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"Daniel Frank is a very funny guy with a funny weblog." --- Mark Evanier.

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Saturday, April 29, 2006

Posted by Daniel Frank at 11:31 AM

Johnny Depp learns the old real estate maxim that you don't buy a place for the view unless you own the view also (Article here.) He's doing it for the children claiming a Sunset Strip shopping center would block his kids' view (the same kids he said he was going to raise in France).

Developer Joseph Emrani of Venice Investments, who is a partner in the project with his brother, Youdi Emrani, said he challenged Depp's representatives.

"They said, 'The kids are playing over there and they don't want it to block their view.' I mentioned that his children live in Paris, and one of them said, 'That's very personal and we don't want to get involved with that,' " Joseph Emrani said.

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Posted by Daniel Frank at 8:46 AM

A scene from my apartment on Thursday afternoon:

Daniel: Oh, boy, my Charlie Brown book has arrived in the mail! Even Whoopi Goldberg can't ruin this with her introduction!
[Reads]
Gary Groth: Did you read Peanuts as a girl?
Whoopi Goldberg: I've always read everything as a girl. I had to, because I was never a guy!
Daniel: Dammit!!!!!

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Posted by Daniel Frank at 8:38 AM

I was watching yesterday's What's My Line rerun and they had subbed the regularly scheduled with a color episode. When I saw that the Mystery Guest was Big Bird, my first reactions was that I hoped Caroll Spinney was OK (since usually they sub episodes based on the obituary pages). Thank heavens, he's OK and received a lifetime achievement award from the good folks of the Daytime Emmies.

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Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Posted by Daniel Frank at 12:57 PM

Simpsons writer extraordinaire Jon Swartzwelder has a third novel.

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Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Posted by Daniel Frank at 8:55 AM

If you want to see a superb bit of comedic acting, Mark Evanier has a clip of a 1974 Johnny Carson interview with Jim Henson/Kermit the Frog. About a quarter to a third of the way in, Kermit mentions that Mia Farrow was pregnant when they shot the special he was plugging. Carson says "Well, don't look at me" and Kermit does a brilliant double-take.

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Friday, April 21, 2006

Posted by Daniel Frank at 2:47 PM

Blowing Smoke's Jackie Danicki is surprised that Jerry Seinfeld used to be a Scientologist. (Source here.)

There was an in-joke about his being a Scientologist in the episode where the gang can't find where they parked in a mall garage. An attractive gal George has been eyeing offers to drive them around to find their car. Cut to the girl throwing them out of her car. Jerry then says "Boy, those Scientologists can be pretty sensitive."

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Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Posted by Daniel Frank at 1:45 PM

Saturday TV Funhouse did a hilarious satire of the "Disney Vault", even if it will end up setting the back the DVD release of Song of the South another five years (Iger already delayed it from being released this year (Jim Hill story here). This was the best part:

MICKEY MOUSE: Remember all the laughs we've had together?
KID:Wait, you're supposed to be funny?
[Beat]
MM: Yeah...

UPDATE: Coincidentally Mark Evanier blogged about the holding-back of Song of the South.

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Saturday, April 15, 2006

Posted by Daniel Frank at 8:44 AM

Via Howling Curmudgeons, the Secret Wars Re-Enactment Society. A couple of commenters don't seem to realize that it's fictional.

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Posted by Daniel Frank at 8:38 AM

Unseen Python: Mark Evanier has a youtube video of a 1973 industrial film the Pythons did for hairspray.

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Thursday, April 13, 2006

Posted by Daniel Frank at 10:33 AM

Mark Evanier did a bleg on the origin of the "You want it when?!" poster and gets responses including the identity of the probable artist.

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Posted by Daniel Frank at 10:25 AM

The second part of the South Park "Cartoon Wars" episode (which featured a hilarious reference to the last time South Park had a much-hyped two-parter). When it came time to show Mohammed, the screen displayed "Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Mohammed on their network". I thought it was a joke since a) it was sort of foreshadowed in the "Tune in next week" message of the first part ("Tune in next week...unless Comedy Central wusses out.") and b) it hilariously undercut the message of the show.

National Review's media blog confirmed that I was mistaken and it was a Comedy Central decision.

UPDATE: In essence, it was both. According to this AP report, Stone and Parker were told several weeks ago that they couldn't run an image of Mohammed. So this two-parter was the result.

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Sunday, April 09, 2006

Posted by Daniel Frank at 10:22 AM

My favorite type of story is one where the story-teller receives advice, encouragement or compliments from a celebrity, not realizng that said celebrity was making fun of him. Like from this Onion AvClub interview with the four new SNL cast memebrs:

Jason Sudeikis:[B]efore my first audition, Chris Rock happened to show up to do some stand-up material at the club, and he went on right before me, and as he was walking out, he sorta tapped me on the shoulder and said, "They love original thought." If you just keep that in mind, as long as you know it's yours, you know that if they like it, it's yours to keep, regardless of being on the show or not.

Bill Hader: They would always rather you do what you like, rather than you do what you think they like.

A.V. Club: Chris Rock wasn't being sarcastic in that story?

JS: No, not at all. It didn't really—I mean, there's a lot of people that've auditioned for this show that we've never seen on the show, that we've seen do a lot of things that are great, and there's a lot of people that have been on this show that didn't do much on this show that's the same. It's very—[Laughs.] Maybe he was being a smartass.

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Posted by Daniel Frank at 9:58 AM

Last Wednesday, South Park did a really funny take-down of Family Guy with interchangeable jokes unrelated to the plot and pop culture references in lieu of jokes. Cartoon Brew has the YouTube video here.

The Family Guy Steals blog would have a stronger case if its first example wasn't a reference to the Wheel of Fortune ceramic dalmation, a fairly common joke of the mid-80s, so much so that I remember Pat Sajak bringing one out at the end of a show "by popular demand". Sajak even jokes about the dalmation on his website.

(And, yes, this is what I choose to break my silence with. Sorry for the posting gap. Day job, grumble, grumble.)

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