Saturday Night Open Thread 2: Electric Boogaloo

33Comments

1. 1.

   SiubhanDuinne

   November 14, 2010 at 3:23 am

   LOL, huh whut??

   (Maybe it would make more sense if I could see the linked video, but no such luck on BlackBerry.)

   Or it could be that 3-something in the A.M. isn’t my best time to pick up on ABL’s unique mode of communication. I might come back and try again after I get some SLEEP! Damn fvckin insomnia mutter mutter.

2. 2.

   freelancer

   November 14, 2010 at 3:24 am

   Somebody wanna reboot ABL?

   Also, You’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!

   She was only 16 years old!

3. 3.

   Yutsano

   November 14, 2010 at 3:37 am

   @freelancer: Whatever she is on, I r wanting some. That or she REALLY has something to say, but it’s beyond our ability to grok.

   EDIT: Oh wait. I get it now. But anyone else get the feeling she actually typed all those out instead of copy & paste?

4. 4.

   MikeJ

   November 14, 2010 at 3:40 am

   I just linked to the new Alan Partridge thing last week here. Glad to see other Coogan fans.

5. 5.

   freelancer

   November 14, 2010 at 3:43 am

   I’ve been on a bit of BBC kick lately. The Sherlock reboot was amazing. And two of my favorite movies to come out recently have been BBC Satire. In the Loop has Steve Coogan (one of our impersonators and the movie director from Tropic Thunder) as an irate constituent of a British Minister, the politician being the one trying to walk the line as being neutral in his statements for and against the Iraq War, pre-invasion. It is super-obscene and ridiculously funny.

   Four Lions is a very British dark comedy about the ineptitude of five suicide bombers. One braindead jihadi gets convinced that martyring himself is basically going to mean that Heaven is like an amusement park and martyrdom means you get to skip ahead of all the lines (queues). Since his favorite ride is the circular boat water rapids ride common to most parks, his way to psych himself and his buddy up about Jihad is repeated uttering the line “Rubber dinghy rapids!” and “Rubber dinghy rapids, bro!“.

   Another Jihadi keeps buying explosive components from the local drugstore, but avoids attention from the authorities by taking on various “disguises”.

   The movie is ridiculously funny, and strikes me as only something the British could get away with. Even amongst scenes that are cringe-inducing in their depiction of terrorism, the filmmakers find a way to have you gut-laughing at the same time.

6. 6.

   MikeJ

   November 14, 2010 at 3:57 am

   @freelancer: Ever see the Bass Eye series? Same director as Four Lions. If you can find a torrent (or better yet a legal way(good luck with that(I wouldn’t have suggest a torrent if I thought there was a legit way(yes, I do like lisp, why do you ask?))) it’s well worth your time.

7. 7.

   freelancer

   November 14, 2010 at 4:07 am

   @MikeJ:

   No I haven’t seen Bass Eye. And I found Four Lions through torrent, but would have gladly paid for it had their been an option to. This seems to be a failing of many of the gatekeepers of exclusive content. I got rid of cable 3 years ago. Now, I pay for DSL (around $15/mo), XBL ( $4/mo), Netflix ($9/mo) and then for the four or five shows I follow at a time, I buy each ep at $2 a pop. It works out to about $20 a month. Independently, without a DVR, a cable bill to cover the channels I like would already be $60, and I’d still have to spring for internet. When neither cable, nor ISP’s offer the content that is wanted at any price, sometimes, customers have to chance taking matters into their own hands.

   I haven’t heard of Bass Eye, but there is a wiki entry on Chris Morris’ show Brass Eye that I will look out for.

8. 8.

   SiubhanDuinne

   November 14, 2010 at 4:10 am

   @Yuts #3: Well, I still don’t get it, let alone grok it. But I disagree that ABL typed all 150 iterations. I’m totally going with C&P.

9. 9.

   MikeJ

   November 14, 2010 at 4:15 am

   @freelancer: That’s the one.

   Four Lions just came out and its US distributor is a beer hall/movie theatre, Alamo Drafthouse in Austin. While I’m sure it’s run by lovely people, it doesn’t give me much hope for a long theatrical run here.

10. 10.

    valdemar

    November 14, 2010 at 4:19 am

    Suggest you look for Brass Eye – it’s a parody title conflating two old Brit investigative journalism shows, Brass Tacks and, erm, another one with ‘eye’ in it. Search for Bass Eye on Google and you’ll get a lot of stuff about fish optics.

11. 11.

    Yutsano

    November 14, 2010 at 4:22 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: Ya hafta search around on the other threads to figure out why she done did what she did. You hint: supercalifragilisticexpialidicious. Yes I spelled it right even with teh Google. I’m such a dork sometimes. :)

12. 12.

    MikeJ

    November 14, 2010 at 4:37 am

    @valdemar: Heh. I didn’t even notice the typo. You just had to carp on it. You made me feel crappie.

13. 13.

    Angry Black Lady

    November 14, 2010 at 4:41 am

    The Cut and Pastes win!

    I’m really not on anything, y’all. I just saw some cries for help on the other thread and I figured, Cole hasn’t taken the keys back yet, so…

14. 14.

    NobodySpecial

    November 14, 2010 at 4:43 am

    supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

    8)

15. 15.

    Angry Black Lady

    November 14, 2010 at 4:44 am

    But, but, but, I *do* type about 90 WPM and I was diagnosed as “hyperactive” as a child, so I absolutely could type all that crap, and in a timely fashion.

