Old Stuff: The Three Stooges

Howard Stern recently had a special where Tom Bergeron, host of Hollywood Squares and Dancing with the Stars, played a set of interviews he had done with Moe Howard and Larry Fine of the Three Stooges back in the early 70s, shortly before their deaths. It was altogether fascinating to hear them reflect on their long career, and to hear how much they felt their act was regarded as vaudevillian slapstick, rather than "serious" comedy. I have always been a fan of the Stooges, even though my parents hated them. I had a couple of VHS tapes my grandfather gave me of their early shorts (before the crap budget films they made in the early 60s, when networks and the burgeoning television audience began to discover their work), and I would be absolutely transfixed for at least an hour. While I will not deny that they inherited at least part of their act from the (painful) legacy of vaudeville, looking back I really do think they were hitting on something new, that merged slapstick with Catskills club-honed one liners, hilarious sight gags with almost non-sequiturs. For real, Don Rickles owes Moe Howard at least half his career for the whole "numbskulls" routine. Unfortunately, I've never met anyone with my passion for the Stooges, probably because all their stuff looks absolutely tame after Monty Python, SNL, and Second City, not to mention Pryor and Lenny Bruce absolutely blew them out of the water in terms of material and variety. But I still hold steadfast to my admiration of their innovations in American comedy, and if anyone wants to watch them with me, please tell me. Quickly, I'll list my favorite episodes, two with Curly (and honestly, the stuff with him is all you need to see), and one with Shemp. 1. "You Natzy Spy!": This is the original Hollywood Hitler spoof, before The Great Dictator or "Der Fuehrer's Face," that has Moe as Hitler, Larry as Goring, and Curly as Goebbels. Classic speech scene. 2."Disorder in the Court": The first Stooges short that I watched, and probably my favorite. Great stuff from Curly. 3. "Malice in the Palace": This one was on the VHS I had too; this is with Shemp, who was defintely not as talented or recognizable as Curly, but funny nonetheless. All these are in the public domain so YouTube and Google video should have them. --If people like this I can make this into a regular thing, looking at old TV shows, movies, etc.

Golden Years

You've heard it said a million times before: The Simpsons isn't funny anymore. You've heard people say why the new episodes suck: there's no character development, the plots are ridiculous, the jokes are too broad, whatever. I'm the first one to acknowledge that the new episodes suck. In fact, I can't completely say that, since I stopped watching the show years ago, when it was already so past its prime that I couldn't take it anymore. But that's not why I'm here. I'm not gonna talk about why the new episodes suck. Instead, I'm gonna talk about what made the old episodes so incredible.

First off, let's make one thing absolutely clear: The Simpsons wasn't funny at first. The animation was too rough, the characters hadn't really become themselves yet, and most of the jokes revolved around Bart, who just spat out catch phrases. Lots of people like to pinpoint where they thought the show got good. Some people say the end of the first season, others say it was the middle of the third season, but I say it was the middle of the second season; specifically, the episode "Bart the Daredevil." Basically, I recently started watching the series from the end of season 1, and "Bart the Daredevil" was the first episode that I genuinely found funny. It also happens to be Matt Groening's favorite episode. And many critics have noticed that this episode highlights why the series was so good at this point. Critic Jerry Kleinman has noted that this episode shows how The Simpsons stood apart from other cartoons and sitcoms: instead of just having a wacky plot, it also had real character development. This episode showed strong relationships between Bart, Homer, and Lisa that made the episode have real meaning. But the great thing about it was that it wasn't cheesy. To balance it out, we had truly funny jokes, such as the famous one where Homer falls down the gorge. One of my favorite exchanges between Simpsons characters occurs in this episode. Bart tells Otto his plan to jump Springfield Gorge, and Otto says, "As the only adult around, I feel I should say something: cool!"

