Hackneyed stand up on stage
Hackneyed Stand Up: Hey you know what's crazy? Childhood nostalgia! Ever watch anything from your childhood and think "wow! that sure is strange/sophisticated/simplistic/disturbing or otherwise different from how I remebered it as a kid? And man! Those disparate images and recollections bringing back all those prior associations and experiences, crazy, huh?! AMIRIGHT?! SHOW ME APPROVAL
Fade Out
I don't know why I structured the beginning that way. I guess I felt like the subject of this post was rife for a send up of... hackneyed stand ups doing stand up, or something. Anyway the subject is nostalgia. Now that I have all this down time, last night I was inspired to start watching old episodes of the early 90s pre Family Guy post The Simpsons animated comedy The Critic. I pretty vividly remember when this show was on TV circa 1994 in what felt to me like a more up beat phase of childhood, that being Berkeley California. I remember I was away from the crazy cult run little K through 2 school I was at while we were at Davis where I felt isolated and outcast because I was isolated and outcast because the people who were all members of this weird protestant cultish church and had put their children in this one school didn't like my secular intellectual partly Jewish parents and instead was at a quirky little montesori school where I had quirky friends and generally liked it there and was happy. Part of my family life that I remember most specifically and fondly, was all watching The Simpsons every Saturday or Sunday or whenever new episodes of golden age Simpsons episodes used to air during that period, and also The Critic.
Rewatching old episodes is like opening a psychic time capsule for me, as images I remember when watching and rewatching the show, particularly the myriad cut aways to movie spoofs (see Family Guy parallels) are recontextualized by my more mature understanding of cultural references and satire. Like this clip.
The show was ahead of it's time. Along with The Simpsons, it's DNA is definitely present in all the comedies you love, 30 Rock, Community, Family Guy... 30 Rock. Looking back on it now, I can't help but wonder how much the show and in particular it's protagonist helped shape my view of the world and my sense of humor. Jay Sherman is an easy guy for me to identify with, especially as an adult, artsy, intellectual, self aware, an outsider... also snobby, elitist, and as the show harps on for much of it's comedic effect, schlubby and grossly misshapen. The character is both what I aspire to be and not to be. But it's comedic sensibility reflects much of my own, and that's probably because I watched and identified with it in my childhood, along with the members of my family.
Well, that's all I can think of to say about that. But all this nostalgia stuff does tie in sort of Thanksgiving, right? One of my favorite holidays, a celebration of food and family and giving thanks for stuff. It's a harvest festival. An ancient tradition as old as agriculture. It's not particularly political, unless your Native American or have an agenda either way on indigenous issues in which case OK the back story is pretty political, thanks Howard Zinn you can sit down now. I agree about socialism. Moving on...
It's a pretty neat holiday! I like it because I get to cook and eat turkey, drink and watch football, back at the home I grew up in, with my parents and brother and girlfriend. I really don't like traveling to other people's houses for holidays, that feels to me against the point. And also because my immediate family always found ways to make such visits exercises in passive aggressiveness. But that's another post!
Things I'm thankful for... the myriad acting opportunities I've had this past year, graduating from college, advancing my career, advancing my craft, living in something resembling a democracy although that is increasingly debatable, I am thankful for the ability to debate the presence or non presence of democracy in the place that I live, all the people I've met, the new friends I've made and the one's I've held on to, oh and everything else. Happy thanksgiving, all you motherfuckers.
Rewatching old episodes is like opening a psychic time capsule for me, as images I remember when watching and rewatching the show, particularly the myriad cut aways to movie spoofs (see Family Guy parallels) are recontextualized by my more mature understanding of cultural references and satire. Like this clip.
The show was ahead of it's time. Along with The Simpsons, it's DNA is definitely present in all the comedies you love, 30 Rock, Community, Family Guy... 30 Rock. Looking back on it now, I can't help but wonder how much the show and in particular it's protagonist helped shape my view of the world and my sense of humor. Jay Sherman is an easy guy for me to identify with, especially as an adult, artsy, intellectual, self aware, an outsider... also snobby, elitist, and as the show harps on for much of it's comedic effect, schlubby and grossly misshapen. The character is both what I aspire to be and not to be. But it's comedic sensibility reflects much of my own, and that's probably because I watched and identified with it in my childhood, along with the members of my family.
Well, that's all I can think of to say about that. But all this nostalgia stuff does tie in sort of Thanksgiving, right? One of my favorite holidays, a celebration of food and family and giving thanks for stuff. It's a harvest festival. An ancient tradition as old as agriculture. It's not particularly political, unless your Native American or have an agenda either way on indigenous issues in which case OK the back story is pretty political, thanks Howard Zinn you can sit down now. I agree about socialism. Moving on...
It's a pretty neat holiday! I like it because I get to cook and eat turkey, drink and watch football, back at the home I grew up in, with my parents and brother and girlfriend. I really don't like traveling to other people's houses for holidays, that feels to me against the point. And also because my immediate family always found ways to make such visits exercises in passive aggressiveness. But that's another post!
Things I'm thankful for... the myriad acting opportunities I've had this past year, graduating from college, advancing my career, advancing my craft, living in something resembling a democracy although that is increasingly debatable, I am thankful for the ability to debate the presence or non presence of democracy in the place that I live, all the people I've met, the new friends I've made and the one's I've held on to, oh and everything else. Happy thanksgiving, all you motherfuckers.
No comments:
Post a Comment