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In the last few days I have been let down by three of the most dependable sources of humor I know. Or, rather, two dependable sources and one that should have done better.
Last week I read the new Discworld book "Making Money." Let me explain that I am a diehard Pratchett fan. My interest predated America's "discovery" of him and actually predated Discworld; I found a book of his called "Strata" years and years ago in a used bookstore. The book was a parody of "Ringworld" and I was a strong Niven devotee, so I nabbed it. "Strata" was a much more straightforward book with none of the social satire, madcap humor, or brilliant wordplay of the later ones, but the flat Earth was born there. And I haven't left since, reading each new one as it comes out in hardback and rereading the others. Before the US was publishing at the same time as the UK I was ordering them from overseas; I have all the annual journals and diaries they used to produce. I'm a fan.
And the latest book is possibly the weakest of the lot.
I'm not sure why. Partly because he's gone back to the same well too soon -- the protagonist of the last book, Moist von Ludwig, is forced to rennovate the Ank-Morpork Bank the same way he did the post office in "Going Postal" -- and the jokes are too similar too soon to be funny. Partly because he seems to be using stock characters: the colorful and possibly insane assistant, an Igor, a bad guy with a specific madness, etc. Understandable considering how many of these things he's written.
But that I can forgive. He did a run of witch books in a row with no problem. Couple of Death books, too. And for a while he loved the Watch and wrote about them almost exclusively. And each time he found a new set of social rules to mock, a new angle on the same settings. He's done several different cop stories now but none of them are the same. "Guards Guards" is noir, "Men at Arms" is a mystery, "Night Watch" is a time travel story, etc.
No, the problem here I think is that I expected the usual amount of biting satire here and it was like expecting a step that wasn't there. Aside from a few minor discourses on gold and money flow, there wasn't much. No major treatises on the world of finance. I expected the constant one-upmanship Moist used on himself in "Postal," coming up with new ideas before his old ones ran out. Here he had maybe three. Even the action and metaphors seems forced, and one event that deserveed pages of description both for the event and the consequences is dismissed with a few paragraphs.
Worst of all, Vetinari talked too much. He's a character who benefits from lack of exposure. Here, he's positively chatty, and it hurts the image, I think.
Understand that "Making Money" was still funny, still worth the read. But it is not the Discworld book to recommend as soneone's first.
[ September 24, 2007, 09:00 AM: Message edited by: Chris Bridges ]
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Secondly, the premiere episode of "The Simpsons."
Started out great, with the blackboard gag and the entire opening sequence showing a town still rebuilding from the events of the Simpsons movie. And there were laughs here and there. But the story was ehh, no one besides Homer and Mr. Burns got much in the way of attention, and the guest star Stephen Colbert was completely wasted. Bleah.
And third, the "Family Guy"'s Star Wars special. One hour Star Wars parody. I'm not a "Family Guy" fan, generally. If it's on I'll watch and laugh here and there, but it doesn't do that much for me. But I expected some serious slams on Star Wars and some outrageous humor in general, and mostly I got great graphics and not a lot of funny. When they made fun of weaknesses or mistakes in Star Wars it worked, I think, but mostly it just sucked. I did like the closing "Robot Chicken" reference, though.
Is it me? Am I getting jaded?
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Family Guy was, imo, hilarous. I loved it. From to start to finish, I laughed harder then I've laughed at anything recently. It was perfect imo. A true classic Family Guy episode! I'm glad it wasn't just Star Wars references. I thought the Dr. Who, astroids, Chevy Chase, and other non-Star Wars bits were hilarous (though did love all the Star Wars references also). And the animation...*drools* I like to see a real Star Wars cartoon done that well!
As for Simpsons, I liked it. Didn't laugh quiete as much as Family Guy, but it was fun. Especially the opening bit that referenced the movie (Spider pig, Spider pig). hehe.
Haven't read the Discworld book, so can't agree or disagree there.
To tell the truth, other then Simpsons & especially Family Guy, I really haven't seen too many other funny things lately. Dr. Who (on Sci-Fi) has some funny stuff once and awhile, but isn't a comedy. And I can't stand all these so called dumb funny movies at thearters now....
Last funny looking movie preview I saw: the last Pixar pic Ratatolie (sp). That looked hilarous. Looking forward to seeing it on dvd!
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I was hoping the Simpson's episode would be goood, especially since the movie was. Sadly it was not, it was really annoying and more of the same thing from the last season. Family Guy was really funny in parts.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Sorry, there wasn't a single part of FG's Star Wars episode that approached the level of entertainment as RC's phone call between Palpatine and Vader. To say nothing of the running "people falling down reactor core" gags.
As odd as is it is to say, most of the Airplane jokes were in the right place, but just weren't funny. Which is hard to even imagine, but... there it is. Did love the Asteroid reference though. I did appreciate the closing dialog "You know, I think Robot Chicken did this like three months ago" Oh, and the animation was impressive.
Posts: 1368 | Registered: Sep 2002
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I thought the FG Star Wars episode was okay, but I preferred the Robot Chicken one myself (which made the little bit at the end of FG fairly funny). FG is always hit and miss with me though. Sometimes I laugh really hard, others time I'm left staring and wondering what they were thinking.
