Sad news this afternoon as we learned that Jessica Walter, a.k.a. Lucille Bluth, has passed away at 80 years old. Reading her obit in Variety, it’s obvious she did a lot more than just play Lucille Bluth and I will definitely have to brush up on many of those performances. Still, to a generation of television viewers, especially early-middle millennials like myself, I can’t see her and not think of some of the best comedic lines ever spoken on broadcast television.
I’ll be sure to make myself a vodka rocks and a piece of toast for breakfast this weekend in her honor. Until then, I’ll be rewatching some of her best moments from Arrested Development.
As a longtime Bill Burr fan and someone that owned Jerry Seinfeld standup CDs back in the 90s when those were a real thing, I was pretty skeptical of this going in, but my god this guy nails it.
— Jake Does Celebrities (@JakeDoesCelebs) March 8, 2021
Stand up comedy has always been one of my favorite things to watch, not just because it’s a comedy show that makes you laugh, but because of the sheer level of talent it takes. It’s just downright impressive to watch anyone at the top of their field and comedy is no exception.
They say the No. 1 fear of the average person is public speaking. Now I’m not exactly a JFK level orator, but I’d say I’m more worried about my next flight crashing than I am about speaking in front a crowd. With that being said I can’t even fathom how good of a public speaker and storyteller you have to be to become a successful comic. I mean of course the jokes are important, but when you really drill down it’s not the jokes that make the difference. It’s the timing, the delivery, the ability to tell long, winding stories and then bring it back all while keeping a crowd engaged and entertained.
Jerry Seinfeld of course is a perfect example of that. I actually had tickets to see Seinfeld live for the first time in my life last year before ya know COVID shut down the entire goddamn world. His stand up act is considered squeaky clean by today’s standards and is a lot of observations on mundane parts of every day life. Except it’s not so much the content of the joke that kills, it’s the way he delivers the jokes with his timing and storytelling. That is some world class talent. I mean I can still recite his entire bit on sinks in airplane bathrooms or Halloween costumes as a kid.
Here’s to the world opening back up as soon it’s safe so we can all grab some drinks, sit down at a club, and just watch stand up comics go to work once again.
If you didn’t know what the Thong Song was and you heard this violin player you’d think this was part of the Boston Pops Orchestra. If you played this clip for your grandmother she would be delighted, that’s how good the strings are on this 1999 classic.
Shoutout to Sisqo for making an era defining song for millennials everywhere before they even knew what the hell he was talking about. Over 20 years later and that song still SLAPS every single time you hear it. And the video truly is a time capsule into the late 90s/early 2000s when wildly over the top TRL music videos ruled the world. Just leather vests, cowboy hats, gigantic asses, and highly choreographed routines with monochromatic backup dancers
Apparently Vice has been making all sorts of these behind the scenes mini docs on how songs like this were originally created and it is fascinating. I highly recommend you watch the entire episode on the Thong Song below because it is incredible.
Bill Burr just effortlessly dunking on the nerds yet again. I guess this just speaks to living in one place for so long because to be honest I didn’t even notice his Boston accent in The Mandalorian. Burr has, what is in my experience, a pretty typical, understated yet distinct Boston accent despite living in LA for so many years.
Im sorry but Bill Burr’s accent in star wars implies some sort of space Boston
Burr is right though, Star Wars nerds are fine with C-3PO sounding like he’s been knighted or even the fact that in a galaxy far far away the dominant language is the same exact one as yours, but as soon as Billy Red Face starts dropping his R’s we got a problem. It’s not like he was committing the cardinal sin of unironically playing up his accent, which is something akin to treason in Boston.
All jokes aside, Bill Burr is a sneaky really good actor. He’s done bits in the past about how he used to only get the goofy friend role in rom coms because nobody was casting a leading man with bright red hair. He crushed it on Chappelle’s Show back in the day and had some funny roles over the years (i.e. The Heat), but when he showed up in a serious role as Kuby in Breaking Bad I think a lot of people, myself included, took a step back and said oh shit Billy can act.
Now he’s got a recurring guest spot on one of the biggest shows around and I say this without an ounce of sarcasm, I would watch an entire spin off series starring Mayfeld just dicking around the galaxy. Make it happen, Favreau.
