RIP, Al Goldstein, the clown prince of pornography.
Yes, the man was an unrepentant sleaze bag … but also a really, really funny and intelligent one. His long-running late night NYC cable public access show “Midnight Blue” always had me convulsing in hysterics, especially his legendary “F–k You!” segments where he went off on some hapless retailer, restaurant, or airline that offended him. Despite his intelligence, he sometimes had more balls than brains … and his own penchant for Nixon-esque self-destruction caused him to go down in flames back in the early 2000s. If I had a cigar tonight, I’d smoke it in his honor. Al, I hope you’re enjoying a pastrami on rye wherever you are.
The opening 8 seconds of this clip contain some nudity, but the remaining 9+ minutes is a compilation of terrific “F–k you!” rants from “Midnight Blue.” Due to language and other otherwise “adult” material, not safe for work or little ones.
They just announced a sequel to “It’s a Wonderful Life.” This is completely unnecessary. All they have to do is release the Director’s Cut with this alternate ending intact (which premiered on “Saturday Night Live”).
Of all the characters that I most painfully identified with on the genius short-lived TV show “Freaks and Geeks,” it was Jason Segal’s Nick Andopolis character. Well-meaning, but WAAAAAY too f–king sensitive and intense for the room, the writers/producers absolutely nailed a very certain personality type that’s difficult to articulate or depict.
I love the facial expressions of Linda Cardellini’s Lindsay character as she’s trying to take Nick’s display of “love” in. I also like the way Nick tries to process the news that Lindsay needs a break in a way where he’s using every ounce of his being to try and keep it “cool.” That’s very, very good acting on Segal’s part.
For the record, age and maturity have helped me develop a very good bulls–t detector for myself over the years. My gratitude to everyone who knew me back in the day and still finds me friend-worthy these days. I fully understand it wasn’t easy.
Arguably, Eric Bogosian’s first masterpiece … “Funhouse” is an intense series of monologues that set the pace for later showcases as “Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll” and “Wake Up and Smell the Coffee.” Alternately funny and terrifying, it’s fitting that it shares the name of the Stooges most intense album. This is the full nearly 80-minute showcase. Enjoy it before someone decides to pull it from YouTube.
For my money, the best prank calls of all time were an endless series of calls made to someone by the name of Benny at Al White Motors in Tennessee by someone named Arnie at some point during the early 1980s. I say the 1980s, because Arnie asks Benny if he’s campaigning for Jesse Jackson at one point and Benny reacts very angrily (I can’t remember if this snippet is part of the calls at the links I’m supplying).
The premise is this: Arnie constantly pesters Benny about being friends … sometimes multiple times an hour … and Benny is … well, less than accommodating. Benny curses out Arnie at every opportunity, most frequently calling him a “buzzard bastard, “bastard buzzard,” “son-of-a-bitch-bastard buzzard” or telling Arnie to “Go to Hell!”
At first, the calls seem monotonous. But if you listen for a while, the pure benign stalker-ish charms of Arnie wash over you like a warm shower … and Benny’s (understandably) annoyed and tortured responses are … sorry … really really funny.
If you listen, you will also notice some drama emerging. It seems that Benny got a friend’s sister pregnant while he was in the Army and dumped her. The friend’s name is Barney and Arnie reveals that he is Benny’s long-lost son. Whether any of this is true or not is pure speculation, but the question does emerge of why Benny stays on the phone so long with Arnie and puts up with him. It’s the weirdest, most evocative expression of audio S&M ever recorded.
At some point in the 1990s, someone made a feature film out of the calls called “The Corndog Man” starring Noble Willingham as the Benny substitute. While Willingham delivers a career-best performance, the movie is uneven and quite frankly, I was a little disappointed the film “explained” the reason why Arnie was audibly torturing Benny. I kind of liked it when it was a mystery.
If you like the 45 minutes of calls linked above, there’s another 45 minutes at the link below, you bastard buzzard! And if you don’t like Hotpoint, go to hell!
Eddie Murphy was one of the best stand-up comedians in history. Unfortunately, a lot of his older material (specifically his material on gays) doesn’t carry over quite as well in these more enlightened times.
However, Murphy’s monologue about his drunken dad during a 4th of July cookout is still a classic and still one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard. Even when I first saw this when I was 13-years old, this was the bit that had me laughing the hardest. Though nowadays, I find myself laughing less and understanding his father’s laments. Seriously, I pay the bills in the motherf–ker and hey, kiss my a– if you don’t like it!!!! ‘Cos it’s my house!!!
If this seems like a really bad attempt at avant-garde humor/entertainment, you’d be correct. Why am I posting it here? Because it’s an extremely rare debacle that involved a lot of famous people doing a favor for someone named David Jove. Jove was the producer of the infamous (and truly great) early 1980s hardcore punk cable TV show “New Wave Theater.” When that show’s host Peter Ivers was murdered in 1983, some of Ivers’ friends tried to help Jove get a new show started.
“The Top” is similar to “New Wave Theater” in tone, but with a lot more money thrown at it and a lot less balls and heart. Originally Chevy Chase was hired to host, but when he got stuck in the middle of a spontaneous slam-dancing session which he had no knowledge of, he fled the studio and the producers hired Andy Kaufman instead. This was Kaufman’s last live appearance and sadly, it’s not particularly good. Still, it’s a good example of what sometimes happens when the avant-garde tries to go mainstream.
I’m not quite sure when this aired, but professional comedians were often hired as ringers for the infamous daytime game show of the 1960s / 1970s “The Dating Game.” Here Kaufman does a version of Latka as a contestant who seems clearly puzzled by what’s expected of him. Very funny stuff. Especially the bachelorette who seems like a parody of a 1970s porn star, even though that may not be her intent.
Here it is folks … the infamous interview Terry Gross did with KISS’s Gene Simmons for her NPR talk show “Fresh Air with Terry Gross” in 2002. The interview has been split into 3 parts for your edification. I can’t tell if Terry had any idea of what Gene was like prior to this interview … but Gene is playing himself to the hilt. It’s hard to tell who wins this battle of the bands, but I think Terry and Gene put up a good fight. I can’t tell if Gene is acting more like Ted Nugent or Andy Kaufman here. I think he’s way smarter than Nugent and there’s elements of this that seem tongue-in-cheek, but I also don’t think his performance in the interview is a complete put-on. Regardless, it’s one jaw-droppingly entertaining (almost) 30 minutes.
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