q.e.d.

alasdair

alasdair
some of the most acclaimed uk comedy series had far shorter runs than that. fawlty towers had only 2 series with a total of 12 episodes; the uk office had only 2 series and an xmas special with a total of 14 episodes.
sometimes, you make something even greater by killing it off after only a couple of seasons at the height of its greatness instead of letting it limp on for 10, 11, 12 seasons...
alasdair
be gutted no more: imdb: i'm with stupidAbout 5 or so years ago, there was a show on BBC3 called 'Im With Stupid' and it was a bit of an offbeat comedy with an almost fully disabled cast. It was excellent but it only ran for 1 series and then just vanished. Ive looked everywhere for episodes or DVD's to no avail. Hardly anyone has heard of it either so im starting to think I made it up haha
Even IMDB doesn't mention it. Gutted.
some of the most acclaimed uk comedy series had far shorter runs than that. fawlty towers had only 2 series with a total of 12 episodes; the uk office had only 2 series and an xmas special with a total of 14 episodes.
sometimes, you make something even greater by killing it off after only a couple of seasons at the height of its greatness instead of letting it limp on for 10, 11, 12 seasons...
alasdair
Wow I cant believe no ones mentioned FIREFLY. Unless you all think it goes without saying.
As for me i personally hate Tim & Eric shows. I agree with you sarcophagus, i find them incredibly stupid.
... in order to satirize the plethora of bad programming that already exists.
What Python did, on the other hand, was clever. Their skits were full of satirical cultural observations. They took Britain, and British television, and turned it upside down.
They deliberately reject the accepted notions of what film or TV comedy should be, and as a result people find them confusing or stupid.
If you can stop 'trying' to understand them, you'll enjoy them all the more - but if you sit there thinking "this is stupid, it doesn't make any sense" then you've missed the point entirely.
Jersey Shore: if you sit there thinking "this is stupid, it doesn't make any sense" then you've missed the point entirely.
they do what they want to do without having to worry about pandering to Nielsen Ratings and other corporate interests. They have fun doing what they do and it comes across in their work. It's refreshing, really.
"Good" is subjective, though. Monty Python, in their time, gained a reputation for being "stupid" and "lowest common denominator"-type humor. The truth is, they were ahead of their time. Their comedy was as divisive as it was brilliant. I'm not saying they'll be viewed in the same light as Monty Python in the future, but they definitely fill the same place in the current cultural zeitgeist.
Tim and Eric are like Anti-Comedy: they don't write jokes, they just write funny. The show's brilliance is in its schizophrenic simplicity.
The gay news anchor skits and the John C. Reilly skits are not "steadfastly individualistic". They remind me of a whole bunch of self-satirizing television. Johnny Carson used to do cooking show segments in which the producer would ensure that something went wrong. Because, as they say in The Larry Sanders show, everybody loves that bit where the monkey grabs Johnny's balls. Awesome Show is not a departure from this. Nor is it clever or original. It is playing the same flute network television has played for years. The only thing original about it is how camp and over-the-top the execution is.
But even this has been done before. Graham Norton. The gay news anchor skits play on homophobia. Lets dress a heterosexual man up like a homosexual and pretend he's a woman. Let's play gay chicken on television.
And, while we're at it, we'll repeat the formula of impersonating incompetence.
This, too, has been done countless times throughout television history. And before television even existed. It is something the theatre world has been using since it's conception. Back when men played women's roles. Drag queens. Etcetera. Again, the only difference is how far Tim and Eric chose to take it. Tim's make-up is particularly disgusting. They tongue kiss. Etcetera. Personally I'm not homophobic enough for this to amuse me. It is the lowest common denominator. Using an eccentric news anchor duo as a context for comedy is tired. The only time it actually works is when the writers do something with it. When the jokes are exceptional. Taking a formula and pushing it to nth degree means nothing, as far as I'm concerned.
They are stupid. Tom Goes to the Mayor is absolutely brainless. I love it, but it's utter idiocy. There is nothing extraordinary going on. Don't you think Python and Chaplin deliberately rejected the accepted notions of what comedy should be? Don't you think it's been done a thousand times before, to better effect?
You use complex language to describe something simple: zeitgeist; steadfastly individualistic; skizophrenic simplicity. But your language, no matter how eloquent or impressive in terms of vocabulary, fails to illustrate how the show itself is complex. "It just is," with a degree in articulation, fails to convince me. You have provided no explanation as to why they are so brilliant. In fact, you've created this clause in which explanation is unnecessary.
They are beyond question. No explanation is necessary. To attempt to understand why they are brilliant, or to attempt to explain it, is contrary to the whole point of their existence. Therefore they are beyond criticism? I don't get it.
It's true. If you turn off that part of your brain that tells you to change the channel; if you stop being critical; stop being selective: then you can watch just about anything. But that doesn't make it good. Or brilliant.
You could make the same statement about countless shows. Everybody has fun making silly TV shows and there is an endless list of bizarre contemporary television that makes no effort to please it's audience. Tim and Eric is on that list, sure. But it wasn't the first one to qualify. Or the second.