning, but the dialogue was way too lovely within the first 10 minutes to endure

im convinced jim carrey only does these movies because they just let him do ad libs instead of sticking to the genuinely terrible script because i cant come up with any other explanation why his lines and only his lines are even slightly funny

# ? Apr 30, 2024 03:47

loquacius: Oct 21, 2008

Les Mis is a story about a failed ancom revolution and yet completely failed to radicalize anyone. I was about to call it "the 90s Hamilton" for that reason but it doesn't glorify the Founding Fathers or high finance or backroom deal-making or the city of New York so it's nowhere near as bad on the merits

# ? Apr 30, 2024 03:51

DR FRASIER KRANG: Feb 4, 2005; "Are you forgetting that just this afternoon I was punched in the face by a turtle now dead?

Al! posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKM4JHnKMO8

lmao

oh my god

# ? Apr 30, 2024 03:53

Spergin Morlock: Aug 8, 2009

Al! posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKM4JHnKMO8

lmao

afro 'merikins

# ? Apr 30, 2024 04:14

Pomeroy: Apr 20, 2020

indigi posted:

nah that happens in the books too and it's deliberate. he uses different styles of prose depending on the location of the characters

The books do definitely change in some respects at different points, but there�s never a point in the books where things like the army of dead at Pelennor, or an inexplicable teleporting army of elves, don�t clash horribly with the tone.The books get �epic� to be sure, but never the slop that passes for Hollywood �epic�

Or stuff like making the Ents look like a stupid joke so Merry and Pippin could show an idiot�s idea of cleverness

Pomeroy has issued a correction as of 04:44 on Apr 30, 2024

# ? Apr 30, 2024 04:41

Ghost Leviathan: Mar 2, 2017; Exploration is ill-advised.

There is some good stuff that comes out of Disney and it's pretty much quality inversely proportional to how much push and hype it gets.

# ? Apr 30, 2024 04:44

LegoMan: Mar 17, 2002; ting ting ting; College Slice

Buck Wildman posted:

there's plenty of funny stuff on tv today

Sunny in Philadelphia had an incredible run doing the things Jerry Seinfeld says you can't do anymore

# ? Apr 30, 2024 05:01

F Stop Fitzgerald: Dec 12, 2010

he's just mad that Larry David showed everyone that hes a fraud, and Seinfeld was only funny despite him

# ? Apr 30, 2024 05:30

Augus: Mar 9, 2015

Jerry Seinfeld answers to nobody, he dares to speak truth to power

# ? Apr 30, 2024 06:14

Ghost Leviathan: Mar 2, 2017; Exploration is ill-advised.

Comedy where the joke is the comedian being a loser, loving up, or even just being frustrated at the world's bullshit seems likely to age a lot better than the acts revolving around the comedian pointing out the silliness and idiocy of the world around them, being smart and above it all. Maybe the failure comedy lends itself a lot more to empathy. Or it's just more universal to be a fuckup who gets no respect.

# ? Apr 30, 2024 06:57

TheMopeSquad: Aug 5, 2013

Good Soldier Svejk posted:

To bring this around to pop culture stuff - I saw a broadway show for the first time a few weeks ago and I have been overtaken by the desire to learn more about musicals.
Apart from Sound of Music, Cabaret, and Chicago which we just watched (and the classic Blues Brothers) what's next

Something about The Music Man really calls to me, and The King and I
anybody got any favorites they want to love on

One I like is "Topsy Turvy" which is a movie about Gilbert and Sullivan making The Mikado and has a lot of performances from the musical.

They've had a few made for TV live musicals with celebrity stunt casting like The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Peter Pan and some others. I don't remember them being super good but they reeked of high school drama nerd energy which is kinda fun.

# ? Apr 30, 2024 07:35

theflyingexecutive: Apr 22, 2007

Ghost Leviathan posted:

the acts revolving around the comedian pointing out the silliness and idiocy of the world around them, being smart and above it all.

these jokes will never age well because they're almost never directed at the problem's real source. they also usually come from comedians who have run out of real world experience to mine for jokes and only talk about service workers who have minorly inconvenienced them or getting mad at something they read online.

# ? Apr 30, 2024 07:36

Fuligin: Oct 27, 2010; wait what the fuck??

