Links for the Day: Madonna Reportedly Takes the Field, DOC NYC Lineup, Tom Six Interview, Charlie Kaufman on How to Write a Story, & More

Links for the Day: Madonna Reportedly Takes the Field, DOC NYC Lineup, Tom Six Interview, Charlie Kaufman on How to Write a Story, & More

By Ed Gonzalez on October 4, 2011 in Links for the Day Jump to Comments (0)

Madonna

Madonna to perform during the Super Bowl XLVI halftime show? Wardrobe malfunction to be confirmed.

On the topic of football, ESPN has pulled Hank Williams Jr.'s intro from their Monday Night Football broadcast after the singer compared President Obama to Hitler.

DOC NYC has a lineup.

Tom Six is coming to America.

Charlie Kaufman on how to write a story.

Christopher Hitchens says those who protest the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki have to say what they would have done instead.

Some allegorical thoughts on postmodernism by Jonathan Lethem.

David Cronenberg confirms he's written the script for a sequel to The Fly.

This just in: Chris Christie still isn't running for president.

Scientists may know why our babies advance so much in the womb.

Is The Simpsons facing cancellation?

Speaking of which, John Kricfalusi gets his Simpsons couch gag on:

Links for the Day: A collection of links to items that we hope will spark discussion. We encourage our readers to submit candidates for consideration to ed@slantmagazine.com and to converse in the comments section.

Personally, I don't think The Simpsons has been funny in years, and I don't get what people still see in it. Most of their gags are reheated ones that got stale a long time ago. Much of the new stuff they manage to come up with often feels very crude and childish compared to the work they did in their prime. I'll tune in every now and then out of a morbid and masochistic curiosity that really extends to my overall sick fascination with pop culture, simply to see if the show's improved or not. Most of the time, I feel like I'm lucky to get the odd joke that inspires a "well I guess that was cute" reaction out of me, but not much more. They're kind of the U.S. equivalent of Royal Canadian Air Farce, in that they've been around so long they've become creatively bullet-proof: no matter how badly their routines flop, people still seem to think they're funny. On an interesting side note, I own the first five seasons on DVD, and I was watching them pretty much one after another in order. Say what you will about how "dated" the early episodes are, I found them mostly hilarious, but more interestingly, was how cinematic they were, far more so than anything on TV at the time this side of Miami Vice. Take for example, the second season episode where Homer uses an expensive formula to grow hair. Homer's hair grants him success, even though he's just as stupid as ever. Mr. Burns grants Homer a key to the executive washroom. Smithers, in a fit of jealousy over how Homer was getting Burns' attention over himself, throws down a towel in the middle of the massive chessboard floor of said executive washroom. A janitor immediately scuttles into frame to pick up the towel. This is all shot from roughly the ceiling to give an idea of the size of the place and to emphasize Smithers' feeling of isolation from his beloved Mr. Burns. The camera then tracks along and the floor dissolves to the side windows of an office building in a very Hitchcockian fashion. As I continued watching episodes, I noticed that from roughly the third season and onward, the show's animation, while "cleaner" in appearance, was becoming more standardized. There were far fewer cinematic moments like the one I just described. The jokes were more standardized and formulaic too. Episodes often ended with someone saying something sentimental and/or genuine followed by some kind of joke or smart-ass quip. Something like when Rev. Lovejoy said, "Homer, God didn't set your house on fire, but he was working in the hearts of your friends when they rescued you, whether they be Christian," (shot of Flanders), "Jew" (shot of Krusty), "or miscellaneous" (shot of Apu, who is Hindu). Apu immediately corrects Lovejoy and informs him, and the audience, that there are over 700 million Hindus in the world, which strikes me as a kind of clumsy attempt to incorporate educational content into the comedy. I'm not saying that I think the show wasn't funny then, simply that I feel the show's decline in quality was extremely gradual. So much so, that it's incredibly hard to pinpoint. They had to make a number of compromises and concessions, so over the twenty-plus years they've been on the tube, they've gradually become another "noise in the background" TV comedy. Anyway, those are my thoughts on The Simpsons. I know I'm mostly alone here. Rob Humanick recently gave the newest season three and a half stars, and Ed Gonzalez has repeatedly stated that he believes the currents episodes are underrated. Though Matt Zoller Seitz appears to be in my corner, as he recently wrote an article called, "Let's Get Rid of The Simpsons," and unfortunately, I pretty much agree with him. Oh, by the way, Duncan, I think you're right in criticizing the Trailer Park Boys and Scream 4 ads. It's a bit much when I'm trying to navigate Slant Magazine, only to have the entire screen turn black and see Ghostface (or whatever it's called) gradually fill up my monitor.
Posted by Anonymous on 2011-10-06 02:26:34 ^ Um... WHAT?! As for HWJr., what a SLEAZEBAG! Not only does he have the argument skills of someone's drunk, racist Uncle embarrassing the whole family in public, but could the guy be sending any clearer signals that he's not sexually satisfied? Fox News can't even be bothered to keep their anti-Obama celebrity "commentators" from making jackasses out of themselves. That clip made me sick, this guy just gives you the creeps.
Posted by Anonymous on 2011-10-05 08:38:23 HOW MUCH LONGER MUST WE ENDURE THIS TERRIBLE TERRIBLE "SCREAM 4" MASK / "TRAILER PARK BOYS" POTBELLY COMBO? It's getting intolerable. Super sexy links!
Posted by Anonymous on 2011-10-04 21:51:11

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