Absolutely!  I thought that was one of the most brilliant (and self-effacing) touches in the whole trilogy, and it almost made the Ewoks worthwhile for the way the little baby Ewok reacted to the scary parts.

As you point out, it's a retelling of a story that is millennia-old.  It'll still be around.  Superman was meaningful to mid-20th-century Americans the way Arthur was meaningful to medieval and Victorian Britons, and Theseus was meaningful to fourth-century-BC Athenians.  I wrote a paper in college comparing the…

One of my favorites was from Police Squad:

Occupation Foole really round that one out, though, so I always pair them, like the first 2 Godfather movies.

The thing that gets me about his death (it was murder, or at least manslaughter, after all), is how it shows how we are all stars in our own lives, but mere supporting players in everyone else's lives.  There was some tragic (in the classical or Shakespearean sense) stuff going on in his wife's life, and she was…

U-S-A! U-S-A!

Hey, there's plenty of seafood and seaweed in Irish cooking, right?  I like all that stuff.  I really do love lamb, and prefer it to beef in any dish, so maybe I would love Irish food in Ireland.

"Hell, they're all disgruntled. I ain't running no damn daisy farm. My motto is 'Do it my way or watch your butt!'"

I took the opportunity to create a neo-Latinism, and put a photo of him up in my office with the words "Reqiuescat in Funkem," which translates as "May He Rest in Funk."

The difference I see with Ray Charles is that he pretty much carved out a genre of "Ray Charles Music," which includes every song he did, whether they were R&B, country, old standards, etc.

"A Beginner's Guide to Funk Overlord James Brown, Pt. 1."

One can make this complaint about lots of artists.  It seems like the higher one's artistic achievement, the worse off the people in the artist's life are.  I don't see how a person's rotten personality and all the collateral damage he causes in the lives of those who love him have much bearing on enjoying his art. …

"Funky President" is so ridiculous, but so good.  My favorite indication of hard times: "I changed from a glass/Now I drink from a paper cup/It's gettin' bad!"

I listen to the Funky Christmas collection every yuletide, and I always love "Santa Claus, Go Straight to the Ghetto."

That's the earliest fully formed funk workout, in my book.  Yes, a glaring omission in this discussion.

The only one who belongs in the same revolutionary company with him is Miles Davis, who can also be said to have reinvented music a few times (and he said so, himself).  The difference is that JB helped forge that combination of gospel and pop that came to be known as soul, then " just about singlehandedly invent[ed]…

How I wish that James Brown and Miles Davis had collaborated on something.  But, as the article says, no one worked with JB.

I'm just glad someone finally put a hyphen in "Hardest-Working Man in Show Business."

Watching that, you also clearly understand why Mick Jagger said that the biggest mistake of his long professional career was coming on after James Brown.

Bootsy was on Fresh Air one time, talking about the difference between the JBs and P-Funk.  Regarding working for James Brown: "You're in the army now!"