16. 16.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 14, 2010 at 4:51 am

    @Yutsano #11:

    Dear FSM, I hope you don’t mean I have to venture back into that long open thread that the troll ruined for, well, pretty much everyone. But if I must, I must. I think there were something like 210 comments when I finally threw up my hands and said “Enuf!”

17. 17.

    Basilisc

    November 14, 2010 at 4:52 am

    The Brits are so far ahead of us in comedy it’s really, so to speak, not even funny. And year after year their lead just keeps growing. I mean compare this to the current assembly of tedious dreck they’re calling SNL.

18. 18.

    PurpleGirl

    November 14, 2010 at 5:40 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: The thread ended with 257 comments… I scrolled through it fairly quickly. Didn’t read any of what Change posted, I’ve learned that it’s a waste of time and effort. I think ABL summed up Change very well, to wit: S/He was saying things. Over and over again. I figure Change has a file of comments written offline that s/he cuts and pastes in whatever blog s/he decides to haunt at the time.

19. 19.

    Lancelot Link

    November 14, 2010 at 7:02 am

    The other Chris Morris show to look for is The Day Today, especially the “war” episode; there’s a bunch of it on youtube.
    Be careful of Jam, though. It’s a bit disturbing.

20. 20.

    Maody

    November 14, 2010 at 8:16 am

    this made me laugh on a day when i have to attend an HOA meeting. at least I own a home for a *change*.

21. 21.

    bjacques

    November 14, 2010 at 8:33 am

    I’m loving The Trip! Thanks ABL for posting it here. Unfortunately, Four Lions came and went in my town. I’ll give it a couple of months to turn up at the good video store here, then I’m downloading it.

    “oo…ab…welcome…in Jam…JAM…JAAAAAAEAARRRWWWWMMMM!!!!”

    There’s loads of other Steve Coogan stuff out there. The Trip is directed by Michael Winterbottom, who also directed 24 Hour Party People, the history of the Manchester scene and the Hacienda Club, from punk/industrial (Joy Division) to New Wave (New Order) to rave (Happy Mondays). Hilarious and elegaic. See also his Alan Partridge serieses.

    Rob Bryden I’ve been seeing more of as he’s come out of Welsh comedies like Gavin and Stacy, and I like what I see.

22. 22.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    November 14, 2010 at 8:36 am

    Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. Great start to the day. If you haven’t seen them in Tristam Shandy, put it on your nex flix cue.

23. 23.

    Peter

    November 14, 2010 at 8:54 am

    I think this post is a little too post-modern for me.

24. 24.

    zmullls

    November 14, 2010 at 9:52 am

    I think I saw this post over at Tucker Carlson’s site, only he was using a lot of different words.

25. 25.

    Jack

    November 14, 2010 at 9:54 am

    @Basilisc:

    You have SNL, but we have Little Britain, which is utterly dreadful.

    Also too, Monkey Dust. Possibly the greatest animated sketch show ever made, with the world’s best black comedy. They make Frankie Boyle look positively wholesome.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaUkt59vY1Q

26. 26.

    nancydarling

    November 14, 2010 at 10:10 am

    @zmullls: I think this post was also in John’s Saturday night open thread by some one named “change”. There were several of them, long ones.
    Couldn’t get past the first few sentences in any of them.

27. 27.

    El Cid

    November 14, 2010 at 10:28 am

    @freelancer: I haven’t heard of those other shows / movies.

    Sherlock, on the other hand, was so astoundingly good that I’m pretty sure that if each episode had been released as a wide-release movie, it would have done very well.

    I’ll seek out Four Lions especially.

28. 28.

    Xoebe

    November 14, 2010 at 11:08 am

    I think the first guy in the video did a better Michael Caine.

29. 29.

    Nylund

    November 14, 2010 at 12:05 pm

    @Basilisc:

    The Brits are so far ahead of us in comedy it’s really, so to speak, not even funny. And year after year their lead just keeps growing. I mean compare this to the current assembly of tedious dreck they’re calling SNL.

    I have a friend who is pretty high up in the world of UK television. We talk about this all the time. We share comedy shows, with her recommending British ones, and me American ones. After watching each others’ favorites, she wrote me and said, “I think, on the whole (and tell no one I said this) American comedy series are better.”

    Opinions differ.

30. 30.

    snarkypsice

    November 14, 2010 at 12:38 pm

    I really don’t bother with American TV anymore with the very occasional exception (Mad Men, Curb Your Enthusiasm). I watch all Brit TV all the time. Shows like this are the reason why. Episode 2 was even funnier.

31. 31.

    inflector

    November 14, 2010 at 2:28 pm

    Want to change things?

    Read the Battle Plan for Dan Choi’s Army and the fight for equal rights for all. Men, women, gays, lesbians, and the poor.

    We are meeting in Gettysburg and marching from there by foot to Washington next weekend.

    Don’t miss the call of history.

32. 32.

    a few stupid points

    November 14, 2010 at 5:14 pm

    speaking of Michael Caine, check out this review of his autobiography. The review is hy-sterical.

    http://crimealwayspays.blogspot.com/2010/10/digested-read-elephant-to-hollywood-by.html

33. 33.

    Sock Puppet of the Great Satan

    November 14, 2010 at 7:49 pm

    “Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon.”

    Claim to fame: at a Edinburgh festival in 1991, Steve Coogan walked up to me and a friend in a bar, gave us free tickets to his shows, and begged us to come.

    We did. It was good.