Monday, March 27, 2006

John Henson, Where Have You Gone?

Or what have you done?

Remember when John Henson was the host of Talk Soup, back when it was funny, back when it wasn't just called the Soup and some obnoxious, snide commercial actor wasn't hosting it? Now, perhaps the show wasn't as funny as I remember, as I was a teenager when it was on, and teenagers are stupid. But as I recall, it had some merit, comedically. The thing was that for all of his jokes, people behind the camera laughed. Not a studio audience, but the actual crew. It was funny though, because what he said was really funny, and if memory serves, they didn't really laugh at the jokes that bombed. And some of the guys on the crew had a personality on the show, and they'd show up on some of the skits. But now, the laughing crew seems to have become a mainstay on a few cable shows. Notably, the Soup. I think they actually ripped this off Henson's show on SpikeTV, you know the one that lasted about a week? He was painfully unfunny on that show, but he had the crew behind the camera in stitches all the time. Irritating. Now they have the same thing on the Soup, which makes it unbearable to watch, and Henson is STILL doing it on the TV Guide channel. He even seemed embarrassed, because there was like one person going ballistic no matter what he said - kind of like in a high school stage comedy, the director or something will sit in the crowd and laugh at every punchline, to encourage the audience or something - and he actually called her out on it. Poor bastard. Even Olbermann's getting in on the act. Disappointing. This needs to end. Unless Bill O'Reilly picks this trend up, then the market for bizarre, thinly-veiled sexual conservative humor will go through the roof, and I'll be cheering it on the entire way. Whenever O'Reilly attempts humor on his radio show, or more infrequently, his tv show, it inevitably picks up sexual innuendo, and is just cringe-inducing. Outstanding. Like whenever he sexually harrasses his co-host.

Oh, and Nora Ephron? No one gives a fuck what you think.

1 Comments:

Blogger T Po said...

I was also a teenager, but it was funny. Mostly because daytime television is full of a)white trash, b)egotistical talk show hosts, c)crazy women. Alone, each category possesses tremendous potential for comedy. Taken together, well, it should just write itself.

3/31/2006 3:13 PM  

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