Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay

A sad day today one of the greatest pro wrestlers that ever lived, the Macho Man Randy Savage, passed away today from a heart attack. …although technically instead of saying that he “passed away due to a heart attack” is probably not as accurate as saying that he probably died of horrific blunt force trauma or internal organ rupturing from crashing his car into a tree after losing control of it from said heart attack. I don’t think I’ve fit the description of a “wrestling fan” or well over a decade and a half now…but nonetheless, this one hurts.

I’m going to go home and snap into a Slim Jim in his honour.

His passing has served as a reminder to me of the scarcity of life, and the value of what little time we do have. With this sentiment, I want to heartily encourage you to jump on the following television shows…

1) The Trip with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. Easy breezy six episode series where Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon play slightly exaggerated versions of themselves, essentially bickering and critiquing each others’ celebrity impressions. There is this weird mellow Lost In Translation vibe to some of it that doesn’t always seem like it belongs, and I get the feeling that I’m watching a very advanced, high level comedy that even I don’t completely grasp and can truly appreciate. Pacing slows at times, but there is at least one point in every episode that I’m literally laughing out loud at. I’m also pretty sure that this series is completely improvised.

Though apparently IFC is distilling it into a 70 minute movie for easier viewing consumption. So I guess you can always just wait for that.

2) Talking Funny, a HBO special with Ricky Gervais, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, and Louis CK. They just sit around for like an hour and a bit talking about comedy. Easily one of the greatest, most entertaining, and most interesting things I’ve seen in years. This could go, seriously, for like nine straight hours and I would still be unable to pry myself away from this. Trust me, don’t watch any of the clips on that site, just grab the whole thing and enjoy it as a singular piece with context and everything involved, it’s absolutely fantastic. Can’t recommend this one enough.

3) Luther with one of my new favourite man crushes, Stringer Bell (aka Heimdall). Another British show – I think I’m entering a weird phase with this stuff now. Seriously though, this guy has absolutely jumped to Nathan Fillion level in my book, where I will absolutely watch anything regardless of genre or whatever, as long as they’re involved. (Do I watch Castle? Damn right I do, jump on that one too.) I wouldn’t say Luther is much of a comedy show though…in case you were wondering.

I know you guys watch a lot of fucking bullshit, so stop wasting your life with that nonsense, watch something that is actually good maybe for once. It’s what the Macho Man would have wanted.

– Here’s my complete Man Crush list, which includes names that automatically make something a must watch for me, regardless of actual content or quality…Nathan Fillion, Stringer Bell, and Norm Macdonald. I’ve alreayd spoken of the latter’s return to television with The Sports Show with Norm Macdonald, but let me bring it up here again now that a few “episodes” have come out. The overall writing is not that great, but it’s vintage Norm. If you are already a big fan of Norm Macdonald, then this is for you. If you aren’t, then this will most likely not change that, and also we are no longer friends. It’s twenty minutes of Weekend Update type segments loosely linked to relatively dated sports things…honestly, pretty low effort to both produce and consume. If nothing else, just watch this bit with Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, who are actually surprisingly good actors for professional athletes. Classic dumb Norm type stuff. Despite the title, I’m pretty sure you don’t need to know much about sports to actually enjoy it…much like these two ads with Jack Donaghy and Jim Halpert.

– While I’m already dropping the name of pretty much every single television show I watch here, let’s just add Community to the list. Absolutely brilliantly written show, and now that I’ve read this story from Alison Brie about how she tried to have sex with a friend to cure his gayness, I think I’ve found a new level of appreciation for it.

– Let’s round this out with a clip of what appears to be an insane and violent game played by Japanese university students. I think the victory condition is when the pole falls below a 45° angle? I don’t know, whatever, shit is nuts.

OOOOOHHHHHH YEEEEAAAAAAHHHHH