Monthly Archives: December 2004

My pal Kim "Howard" Johnson — who knows more about Monty Python than any man, woman or child alive — reports on the new Monty Python musical, Spamalot.

While we're talking Python, one of those silly "best ever" surveys was recently held to select the funniest scene ever in a motion picture. Coming in at first place was the scene in the Pythons' Life of Brian about "What have the Romans ever done for us?" Debating these lists is almost as pointless as conducting them but I have to say I not only don't think that's the funniest scene of all time in any movie, I don't even think it's the funniest scene in that movie. I'd pick the scene at the window where Brian confronts the crowd…and maybe one or two others before I'd get to the one the survey chose.

If forced at gunpoint to pick the funniest scene ever in any motion picture, I'd probably select the "Springtime for Hitler" musical number in The Producers, with the audience sitting in abject shock and right in their midst, the author of the play enjoying the hell out of it. And then a number of Python scenes, including the one I mentioned from Life of Brian, would also make my top ten. Some of the others they select would not even make my top hundred.

If you're a fan of the movie Vertigo, you will love this site. If you're not, you may still find it interesting.

This holiday evening, we're thinking good thoughts in the direction of comic book legend Will Eisner, who's in an intensive care ward at this very moment, recovering from a quadruple heart bypass operation on Wednesday. Word is that the creator of The Spirit (and some of the best graphic novels of recent years) came through it well and is expected to make a full recovery. Will — he won't mind me saying this — is 87 years old but has always displayed an energy and inventiveness that puts younger cartoonists to shame. The doctors say he won't be able to go back to work for 6-8 weeks. I'm guessing he'll be drawing by New Year's.

Yes, I understand that "use a pun, go to prison" is a parody of the law enforcement motto, "use a gun, go to prison." What I didn't get — and maybe I was trying to be more logical than necessary — was what going to prison had to do with the strike at the Comedy Store. Was the idea that if one of the striking comics used a pun, he was in legal trouble? Or that the scabs who did puns on stage were going to the hoosegow? The joke never quite made sense to me, and I'm sorry I mentioned it because it wasn't worth the trouble. But thanks for the notes, everyone. I really do appreciate the fine Response Team that reads this weblog.

David Letterman, who rarely ventures out of his own studio these days to do remotes, sprinted off to Iraq the other day to entertain troops there. Here's a nice report with lots of photos and such.

Comedians who work comedy clubs in New York are threatening to go on strike. Time to haul out the picket signs that popped up back in 1979 (?) when comics in Los Angeles picketed The Comedy Store, The Improv and other such establishments not for better pay but for any pay. The placards said things like…

• No bucks, no yucks
• No money, no funny
• Use a pun, go to prison (I never quite understood that one, even though I carried it one evening)
• Catch a rising scab
• Stand up for your rights

And so on. In hindsight, it seems amazing that human beings had to go on strike to establish that they should be paid when they performed the most important job at some very profitable operations. Even more amazing was that there were those who said, "It'll spoil the business if the comedians are paid." They even called it a "business," forgetting that in a "business," people get paid. Eventually, the comedians were paid — not a lot, but it was a nice precedent — and the dire predictions did not come true. I assume the current New York squabble will be settled with the comedians getting more, no matter how much the club owners may plead ruination.

Fred Hembeck invites comic art lovers to gaze upon The Many, Many, Many, Many, Many, Many, Many, Many, Many, Many, Many, Many, Many, Many, MANY Faces of Santa Claus!

Here are some facts about Social Security. Or at least, the authors claim they're facts. If anyone sees a substantive argument for the "other side," please let me know and I'll post a link to it.

Hey, here's a nice website devoted wholly to A Night at the Opera. Great film, great site.

Okay, here's a tech-type question that someone here may be able to answer for me. It concerns the minidisc format, about which I know very little other than that Sony has made it less than simple to transfer recordings off a minidisc and onto another format. A friend has several dozen songs on minidisc which he would like to convert to MP3 format, playable on a PC. Alas, his minidisc player doesn't even have an audio out jack. Music can go in but it can't come out. Is there something cheap he can purchase that will export and convert the recordings without going through an analog capture?