Pomeroy posted:

The books do definitely change in some respects at different points, but there’s never a point in the books where things like the army of dead at Pelennor, or an inexplicable teleporting army of elves, don’t clash horribly with the tone.The books get “epic” to be sure, but never the slop that passes for Hollywood “epic”

Or stuff like making the Ents look like a stupid joke so Merry and Pippin could show an idiot’s idea of cleverness

smdh

# ? Apr 30, 2024 11:06

brugroffil: Nov 30, 2015

The full Seinfeld quote is even dumber because his examples of comedies that can't be made anymore include MASH and Mary Tyler Moore

# ? Apr 30, 2024 12:30

Pepe Silvia Browne: Jan 1, 2007

Studio notes, also something that never existed before 2024

# ? Apr 30, 2024 12:33

DaysBefore: Jan 24, 2019

All in the Family and MASH ftw, because I am a chud. Cherrs is alright but Danson is pretty gross and sleazy even by back then standards lol

# ? Apr 30, 2024 12:36

Good Soldier Svejk: Jul 5, 2010

What about a modern MASH would people object to? Like it's overtly sexist as is the nature of that era but it's not like that was critical to the tone of the show

Far more likely you'd not be able to get it made because it was insanely critical of a current US conflict
Imagine trying to get a show about say... doctors without borders set in Ukraine or Palestine where their caravans are getting bombed by our "allies"

# ? Apr 30, 2024 12:42

DaysBefore: Jan 24, 2019

They would object to Honeycut's lovely moustache

# ? Apr 30, 2024 13:03

DaysBefore: Jan 24, 2019

Oh wait. Klinger too I suppose

# ? Apr 30, 2024 13:03

Good Soldier Svejk: Jul 5, 2010

Klinger would be a hard one to update, agreed. I mean the cross-dressing was always played as a sight gag but under the surface I don't think it was an attack on any sort of lifestyle.
He was there to point out the hypocrisy of military policies and was explicitly as anti-war/anti-US as the show got.

You could either rewrite him into a more explicit critique of military gender/sexuality laws I guess, or make him an anti-war organizer on the verge of being an opaque socialist.
But again, that's more territory that modern tv writers just wouldn't want to touch more than "wouldn't be allowed to" by a viewing audience

# ? Apr 30, 2024 13:12

Pepe Silvia Browne: Jan 1, 2007

klinger is trans now. deal with it

# ? Apr 30, 2024 13:12

DaysBefore: Jan 24, 2019

Nah I mean Klinger being ina dress was definitely the joke in and of itself on plenty of occaisions. But yes it was more about the message overall. Klinger wearing a tasteful cocktail dress is crazy but the (Vietnam) war isn't??? was the extremely unsubtle point they were making

I'm sure you could pick through all these shows with the culture war magnifying glass and finds tons of stuff to go 'oh geez' at. But like who cares. Stfu Seinfeld

# ? Apr 30, 2024 13:17

DaysBefore: Jan 24, 2019

MASH remake set in the Donbass. I'd watch that

# ? Apr 30, 2024 13:17

Good Soldier Svejk: Jul 5, 2010

Starting John Hamm, Jeffrey Wright, and Hugh Laurie

I don't care who's playing who but they have the gravitas and the maudlin humor chops in equal measure

# ? Apr 30, 2024 13:19

KirbyKhan: Mar 20, 2009; Soiled Meat

Some Guy TT posted:

Knuckles is one of the most surprising new shows of the year—yes, really. I know what you’re thinking: How could a spinoff of the incredibly popular Sonic the Hedgehog movies starring one of the franchise’s most popular characters be “surprising?” In fact, Knuckles is something of a Trojan Horse. While it presents itself as an action-packed show about Knuckles (voiced by Idris Elba), the no-nonsense red echidna, it’s really about his friendship with a goofy human, Wade Whipple (Adam Pally). More than that, over the course of the six-episode Paramount+ series, Knuckles mentors Wade as he competes in a major bowling tournament—see, I told you it’s surprising!

It’s not totally absent from the typical Sonic the Hedgehog hijinks, of course. Along the way, they run into dastardly foes determined to kidnap Knuckles. But in response, Wade decides to take his new bestie somewhere the bad guys would never think to look: his mother’s house. That leads to what is this series’ most special installment: a glorious, emotional, and poignant episode about a Shabbat dinner. Yes, I’m serious—the third episode (titled “The Shabbat Dinner”) of what is seemingly a big-budget action series about Knuckles from Sonic the Hedgehog is all about the weekly Jewish tradition of Shabbat.

For those unfamiliar with Shabbat, Wade’s mother, Wendy (played by Stockard Channing, instantly entering the pantheon of great Jewish TV moms), explains it perfectly to Knuckles: “Shabbat is the day of rest. It’s about home.” Basically, according to Judaism, God created the world in six days, so on the seventh, he rested. For modern Jews, like myself, Shabbat is an opportunity to connect with family and spend time together without distraction. It’s one of those family things that you can’t stand doing as a kid, but the older you get, the more special and valuable it feels.

In-depth portrayals of Judaism on screen are so rare, and when they do appear, the focus is largely kept on bigger holidays, like Hanukkah or Passover. Rarely do we see media give time to the religion’s more regular, intimate traditions, and it’s remarkable that a show about an alien echidna has devoted an entire half hour to exploring exactly that.

Family traditions aren’t all sweet and tender, of course. Wade didn’t realize he was rocking up to his mother’s home on Shabbat, and he has largely unpleasant memories of the occasion—his father abandoned his family when Wade was young, so most of his Shabbats involved meals gone horribly wrong, fighting with his sister, and mishaps with farm animals. For Wade, Shabbat does not conjure warm feelings; instead, it’s a crushing reminder that he’s from a broken home.