The strong character development shown in this episode was what made the golden age of the Simpsons so golden. The first season wasn't very good because the characters still had a long way to go in terms of development, and the later seasons have been terrible because there hasn't been any character development. If you think about it, the Simpsons characters are really complex, and their relationships are much darker than they seem. Homer is an abusive alcoholic who tries desperately to be a good person; Marge is a stifled housewife who had to marry someone way below her standards because of a pregnancy; Bart is a victim of horrible child abuse who acts out as a way to get attention; Lisa is a gifted child who's gifts are ignored by everyone except a few people, such as Mr. Bergstrom and Bleeding Gums Murphy, both of whom essentially abandon her. Heavy shit.

Yet, the great thing about the golden era Simpsons was that it never got weighed down by all this character development. It was also really, really funny. That's also why, to me, "Bart the Daredevil" marked the start of the golden age. It had lots of character development, but it was also hilarious. Some of the episodes before it in the second season, such as "Bart Gets An F," were nothing but character development, and they suffered because of it. This episode simply wasn't funny, and its character development simply wasn't enough to carry the entire episode. It ended up being cheesy. Still, this episode still shows that the Simpsons was, at one time, more than just a collection of ridiculous jokes. Bart, who was probably initially the most joke-centric character, still had a real, human side to him.

By the sixth season, it was easy to see the direction the series was taking. At this point, there was a bit less character development. The plots had less to do with interactions among the family, and were more filled with jokes. The first sign of this trend actually occurred at the beginning of the fifth season, with the episode "Homer's Barbershop Quartet." This was really the first episode in the entire series where the story made absolutely no sense within the context of the show. The plot revolved around a series of flashbacks showing Homer's former fame as the leader of a barbershop quartet, which eventually led to him winning a Grammy. It was the first time that a complete change to the backstory of a character was made and absolutely no explanation was given, which is a trademark of the later Simpsons episodes. Still, the episode was funny, and it was a complete anomaly at the time. No other episode anywhere near this one made as little sense. This episode was an indication of where the show would eventually go, but it was no sign of a decline in quality, at least not for a while. 

In fact, by the sixth season the show had improved in many ways. One of my absolute favorite episodes, "Bart's Girlfriend," is from this season, and it features everything that made the show so good: strong character development and insanely funny, rapid fire jokes. So actually just two things that made the show so good. Although this episode did have a spectacular guest appearance as well. Basically, by this point the show was starting to get a little bit more ridiculous, and while it had already jumped the shark with "Homer's Barbershop Quartet," it wasn't consistently jumping the shark yet. The sometimes insane humor of this episode (Groundskeeper Willy flashing everybody, Bart getting covered in glue) never went too overboard, and it was balanced out by strong character development in Bart, and even in the one-time character Jessica. This episode also strengthened the bond between Bart and Lisa, which helped to make both characters more 3-dimensional. Another great episode from this time was "Round Springfield," an episode so sad that even the most jaded viewer can be brought to tears.

Although, by the sixth season there were signs that the show was going to decline. One symptom of the show being nothing more than a ridiculous series of over the top jokes were all the episodes where the Simpsons went to a different country. Every one that I can think of is nothing more than a collection of gimmicky stereotype jokes that aren't very funny, and the first episode like this, "Bart vs. Australia," occurred in the sixth season. This episode isn't as bad as some of the later ones, like where they go to Brazil or England, but it is probably one of the worst ones of the sixth season. It contains some good moments, but forgoes real story and intelligent humor for silly gimmicks. I wouldn't say the episode crosses the line into being offensive, but I would say that it was the start of a bad trend.

