Kanye, Interrupted
We also review Glee, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and black-and-white comedies.
By Becca Russell-Einhorn, Drew Seman, Delaney Rohan, and Jake Blumgart
September 18, 2009
No one can stop Kanye.
Kanye West Interrupts Taylor Swift
Video Music Awards
MTV
Aired: Sept. 13, 2009
I would like to discuss the incident that happened at the VMAs on Sunday. For those of you who have been hiding in bomb shelters, this is what happened: Taylor Swift was awarded the Best Female Video, but Kanye jumped on stage, snatched the microphone, interrupted her acceptance speech, and said, “Taylor, I’m really happy for you, and I’mma let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time.” Taylor stood there perplexed and—I think—frightened. Kanye’s outburst resulted in an Internet meme. I’d like to analyze this tragetainment moment with three key arguments.
The first is that Kanye West is a d-bag. A self-professed non-reader, he has a book of Kanye-isms coming out and apparently needed a co-author on a book that features his own catch phrases. Also, Kanye is always yelling. Subsequent mockings of his performance at the VMAs appear in all caps because he BLOGS IN ALL CAPS. In fact, Kanye’s blog seems to want us to know that KANYE IS EXCITED ABOUT STUFF ALL THE TIME!!!!!! BECAUSE HE USES EXCLAMATION POINTS EXCESSIVELY!!! The final straw is his song “Workout Plan” includes the lyrics, “That’s right, put in work. Move your ass, go berserk. Eat your salad, no dessert. Get that man you deserve.” That pretty much assures d-bag status.
Second, Taylor Swift is, well, the bees knees. She’s a cutie (OMG) and she hasn’t sent naked pictures of herself around (cough, cough, Vanessa Hudgens) or done a pseudo naked photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz (cough, cough, Miley Cyrus). We should also love her because she made a rap with T-Pain (auto-tuned, obviously) in which she comments on her love of knitting sweaters and baking cookies. Too adorable. But mostly, I love her because she met her prince on the outside of town and thought it wasn’t gonna work out. But then it did. It really did, and he showed up with a ring and she got to pick a dress. It’s a love story.
Lastly, take a moment to ruminate on this one: “How much funnier is your Facebook/Twitterfeed because of this event?” Answer: much, much funnier. And I’ll leave you with my favorite parody of the situation. “Yo, God. I know you’re creating the world and I’mma let you finish, but Sega made one of the best Genesis of all time.”
6 out of 10 awesome spoofs of Kanye’s outburst.
- Becca Russell-Einhorn
FOX has finally filled the musical void on television.
Glee
FOX
Premiered: Sept. 9, 2009
This may make me a bad progressive, but I was pretty excited last week when I found out
FOX would be running
Glee in spite of the President Barack Obama’s address on health care reform to Congress—but my priorities were straight. I DVRed
Glee, and watched Obama’s speech live, so I’m not a totally terrible progressive.
FOX’s new “American musical dramedy” is the story of a newly formed/struggling High School Glee Club. The characters are all slightly over the top, almost in an Arrested Development way. The comedy itself ranges from satirical—the popular cheerleaders wear their cheerleading uniforms every day—to topical. A great moment in the second episode comes when Will, the teacher who runs the glee club and played by Matthew Morrison, is house hunting with his wife and says, “There are nine foreclosures on our street, why can’t we buy one of those at half the price?”
Jane Lynch, of 40-Year-Old Virgin fame, plays the cheerleading coach. The team, aptly, is named the Cheerios, and it’s probably is the funniest part of the show. Her character is always ready with a condescending quip to crush the spirits of the loser glee kids. Jayma Mays is adorable as the OCD guidance counselor. Lea Michele’s, who’s Broadway Credits include Wendla Berman in Spring Awakening and Young Cosette in Les Miserables, shines as the creepily driven yet extremely talented glee club leader.
Each episode features at least one full-length musical segment. Some songs are parts of glee club performances while others are asides by the character, musical style. These songs have ranged from “Don’t Stop Believing” to “Gold Digger.” But the musical numbers are dubbed. It’s the cast members singing, but apparently the producers don’t trust their voices to be polished enough. They may not all have Lea Michele’s talent, but watching dubbed songs cuts the entertainment value in half. Don’t worry. Songs can be purchased on iTunes after the episode each week.
