Red Dwarf and that Music Quiz
Jan. 26th, 2004 10:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatWell, bored out of my mind tonight, so decided to watch the last three episodes on the Red Dwarf Season 1 DVD. I'd watched the first three episodes last week.
Interesting series. Each episode is approximately half an hour or 30 minutes in length and has a laugh track - so it's basically a situation comedy series. Not being a person who is particularily partial to situation comedies or even overly fond of them - for a couple of reasons, which I'll attempt to explain since so many of my friends adore the art form, this series was interesting for me to watch.
Also really despise laugh tracks. For two reasons, 1)the laughter often overlaps the dialogue making it difficult to hear and 2)I often find myself laughing when the laugh track isn't. I told you I was contrary. It's almost as if whomever is producing the show doesn't trust the audience to laugh in the right place or find it funny, so puts a laugh track in to gently persuade them.
Another problem I have with situation comedies, is most situation comedy writers don't trust their audience to get the joke, highly insecure for some reason, and let their jokes go on for far too long. Almost as if they are afraid if they don't keep hammering us over the head with the punch line - we won't get it. I always want to bash them over the head and say - "I got it! It was funny ten minutes ago! Now it's annoying! Can we move on please? Thank you." Humor is a delicate thing, you can't over-do it or it will fall flat. Subletly always works best.
British comedies don't make this mistake as often as American ones do. But they aren't immune.
Also - I admit I have an odd sense of humor. Very dry wit. I find things funny that other people don't and am often annoyed by things that others find humorous. Jonathan Swift and absurdist playwrites for instance amuse me. The Three Stooges do not. I cringe whenever I watch them. Benny Hill made me laugh. Monty Python makes me laugh. Mr. Been? Makes me ill. I can't watch him. Austin Powers? It depends, the physical humor turns me off, the subtle jokes aimed at the spy genre, very funny.
How does this relate to Red Dwarf? Well Red Dwarf seems to be an odd combination of absurdist situational humor and annoying physical humor. It's almost as if the writers decided to combine the absurdist/existenalist comedy of Monty Python with the gross-out pratfalls and bantering of The Three Stooges, providing me with cringe worthy and geniuinely amusing moments. Very odd combination. I find myself torn between fast-forwarding and rewinding at any given moment.
What is the story about? David Lister, a lowly technician on a work station in space, called Red Dwarf, refuses to turn in his pregnant pet cat (cats and other creatures are strictly forbidden in space) and is punished by the Captain and put in stasis for the remainder of their voyage. During the trip, Lister's anal retentive roommate Rimmer screws up and an explosion kills everyone including Rimmer. 3 million years in the future, Hal, a somewhat senile ship computer, lets Lister out of stasis and resurrects Rimmer, as a hologram to keep Lister company. When Lister asks Hal why he picked Rimmer and not one of his close friends or the girl he had a crush on, Hal states he figures Rimmer will do a better job of keeping him sane. The only other person on board is an evolved humanoid descendant of the pet cat - also a guy.
(So yes, we have the Three Stooges..in space, where there is nothing but rocks flying by and a senile somewhat sarcastic computer named Hallie to keep them company.)
Of the episodes I've seen so far: the best are without a doubt Future Echoes and Waiting for God - these two episodes actually have something interesting to say and rely more on absurdism and situational humor. Future Echoes - is about the characters dealing with future representations of themsevles and whether they exist within the time space continium. Waiting for God - through the cat descendant, the writers do a lovely job of making fun of religion and our reliance on religion and use of religion to justify treating each other like crap. Also a really wonderful satire on Battlestar Galatica hidden in there somewhere. Dave Lister discovers that his cat Frankenstein was so thankful about him giving his life to save her and her babies, that she made him a god and decided that the place he talked to her about was heaven. His plan had been to leave Red Dwarf at the end of the voyage, travel to Figi with his cat and set up a hot dog and donut stand with funny arrow hats. The cat people turned this dream into well heaven and fought over what color the hats should be. They had wars over 1000s of years regarding the color of the hats - blue or red.
Lister sighs - that's a crock, they were supposed to be green. It goes on from there. I rewinded for this episode.
The worste of the episodes? Me2 and Balance of Power - more three stooges than absurdist dry wit.
Also the jokes went on a bit too long.
I actually enjoyed the first episode, The End, very funny in places with subtle wit. Not too over the top. Confidence and Paranoia - an interesting episode where Confidence and Paranoia literally come to life during one of Lister's fever dreams.
There's a rather funny moment between Lister and Confidence outside the ship.
Red Dwarf is similar to The Prisoner, in that the characters outside of the lead are fairly archetypal in nature. Unlike the Prisoner, they actually have names and distinct personalities and we see them in every episode of the series. The Prisoner is a Jungian spoof on spy shows and Red Dwarf is a Freudian spoof on science fiction space dramas. Both deal with the existentialist view that we are alone in the universe and must find a way of handling it. Red Dwarf has four main characters: Dave Lister - the central character, his friend Rimmer who is a hologram and represents his ego, Rimmer can't touch anything or eat, yet he is egotistical and constantly striving to be better than everyone else, Hallie - the ship's computer, is clearly the super-ego, he runs the ship, navigates through the expanse of space, and lets people know what the overall structure is, then there's Cat - the id, who just eats, dresses cool, declares things are mine, and prances about all day. He'd be having sex too if there were any female cats aboard. The interaction between the characters is basically like watching a comedy set inside someone's psyche, which elevates the comedy above the vast majority of situational comedies.
Certainly worth a rental.
The Music Quiz - hmmm, I apparently know more about music than I or anyone else expected. Yay me! Shocking I know.