Channing as the Whipple matriarch delivers a warm and inspired performance. The details are delightful. She’s devoted to calling Knuckles “Knuchles,” with a hearty emphasis on the “ch” sound, she’s a former Krav Maga instructor, and like many wonderful Jewish mothers, family and family tradition are paramount.

At the dinner table, Wendy and Knuckles connect when talking about the history of their people. Knuckles reveals that the echidnas were wiped out by a fleet of giant owls and that he is the last of his tribe. “Our tribe has been through some tough times too,” she responds, adding, “minus the giant owls. He’s basically Jewish!”

While Wendy bonds with Knuckles, Wade and his sister Wanda (Edi Patterson), an FBI agent, are constantly bickering, rehashing their lifelong sibling rivalry. Annoyed that Wade has caught her in a lie, Wanda retaliates by stabbing Wade with a fork. Wade justifiably freaks out, but it’s Wendy’s reaction that is most telling. She stares blankly, hand on her cheek, looking exhausted. Despite her best efforts, including cooking all of Wade’s favorites from various Jewish holidays, it’s clear that this Shabbat is set up to be a disappointment, just like every other. And there are few things more heartbreaking than a Jewish mother’s disappointment.

Later that night, Knuckles finds Wendy alone, watching Pretty Woman. She shares how the Whipples’ Friday night tradition was to have Shabbat dinner, then sit together with an old movie, basking in the warm glow of the television screen and the joy of each other’s company. Now an empty nester, Wendy cooks a whole Shabbat dinner every week, desserts and all, regardless of if her family will come or not; she just tries to keep a semblance of tradition alive. It’s a level of poignancy you wouldn’t expect from a show like Knuckles, but “The Shabbat Dinner” is nothing if not unexpected.

At the end of the episode, Knuckles reminds us that it’s supposed to be an action show, delivering a brilliant set piece to wrap things up. The baddies have found Knuckles, and they launch an assault on the Whipple house to capture him.

“Knuchles, protect the candles at all costs,” Wendy tells Knuckles before the fight breaks loose. Set to “Hava Nagila”—an iconic Jewish folk song often performed during celebrations—the camera swirls slowly around the kitchen island as Wendy and Knuckles work together to take down the invaders. Knuckles uses his physical prowess, while Wendy cleverly uses what’s available to her—dinner plates and frying pans—to keep the enemies at bay. But the whole time, the action is almost secondary to the Shabbat candles, which are always centered in the frame. The candles are important, of course, but what they represent is doubly so. Shabbat candles are a symbol of the family, of the division of light versus darkness. I cannot pretend that this funny fight scene didn’t make me cry, because tears were definitely streaming watching Wendy and Knuckles fight to protect the Shabbat candles.

They succeed, and Wade and Wanda come to the kitchen after fighting other assailants that broke into the house. The Whipple siblings expect their mother to be devastated over the destruction brought to her house, but Wendy stands quietly with a big smile on her face. Their family, which had drifted apart, is now standing together, united. Eventually, she says, fighting back tears of joy, “My kids finally came home for Shabbat… this is the best drat Shabbat dinner we’ve ever had.” Watching this family bond together as the Shabbat candles go down is honestly one of the most emotionally cathartic experiences I’ll have this year.

It’s no secret that 2024 has been a tough one for everyone, including people of Jewish faith. In recent months, antisemitism has flourished online and in the news, and religion has been frequently weaponized and politicized. A powerful, earnest celebration of the Jewish faith and the power of Shabbat feels like exactly the kind of healing that we need right now—especially during Passover, which began just days before Knuckles premiered. And this moment of beauty comes from, of all places, a show about a Sonic the Hedgehog character.

Thanks for the write up. No irony, gonna show my kids this very special episode of The Sonic cartoon movie. This sounds sweet.

# ? Apr 30, 2024 13:22

RandolphCarter: Jul 30, 2005

Ghost Leviathan posted:

'My friends, you bow to no one' is unforgettable

# ? Apr 30, 2024 13:29

tristeham: Jul 31, 2022

DaysBefore posted:

MASH remake set in the Donbass. I'd watch that

yup

# ? Apr 30, 2024 13:36

DaysBefore: Jan 24, 2019

Since this whole President thing isn't working out they could get Zelensky to play Radar

# ? Apr 30, 2024 13:42

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# ? May 17, 2024 15:19

Mr Hootington: Jul 24, 2008; I'M HAVING A HOOT EATING CORNETTE THE LONG WAY

https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1785037949739913291?t=uOeZdWf-cUzD0On_I5a6vQ&s=19

Honestly I'll watch this. The dude makes fun dumb shows that are good for a season or 3.

# ? Apr 30, 2024 13:47

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > [Pamp Culture] oh is there a rapsball happening?

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