The show had some ups and downs in the sixth season, but it really picked up in the seventh. Some of the most daring, critically acclaimed episodes, such as "Bart Sells His Soul" and "Lisa the Vegetarian," were part of this season. This season also marked a turning point for the show, particularly evidenced by two episodes: "22 Short Films About Springfield" and "Homerpalooza." When the writers did "22 Short Films," they had an idea of taking its concept and making an entirely new show out of it; they wanted to make a separate show about minor characters in Springfield. If they had simply carried this idea into the regular series instead, it could have saved the show. Some of the best episodes from later on, such as "In Marge We Trust," and even ones from earlier, such as "The Otto Show," were ones that focused on minor characters. Instead, many of the later episodes focused on the Simpson family and either avoided character development altogether, or developed the characters in ridiculous ways that didn't fit their personalities. The minor characters are the ones that carry the show, and it could have helped to focus on them more.

Instead, the path of "Homerpalooza" was largely taken: gimmicky episodes with ridiculous premises and lots of guest stars. Critic John Bonne wrote ages ago that "Homerpalooza" was an "indignity" and said that it simply pandered to guest stars. I really wouldn't go that far; as with "Homer's Barbershop Quartet," "Homerpalooza" was an indication of things to come, but it hadn't gotten that bad yet. It was really funny and actually intelligent, a great satire of rock music in general. His point about episodes becoming more like this was correct though; later episodes avoided using any real characters at all and simply used lots of guest stars.

However, one issue that I disagree with most people on is the idea that the Simpsons got bad because the plots became ridiculous. Let's get one thing straight: the plots of The Simpsons were always ridiculous. Let's turn for a second to another season seven episode: "Bart on the Road." The plot of this episode is completely ridiculous: Bart gets a fake ID, rents a car, and goes on a road trip, getting stranded in Tennessee, eventually getting back to Springfield via Hong Kong. But critic Dave Foster pinpoints exactly what set this episode apart from similar later ones. He writes, that if this episode were written now, "we'd simply see Bart happen upon a license and skip town without anyone noticing, but here they do give the setup a great deal of consideration both on and off screen." It's not that the plots became more ridiculous; it's that the way they were told became more ridiculous. "Bart on the Road" was at least somewhat believable; it was ridiculous, but at least everything was explained.

Let's move on to the 8th season. This one is in fact my favorite, largely because this was when I started watching the Simpsons. It contains some of the best episodes in the series, such as the incredibly powerful "A Milhouse Divided," where Milhouse's parents get divorced, and possibly the darkest and most realistic episode of the show, "Homer's Enemy." Bonne called this episode "painful to watch," largely because he thinks Homer is a complete jerk in the episode. On the contrary, I think that the episode is wonderfully written, and that Homer tries to be a nice guy the whole time, particularly when he invites Frank Grimes over to his house for dinner. The great thing about the 8th season as well was that it really pushed the limits of animation. In "You Only Move Twice" and "The Simpsons Spinoff Showcase" the animators created entirely new set pieces that work perfectly. And then of course there's the episode where Homer eats the insanity peppers. This is, in my opinion, the best episode of the entire series. The animation is beautiful, the jokes are hilarious, the character development is strong, and the guest voice is perfect and not overused. I've watched this episode probably over 20 times, and it's always a pleasure to watch. Simply perfect.

Then there's the 9th season, which many see as the beginning of the show's rapid decline in quality, particularly with the episode "The Principal and the Pauper." Again, I see this episode as an indication of things to come, but not an indication that the show was getting bad. Despite all the gaping plotholes in this episode, it's still funny, and after it we had so many terrific episodes: the one where Homer becomes sanitation commissioner, the one where Homer goes to "The Island," and the absolutely outstanding one where Homer joins the navy. Maybe "The Principal and the Pauper" wasn't a very good episode, but it wasn't the start of the show's decline.

In my opinion, that episode was the absolutely painful "The Parent Rap," which featured the unfunny, unimaginative character Judge Constance Harm. You can tell from her name that the writers were running out of ideas by this point. There were so many things bad about this episode. For one, the writers forced the character development of Bart and Homer. By this time, there had already been tons of "Bart and Homer bonding" episodes. There didn't need to be any more. By this point, the writers really should have been focusing on already existing minor characters, rather than developing old ones and creating entirely new ones. After this episode there were a few good ones, such as the one where Homer becomes a pothead, or where he goes to rock and roll camp, but even these weren't as good as the old ones, and they were anomalies by this time.

