This is topic Reno911! in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.


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Posted by MaydayDesiax (Member # 5012) on :
 
Now that I'm in college, I find myself doing the strangest things...

My roommate and I have known each other for four years, which helps with the whole 'awkward living together' situation. We're both very respectful of one another: Asking before turning on music or the television; letting each other know where we're going, etc.

But that's not what I'm talking about.

The two of us have recently become addicted to Comedy Central's 'reality show' Reno911! . And it's scary.

And all my fault.

My grandmother had Comedy Central on her cable, while I did not. When I would visit, I would watch it for the stand-ups and the SNL reruns. Imagine my joy when I found out that the (free!) cable in our rooms included my favorite funny channel.

A (my roommate's nickname) and I settled in for a night one Wednesday, watching tv, when 'Reno911!' comes on. Intreagued, we sit and watch the half-hour show...

And could not stop laughing. It was on the following night, and we watched it again. And again. And again. We just got caught up in watching the mock of 'Cops!', with the zany antics of the officers, all of which we know by name now--neurotic Trudy; mace-happy Raineesha; Lt. Dangle and his paint-on shorts; angry Garcia; the very sexual Clemmy; dog-loving Junior; and the sometimes led-astray Jonesy. We find ourselves waiting for the show to come on (something I personally haven't done in years and years), and find ourselves very irate if for some reason we miss it, even though we know it's going to be on the next day.

I don't know, maybe it's from growing up watching 'Cops!' or something (my father's relatives watch it. They're the kind that actually watch to see if any of the cousins are getting caught, if you know what I mean...). But just watching this inept police department makes me laugh so hard, I can spit whatever I'm drinking right across the dorm room.

Does anyone else out there on Hatrack have the same affliction to 'Reno911!' or any other show? I know some think that television is the devil ::cough::Bernard::cough::, but I just want to know if I'm the only one out there!

Mayday
 

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Posted by BYuCnslr (Member # 1857) on :
 
TVs are good for a few things only,
1)console games
2)DVDs
3)Anime!!!!

Satyagraha
 

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Posted by MaydayDesiax (Member # 5012) on :
 
If you say so, Bernard, if you say so...
 

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Posted by ana kata (Member # 5666) on :
 
Is that television? Hmmm. I haven't turned it on in a couple of decades but that sounds interesting.
 

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Posted by A Rat Named Dog (Member # 699) on :
 
Reno 911 is freaking hilarious. They've got their own brand of funny on that show that you don't see very often. And it looks like Comedy Central knows it — the show is on like five times a day
 

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Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
 
Reno 911 is one of the stupidest, funniest shows I have ever seen.

There was a thread on Ornery about a fake drug check point at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Cops put up signs saying there would be check points. People threw stuff out the window, and then the cops could follow them and give a ticket for littering, and also then have the right to search the cars for drugs, and arrest them.

Well, all I could really think of was the Reno 911 cops doing this. Inevitably, one of the hippies would blow pot smoke in their faces, and they would get high, or they would cook up some mushrooms for their dinner later that night. I couldn't stop giggling at the image.

They just crack me up.
 

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Posted by dawnmaria (Member # 4142) on :
 
Reno911 is great. I love it. I loved the State too. Does anyone remember these guys from Viva Variety that they did right after the State?
 

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Posted by jehovoid (Member # 2014) on :
 
I never saw the State but I watched Viva Variety. Is Lupin the same guy as Lt. Dangle?

Oh well. I'm not exactly addicted, but I do like the humor in Reno 911. I love it how they start every show with them getting in a car crash.
 

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Posted by Hi (Member # 5289) on :
 
I only watched it once. I have been trying to catch it every Wednesday for the whole summer but I keep forgetting.

Darn funny show though.
 

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Posted by dawnmaria (Member # 4142) on :
 
jehovoid,
I can't remember their names, but Lt. Dangle was the host guy and the mousey cop(Trudy?) was his wife. And I think I saw Johnny Blue Jeans on once as a criminal!
 

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Posted by ana kata (Member # 5666) on :
 
Xav, it was intended to be friendly. Mayday is a new jatraquera and my girlfriend-in-law (?) (whatever you call one of those). She posted this late last night when not many people were on and posting, so I piped up with my response, ya know?

But if I do come across as a proselyte for not watching television, then I don't mind that either. Yeah, it's great! I love it! I encourage everyone to try it! Feel the joy!
 

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Posted by A Rat Named Dog (Member # 699) on :
 
No, Dangl isn't Lupin. Lupin's the evil prince from Dragonheart.
 

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Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
 


I also frequently post to point out that I don't watch TV. (Except, of course, the exceptions.)