As for Simpsons, I'm sort of in agreement. I liked the opening stuff with the movie references (I actually started singing when the Spider-Man, I mean Spider-Pig, theme started). It started seeming sort of iffy after that point though. I also agree that a Colbert appearance was wasted with the episode. They could have done a lot more with him. *shrugs* Oh well.
Posts: 1960 | Registered: May 2005
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I gave up on Family Guy and The Simpsons quite awhile ago. I did think The Simpsons movie was pretty good, but that may have been somewhat influenced by the two 32-oz margaritas I'd had just before watching it.
My current dependable sources of humor: Scrubs, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report...and Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
Posts: 1945 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Family Guy was okay, but you could tell they loved the source material a little too much.
I thought that's exactly what made it so great. I loved the episode. The characters were great. They stuck really close to the story, and yeah, you can tell they love Star Wars. It was like a parody and an homage at the same time. So I was psyched to see some scenes and lines that were exactly out of the movie and obviously showed their love of it(the setting suns on Tattooine). And they did a great job of mixing up funny jokes at the movie's expense(isn't a parsec a unit of of distance, oh you mean that thing you just found out about 3 hours ago and are now judging me for not believing in it), internal family guy references(intergalactic proton powered electrical tentacled advertising droids), and their signature randomness(dirty dancing, just follow my lead and act real cool).
I don't know, I'm a big Star Wars fan and Family Guy fan and I thought it was fantastic.
quote:I gave up on Family Guy and The Simpsons quite awhile ago.
I gave Simpsons up a while ago. But I think Family Guy is still hilarious. I think they faltered in Season 4, but got back on track in the Stewie Griffin movie. What I've seen of season 5 was great, though I missed a lot of episodes.
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I haven't seen the FG Star Wars thing yet, but I thought the RC SW special was hysterical. I almost died laughing during the Admiral Ackbar Cereal bit, and the Day in the Life of Panda Baba.
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I would really like it if Family Guy does a special for each of the original Star Wars films. That'd be something to look forward to each season.
Posts: 1569 | Registered: Dec 2004
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Well, I just saw the Family Guy Star Wars Episode, and I have to say I thought a lot of it was pretty funny. There were a couple dull parts though. By far the best part was Chris (Seth Green) arguing about the merits of Robot Chicken after the credits.
Posts: 2489 | Registered: Jan 2002
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Family guy was so much better in the first few seasons, but now has entered the realm of being too surreal.
Pratchett hasn't been good for years, and I am upset at the bastardization of Granny Weatherwax that he does in his co-authored children's books. Granny is the woman, okay? Don't mess with her!
Posts: 3060 | Registered: Nov 2003
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Not only did I actually enjoy Making Money -- although I'd like for once to see an effective villain in an adult Pratchett novel again -- but I will defend to the death his Tiffany Aching books. Anyone who dislikes them, or even dislikes the depiction of Granny Weatherwax in them, answers to me.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Whew! I was about to freak out. I was scrolling down and down, and there was no TomD post!!
Tom, sometimes I wonder how much I'd have to pay to you to stop you from posting in a thread about sci fi or fantasy novels or comics. It would probably be a lot.
Posts: 3354 | Registered: May 2005
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Egad. I'm being stalked. But we can have a contest: I'll start a thread about raw food, organ meats, and human feces, and you can start a thread about Terry Pratchett, and we'll see who can avoid posting in it the longest.
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It would depend. If I thought it would be good for me, I'd stay out of the raw organs thread till it hurt and beyond.
My capacity to cause myself pain thru excessive discipline is, you know, getting excessive, mebbe.
OTOH, you have no chance in staying out of a sci fi thread. Your capacity to self-indulge is almost as extreme as mine to not self-indulge. Mebbe.
Posts: 3354 | Registered: May 2005
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Ok... I just recently became a Pratchett fan, so I'm hoping you're all just old and disillusioned now! Pratchett is a nice turn from the more serious reads, and really alot of fun. Actually, I've only done him on audio so far, but I figure I'll start purchasing books here shortly.
And just for the record, the book that got me hooked was "Wintersmith". I want MORE of Tiffany, and I love Granny Weatherwax!
Posts: 1321 | Registered: Jun 2006
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"Hogfather" will be on TV this Sunday night at 6 p.m. CST. It's on PAX or ION in our area (unfortunately not our cable system, but we can go to my mom's house).
Posts: 2034 | Registered: Apr 2004
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Not disillusioned. I'm comparing this Pratchett to previous Pratchett. Compared to just about any other writer, still way up on top.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Scott R: Last night was the first time I've watched Family Guy all the way through.
Never again.
It has its moments. I don't watch it regularly, but some of the episodes were actually funny. For example, the episode with the cult was pretty funny, I though. That said, I wish they had brought futurama back instead of Family Guy.
Posts: 2437 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Really, the only cartoon I watch anymore is Futurama. Definitely more creative that the Simpsons. And, personally, I like it better that Family Guy. For me it has more of a subtle humor, with running jokes. It just seems to be more thought out as opposed to the other ones.
Posts: 349 | Registered: Oct 2007
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Watched both The Simpsons and Family Guy tonight. Once again there was a chuckle here and there -- fast-forwarding past Opal's applause, dog hell -- and once again I was mostly bored (or in the case of FG, bored and disgusted).
What a total waste of a Sideshow Bob episode.
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