The Simpsons used to be so good because it carried a nice balance of humor and character development. Recently it's just been too much humor, and not even good humor. I know I'm not the first one to say that the show's been declining in quality, but it's seriously time to end this show. They had a chance to quit while they were ahead, or to change the direction of the show, and now they're too late. Basically just watch every episode from "Bart the Daredevil" until whichever one comes before "The Parent Rap" and you'll see the best of what was once a brilliant show.

I know it's a little late, but...

Here's my own way of remembering the king of pop. Rest in peace, Michael Jackson. More in-depth posts from me coming up soon, I promise.

Lulz of the Time

Go watch Star Trek. No, I mean the real one.

WD TV HD Media Player: The Pirate's Media Center

 

So, you've "acquired" digital media. Movies, music, pictures, TV. It's all in different formats and it's all stuck on your computer. How do you sit at home, break out the Doritos, and watch it on your TV? Well, you could drop $900+ on a Home Theater PC, or the cheaper option is to burn DVDs (assuming you have a DVD burner and player) which takes hours to do (encoding time, burning time, setup etc.).

But here's the thing. And the thing is called the Western Digital WD TV HD Media player. It's a little box (just over 6 inches long) with 2 USB ports, a composite TV out, an HDMI out, and a remote.

"But how do I use this thing to fix the issue you bring up?" you may ask. Well, it's simple: Plug any USB drive with media on it into the WD TV, plug the WD TV into your TV, and enjoy.

Yup, it's that friggin' simple, just plug in your external hard drive to the WD TV, and it plays the media on it. WD TV supports a ton of video formats, from .avi files encoded pretty much any way there is to HD .mkv files to .mpegs to .movs. It plays a ton of audio formats as well, including more obscure ones like .flac and .ogg, as well as your standard .gif, .jpeg, .bmp, .png image formats. Plus the firmware gets updated regularly with close ties to the community over at the WD TV Wiki.

It's also really portable, since the device itself is small, everything is truly plug and play, and all you'll have to lug around is your external media. Really, WD TV will accept pretty much anything that can be recognized as a "mass storage device" so even flash drives, SD cards and readers, or cameras can be used.

The kicker: this little box will set you back $100. Though I've seen it on sale at various times for around $70. Still, that's not too much considering I've personally found mine to be the most convenient way, not only to play my digital media on the TV, but to bring it with me everywhere.

Oh, and it's not like the device was designed to be used for pirated media. But hey, neither was Bit Torrent.

The interface is dead simple, and includes the ability to index the media on the drives connected to it, as well as simple file browsing. It's truly an awesome device.

WD TV.

WD TV at Newegg.

Cool Thing of the Week: FarScape

Yea, it's old. Yea, it still rocks. FarScape was a science fantasy TV show that ran in the early 2000's, got canceled, and then due to massive fan movement got a miniseries made to tie up loose ends. Why is this show awesome? 1) Jim Henson's creature shop is responsible for most of the aliens. They're pretty awesome. 2) Fairly mature storylines, once the show gets on its feet in the second season. 3) It's shot in Australia. That means pretty much everyone apart from the main character has an Australian accent (a real one, sounds slightly British, not Crocodile Dundee.) The show poses this question: What would an Astronaut from Earth do, upon finding himself flung through a wormhole to the far reaches of the galaxy populated by weird aliens? The answer's obvious: Go batshit crazy. The main character (John Chrichton) starts becoming more and more unhinged as the series progresses, until plot-critical events cause him to suddenly find ground under his feet. The show starts off rough, with the first season easily being the weakest and most stereotypical, but it turns into one of the greatest science-fantasy shows of all time. Of course, it's not running now, so your only real choice is netflix or buy the DVD's.

