1185: Double Down

[Blitzgal]

It's been years since I've used eBay, but I have 104 feedbacks and none are negative. I just went back to confirm. So I was never a high volume seller. I did it for a bit to get rid of a bunch of genre memorabilia that I'd outgrown in the few years after moving out of my mom's house.

I don't buy anything from there anymore. To be fair, other sites are just as shitty (Craigslist) because it's the people who are using the system who suck rather than the site itself. But that seems to be Keith's argument anyway.

I do have a friend who bought a car on eBay. It turned out well and he still drives it. But I think he's nuts for doing it.

Oh, and when John goes on his never-ending rants all I can see in my mind is Denis Leary.

[Blitzgal]

Originally Posted by Junkenstein

The feedback system helps but at least two of the people i scammed had positive feedback at a 98% rate and a lot of votes.

People who YOU scammed?

[BrianAlt]

Originally Posted by Blitzgal

People who YOU scammed?

It's an ESL thing. I'm (pretty) sure he meant people who scammed him.

[Bucho]

Originally Posted by Todd

No, I think the only reason Kyle has been on all of John's shows is that Kyle serves as John's laugh track. Just like network TV's laugh tracks, it's a little too loud and a little too emphatic to match the level of jokes. And just like network TV's laugh tracks, it's really very distracting.

I'm not saying you're faking the laughs, Kyle, but maybe lean away from the mike when you start hooting and guffawing.

On a related note, how does Keith find John funny and yet despise Robin Williams? They're the exact same person! The ratio of genuine funny to actual words spoken is WAY down there.

After this show I can't argue with you about John. But a lot of Kyle's laughs I don't hear as reactions to his jokes, I hear them as reactions to the way John sometimes tries and fails to tell jokes. It's like how Keith enjoys comics dying on stage; seeing someone try to be funny and fail can still be funny. Just a different kind of funny.

This was John's worst appearance so far. Robin Williams at least has a type of punchline in mind when he starts on a rant. John starts out more like a one-man improv crew and just hopes he'll arrive somewhere funny. In the second half of the show he started landing a few, thank Christ, but for the first half he crashed and burned several times. And if you dig awkwardness then that was pretty funny to hear anyway.

[dEadERest]

Originally Posted by Todd

The ratio of genuine funny to actual words spoken is WAY down there.

show your work?

[Junkenstein]

Originally Posted by Blitzgal

People who YOU scammed?

People I GOT scammed FROM.

Sometimes i'm so enraptured in my own posts, my typing and language skills become below the ones of a retarded amoeba.

Signore, che vergogna!

[Junkenstein]

Originally Posted by Todd

On a related note, how does Keith find John funny and yet despise Robin Williams? They're the exact same person! The ratio of genuine funny to actual words spoken is WAY down there.

John, being manic, probably starts with a joke in his head and then just wanders off and gets off on the burst of energy.

Robin Williams has the exact same fake improv in every stand-up. I watched them. He changes the names but uses the same fastr-talking segues that make little to no sense and helkp him when he has no joke.

Example: he confronts anyone to the movie "The fly" and then says "help me" in a high pitched voice. Doesnt matter if it makes sense or not. He just says it and people dont pay attention cause he's talking fast, and he's sunning up and down (not much, later. there is a god, maybe).

Izzard does a very similar thing. He fakes improv by attaching one bad joke to the other with "Uuuuuh Yeah" and "Hmmmm So".

John is just going over what's running through his head. If he works on that, he could become a great manic comic, like Maria Bamford or John Bowman (a great comic who puulls material off of the top of his head).

(Comedy snob mode off. For now)

PS: Where did i hear that "He's just a laugh track comment before... Hmmm...

[Todd]

Originally Posted by Junkenstein

"He's just a laugh track comment before... Hmmm...

I should clarify: the "only reason" part applies to Kyle (coincidentally?) being on all 3 of John's episodes; I was just making a small joke there, myself.

I do think Kyle is funny, and he's earned his spot on the show. Part of what makes his laugh track so jarring is (it seems to me) that Kyle rarely laughs on air--at least, not as much as with John. He usually chimes in with a quick-witted quip that serves as a funny tag to whatever has just been said.

His laughter is like Steven Wright occasionally breaking character by laughing at himself.

[Junkenstein]

He laughs a lot actually. When he interned full time, you could hear him cracking up in the background of almost any Patrice show (after all he's her boobookitty) and also a Danny Lobell show.

Yes, when he's on air he's a lot like Wright/Hedberg (with a touch of early McNally and a pinch of the almighty Adam)

[HumbleNarrator]

Originally Posted by Junkenstein

PS: Where did i hear that "He's just a laugh track comment before... Hmmm...

my thought too...