It’s been well over a month and I’ve yet to follow doctor’s orders of going to bed at a decent hour. Either I have to stay up late for work related reasons, or I end up talking online or wasting time on some game related message board until the 2 am repeat of Futurama on Adult Swim (since I always watch Daily Show at 11).
And last night I had another reason to stay up even later: The Sweet Spot. I’m amazed that Comedy Central still plays it, though I’m certainly glad they do. In fact, I can’t recall any of my Comedy Central watching friends, or those into comedy in general, even talking about the show. For those who don’t know, it follows the Murray Brothers (you all know Bill, and perhaps a few are familiar with Brian Doyle, but what about Joel or John?) as they goof around play golf. And that’s basically it.
I really can’t pin down why I enjoy the show so much; it’s almost a guilty pleasure of sorts. The show is not at all challenging or groundbreaking, but rather easy going and casual. The way it’s presented and even filmed reminds me of the comedy specials I grew up with in the late eighties and early nineties (Rich Hall’s Vanishing America instantly comes to mind) which had this infectious sense of giddiness which I really miss today. Some may feel their antics, and even the show as a whole, is pretty self indulgent, and maybe it is, but I still get off on the whole vibe, which is quite playful and spontaneous, yet still funny (at least in my book).
Hence why I find SNL so goddamn annoying these days, especially Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz. Fallon I’ve always hated (which anyone who knows me personally can already attest) but as for Sanz, I used to be a fan, but his shtick is getting old, or should I say their shtick. Every week they do a sketch together in which they break character and start laughing uncontrollably. It was maybe funny the first, the second, or even the seventh time, but they do it literally every week, even around the same time (around the 12:35 sketch). What exactly is so funny? God knows the material they’re delivering isn’t. Its not like they know some awesome punch-line which is so mindblowingly hilarious that simply delivering it is a struggle.
And what I can’t figure is how some people actually find it amusing. To me its seems like either a cheap ploy to get laughs since they know the material is crap, or simply unprofessional behavior (I mean, talk about self indulgent…). What if every actor on the show broke character when they felt like it? And if you actually think that’s a good idea, either you haven’t really thought of the question much or you haven’t seen as much live comedy as I have.