Silly Impromptu Internet Uprisings. Also, Save Chuck!

It seems the fans of geeky, action-comedy series Chuck have taken to bombarding the "News From You" section of NBC (basically the editorial) with Chuck testimonials. NBC has been unclear as to whether or not there will be a third season of Chuck for some time now. The show has gathered a rather large cult following fairly quickly over its first two seasons, and, with the season finale recently released, well, just check out the recent posts:

There are hundreds of pages of this on the site, and I don't think it's going to end soon. If you haven't had a chance to see chuck, I highly reccomend you check it out. The show is really, really good. Very good dialog, funny, addictive (if not a little ridiculous) plot, good action, and quirky characters. If I had to compare it to something I'd say it's like a mix of Burn Notice (which I absolutely love) and The IT Crowd/ Big Bang Theory. If you're already a fan of chuck, why not post a testimonial? It certaintly couldn't hurt. You'll need a myNBC account to do it, but it's fairly straight forward. Anyways, good luck, Chuck!

TV Review: Dexter

For the past year or so, everyone and their mom has been telling me to watch the show Dexter. They would say things like, "It's so darkly funny," or "It's got such a great concept," or "It's got the coolest opening theme." Well, finally one of my friends sat me down and essentially forced me to watch a couple episodes of Dexter, and I was immediately addicted. That night, I downloaded the first two seasons, and about 3 weeks later I'm done with them and ready to write a glowing review.

Everyone and their mom is right about Dexter: it is, for lack of better words, absolutely fucking bomb. For those of you unfamiliar with it, its eponymous main character is a good-natured guy who cares for his girlfriend and sister and is well-liked by everyone in the Miami police department, where he works as a blood analyst. He also has a hobby that no one knows about: he's a serial killer. His adoptive father, a cop, taught him how to kill people when he realized that Dexter was not going to be able to control his urges. His complex moral code can essentially be boiled down to: "Don't get caught" and "only kill people who deserve it." At the beginning of the first season, Dexter is able to successfully keep his outward appearance and his huge secret entirely separate from each other and lead two lives that influence each other but never mix together. That's the back story.

The TV series was based on a series of novels, and as a result the seasons are structured like novels in a series; each season tells one story with the same characters, and each episode is like a chapter in that story, usually ending either on a positive note or with a cliffhanger. In season 1, the Miami police department is investigating a murderer known as "The Ice Truck Killer," who freezes his bodies before displaying them in elaborate ways for the police to find. Dexter senses that the killer is somehow connected to him and knows about his secret, and as the mystery comes closer to being solved more and more of Dexter's secrets come close to surfacing. Season 2 raises the stakes even more; it begins with scuba divers finding the bodies of all of Dexter's victims and the police investigating Dexter without realizing it, collaborating with the very person they're trying to catch. These stories put incredible twists on the genre of detective fiction. In most detective stories, we're trying to figure out who committed the crime and why they did it, and we want nothing more than for the detectives to uncover the entire story. In Dexter, however, we don't want Dexter to be found out; we want the detectives to be led down the wrong path, and we want to see how that ends up happening. Season 1 is a brilliant piece of detective fiction. When we first realize that the Ice Truck Killer knows about Dexter, we don't know who the killer actually is. We want to find out why the killer knows Dexter's secret, but at the same time we don't want the secret to get out. Because of this, rather than hoping for one explanation of the crime, the audience of Dexter is led to hope for two explanations: a real one for the viewers, and a fake one for the detectives. While the audience wonders what the Ice Truck Killer's real story is, they also wonder how the detectives will figure it out in a different way that doesn't involve Dexter. To make matters even more interesting, the Ice Truck Killer's identity is revealed to the audience (but none of the characters on the show) about halfway through the first season. So about halfway through the story our method of watching and solving shifts from trying to figure out who the killer is to trying to figure out how and why he or she (I wouldn't want to give anything away) is killing, and how the detectives will be led to the killer eventually. Season 1 is suspenseful, intriguing, and incredibly well-written.

