Cogs can think.

My series on good comedy is almost done. I want to revisit all the series we’ve seen so far, and make a Top 7. It’s a personal list, I don’t have to justify it.

1. ????
2. Coupling
3. That ’70s Show
4. Scrubs
5. Frasier
6. Fawlty Towers
7. Married… With Children

I’m saving number one on the list for later, but there’s a small hint under the link. Stay tuned.

Let’s do another entry on good comedy. This one more or less speaks for itself.

Scrubs is one of those shows that’s easy not to like because it’s so weird. Is it a serious show? Is it strictly comedy? Is it real? Surreal? Is it it about music? Love? The hospital? Medicine?

The truth is, it’s about all those things, and more. It’s one of only a very few shows that have the ability to be funny, absurd, and serious all at the same time, with a perfect music selection playing in the background. Definitely up there with not just the best comedy TV shows of all time, but up there with the best TV shows in general.

One of a kind.

Yeah baby, we have an official release date.

And another entry in my series on good comedy. We all know Frasier, by almost every measure imaginable the best comedy show in history. 37 Emmy Awards, and voted Ultimate Sitcom by the British Channel 4, and the BBC more or less agrees.

What makes Frasier so good is not just the intelligent jokes, not just the fact that Frasier transcends the usual penis-vagina-poo level of most other sitcoms (I’m looking at you, Friends), but the fact that the actors in Frasier actually know how to act. Each one of them, every single character, is portrayed so well that if Frasier were a film, it’d sweep the Oscars.

Move the slider to 4m45s in. Peri Gilpin (as Roz) at full hurricane force. Breathtaking.

The difference between a good comedy show, and an outstanding one is not the humour, it’s not the funny situations - it’s how well the writers and cast deal with the situations that are not funny. And when it comes to that, I don’t think there is anything in the world that beats Frasier.

The worst television show in the history of ever. This show has actually managed to fake depth.

And you know what? All those people who get off on the word “indie”, all those people who buy MacBooks just because they think that makes them different, all those people who pretend not to care about stuff, you know, but who are even too empty and pointless to even do the right thing and become an emo - or worse yet, a gothic - so that we’d at least have a legitimate reason to kill them. Those people? Those are the people that like Californication.

I’d rather watch Hypnotoad on Blu-Ray with 7.1 surround sound on a 200cm plasma display for 10 days on end than watch just 5 minutes of Californication. I’ve never seen such shallow, pointless, story-less, humourless, direction-less piece of unimaginative drivel.

It’s that awful.

Armageddon’s on TV right now. I’ve seen it a couple of hundred times already, and every time, I’m just amazed by how god damn good this film is. It has everything. Action, suspense, special effects, decent humour, and probably one of the most heartbreaking acting moments ever recorded on camera (I can’t listen to that Aerosmith song without a few chills traveling down my spine).

Armageddon does everything right. Even though the film makes no sense whatsoever, you just don’t give a rat’s ass when you’re watching it, because you’re totally into it all. And as far as I’m concerned, that’s what a good film is supposed to do: make the unbelievable believable. What’s harder to transfer to the silver screen: real events, things that could happen in reality - or something totally bizarre? The professional critics didn’t like it, but luckily, the audience didn’t give a rat’s ass, and went en masse to the film because they realised what it was: entertainment. A film doesn’t need dying AIDS patients or men making out in order to be good.

This film should’ve swept the Oscars, and the fact that it didn’t just shows what kind of an abysmal farce the Academy Awards are.

Continuing my impromptu series on good comedy, here’s another one. Steve in Coupling, with his legendary rant about naked women. The backstory here is that in the days leading up to this dinner party, Susan (the blonde across the table), found one of Steve’s lesbian porn videos (”Lesbian Spank Inferno”, here come the search engines!). He’s forced into detailing the “plot” of the porn video during the party.

Coupling is definitely worth your time, one of the best comedy series of all times. It’s kind of like Friends, but then without the repetitiveness, annoying Americans, worn-out New York backdrop, and lame stand-up comedy jokes. Coupling is a series where there really aren’t any individual, one-line jokes - everything depends on one another. Finding a suitable scene to demonstrate the type of complex humour generally used in Coupling is difficult, but this one is pretty decent.

The series makes extensive use of split-screen, time lapse, and different people speaking about the same events but from different angles (men vs. women, mostly). The characters in coupling are not meant to reflect real people - Susan and Steve could be real, but the other characters are stylised extremes of the male and female psyches.

It’s an extremely innovative show, and definitely worth your time.

Speaking of good comedy, let’s talk That ’70s Show. The best Jacky & Hyde scenes (ignore the crappy music, not part of the show).

“I’m not saying it back!” The best scene in the entire series. Emotional, intense, extremely funny, and well acted. I love this. Comedy milestone.

Still the best piece of comedy ever written.

This stuff is absolutely unbeatable.

Some short notes:

My mother was operated on again last Thursday. Not too long ago, she had a complicated breast reconstruction surgery done, but one of the breasts actually got infected, and needed to be removed again in a rush surgery. This week they fixed the situation, so let’s hope she doesn’t get an infection this time. Everything went well, and she will be discharged from the hospital tomorrow.

I introduced Renate and Bart to Battlestar Galactica (starting with the miniseries, of course), and they seem to like it so far. Bart is into sci-fi and space stuff, so no surprises there. Renate, on the other hand, isn’t a particular fan, so it’s nice to see her liking it. Let’s hope they’ll like the series as well.

On a very related note, Nicki Clyne agreed to an interview for OSNews. Nicki Clyne portrays Cally Henderson in Battlestar Galactica, and the first moment I saw her in the miniseries I had a sensation of wait-I-know-her-load-up-imdb, and as it turned out, she played a 5-line role in Dead Like Me (“DON’T tell your mom…”). I’m really looking forward to the interview - too bad it can’t be a face-to-face one (seeing we live on opposite sides of that thing filled with water, and I can’t swim), but hey, you can’t have the whole world. We’ll make do.

It’s 2am here, I demand a shower and a bed.