My tears weren’t even dry from the Alex Trebek tribute that Jeopardy ran on Friday following Trebek’s final episode before Ken Jennings came in and made my living room supremely dusty all over again.
Big Z is our in house game show expert so I won’t steal his thunder for a future blog on potential host options, but this is a reminder that technically Ken Jennings is guest hosting for the time being. With the thinking being that Jeopardy will try a few different hosts to see who would be the best fit long term. Obviously they would be wise to have a swift audition period because the No. 1 thing Jeopardy had going for it was consistency. People watched Jeopardy every night, not for the questions, but for Alex Trebek. I don’t know the numbers, but I would assume The Price is Right ratings took a hit after Bob Barker retired. Or even post-Regis Philbin on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Certain hosts are synonymous with the show they host so Jeopardy would be smart to find its guy quickly.
Jennings was a solid host in his first crack at the job and if nothing else you know he’s the smartest guy in the room and a Jeopardy fanatic; two of the qualities that made Trebek such a perfect fit. Nobody will ever match his charm, but thats an impossible task to conquer so Jeopardy will continue to search for the next best guy. Who knows, maybe Anderson Cooper is over politics after the last four years and after years of interest, Sony Pictures can finally lure the Silver Fox over to the game show!
In an impossible position, Jennings showed just how much Alex Trebek meant not just to fans across the country, but to himself personally. It was a touching tribute, one that perfectly read the room, and helped ease the transition to the next Jeopardy host.
2020 was a weird year to say the least. Remember when we literally had no sports to watch except for Korean baseball at 5 AM? Thankfully the sports leagues figured it out as some simply removed fans and resumed play as normal like the PGA Tour whereas others created full on bubbles like the NBA and NHL. We also had some tasty pop culture blogs sprinkled in throughout the quarantine so buckle up you’re in for a treat. Without further ado, I present The 300s Top 10 Blogs of 2020.
By now the joke of how much of a shitshow the year of our lord 2020 has been played out fifty times over. So I’m not going to dive into it too much beyond saying that living 3/4 of the year on the business end of a global pandemic was not very fun.
The unique nature of such a year did come with an interesting side effect. Forced to stay inside and isolate ourselves, or at least hopefully more than we normally would, we saw the world unfold through our screens more than any other year in memory. I guess it is a bit sad to say it this way, but as we missed out on actually going out and experiencing life, we watched it happen. Through social media, the world wide web, and if you’re anything like apparently 86 year old friend of the blog Patty B, the news, we ingested second hand the major stories of 2020, from the bizarre to the sad to the tragic to an election. And we all saw it in basically real time.
So to put a stamp on this year I’m going to write a few blogs waxing poetic on some of the more major headlines as well as broader topics that caught our attention. In keeping with the tradition of the shit I normally write about, I’m going to skew boring old mainstream topics in favor of the odder, less obvious corners of pop culture. You are not going to read about the NBA rigging the title for it’s biggest cash cow (again) here. You aren’t going to read about your favorite pop star because I probably don’t know who they are. (Editor’s note: Read Joe’s blog on Taylor Swift’s new album here) You aren’t going to read about baseball because I don’t know if it’s still being played (is it?).
However, sports, TV, movies, music, and the like will all be touched in some capacity. I should note that I in no way intend to stick to a chronological order. I have a few things picked out and a few will probably come to me but whether it happened in May or February or two weeks ago I’m going to write it as fingers hit keys. Some of these will be short. Some of them long. All of them proof read at least .5 times. Let’s go.
The British Invasion
I have been teased for awhile now in my group of friends as the guy who watches British TV. To be more accurate I am teased for watching way too much British TV. But to present to you my argument I usually present to everyone else, it’s just better. Depending on the show it’s either highly realistic and reflective of real life or depicts life as a complete caricature of itself, there is no in between. Comedy-wise, There aren’t really any cheesy laugh tracks or bad one liners or tags. The acting is always sublime. When the characters hurt, they hurt, when they love, they love, when they laugh, they laugh. Whether the show is set in a real place or a fictional one, the universe is fully created, from local establishments to barely seen but fully fleshed fringe characters/townspeople. It’s grade A stuff.