But season 1 looks like nothing more than a classic whodunnit in comparison to season 2, which is more of a bizarre, fucked up psychological drama involving adultery, guilt, failure, a character with kind of a reverse Oedipus complex (I don't know if there's a psychological term for when a woman wants to have sex with her father), and an incredibly intricate web of lies that is simultaneously woven and torn apart by every single character. Season 2 toys with the audience's emotions; episode 3 ends with everything being seemingly resolved, but the last episode begins with the audience wondering which innocent characters' lives will be destroyed because of Dexter's actions. This is because, as stated before, season 2 revolves around Dexter's victims being investigated. It's another example of a murder mystery where we want to see what the fake solution will be; we want to see how the facts will point to someone else taking the blame. In the end, someone else does take the blame, and it raises a lot of questions about morality; while an innocent person's life and reputation are forever ruined, is it worth it for Dexter's sister and girlfriend to have their lives and reputations be saved? Ultimately Dexter is not the one we're worried about; we're worried about those who are close to him, and by the end we're wondering if it would be better for Dexter to turn himself in. Season 1 and 2 are very different; while I was incredibly satisfied with the end of season 1, the end of season 2 left me very uneasy. But that's the point. As said before, season 1, which is on its own very complex, looks like a straightforward murder mystery compared to season 2, which is a journey into the human psyche and a brutal look at morality.

But while Dexter is definitely heavily influenced by murder mysteries, it is also a very character-driven drama. In most detective stories, characters fit certain archetypes, and they don't have any purpose in the story other than leading the detective to find out who the killer is. This couldn't be farther from what Dexter is like. Some of my favorite stories are ones where the writers created a bunch of interesting, complex characters and put them all in some situation to see how they would interact with each other. Boogie Nights, The Watchmen, and to a lesser extent The Big Lebowski are all great examples of this type of storytelling, and so is Dexter. While on one level it fits the formula of detective fiction, it, like The Big Lebowski, also heavily revolves around the personal lives of its characters, which are all complicated in one way or another. A couple of my favorite characters are Angel Batista, an honest, kind detective whose good nature sometimes leads him to be taken advantage of by others, and lieutenant Maria LaGuerta, a political machine who craves media attention, but who is also shown to have a sensitive side at times. But my favorite character by far is sergeant James Doakes, a hardass, badass, no bullshit cop who is the only one that senses that Dexter is hiding something dark, since he has his own personal demons as well. As an added bonus, nearly every character on the show is absolutely gorgeous, and the cast is very diverse as well. We have white cops, black cops, Cuban cops, and one Asian American cop, all of whom have equally fucked up personal lives.

One criticism that I've heard about Dexter is that it's completely unrealistic. But who cares? It's TV. Every great show that I can think of (except for maybe The Wire) is completely unrealistic, and that's part of what makes them great. Despite the great writing and philosophical statements, that's all that Dexter really is: fucking great TV. It's full of witty one-liners and double entendres, ridiculously insane plot twists, and a cast of characters who are all sleeping with each other. But Dexter manages to be a little bit more than that as well. If you're in the mood for a great story with lots of great characters that sometimes manages to make you think about big ethical questions but always manages to entertain, then I'll be just one more person who tells everybody that they should watch Dexter.

