RAH Humor Review: A Bit of Fry and Laurie

A Bit of Fry and Laurie was a BBC comedy series produced from 1989 to 1995. It starred Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, two of Britain's leading comic actors.

Fry and Laurie met while students at Cambridge University. They were introduced to each other by Emma Thompson, who appeared with them in the Cambridge Footlights comedy review.

Stephen Fry is a bestselling author as well as a great comic actor. He first became known as "Melchitt" in the various Blackadder series, and is probably best known as the incomparable butler Jeeves in Jeeves and Wooster. He has also portrayed Oscar Wilde in a biopic.

Hugh Laurie has appeared with Stephen Fry in many productions since they met at Cambridge University. Laurie first came to world attention as the "George" characters in the various Blackadder series. He seemed born to play Bertie Wooster, the classic upper class twit character from the P.G. Wodehouse stories.

Hugh Laurie had been concerned about being typecast as the dimwitted type of character he played as Bertie Wooster, but he need not have worried. Laurie is currently starring as the brilliant, but caustic Dr. Gregory House in the hit American medical drama, House MD.

A Bit of Fry and Laurie is a sketch comedy show, with many recurring sketches. Some of them include:

• Tony Murchison and Control - British spy leader Tony Murchison (Laurie), who reports to his coffee-obsessed boss Control (Fry).
  
• John and Peter - John (Fry) and Peter (Laurie) find themselves in various executive situations (but mostly as operators of a small town health club), where they spout cliches and attempt to overcome the machinations of the evil Marjorie.
  

Fry and Laurie's comedy features great wit in the finest English tradition. Stephen Fry specialises in portraying sophisticated characters, which can range in temperment from quiet and dainty to loud and bullying. Hugh Laurie seems to be most at home playing
confused characters, although he also does "high and mighty" very well.

For anyone who likes British comedy - particularly Blackadder or Jeeves and Wooster, this show is highly recommended. The first two seasons are currently available on DVD.

RAH Humor Review: Bottoms Up

Bottoms Up is a direct-to-DVD release starring Paris Hilton and Jason Mewes (best known as Jay from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back).

Jason Mewes plays Owen Peadman, a Minnesota flair bartender who travels to Hollywood in an attempt to win a $10,000 bartending contest to save his father's steakhouse. Unable to afford a hotel, Owen stays with his flamboyantly gay Uncle Earl (played by David Keith, who steals the movie with his over-the-top performance).

Paris Hilton plays Lisa Mancini, a spoiled little rich girl (what a stretch) who ends up being Owen's love interest. Owen also ends up bonding with Lisa's boyfriend, Hayden Field (Brian Hallisay), which leads to an interesting triangle.

There is a rule somewhere saying Jason Mewes can't appear in any film without Kevin Smith, who plays Rusty #2, one of two guys named Rusty who sit around Daddy's steakhouse back home drinking, sleeping and farting. Exactly who they are is never made clear. And the only apparent reason there are two of them are so that we can see shots of Kevin Smith on a telephone saying, "This is Rusty. No, the other one."

This all sounds inane, and it definitely is. But still, there is a certain chemistry between Mewes and Hallisay that gives the movie a bit of soul. And David Keith's performance alone may be worth 90 minutes of your time.

It's easy to see why no theatrical release was attempted for this movie. It would have bombed big time. But if you're really bored this winter, it might just be worth renting this flick if you happen to find it.

A Real Dilbert in Bloom County

Most people are aware that Dilbert is one of the most widely-read comic strips in the world. It happens to be my favorite daily comic strip, and has been for many years. In fact the only comic strip that I enjoyed more in my life was Bloom County, which was drawn by the great Berkeley Breathed from 1980-1989.

This summer I happen to be reading through some of my old Bloom County collections. Imagine my surprise when I read a certain strip from 1988. Opus has been railroaded into running for Vice President on the Meadow Party ticket - the running mate of Bill the Cat. Opus is up on a stump attempting to deliver a campaign speech and is being heckled by Milquetoast the Cockroach.

Milquetoast delivers the following assessment of Opus: "What a Rube! What a Loon! What a Real Dilbert!" (Classics of Western Literature: Bloom County 1986-1989, Page 149)

Bear in mind that this strip was published in 1988, the year before Scott Adams began publishing the Dilbert comic strip. This makes one wonder if Scott Adams "borrowed" the name of his main character from this Bloom County strip. Or at least it makes one wonder if Scott Adams was a fan of Bloom County.

In any event Dilbert is well worth checking out: Official Dilbert Website

You can also check out Berkeley Breathed's website.

Clerks 2 x 2

Today I did something I rarely do. I saw a film for the second time in the cinema. The last time I did this was way back in 1997 and the film was Men in Black.

Clerks 2 was definitely worth it. When I first saw the film on July 21st there were about fifty people in the theater and I missed a couple lines of dialogue because of people laughing - including me. Today there were about fifteen people in my local mall cineplex and I was able to hear all the dialogue. And what dialogue!

Let's face it, people don't go to see Kevin Smith movies because of the world class directing. Kevin Smith would tell you that himself. But the writing is always first class. And the acting is pretty darn good.

Brian O'Halloran is solid, if not great as Dante. Jeff Anderson is surprisingly stong as Randal. Jeff's reactions completely sell the nonsensical dialogue in one of the funniest scenes, when Elias, our heroes' nerdy coworker explains why he still hasn't had sex with his girlfriend.