Mid-pandemic, the streaming services (at least Netflix and Hulu) were starving for content. American productions had been shut down. I’m sure Netflix at least was suddenly regretting cancelling a number of fan favorites such as The Punisher and The OA. Hulu you could say was almost doubly fucked because they rely now rely on a mixture of views from a smaller but solid slate of originally programming and then the rights to currently airing network shows. Ya, the network shows that were also shut down. So what were they to do? They made a call across the pond.
It’s hard to really pinpoint when Americans became so enamored with British TV, as a novelty even. I remember my grandmother watching super old British “soaps” on the ancient tv in their kitchen growing up, There has always been, as it is true around the world, an American cult following of Doctor Who. But when did we become fully fledged fans? Again, hard to say. Luther came out in 2010 and made it’s way to Netflix not too long after. Teen shows like Skins and The Inbetweeners also found some popularity stateside around that time. Either way, American streaming services and premium providers needed to fill the gaps in their programming in 2020 and boy howdy, did they find the plug.
In a role reversal from the two previous world wars, the Brits were here to save the day. On the Netflix end, they leaned on, for the most part, promoting what they already had. Stalwarts like Marcella and new comers like Sex Education and The End of the Fucking World had put out new seasons within six months of the beginning of quarantine. They, along with less viewed series like Afterlife were given a huge push at the top of the Netflix dashboard/on the “you might like” banners. It was the freshest or fresh-ish content Netflix could provide and they leaned right into it.
On the Hulu side, things were a little more drastic. This summer they promoted and executed a massive upload of new British content to go along with offerings like Four Weddings and a Funeral and Killing Eve. Shows like Brassic and Boyhood were fairly well received and if nothing else, provided a binge worthy arc or two for a rainy, quarantined afternoon.
The premium networks also got into the British game. Debutante network AMC+ bought the rights to Gangs of London, which is now on most best of 2020 lists. They also have the US rights to Baptiste, a spinoff of The Missing featuring the eponymous French detective. HBO came on even stronger, releasing The Third Day while also utilizing the broadcasting rights to the rave reviewed and award winning I May Destroy You as well as investment banking world newcomer The Industry. All of this I find interesting as it is a tangible proof that the premiums are not just going to lie down in their battle with streaming services.
This past month(ish) Netflix put out The Queen’s Gambit, a show about chess of all things, to rave reviews, cementing British TV’s place in American culture. Whether it was always going to be this way or was a byproduct of being stuck inside and having to watch more TV, we’ll never know. I do know, however, in what is a sort of US-centric world pop culture -ise it has been nice to get a glimpse into how other entertainment industries view the every day lives of their countrymen. Hats off to the streaming services and premium channels for finally taking us along for the ride.
It’s rare that I deem an SNL skit as must watch these days, but thats exactly what Pete Davidson’s “Stu” sketch is: must watch.
Jason Bateman was a pretty good host because nobody plays the straight man in a skit better than him. So as this Santa and the elves sketch kicked off, you’re sitting there wondering what the hell is going on, then the Stan beat kicks in and it’s a wrap. I figured like most skits this would fizzle out in the first 30 seconds. Nope, it seems like Lorne Michaels and company let Pete Davidson just do his thing and we got three legitimately impressive and original verses in the Santa/Stan remix. As Papa Giorgio said, it’s the best musical sketch they’ve had since Lonely Island. The Eminem clip at the end was a nice nod to the original song. Also, shout out to Bowen Yang for his dead on Elton John.
Pete Davidson is such an interesting cast member on SNL because I feel like he rarely gets used in big time spots. He is often relegated to background characters, even if they are laugh out loud funny like his Count Chocula when Dave Chappelle was hosting. He might just be a hard person to write for, which reminds me of an old quote that stuck with me by Jason Segel (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, How I Met Your Mother, Freaks and Geeks):
“When I was like 21 years old and we had just finished a show called Freaks and Geeks, Judd Apatow, who made that show and a bunch of our movies took a bunch of us aside. What he said to me, actually, is, ‘You’re kind of a weird guy. The only way you are going to make it is if you write.”
A lot of these cast members probably just don’t get the prime sketches because it’s hard to write for them, which makes sense when the most famous SNL alum usually either flame out or were outright fired (Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Damon Wayans, Sarah Silverman, Robert Downey Jr etc). Davidson seems to have one foot out the door anyways as he dabbles more with movies written by, ironically enough, the comedy godfather himself Judd Apatow.