We Can't Sing Without A Band

Back in 1990, that magical year in between the ridiculous 80s and the not-quite-as-ridiculous-but-still-pretty-ridiculous 90s, one of the most recognizable pop culture icons was Super Mario, everyone's favorite Italian stereotype, who became Nintendo's most beloved figure and one of the most prominent faces of video games as a whole. If old video game commercials are a reliable source of information, then Nintendo was the shit back in the 80s, and Mario was a household name, at least among nerds and young people (especially young nerds). Well, if history has taught us anything, it's that whenever a figure becomes popular enough, a cartoon will be made of that figure, usually with catastrophic results that could ruin the image of said figure if it weren't for the fact that no one actually likes the cartoon itself (just look at The Beatles for another example of this). Mario was certainly no exception to this trend: apparently six different cartoon shows were made based on Mario, and while I'm sure all of them were utterly terrible and worthy of lengthy analysis/criticism, the one that I wish to focus on is the poorly named Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, obviously a series of 30 minute long advertisements for the 3rd installment of the series. And I specifically want to focus on one particular episode that could only have been made in 1990, or maybe a few years earlier:

Watch this video! (Sorry for not embedding it).

No, you're not tripping, this is an actual episode of the Mario cartoon in which he rescues Milli Vanilli from King Koopa (unfortunately, he was not able to rescue them from the shame they faced after it was found out that they had been lip-synching all of their music). This is only the first part of the episode, but you really need to watch the entire thing. There are just so many bizarre "what the fuck" moments, from the ridiculous stereotyping of King Koopa's bratty daughter (although her behavior is casually explained at around 5:17 in part 2 as being the result of horrible child abuse), to Milli Vanilli's forced laughter that is even less convincing than the infamous FFX "laughing scene," to the assumption that accountants are not "real people" compared to a duo of singers who don't actually sing, to the fact that said fake singers are disgusted by the prospect of being turned into The Beatles (maybe because they don't want to be in another shitty cartoon?), to all of the priceless lines spoken by the bratty daughter ("I really dig your dreadlocks"), Princess Peach ("If we don't turn those accountants back into Milli Vanilli, I'll never hear my favorite music again" - don't worry princess, even if you don't save them, you'll never hear them again a year from now), Toad (the forced and unsettling "It's time to rock and roll!"), and of course the "artists" themselves, with the eerily prophetic "We can't sing for you without a band." 

I find it remarkable how prophetic that line is, since this cartoon was very likely the last time that Milli Vanilli were ever held in such high regard. According to the always reliable wikipedia, two weeks after it was first aired, the Milli Vanilli producer revealed that the two frontmen had lip-synched all of their songs and that none of the voices on the recordings were theirs. The version of the cartoon that exists on youtube is what they aired for reruns, after it was found out that Milli Vanilli was a fraudulent act. This is why some aspects of the episode are so weird (although much of its strangeness still can't be explained). For one thing, this explains why during the Milli Vanilli musical numbers instrumental music is played while the singers move their mouths without making any sound (which is what they actually did during concerts). The original episode contained the Milli Vanilli songs "Blame it on the Rain" and "Girl You Know It's True," but these were edited out after the truth about Milli Vanilli was revealed. This is also why when King Koopa says "more like blame it on King Koopa," we don't really know what he's talking about; he originally said "Blame it on the rain? More like blame it on King Koopa," but the first part was edited out since it wouldn't have actually referenced anything in the revised version. The best change that was made was the deletion of Luigi's closing line: "Maybe if we keep our band, we'll be that popular!" This line was probably what cursed the series, and its prediction couldn't be more accurate: The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 became equally as popular as Milli Vanilli, fading into obscurity shortly after the airing of this episode.

What's so fascinating about the context of this episode though is that it shows how truly fragile the pop industry is. Milli Vanilli are the poster children for "15 minutes of fame," and they are far from the only pop group who has received constant ridicule two weeks after receiving tributes on television. As bad as this episode is, Milli Vanilli were on top of the world when it was made (at least in the show), and just two weeks later they were being destroyed on TV, the same medium on which they had so recently been an object of desire. Popular culture as we are familiar with it allowed these two untalented people to rise to such great success that they were kidnapped by King Koopa and saved by the Mario Bros., only to be put in the dungeon two weeks later. The popular culture that we consume is volatile, and this episode couldn't be better proof of that.

