Under Review
We review guilty pleasure TV shows and Internet memes, as well as a trendy new season
By Campus Progress
May 15, 2009
No, it shouldn’t be funny. Yes, it is very funny.
INTERNET MEME
Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat<
YouTube and Other Viral Video Sites
“Release Date” Unknown
Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat is the latest in a long series of increasingly surreal Internet memes. The basic idea is this: You stumble across a YouTube video that usually has the name, “Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat.” You watch the video, in which some person makes a horrible mistake or generally humiliates him- or herself. Then, just as the video gets practically unbearable to watch … cut to a cute cat playing the keyboard.
You would think that a joke like that would only be funny once or twice, but the meme is reproducing so quickly that its semi-official blog updates with a new video once or twice a day. And you know what? The results are pretty uniformly hysterical, particularly the ones where the embarrassment is dragged out for a minute or more before the cat shows up.
The reason why these videos have yet to wear out their welcome is because the punch line is never about the cat itself. It’s about the fact that, no matter how painful these videos are to watch, the perfectly timed insertion of a cute animal and some upbeat music can fix everything. Think of it as the LOLcat version of Curb Your Enthusiasm’s bubbly theme music.
Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat may soon go the way of rickrolling and LOLcats, but for now it’s still a decent way to unwind and procrastinate from studying for finals.
8 out of 10 cats playing the keyboard
-Ned Resnikoff
Finally.
SEASON
Spring
New Jersey
April – May, 2009
I’m new to the concept of springtime (I’m from southern California, where we don’t have seasons), so I can’t comment on past springs, but the past couple months in New Jersey have been delightful. It became possible to go outside with only a sweatshirt in early April, and since then the weather has been beautiful, Frisbee-playing college students fill every patch of grass, and it’s become impossible to do any work.
There have been a few instances when the weather was less than wonderful, but those were only small deviations from general awesomeness after what seemed like a very long and tiring winter. We had one weekend in late April of 90-degree weather that forced me to flee in search of air conditioning, while last week had a 50-60 percent chance of rain forecast for every single day, and I sat on the edge of my seat waiting for the other shoe to drop and the thunder to finally come. When it did, though, it was exciting—we don’t get thunderstorms out west.
I never thought I’d be saying that the climate in New Jersey, of all places, is delightful, but when all the trees are green and it’s warm enough to be outside again, even pollen and humid bursts of rain are beautiful. Now, what did I do with that Frisbee?
9 out of 10 blissful sunbathers
-Emily Rutherford
Meh.
TV
The White House Correspondents Dinner
May 9, 2009
The best way to rate this year’s White House Correspondence Dinner is in terms of sexual encounters. Hear me out here. The scale goes like this: the worst being a drunken one-night stand that’s worthy of being a Tucker Max story, and the best being that time where you practically tattooed your number on the other person before they woke up afterwards. By that measure, this year’s WHCD scored a "meh." As in, "How was that, baby?" "Meh." "Meh?" "It’s getting late, you’d better go." It’s not really that President Obama’s jokes were bad, nor were most of Wanda Sykes’. (I’m aware that there’s been some hyperventilating about one zinger on Sean Hannity. It’s not like Sykes said she hoped the country would fail…).
Perhaps it’s that Obama is charming, smart, interesting, and inspiring, but just not funny. There’s nothing really humorous about him, and that was blatantly apparent at the dinner. Most of his jokes were cute, with a few corny cringers, like one about the Obama children taking Air Force One on a joy ride to New York. (Also, I’m pretty sure no New Yorker will ever again think a large airplane inexplicably flying over their city is funny.)
And if only Wanda were a political comedian. Sykes’ jokes just fell flat. There was one on Tim Geithner, one Obama being the first black president if he succeeds and “the Mulatto” if he doesn’t, and one about his teammates going easy on the president in basketball. Random and dull. But give Sykes her credit, she did manage a few good ones, like when she asked, whose idea it was to give the Queen of England an iPod. Good question, but here’s a better one: Why couldn’t they book Jon Stewart?
4 out of 10 bad jokes
-Daniel Strauss
Yet another guilty TV pleasure.
TV
The Real Housewives of New Jersey
Bravo
Airs: Tuesdays at 10:00 pm EST
For those unfamiliar with Bravo’s “Real Housewives” reality series, it’s a sort of like a post-menopausal version of "The Hills" in which women with Black Amex cards and questionable morals drink Chardonnay while attempting to tackle life’s most pressing challenges. But despite the show’s inherent vapidity, “Real Housewives” remains one of the most entertaining celebrations of capitalism in the reality television cache.
Maybe it’s my own New Jersey roots showing (speaking of which…dye jobs! there are many on this show!) but the latest installment of the series, “Real Housewives of New Jersey,” which debuted this week, promises to be one of the best yet. Let’s just say there’s a reason why Bravo’s producers chose the Garden State instead of, say, Boise. The show’s five housewives, Danielle, Teresa, Jacqueline, Dina, and Caroline all seem like nice ladies that you would speak ill of only if you were looking to get smacked. That is, they’re everything that someone outside the tri-state area would expect Jersey housewives to be, and everything that someone from inside the tri-state area would expect Jersey housewives to be.
Residing in the affluent suburb of Franklin Lakes, the wives occupy opulent homes and drive sports cars. But unlike most of the women on previous seasons (I’m looking at you, Orange County) these gals have grit, substance, and a loyalty to family that shines through despite their fake tans and penchant for furniture that can only be described as “obscene.”
Don’t worry, though, in Jersey there is always plenty of drama to go around. In upcoming episodes, it appears that Danielle will hit on Caroline’s oldest son and later be accused of various past indiscretions, including prostitution and kidnapping. Teresa will call someone a bitch and overturn a dinner table. Oh, and her daughter nabs an audition for a movie starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. That alone should be reason to watch, America.
8 out of 10 Italian-American stereotypes that have nothing at all to do with The Sopranos
-Katie Andriulli
Ned Resnikoff, Emily Rutherford, and Daniel Strauss are staff writers at Campus Progress. Katie Andriulli is the communications and outreach manager at Campus Progress.
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