Movies are currently in the work for all but one of the original members of the Justice League of America. The one exception is J'onn J'onzz, the Manhunter From Mars. Why is he being discriminated against? I dunno…but when a reporter for E! Online called me this morning, I gave the best answers I could. Here's the report she filed.

The power wound up going out here two more times last night after I posted the previous message. I think the crisis is over but I haven't yet been bold enough to go around and reset clocks and VCR timers.

Several folks have written to inform me that their local Walmart (or other retail outlet) has "the Li'l Abner DVD" for sale, perhaps for a dollar or so. This is almost certainly a DVD of the 1940 Li'l Abner black-and-white non-musical movie, not the 1959 color movie musical. I was never able to make it through the '40 version but for a buck, you might want to take a crack at it.

In his latest round of Tony Polls, my pal Tony Isabella asked his constituents to rate various comic books and people as "naughty" or "nice." I was judged overwhelmingly nice, which I guess is a compliment. In any case, fond birthday wishes to Mr. Isabella, and since I'm so nice, I guess I can't add in some quasi-friendly cheapshot insult. Drat the luck.

Busy day ahead. I'll try to post something later. That's assuming I have electricity.

I'm not posting any more than this one message this evening. Reason: My power keeps going on and off. I just had the sixth incident in the last five hours where the electricity goes out for about two minutes, then comes back on.

After the fourth, I called the Department of Water and Power. A nice lady there explained that they're "trying to locate a problem."

I said, "I've got one right here. My power keeps going on and off."

"No," she said. "We know what's causing that. The crews are turning the power on and off in your area, trying to locate the problem."

"Has it dawned on any of them that they're creating some problems with this? My TiVo has now been recycled more often than Jackie Mason's act."

"We need to fix the problem, sir. There should only be one more outage…two at most."

Right after I got off the line with her, we had Blackout #5 and about twenty minutes later, we had another…so I guess that's it. I'm taking her at her word that there will be no more tonight becaus

…for shopping and gift-wrapping and people outside stores who ring bells at you and inedible fruit cakes and wondering what you're going to get your stupid Uncle Hiram and getting cards from people you don't remember and all sorts of things…

But most of all, 'tis the season to click on this link and go over to the Official Pogo Possum Website to read some of the brilliant Christmas strips done in years past by the great Walt Kelly. Ain't been nobody better, then or since. And while you're over there, you might wanna brush up on the lyrics to "Deck Us All With Boston Charlie," just in case a band of merry Boston Charlie carollers happens past your house and invites you to join them. These are the real lyrics we've posted there. Accept no substitutes.

As the world's foremost authority on the 1959 Li'l Abner movie (and author of this article about the Broadway show it was based on, as well as this one about the movie, itself), I am often asked, "What's the deal with the video?" Many moons ago, Paramount Home Video brought it out on VHS and then it suddenly disappeared, going out of print and remaining that way. No DVD release seems to be in the immediate offing, either. And as the world's foremost authority on this motion picture, I can only answer, "I dunno. I guess there was some sort of problem with the rights. This is not an uncommon situation with movies based on material from another other medium, especially when songs are involved. Quite a few movies based on Broadway shows have been slow in making it to home video because the contract for the source material either didn't allow such sale or seemed ambiguous.

Or in at least one case I know of, the songwriters' royalty specified in the contract a certain percentage of the gross of a soundtrack album and the home video company's lawyers feared that would apply to a videotape. Sometimes, it isn't a matter of not being able to release the thing on home video…it's a matter of not wanting to share.

But like the man (me) said, I'm not sure what happened here…only that Paramount got rid of the VHS release in a hurry. If you want to purchase a copy of the tape, your best bet is eBay, though you have to be careful not to accidentally purchase the 1940 Li'l Abner movie which I, for one, have never managed to make it through, Buster Keaton or no Buster Keaton. The collectibles wing of Amazon has copies of our beloved '59 version, currently ranging from $35 to $126, but these pricetags seem high to me, given that Paramount will probably clear up the problems one of these days and issue a nice, spanking DVD, maybe even with extras and/or a better transfer. Just about every major movie musical is either available on DVD now or someone is trying to clear up rights or negotiate terms to bring it out. (On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, which is also from Paramount, is finally coming out at the end of February.) Does anyone reading this have any additional information?