9 out of 10 L’s on the forehead.
-Drew Seman
TV
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
FX
Premiered: Sept. 17, 2009
On the season premiere of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, like most sitcoms approaching their archetypically irrelevant fifth season, I expected a perceptible dissipation of comedic luster. But I was pleasantly surprised with the level of hilarity that has remained consistent since the show’s inception.
In “The Gang Exploits the Mortgage Crisis” this week, the always stubborn Frank Reynolds purchases a foreclosed home only to find it still occupied by a family of four. While Frank, Dennis, Charlie, and Mac mull over the relative utility of beating each member of the family to death, the always cracked-out Deandra tries to make some quick cash by selling her uterus as a surrogate mother to a wealthy couple, offering the couple a deal if they’re willing to “double down” if she has twins.
“The Gang” maintains and strengthens its psychotic dynamic. The season premier satisfactorily whets its audience’s comedic palate. It’s Always Sunny has a consistent drive to push the limits of mainstream comedy, always featuring unpredictable unraveling of “The Gang’s” poorly thought out attempts to get rich quick.
As you can probably deduce, the episode ends badly. Obviously illegal and shamefully immoral behaviors tear down any semblance of cable television’s topical boundaries. As usual, nothing works out, but everything is hilarious.
In the overly melodramatic midst of cliché medical shows, incredibly unnerving game shows (see Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader?), and the creatively barren likes of Real World, it’s tempting to think that vapid superficiality has poisoned all of television. But It’s Always Sunny presents a beacon of simultaneously intelligent, raunchy, and edgy comedy that, for now, is at one very good reason to turn the television on.
8.5 out of 10 excuses to not lose faith in TV just yet.
-Delaney Rohan
OLD MOVIES
Watching Black and White Comedies
W.C. Fields, Mae West, Cary Grant, and a host of the hilarious deceased
Watched: Now, in my life
Do you ever have a hankering for a comedy that doesn’t have any penis jokes? I know, I know. It sounds outlandish, but there actually was a time when screenwriters couldn’t resort to a single fart joke. I would never, ever, suggest we go back to those straightjacketed days, because, let’s face it, I love me some fart jokes. But the key word there is “some.”
Two problems confront the hardly film nerd who wishes to explore ye olde world of black and white comedies.
1. What to watch? The sheer amount of unexplored celluloid can be a bit intimidating. (There are about forty good ones starring Cary Grant alone.) I recommend His Girl Friday for fast-paced dialogue. As far as Grant-less comedy goes, check out The Bank Dick for curmudgeonly old man humor and the Thin Man for booze-drenched wit.
2. Who to watch it with? Everyone has a couple friends who simply can’t countenance anything pre-Star Wars. (“DUDE,” he said to me, “the grey light hurts my eyes, seriously.”) Then there are those who can’t help but harp on the problematic gender roles. The outmoded gender relations and the often (not including Mae West) subservient roles for women say more about the times than the ideological alignment of the filmmakers. Enjoy and critique, but don’t let the moralizing get in the way of the fun.
You’ll just have to muddle through the first problem, preferably with the help of Robert Ebert and Peter Bogdanovich. The second issue can be solved by watching it with a select few friends, or even better, you can watch them by yourself. Winter is coming, and there is nothing more comforting than old screwball comedies and a mint hot chocolate when you want to isolate yourself from both your friends and Kevin Smith’s latest opus.
8 out of 10 antiquated jokes that are still funny today.
-Jake Blumgart
Becca Russell-Einhorn is a former intern with Campus Progress and a senior at Pomona College. Drew Seman is the online communications associate for Campus Progress. Delaney Rohan is an editorial intern with Campus Progress. Jake Blumgart is a staff writer for Campus Progress.
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Comments
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Aside from the fact that it’s way too late to still be reviewing Kanyegate ’09, that write-up added nothing to the discussion. And bringing up The New Workout Plan, a satire of golddigging, to prove his douchebaggery is unfair. Obviously Kanye is an asshole. But I expect a more convincing, timely argument from Campus Progress as to why he is an a-hole. This just comes off as a Taylor Swift fan not being able to let go of a grudge everyone else dropped a week ago.
— Liz - Sep 24, 04:18 PM - #