There was more to add to the last entry, but I did not want to confront a frozen screen, so here we are. Mary is determined to watch either the six or seven local news shows, so I have had my evening dose of LEX 18, modifying absolutely everything in front of their cameras. I did get through the broadcast without yelling at the TV tonight, but I think it all the time, and I watch their mouths, rigorously. The reporters really are "talking heads"; it is rather disconcerting after a while, watching Kris Jansing's eyebrows dance up and down on her head as she speaks. However, I always enjoyed NBC's Brian Williams, and I am beginning to come around for Lester Holt, though I am beginning to wonder if they all sell their souls for a mess of ratings. Hmm!
Here is an LEX 18 Big Story Update: Ha! The turkey vultures came back several evenings ago and roosted in our huge silver maple. Frollie watches them out the front window and actually barks at them if they fly too close to the house. Our local newspaper, The Berea Citizen, ran a front page story on them last week, with pictures. Our street was mentioned, I might add.
I have one more pet peeve that I cherish as a beloved creature, nourishing it, feeding it, and allowing it to grow and prosper. I hate and detest, I abhor comedy laugh tracks, and tonight I had the misfortune to hear one for a moment as the DVR moved from one recorded show to the next. My theory is that contemporary comedy is so unfunny that the audience must be convinced that something comic is happening by means of the laugh track.
I think the show that materialized on my TV may be called Two Broke Girls? Tall (maybe) brunette says, "Rusty Barker asked me out again, but I told him I was just getting over Ebola [she pauses, audience roars hysterically] and that I would be laid up for another week." [Apparently everything they say is supposed to be hilarious.] The blond rolls her eyes and once again the audience roars! Of course I made up the example but that is the pattern which the scenes develop, and I have seen the eye rolling produce loud guffaws. My theory is that if a comedy is really funny, you will not need a phony laugh track to convince you. After a bit of watching all I can think about is how intrusive the laughter, how banal the humor, and how stultifying the dialogue. Whew!
The document opened! Okay, so here is a confession that will undoubtedly undermine any credibility I might have achieved above: I enjoy Brooklyn 99 ! No laugh track! That Andre Brauger (sp?) agreed to be in this frequently very funny comedy playing a gay captain (of whatever rank) with an occasional appearance of his nemesis, Kyra Sedgewick, is a blessing for which I am truly grateful, and I frequently enjoy Andy Samburg, which I suspected would never happen. And yet it has. With NO laugh track!
Now then, the other shoe drops. What, you didn't hear the first one? Thunk! Mary, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, has us watching The Last Man on Earth! The blessing here is that there is again No Laugh Track, or she would have had to throttle me first! The curse is that I actually heard myself laugh out loud once last Sunday evening! OMG, or as Snoopy, my hero, might say: "Rats!" Or as another hero, Ishmael, of "Call me Ishmael" fame has said, "I have had to lower my conceit of attainable felicity!" In any case, I decide what amuses me in both cases, and I gloat! Just in case anyone wondered.