Let's talk about Elias for a minute. Trevor Fehrman is totally believable as uber-nerd Elias, the 19-year-old "Funployee of the Month" at Mooby's who still kisses his mom goodbye when she drops him off at work. This hapless kid's victimization by Randal is the stuff of legends. Very funny legends.

Rosario Dawson is excellent as Becky, the manager of Mooby's, and the third part of the standard-issue Dante Hicks love triangle.

Again, if you're a Kevin Smith fan, don't wait for this baby on DVD. Go and see it on the big screen now!

RAH Humor Review: Clerks 2

Before the review begins, allow me to embark on a Randal Graves-like rant about the movie going experience circa 2006. I showed up to see Clerks II (yes, there were Roman numerals on the screen, my eyesight's not that far gone) at my local stadium-seating cineplex for the 11:45 AM showing this morning - Friday, July 21st. After 7 minutes of commercials, the "Feature Attaction" card came up, along with all the yada yada about turning off your cell phones and shutting the hell up. I checked my watch and thought two things: 1) 7 minutes isn't bad, and 2) There were no trailers! Turns out I was wrong on both counts. Apparently the good people at Hoyt Cinemas think that the trailers are now part of the "Feature Attraction", and proceeded to run 8 minutes of them. This meant a total of 15 minutes of ads before showing the actual film I had paid to see.

Fortunately Clerks II was worth the wait. In short, this is Kevin Smith's best film to date. I can't remember the last time I've laughed out loud so much in a movie theater. Yes, it's pretty edgy humor, but that's what you expect when you watch a Kevin Smith film.

Sequels have a bad reputation - deservedly so. There have been countless movies which made excellent single films, but when the attempt was made to catch lightning in a bottle again, the failure was painful to watch. Not so with Clerks II, which I feel is the best sequel since The Godfather, Part II. In fact in many ways Clerks II is better than the original Clerks.

I don't want to give away any surprises, but suffice it to say that this movie has the funniest production-style musical dance number I've ever seen in a movie - and I'm not a fan of musical numbers in movies - even full-blown musicals. The best part is the way that Kevin Smith
works the dance number organically into the action of the scene - except at the end when he deliberately - and hilariously - pokes fun at the whole movie dance sequence deal.

All I have to say to Joel Siegel is, "you walked out too soon, dude. And for no reason." Yes, there is "interspecies erotica" in this film, but it's handled no more offensively that the donkey show in Bachelor Party, particularly when you take into account that that was way back in 1984 and this is now.

Don't take your kids to see this film, but for any open-minded adults, you have to see this film! The same goes for any Kevin Smith fans. If you liked any of Kevin Smith's films apart from Chasing Amy you'll love this film. Go and see Dante and Randal grow up, at least a little.

Note to Hollywood executives - keep making films this funny.

Note to movie theater executives - knock off showing commercials in cinemas, the trailers are bad enough. I can live with commercials on "free television" (my cable bill is $110/month, although that does include high speed internet), but I object strongly to being shown commercials when I've paid to be in the theater. This is the first film I've seen in a cinema this year, and I'm in no hurry to go back!

Italian AOL CDs

Did anyone else notice that the medals at the Torino Olympics look like CDs?

Does AOL have an Italian branch? If so, I think I just figured out what the Italians have done with some of the disks that AOL mailed to them. They glued batches of them together, slapped on Gold, Silver and Bronze paint, hung 'em on ribbons and are handing them out to successful Winter Olympians.

Clive Cussler Disease

Dilbert is one of the most popular comic strips in the world today. The title character, an engineer of undefined specialty, and his colleagues get into all kinds of mischief working for Path-E-Tech Management, a high-tech company in Northern California. The phrase "pointy-haired boss" - a reference to Dilbert's totally clueless boss, has even entered the common vocabulary. I actually use the phrase myself. (If my boss is reading this, I never use it to refer to you.)

Scott Adams has been drawing Dilbert for more than 15 years, and apparently he is running out of good ideas. On January 2, 2006 he actually appeared in the strip himself, complaining about a lame strip concept that "a gazillion people" have suggested to him over the years. I thought this was a cute idea, although I hoped that Mr. Adams wouldn't do that kind of thing too often.

So you can imagine my chagrin when the January 3, 2006 strip found the artist trapped in his comic strip, unable to escape. Oh dear! Another tragic case of Clive Cussler Disease.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, Clive Cussler is a very popular and successful author of techno-thriller novels. His books all star Dirk Pitt, Cussler's alter ego: a swashbuckling pilot, engineer, and marine scientist (imagine a cross between Jacques Cousteau and Han Solo). Mr. Cussler's books are extremely fun reads, and I enjoy them very much. But Mr. Cussler has developed a problem in recent years.

The last four or five Dirk Pitt novels have featured cameo appearances by a new character, Clive Cussler! The first time that happened, I thought it was charming. But I've grown increasingly tired of Mr. Cussler showing up in his own novels to dispense wisdom or save the neck of his super-hero grade protagonist.

I don't know what causes successful authors and artists to fall prey to this disease. I just hope that Mr. Cussler and Mr. Adams can both be cured. The long-term symptoms aren't nearly as pleasant for others to cope with as the victims may believe.

The good news is that the "Wizard of Oz" parody which developed in Dilbert this week now seems to be over. When last seen Mr. Adams was being hosting skyward by a giant hand while he chanted the magical incantation, "There's no place like my home office..." {RAH06}

Related Links:

Dilbert
National Underwater and Marine Agency - Clive Cussler's website.