Today in Python

On November 13, the ArtsBeat blog on the New York Times posted this piece about how the dead parrot skit actually has its origins (whether the Pythons intended it or not) in a Greek book of jokes from the 4th century A.D. Titled "Philogelos," which you root-word fiends know means "lover of laughter," the book contains "age-old jokes about drunks, gluttons, halitosis, and misogyny." "Philogelos" has recently been translated into English, and in a neat twist on collaborative media, the translator (William Berg) and a British comic (Jim Bowen) have published an online multimedia book, which you can find here. The piece of interest for us in Python context, though, is the joke in which a man attempts to return a dead slave to the man who sold it to him. Definitely crueler, I think, but then that's ancient Greece, right?

Keeping in mind that there really is no new way to be funny, let's consider an article published yesterday in the New York Times, with the first line, "Is there life left in the dead parrot sketch?" Eric Idle has been the banner-carrier for the troupe since 1983, when "The Meaning of Life" was released. He's released books, DVDs, even a Broadway show (starring Clay Aiken and closing January 18th in NY! See it now! Or don't, it really wasn't that great...just go watch "Holy Grail" again). Now, Idle's assuring us that Monty Python can still be an active generator of content and discussion, even if Graham Chapman died in the eighties, and Michael Palin is off getting enough foreign policy experience to share with another Palin who might need it one day, and John Cleese is working on a stage musical adaptation of "A Fish Called Wanda," and Terry Gilliam is struggling to finish "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" without Heath Ledger, and Terry Jones is...god, what is Terry Jones doing? Well, Wikipedia says he's been directing plays in Portugal. Good for him.

Idle has launched a Web site, pythonline.com, that features Python YouTube videos, discussions, and other internetty things. It has been in beta-testing since the spring and officially goes live at the end of the month. I've perused it, and I think I agree with Robert J. Thompson, the founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse (and, evidently, a "huge Python fan" in high school): "When you can get a Monty Python screensaver, it ceases to be what Monty Python was." Python humor is all about them specifically NOT ingratiating themselves with the public--they were trying to be funny for each other and working their absurd Oxford/Cambridge comedy roots (which, yes, do exist; Cambridge Footlights Players alumni also include Douglas Adams, Sasha Baron Cohen, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson...the list goes on). 

I disliked "Spamalot" for the same reason--it might make me a snob, but I want my comedy to challenge or surprise, rather than pander to the lowest common punchline. I want my strange Terry Gilliam illustrations to make NO SENSE and yet still form a cohesive narrative, not be icons that say "CLICK HERE TO GET A LIFE." And I want my Eric Idle to be not a web mogul but someone who dresses like this to meet the Prince:

That's more like it.

The Lockbox Strategery

My, Spit Takes has been a busy girl! A month and no blogging action...I suppose I've just been caught up in election fever. Haven't we all? 

Well, the only thing the New York Times is more obsessed with than the election is coverage of and reaction TO the election. Hence today's article about how late-night comedy has seen a huge uptick in ratings and viewings recently. A run-down of some of their facts:

• Ratings for SNL are up 50%
• The Daily Show averaged 2 million viewers in September (that's huge for cable), and more viewers per episode than Conan
• Number of internet viewings of the Tina Fey/Amy Poehler Palin-Couric sketch have surpassed the nearly 10 million people who watched it when it originally aired on 9/27

A big part of the success for SNL, of course, is the guest-starring of Tina Fey as Sarah Palin. A soon as Palin was announced, people started clamoring for Tina to take her on. We (and Seth Meyer's writers' room) are lucky she did. Another part of the success--for all programs, comedy and actual news--is that people really are paying attention. Seth points out, 

It's best for a writer when 70 million people see a debate...we did 11.5 minutes on that debate sketch last week [Sarah Palin/Joe Biden, with Tina Fey and Jason Sudeikis]. We couldn't do that if everybody hadn't watched it.

As far as the Daily Show and the Colbert Report go, they've been beating Leno, Conan, Dave, Craig, and Jimmy Kimmel in the coveted "men from 18-34" bracket pretty regularly...by several hundreds of thousands viewers per episode. Oof! In the big picture that is ratings, however, that isn't huge: the Daily Show averages 1.45 to 1.6 million viewers nightly, which is high for cable but nothing compared to, say, CSI's 18.6 million. However, in the big picture that is "the youth vote," however that might be defined, is spending more time listening to what Jon and Stephen have to say and less to the network boys. Conan puts it pretty well:

For some of the shows politics is their bread and butter. Shows like mine and Jay's and Dave's also do different things. Sometimes I have to move on to something silly, like me jumping in a vat of cheddar cheese.

I think Conan sells himself short. His impressions of Bush ("Uh-huuuuh?!") and Schwarzenegger ("Baargh!!") are some of the best out there. Though of course Conan + vat of anything = awesome.

