The funny thing about that sketch is that it's so low-key when they did it for Flying Circus, but at e.g. Live at Hollywood Bowl, Cleese is shouting and gesticulating.

I don't see why we have to think of things this way - the only way for massively popular pop culture to live on the way exactly you remember it from when you were young is for the people responsible to die, basically. Or for them to hate each other so much that they can't stand to be in the same room with one another.

I don't really know what saying 'It's an SNL sketch stretched to 90 minutes' says, other than that two of the principals were once cast members of SNL. SNL has all sorts of constraints imposed on it by being a live show, mostly shot on stages - a 90 minute sketch would be awful. I understand what the criticism is…

Or just don't review it. I dunno, the quality of the show doesn't seem to go wildly up or down, although some of the stories he tells are clearly better than others. Of the podcasts I listen to, TSMITW is the last one I'd recommend to anyone - it just hits a sweet spot of baseball ephemera, classic films, and old…

To me, comedy declines happen for two reasons - A: the performer gets comfortable and little lazy and B: the audience gets used to the performer's schtick. I love Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore, but the characters are virtually the same guy - do you honestly think he could've sustained 3 or 4 solid comedies on the…

Yes, I believe on a trip to New York in 1993 he had city workers clear out an entire train so he could ride it from Bryant Park to the Natural History Museum.

Granted I haven't seen all the Carlin specials but I've seen most of them - many of the longer pieces in the first book were from his standup, but the shorter ones seemed to be things he had laying around that wouldn't work on stage (and a lot of which were very funny). The second book had some new stuff, but it also…

Those Top Ten List books taught me so much about the D train and John Sununu

Considering Seinfeld has refused to release an album or a comedy special since, I wouldn't be surprised if his total material performed since 1985 is around 4 hours. In fairness to Seinfeld, it's real easy to come up with BAD bits in the voice he's perfected, so I can see why he's so selective about what he does…

Yeah, this essay guides so much of how I think about culture; it completely blew me away the first time I read it.

Yeah, I guess that'd be a better way to express my point. I'm a fan of the show, don't get me wrong, and there are weaker and stronger episodes, but the show is rather set in its ways at this point, and this particular review has the indignance of someone reviewing something they don't particularly enjoy anymore.

I'm not disagreeing - hell, I'm pretty sure I found my best friends in college through a shared love of the Upright Citizens Brigade TV show, and like some of the commenters here, I definitely went through a phase w/ friends in my late teens and early 20s where old TV was used as a reference (too) often. I think the…

Is it me or does The Smartest Man In The World always end up in The Rest? I'm not sure why it's still being reviewed.

I think there's something deeper than nostalgia going on with fondness for discussions about old TV - it's an attempt to connect with people through memories of a medium that is a single-person experience (TV as an experience is seldom improved by the presence of another person). If it has anything more than…

I agree, but on the other hand, this guy is a professional musician now - I imagine some part of him wishes he'd been exposing himself to more diverse sounds.  He just has to understand that he's left his past far behind.

The gag above feels like one from Season 10 or later - just references, unconnected to anything.

I don't know if it's the show's choice or the network's but I believe all instances of the F word have been bleeped on CBB.  Could be wrong but that's what I remember.

Not going to wade through all the comments to see if anyone mentioned this, but at the very least, REM's 'Everybody Hurts' (at least to me) inspired the atrocious song by Visiting Day, Adrianna's ex-boyfriend's band that she tries to manage on The Sopranos. Lines like 'Take me awaaaay, I don't want to staaayyy' are…

I think my favorite part of this interview is that David Lynch can't remember whether or not he took his daughter to Disneyland with him, so now I am just imagining David Lynch going to Disneyland alone.  It's a delightful image.

I agree, but I think it's a little odd because the 50s are the dawn of the TV Age - it's easy to think as a child born of the late 70s/early 80s that even though things pre-TV seem dated, TV as a medium will always keep old TV alive, but not so.  I do think today's on-demand culture will send people down pop-culture…