I’m sort of catching up here with our links posts after falling seriously behind. This one is appearing mere days after the new episode has dropped. (I’m hoping it’s mere days. I actually write these introductions before I’ve done a lick of work on the links. I could be completely wrong and this comes out two weeks after the newest episode. Fingers crossed!)
It’s been a while since we referenced 21 Jump Street so it had to be done, people, it had to be done. Here are the opening credits for the first season, brought to you by the Eighties!
Have we ever mentioned that Ian appeared on this show? Well, he did.
We talked a little bit about Bruce Lee. Ian mentioned his fight with Chuck Norris, which he found disturbing because of Norris’ resemblance to the Cookie Monster.
Luckily for Chuck, he lived in a time before bro-zilians and back waxing. He would have had to have a full-time team of back hair cultivators.
Here is a clip from the first Bruce Lee film I saw, Game of Death, and his memorable fight with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Jabbar was actually a student of Lee’s before Lee became famous. Obviously he wasn’t the greatest martial arts fighter of all time, but that initial scene with the kick sending Lee onto his ass is classic.
Apparently whenever I talk about Pony Club, this is what Ian imagines it to be:
I am now resolved to no longer talk about Pony Club.
We spent some time discussing the good old drive-in, a feature of modern life that has mostly passed by the wayside, which is too bad because it’s kind of fun sitting in your car eating. (Although I suppose you could do that anytime you wanted.)
There’s a lot of rootbeer drinking in that commercial. A lot of rootbeer drinking. Maybe too much? It got a bit sickening after a while.
I told Ian about this lame karaoke machine my wife had won with its hundreds of public domain songs that no teenager could ever recognize – although it did have an actual rendition of Richie Valens La Bamba, which I thought was odd until it occurred to me that La Bamba is an arrangement of a Mexican folksong. Come on, everbody! All together!
Here is a commercial featuring people who win the lottery and become enormous jerks.
Yeah, that’s what I’m going to waste my lotto millions on, jackasses.
My father had a love/hate relationship with Monty Python. When he wasn’t watching it, he hated it. When he was watching it, he loved it. Or, at least, he laughed at it. It was very confusing to me as a child. Ian found this very good sketch:
We talked about reality TV. One of my favourites was the first season of America’s Next Top Model, which was very fresh and had a great through line with the “villain” (Robyn) and the “good guys” (Elyse and Adrienne). The later seasons quickly devolved into garbage, but that first season was lots of fun. Here is the sanctimonious Robyn getting her comeuppance:
Robyn! Oh no, you di’nt! Ian chose that scene. Here is one of my favourite scenes from that season: Elyse’s immortal bitchy rant at her fellow “bitches”:
So great. What a little terror. She almost won too despite all her protestations that she was “above it all”, which she wasn’t.
Ian is a big fan of Chopped and this is his favourite version of the show:
Also known as Lil’ Chopped.
Once you get Ian started on Food Network shows, there’s no stopping him.
That was pretty hard to take. Is that fellow the joke or is he in on the joke? Also, does he do anything else on the show? I thought Alton Brown was the host, but I’m not all that familiar with the show due to its overwhelming dullness.
Talking about modern reality shows brought us to classic reality TV shows like Real People and That’s Incredible:
Did you see that? An old lady broadcasted her radio show from a phone booth – just like Ian and me.
Wow, Tiger Woods. Did you see the four-year old waitress he was secretly seeing standing in the crowd?
We talked about Penn and Teller’s Bullshit, which was a pretty good show until the one-note level of hysteria became grating.
I used to watch this show with my daughters, believe it or not.
Ian seems to think I have a fear of robots:
Oh my God! *pant pant* Tell me when it’s over! I’m hiding under my desk.
All right. Maybe I’m a little scared of robots, but Disney’s version of the Big Bad Wolf?
(After some medical attention, Dave regains consciousness.)
Let’s move on, shall we? Ian and I spent a lot of time talking about the Vancouver Fan Expo so here is some video from an amazed nerd:
He is magnetically drawn back to the TV actors again and again. It’s weird to visit a con through the eyes of someone who could give a shit about the comic books. That’s the only reason I’m there at all.
Burt Ward and Adam West were at the Fan Expo so Ian linked to this TV movie about the making of the 60’s Batman show.
Interesting. It’s like the show was researched purely through well-rehearsed anecdotes.
Last, and very, very least, we’re going to end with these horrible people: Janet and Greta Podleski. They have made it their job to find someone who has spent their entire life creating something they’re very proud of and than destroying it. It’s “great fun” to watch. And the sister’s loveless relationship just adds to the fun:
Go away, you horrible, horrible people.
But all you lovely, lovely people – make sure you come back now. See you next time!