So how much sway does Conan (or Jon, or Jay) have over public opinion? Since the Clinton years, presidential politics have started cropping up more and more in "nontraditional" media outlets, and people have been trying to parse the effects. An article published in the March 2004 Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media studied the influence of late-night comedy on the 2000 election, and it had some interesting points that still apply today. In regards to jokes made during the 2000 election, 

Among those subjects who did not watch late-night, Democrats rated Bush less knowledgeable over time and Republicans rated him more knowledgeable over time. But partisans who were high consumers of late-night appeared identical in the extent to which their ratings of Bush's knowledgeability changed from July to October.

Of course, comedy (at least, broadcast and mainstream sketch comedy) only really works if your viewer has knowledge of what you're joking about, as Seth mentioned earlier. Jon is quoted in this journal piece as pointing out that audiences need to "know something before [comedians can] even make a joke about it." This is what works so well with the Fey/Palin skits on SNL: many viewers have already glutted themselves on the ACTUAL ridiculousness of Palin's interviews and appearances, therefore they are familiar with the material. So when Fey repeats some lines verbatim, that is one kind of funny (sad funny, I suppose), and when she makes others up that are in the style of the actual quotes, that is a comedy of recognition.

With all that in mind, I'm not sure I'm convinced that our late-night friends actually have that much influence over public opinion. Let's conclude with what Lorne pointed out in the Times:

"I think we offer some perspective," Mr. Michaels said. "But when people start getting into how we're changing things, I think we're not. I think we affect the media and maybe influence some people. I think we're a safety valve. Some pressure gets let off by what we do."

Thoughts? Have you ever had your mind changed by a monologue, joke, or skit?

Profile: Kenan Thompson

Those of us that watched Nickelodeon as kids (I was, indeed, Afraid of the Dark) were indelibly influenced. Ladders slamming against windows, the Crag, the Strongest Man in the World, and silvery liquid puddles* all have their place in our hearts. But one of the best was surely "All That"...and one of the best things about "All That" was Kenan Thompson.


Born in 1978, Kenan starred on "All That" from 1994-1999, and he and Kel Mitchell starred in "Kenan and Kel" from 1996-2000. They managed to transition to the big screen with "Good Burger" in 1997, but Kenan was no stranger to movies: by that point, he already had 1995's "Heavyweights" and 1996's "D2: The Mighty Ducks" under his belt (in which he played a scrappy Southern California street hockey player who helped the Ducks beat the evil Icelandic team). Kenan joined "SNL" as a featured player in 2003 and became a cast member in 2005. He still works in film, with movies like "Snakes on a Plane," "Fat Albert," "My Boss's Daughter" and "The Master of Disguise." Take from that list what you will.

Kenan's upcoming films include this summer's animated "Space Chimps" and the movie "Weiners," which IMDB describes as "a road trip comedy about three friends who travel across the country in a Wiener Wagon to beat up a popular daytime talk show therapist." Frankly (get it?!), I like the sound of that.

While we wait for summer movie season to get into full swing, let's enjoy a mini Kenan retrospective. Here's a clip from Amanda Bynes's first episode at "All That" in 1996 (she was ten). The cold open is about her fitting in with the cast, with some good Kenan face time. Keep watching, though (you know you want to hear that TLC song, anyway): the first skit after the credit sequence is a Lil' Kenan gem--Cooking with Randy, the chef who is obsessed with chocolate.



And, twelve years later: Kenan as French Def Comedy Jam stand-up comic Jean K. Jean on Weekend Update.



Of course, it isn't all TV and movies for Kenan. He is a man of varied interests--he wrote the intro to Chicken Soup for the Preteen Soul, and had a piece about getting spanked for lying to his dad in Chicken Soup for the Kid's Soul. And last month when Kenan was pulled over in New Jersey, and the cops discovered weed in the car? Kenan, that smooth operator, only got tagged for driving erratically--his passenger, however was charged with possession. Incroyable!

* "Clarissa Explains It All," "GUTS," "The Adventures of Pete & Pete," "The Secret World of Alex Mack." But of course you knew all that.

Dave Foley Tells Us How It's Done

Remember in college when you would conveniently schedule your classes so you'd be back at your dorm room in time to watch the "Kids in the Hall" reruns in the afternoon on your roommate's little white VCR/TV combo that sat on top of the mini-fridge?

Yeah, me too. That was fun.

Here, Dave and the boys explain the ethereal mystery that is the construction of the comedic sketch. Of course, only a third of the KiTH sketches are "typical" sketches. The second third are surrealist, strange, disjointed challenges to the standards of humor, and the final third are songs by Bruce McCullough about everyday objects or guys named Dave. All in all, it's an impressive canon.