Good. You know your music. You should be able to
work at Championship Vinyl with Rob, Dick and
Barry
Do You Know Your Music (Sorry MTV Generation I Doubt You Can Handle This One)
brought to you by Quizilla
Interesting series. Each episode is approximately half an hour or 30 minutes in length and has a laugh track - so it's basically a situation comedy series. Not being a person who is particularily partial to situation comedies or even overly fond of them - for a couple of reasons, which I'll attempt to explain since so many of my friends adore the art form, this series was interesting for me to watch.
Also really despise laugh tracks. For two reasons, 1)the laughter often overlaps the dialogue making it difficult to hear and 2)I often find myself laughing when the laugh track isn't. I told you I was contrary. It's almost as if whomever is producing the show doesn't trust the audience to laugh in the right place or find it funny, so puts a laugh track in to gently persuade them.
Another problem I have with situation comedies, is most situation comedy writers don't trust their audience to get the joke, highly insecure for some reason, and let their jokes go on for far too long. Almost as if they are afraid if they don't keep hammering us over the head with the punch line - we won't get it. I always want to bash them over the head and say - "I got it! It was funny ten minutes ago! Now it's annoying! Can we move on please? Thank you." Humor is a delicate thing, you can't over-do it or it will fall flat. Subletly always works best.
British comedies don't make this mistake as often as American ones do. But they aren't immune.
Also - I admit I have an odd sense of humor. Very dry wit. I find things funny that other people don't and am often annoyed by things that others find humorous. Jonathan Swift and absurdist playwrites for instance amuse me. The Three Stooges do not. I cringe whenever I watch them. Benny Hill made me laugh. Monty Python makes me laugh. Mr. Been? Makes me ill. I can't watch him. Austin Powers? It depends, the physical humor turns me off, the subtle jokes aimed at the spy genre, very funny.
How does this relate to Red Dwarf? Well Red Dwarf seems to be an odd combination of absurdist situational humor and annoying physical humor. It's almost as if the writers decided to combine the absurdist/existenalist comedy of Monty Python with the gross-out pratfalls and bantering of The Three Stooges, providing me with cringe worthy and geniuinely amusing moments. Very odd combination. I find myself torn between fast-forwarding and rewinding at any given moment.
What is the story about? David Lister, a lowly technician on a work station in space, called Red Dwarf, refuses to turn in his pregnant pet cat (cats and other creatures are strictly forbidden in space) and is punished by the Captain and put in stasis for the remainder of their voyage. During the trip, Lister's anal retentive roommate Rimmer screws up and an explosion kills everyone including Rimmer. 3 million years in the future, Hal, a somewhat senile ship computer, lets Lister out of stasis and resurrects Rimmer, as a hologram to keep Lister company. When Lister asks Hal why he picked Rimmer and not one of his close friends or the girl he had a crush on, Hal states he figures Rimmer will do a better job of keeping him sane. The only other person on board is an evolved humanoid descendant of the pet cat - also a guy.
(So yes, we have the Three Stooges..in space, where there is nothing but rocks flying by and a senile somewhat sarcastic computer named Hallie to keep them company.)
Of the episodes I've seen so far: the best are without a doubt Future Echoes and Waiting for God - these two episodes actually have something interesting to say and rely more on absurdism and situational humor. Future Echoes - is about the characters dealing with future representations of themsevles and whether they exist within the time space continium. Waiting for God - through the cat descendant, the writers do a lovely job of making fun of religion and our reliance on religion and use of religion to justify treating each other like crap. Also a really wonderful satire on Battlestar Galatica hidden in there somewhere. Dave Lister discovers that his cat Frankenstein was so thankful about him giving his life to save her and her babies, that she made him a god and decided that the place he talked to her about was heaven. His plan had been to leave Red Dwarf at the end of the voyage, travel to Figi with his cat and set up a hot dog and donut stand with funny arrow hats. The cat people turned this dream into well heaven and fought over what color the hats should be. They had wars over 1000s of years regarding the color of the hats - blue or red.
Lister sighs - that's a crock, they were supposed to be green. It goes on from there. I rewinded for this episode.
The worste of the episodes? Me2 and Balance of Power - more three stooges than absurdist dry wit.
Also the jokes went on a bit too long.
I actually enjoyed the first episode, The End, very funny in places with subtle wit. Not too over the top. Confidence and Paranoia - an interesting episode where Confidence and Paranoia literally come to life during one of Lister's fever dreams.
There's a rather funny moment between Lister and Confidence outside the ship.
Red Dwarf is similar to The Prisoner, in that the characters outside of the lead are fairly archetypal in nature. Unlike the Prisoner, they actually have names and distinct personalities and we see them in every episode of the series. The Prisoner is a Jungian spoof on spy shows and Red Dwarf is a Freudian spoof on science fiction space dramas. Both deal with the existentialist view that we are alone in the universe and must find a way of handling it. Red Dwarf has four main characters: Dave Lister - the central character, his friend Rimmer who is a hologram and represents his ego, Rimmer can't touch anything or eat, yet he is egotistical and constantly striving to be better than everyone else, Hallie - the ship's computer, is clearly the super-ego, he runs the ship, navigates through the expanse of space, and lets people know what the overall structure is, then there's Cat - the id, who just eats, dresses cool, declares things are mine, and prances about all day. He'd be having sex too if there were any female cats aboard. The interaction between the characters is basically like watching a comedy set inside someone's psyche, which elevates the comedy above the vast majority of situational comedies.
Certainly worth a rental.
The Music Quiz - hmmm, I apparently know more about music than I or anyone else expected. Yay me! Shocking I know.
Good. You know your music. You should be able to
work at Championship Vinyl with Rob, Dick and
Barry
Do You Know Your Music (Sorry MTV Generation I Doubt You Can Handle This One)
brought to you by Quizilla
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Date: 2004-01-26 08:39 pm (UTC)