But what it reveals even more is how exploitative this industry can be, to its consumers as well as its producers. For the consumers, this show was designed solely as a way to fuck with us and get our money. The entire series was just a giant plug for Super Mario Bros 3 (not even the whole series, a specific fucking game), and to top it all off an entire episode had to be converted in to a giant plug for Milli Vanilli, one of the most corporate groups of the 1980s. That's probably one reason why the show was so terrible; advertisements are boring, so therefore an entire series designed to sell products is going to be painful. Every quality TV show that I can think of has stayed away from excessive product placement, which, to quote Twin Peaks creator David Lynch, is "bullshit." What's even worse is that this show was meant to be consumed by children, some of the most easily fooled consumers. I remember being a kid and wanting every piece of plastic crap and sugary junk that the TV bombarded me with, and I'm certainly not the only one who's had that experience. Advertisements for certain products target children specifically because they are less discriminating in their taste, have more disposable money, and are more emotionally vulnerable, and because if they are put in the consumer mentality early in life they are more likely to continue with this mentality in their adulthood. Because of this, companies often make deals with producers to have entire shows created around their products. The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 isn't even the best (worst?) example of this. While it was created to support the video game, the opposite was not true. The video game was an independent entity and the main product being sold; it would have existed and sold well without the TV show, which simply rode on the game's coattails. A better example of a TV show created in tandem with a product in order to sell it is Pokemon, a franchise that I grew up with and still have a deep fondness for, and whose business strategy I am simultaneously outraged and intrigued by. When the Pokemon franchise became popular in the late 90s, it was because a TV show, a video game, and a toy series were all released at the same time, supporting each other so that if a 9 year old kid like me got into the video game, for example, he or she would subsequently get into the TV show and the toys. Likewise, the TV show was another half hour long advertisement, but it was much more subliminal, since it was not based directly on the video game, but was created in tandem with it. The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 is obviously an advertisement since it was made after the game was released and is specifically related to it; the Pokemon TV show is less hard to pin down, since it was created as part of a franchise rather than as a way to sell one specific product. I think that Pokemon is an absolutely brilliant franchise, both from an artistic perspective and a business one, but I still have problems with the business aspect of it because of the nature of the TV show that gets kids to buy products. If you want to read more about kids shows that were created to sell products, read this. Even kids shows that weren't explicitly created for this purpose usually have tie-in products that the producers can make money off of. Shows like Sesame Street, to a lesser extent Yo! Gabba Gabba, and to an even lesser extent 90s Nicktoons have shown us that children's television has the potential to be a powerful educational tool if it is used well and removed from corporate interests. But unfortunately, the power of television can also easily be used to manipulate the minds of children, and many executives use this power to make absurd amounts of money when they could be teaching valuable information or messages, or even doing nothing but providing quality entertainment, instead. (If you want to learn more about children's television, I highly recommend watching this episode of Screenwipe.)

If that long-winded tangent hasn't convinced you that popular culture can exploit its consumers, at least consider the fact that it exploits its producers as well. As fun as it is to make fun of Milli Vanilli, there is no doubt that they were exploited by record companies. They were used to sell products, and once their 15 minutes had expired they were fed to those that hungered for scandal. While other pop groups like the New Kids On The Block, the Backstreet Boys, and the Spice Girls did not have falls as dramatic as that of Milli Vanilli, they still only had brief periods in the spotlight, after which they were left to be objects of parody while they remembered their moments of fame. I love popular culture probably more than most people , but let's face it, record and TV companies that produce the music and shows I love fuck with everyone in order to make money. While you've certainly heard self-righteous people like me say that before, consider the above episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 to be proof. I hope you don't have a desire to go listen to Milli Vanilli now, that if you want to play Super Mario Bros 3 it's because its actually a fun game, and that you at least consider some of the more overlooked effects that TV has on children. As for me, this dreadful 10 minutes of television has fucked with me in a different way: now that I know that Milli Vanilli is Princess Peach's favorite band, I'll never be able to look at her the same way again.