Dave Chappelle returned to SNL for the first time in four years, when he again was given the duties of being the first host following a presidential election. In 2016 Chappelle called for people to give the newly elected President Trump a chance during uncertainty. This time around though he wasted no time laying into EVERYONE.
A few weeks ago we all applauded Bill Burr for going on SNL and not changing a thing about his defiant brand of stand up, regardless of the audience. Well Chappelle walked out smoking a cigarette and proceeded to absolutely bulldoze the SNL audience with a raw, uncomfortable, and blistering 16 minute monologue.
“I’m sorry Lorne, I thought we were doing a comedy show,” Chappelle laughed to himself as the crowd fell uncomfortably quiet.
Chappelle joked about COVID, slavery, racism, sexism, classism and more as he dropped way more n-bombs than the typical Saturday Night Live crowd is used to hearing. If you’re a devout Chappelle fan like me then it was a classic takedown of the country as it currently stands. But you can hear a lot of hurt in his voice as he reveals the only way to make people listen to the issues he sees in our country today is by making them laugh about it.
“I can’t even tell something true unless it has a punchline behind it. You guys aren’t ready. You’re not ready for this. You don’t know how to survive yourselves.”
I applaud SNL for recognizing the moment and bringing in a first ballot Hall of Fame standup comedian to host at a point in time where it would have rang hollow to have anyone else sticking their head in the sand. Sure, SNL has always been pretty liberal in its skewering of some and lionizing of others, but Chappelle has always been able to just speak the truth regardless of politics.
As uncomfortable as he made that audience at 30 Rock, this was comedy at its absolute best: painfully honest.
Jeopardy! is saddened to share that Alex Trebek passed away peacefully at home early this morning, surrounded by family and friends. Thank you, Alex. pic.twitter.com/Yk2a90CHIM
It’s a sad day at The 300s as we mourn the loss of Alex Trebek. He was a television legend, a first-ballot game show host hall of famer, and a prominent face on the Mount Rushmore of game show hosts. Trebek had been on U.S. television since 1973, and behind the Jeopardy! lectern since 1984. He fought pancreatic cancer over the last year and a half with courage, candor, and dignity. He passed away today at the age of 80.
It goes without saying that Alex Trebek was one of the greatest television game show hosts of all time. In 2014, Guinness World Records presented him with the world record for most episodes of a game show hosted, with 6,829 at the time.
Trebek was nominated for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host a record 31 times. His seven Emmys are second only to Bob Barker’s whopping 14. He is one of only two people ever nominated for this Emmy for two different game shows. The other was the undisputed Dean of Game Show Hosts, Bill Cullen. In 1990, he was the only person ever to be nominated for this award for two shows in one year (Jeopardy! and Classic Concentration). In 1991, he became the first person to host three American game shows simultaneously (To Tell the Truth, in addition to the aforementioned Jeopardy! and Classic Concentration).
As a game show fan, this is a very sad day. As a television viewer, it’s also sad for me to say goodbye to another person who has been on television every weekday of my life. With David Letterman’s retirement in 2015, and Bob Barker, Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw all retiring in the 2000s, I can’t think of many people left on television who have been on television my whole life. Pat Sajak and Vanna White may be the only people left on that list for me.
While game show hosts aren’t members of our families, and we don’t root for them the way we root for athletes and our favorite sports teams, they do come into our homes on a regular basis and can make profound impacts on our lives, as recent champ Burt Thakur shared:
Yet another cruel side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic was the sidelining of Alex Trebek during the last few months of his life. The man was itching to get back behind the lectern, but it simply wasn’t feasible in the early stages of the pandemic. That’s not to sound greedy, as if I needed even more from him, but I know it was something Trebek loved to do. Maybe, for thirty minutes at a time, it allowed him to focus on something other than his health.
And unfortunately, as is all too common with game show hosts, his final words on television may very well be “we’ll see you tomorrow.” It’s not often game show hosts get to hang ’em up on their own terms. Barker in 2007 was more the exception than the rule.
But today we pause to remember Alex Trebek, are reminded of the indelible impact he left not only on television but on this nation, and are thankful for all of his contributions. We love you, Alex.
The 300s 