(There! I just did it again! )

I apologize if I'm coming off obnoxiously somehow . . .

but could it be that it's not so much ak and I being obnoxious as some of you being touchy because on some level you agree that watching TV is a waste of time?

I mean, it is true that I am proud/smug about the fact that I don't give much time to the TV. And it's equally true that this is not so much due to strength of character as it is to having other pursuits which occupy my time (*cough*hatcrack*cough*).

Maybe we just don't want to feel left out of the thread. Some people post an observation of their own TV viewing habits, and we do the same.

Maybe to an extent we are proselitizing for cutting down on TV watching, feeling that many people simply don't believe it's possible to not be addicted to the TV, and so we want to point out by example that it is.

It's complex.

My personal intention when I do this is not to offend. I apologize if I do, and hope you will take it ith a grain of salt.

There are aspects of some other posters lives which are often repeated that don't seem to grate in the manner that this apparently does. Just take my non TV watching in the same vein?
 

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Posted by ana kata (Member # 5666) on :
 
Also, Bernard and Mayday had sort of made it a subject already, you know? Whether to watch tv and what it is good for? In a lighthearted way, that is. Hadn't they?

Please don't ever take me too seriously. And certainly I don't want you to take me not-seriously-enough! Take me just exactly the right amount of seriously. Okay? That's good, then! Thanks!
 

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Posted by MaydayDesiax (Member # 5012) on :
 
Yes, Bernard and I did bring it up within the first three posts, I'm not offeneded. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion.

I've also gotten my roommate addicted to the Lifetime channel... And that's my mother's fault, I swear, she got me addicted to that as a child.

And Lupin's an anime master thief. So there.
 

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Posted by Toretha (Member # 2233) on :
 
yes, and for only 9.99, YOU can get your very own Seriousness Measure, with settings for how seriously to take each jatraquro! Measures sold on a first come first serve basis-call now while supplies last!
 

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Posted by odouls268 (Member # 2145) on :
 
as far as reno 911 is concerned. the original commercials were so much funnier than the show has ever been.

"some say, 'shoot to kill.' others say, 'shoot to maim.' I say empty the clip and let the Lord decide."
 

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Posted by odouls268 (Member # 2145) on :
 
now that's funny stuff.
 

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Posted by ladyday (Member # 1069) on :
 
I enjoy the show, though I have trouble explaining it to other people. A lot of the funnier stuff that happens is kind of "you had to be there" if that makes sense.

Can't really speak on the "addiction" to certain shows, or TV in general. I have never been able to watch a show with a running plot because I miss too many episodes and it ends up being confusing.
 

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Posted by Da_Goat (Member # 5529) on :
 
I haven't seen Reno911, 'cause I have church on Wednesdays and my parents seem to be very concerned with anything on Comedy Central.

However, I've had a similar obsession to The Simpsons since 1990. I was four. And I think if Monty Python's Flying Circus was still on air today, I would have a problem with that, too.
 

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Posted by graywolfe (Member # 3852) on :
 
Nah, I'm with Xav on this. I see people popping up with that take seemingly every time there's a thread about some new classic show. I find it a bit annoying as well, reminds me of all the "Kill Your Television" Bumper Sticker merchants I passed by everyday on Telegraph when I was Cal. Somehow, some way, loads of people would end up with that bumper sticker, but inevitably they'd be among the people reserving the co-op or dorm tv for X-Files, or The Simpsons or something of that ilk (both of which I enjoyed) and it always annoyed the heck out of me.

If you like life without tv, fine, enjoy it, but don't preach to me about how I'm wasting my time because I actually enjoy certain shows. TV can be a commercial art like any other art form, books don't get published simply because someone want's people educated or entertained, they get published because someone wants to make money off the marketing of that entertainment. In the end all these art forms, film, music, literature, sculpture, painting, television are commodities in as much as they are art.

People can quote statistics about brain activity and how it relates to television, but I couldn't care in the least about that. I care about how much I love listening to Shaynee Rainbolt's debut record, I care about how much I loved watching Team USA thrash Nigeria 5-0 in the World Cup tonight, I care about how much levity, and contentment an episode of Seinfeld brings to my life, and how a classic episode of Boomtown or SVU can help me reevaluate the way I see the world around me, and I care about how David McCullough's, "John Adams," has become a catalyst for more concern about our revolutionary origins.

They're all art, some more high brow than others, but art all the same. Like it or hate it, I don't care what field the art is from, or in what esteem it's held so long as I can learn from it, or enjoy it, or grow from it or all of the above.

Rant over.

[ September 25, 2003, 11:36 PM: Message edited by: graywolfe ]
 

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Posted by ana kata (Member # 5666) on :
 

quote:

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Is that television? Hmmm. I haven't turned it on in a couple of decades but that sounds interesting.

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