I hadn't seen this when I posted the previous item but something called nerve.com has posted what someone there thinks are the 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time. About ten of them would make my list. In fact, they don't even include the one I'd probably rank as Numero Uno, which would be the take-off on This is Your Life by Sid Caesar and his constituents on Your Show of Shows. They do have the Python "Dead Parrot" sketch as their number one but for some reason, they have an odd version of it posted.
Ignore the question of whether their picks really are the fifty best. Just think of it as fifty links to funny material. Then, after you watch their picks, go watch my choice as the funniest sketch ever done, at least on network teevee.
One of the funniest comedy sketches ever done is the "Dead Parrot Sketch" as performed by John Cleese and Michael Palin of Monty Python's Flying Circus. It really is quite a joy and a thing of beauty, combining crisp and expert comedy writing with stellar performances. Let's take a look at it again, shall we?
Next week, I may be going to New York. I say "may" because my tickets are on American Airlines and with them, who knows? Regular readers of this blog have shared big troubles with Southwest Airlines and bigger ones with United. Let us all hope you aren't subjected to a series of steam-releasing posts about American.
April 18-20, I will be a "featured guest" at the New York Comic Con, which is being held at the Javits Center. When I'm not doing panels there, I'll often be found hanging around Booth #1825, which is the exhibit space for Harry N. Abrams Books, publishers of Kirby: King of Comics. I think the premise here is that you buy copies and I write my name in them. (Hint: On Saturday from 1 PM until 2 PM, the legendary Joe Simon will be there to sign along with me. If I were you, I'd go then...and I'd elbow me aside to get Joe's signature.)
When I'm not doing that, I'll be — here's a novelty — doing panels...
On Friday from 2 PM to 3 PM, I'll be one of the panelists discussing the life and times of the great Mr. Will Eisner in room 1E10-1E11. This panel follows a special screening of an excellent documentary on the man, Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist, which starts at Noon.
Then from 5 PM 'til 6 PM, also on Friday, I'll be hosting a panel called "The State of Animation," along with a fine animation producer named J.J. Sedelmeier, whose work I've always enjoyed. I'm not sure yet who else will be up there but whoever it is, they'll be discussing where the cartoon business is today, especially in light of new methods of animation and new avenues of distribution. This all takes place in room 1E16.
Saturday from 11 AM until Noon, I'll be back in that same room, 1E16, officiating at the Steve Gerber Memorial Panel. It'll be a bunch of Steve's friends (and I think some family members) sitting around, swapping Gerber stories. Joining me so far will be Mary Skrenes, Buzz Dixon, Len Wein, Frank Brunner and many others. An hour ain't nearly enough time so get there early.
Finally...on Sunday from Noon until 1 PM, I'll return to room 1E10-1E11 to preside over a Jack Kirby Tribute Panel with many of Jack's beloved colleagues. I don't want to mention the names because we haven't confirmed them yet but if you're at all interested in Kirby, you'll want to be there.
And those are my convention plans.
If you can't make it out to the con and you're desperate to get a copy of my Kirby book signed, I'll be doing that on Friday evening, April 18, at Jim Hanley's Universe, a fine comic shop located at 4 West 33rd Street in the shadow of the Empire State Building. I'll be scrawling my John Hancock in any books placed in front of me between 7 PM and 9 PM there.
Other than that, I'll be roaming the streets of Manhattan, annoying publishers and eating at fave restaurants, and I think I'm also going to go watch Nathan Lane play the President of the United States. Click that link to see some funny promos.
This is all assuming I get there. I may spend those days back here, staring at an empty cat trap.
I was going downstairs to check on the trap when I heard the snap. It had been sprung! My heart and I raced down and out to the back porch where, sure enough, I found a trap containing one very unhappy feline.
Unfortunately, it was the wrong unhappy feline.
And boy, was it upset to be in there...kicking, howling, slamming the sides of the trap. When I opened the door to let it out, it rocketed out there doing just under Mach 1 and I thought, "Well, we won't see that one in the yard again"...a prediction that held true for a good eight minutes before it was back and heading into the trap. This time, I chased it off before it got all its whiskers through the entrance.
The Kitten apparently witnessed the whole incident and I thought (again, wrongly) that it would make her less likely to go in there. Not so. A few minutes after I'd reset the thing, she walked in, got a few bites of the food in there...and strolled out, missing the triggering footplate. She's good at that.
We always make that mistake of thinking that an animal has a thought process identical to a human. They can be very smart but not in the same way we can be very smart. Well, some of us can be very smart. I, for example, am dumb enough to be up at this hour, writing a script and running downstairs every twenty minutes or so to see if I've caught anything.
Do you know I've written network television shows that didn't last as long as this whole, as-yet-unfulfilled incident of The Kitten? And some of them were almost as funny.
I'm giving up 'til the morning light and I just closed down the trap. I don't think I could sleep, worrying that some terrified, claustrophobic possum was in there being traumatized. It's bad enough The Kitten's going to have to be in there...and note that I still have an utterly groundless optimism that some day, she will be. So good night, Internet. And good night, Kitten. Wherever you are.
Joe Conason says John McCain is much more opposed to abortion rights than most folks think...especially lately as he's been courting the approval of the extreme right. I'm especially disappointed to see his support for abstinence education which is one of those programs that doesn't work, has never worked and will never work. Matter of fact, I don't even think most people believe it will solve the problem of teens having sex. I think they think it'll solve the problem (for them) of the kids being open about it. It's like, "We know you're going to do it but for God's sake, let us at least pretend you aren't."
April 12, 2008
