Jennifer Aniston's SNL Potential

In 2008 Vanity Fair published an article called Who Says Women Aren't Funny? It's about the new generation of comediennes who are writing as much of the material as they are performing it. While giving it a re-read this evening, one line in particular caught my attention—it had a tinge of irony.

Only last week, I learned that Lorne Michaels offered Jennifer Aniston a spot on SNL at the same time as she was contemplating playing Rachel on Friends. Both comedic gigs, but very different types. SNL isn't the most subversive humour in America (well, maybe?), but it certainly pushes the boundaries more than Friends. But the main difference is that the players on SNL are expected to come up with original characters and sketches, and contribute to the show as writers. And Friends, of course, is a standard sitcom with its own set of writers separate from the cast members.

In the article, the writer is making the distinction between the great comediennes of the past and the new group of women blazing their own trail in comedy—women like Tina Fey who write the material, not just perform it. And in creating this distinction, the writer says the actresses in the past "were great comic actresses on-screen, but they had about as much to do with the joke writing as Jennifer Aniston or Courtney Cox did on Friends."

Funny that she singles out Jennifer Aniston, when Aniston herself very well could have been one of those trail-blazing women. It makes me wonder what kind of comedic chops she's been hiding that Lorne Michaels offered her a job. And it made me think even more about how different the world would be if Aniston had taken the SNL gig. Seriously. Think about it.

Would Friends have been same? How would it have shaped SNL? Aniston would have been around for Adam Sandler's time in the sun. What would that collaboration have looked like?

And what about the "cool" Rachel bob that defined a generation of women's hairstyles? What about the influence she had on Brad Pitt, and subsequently, Angelina Jolie? Those are three pretty powerful people—in the real world and in Hollywood. It's unsettling (and fascinating) to think about how much a 20-something actress's decision could shape so much of pop culture and the world.

My take on awards shows

Awards shows: The good speeches aren't nearly good enough to outweigh the insufferable awkwardness of the bad speeches to make me want to watch them.

How I Met Your Mother countdown

Among my 6 must-see sitcoms each week is How I Met Your Mother —hilarious, kitschy at times, slapstick in all the right ways, and two words: Barney Stinson. Neil Patrick Harris is a ridiculous comedian: timing, physical humour, inflection...he cracks me up every time.

*Spoiler alert*

But tonight's episode had a curious twist: a countdown. In the background of several scenes, numbers appeared on various props—a beer can, an apartment door, a medical folder, a news channel, and 46 other random things. I was over-thinking it (as per usual) and figured that the items on which the numbers appeared could be combined to convey some kind of message. I was wrong. I followed the countdown eagerly from 50 down to 1 only to discover that the episode was counting down to the death of Marshall's father.

It seems sinister for a sitcom to run an episode-long countdown only to reveal the death of a cursory (yet beloved) character. There must be something more to this. Maybe it's a tribute to something that happened off-screen, like the loss of a set-dresser's loved one? Or a writer's family member? I can't accept that the How I Met Your Mother countdown was solely devoted to counting down the final minutes of Mr. Erikson.

Does anyone else who watches the show have any thoughts? I'm assuming they're going for the "with death comes new life" thing—Marshall's dad dies, but now he and Lily get pregnant with a son of their own. But what of the countdown? What else was the show trying to say?

Obsessed with

Ugly Betty.

I can't believe it's taken me this long to start watching this show. I've been an assistant before and I work in publishing. I've buttered toast, picked up dry cleaning, made reservations, driven cars to the shop, tracked down impossible items, planned parties....I've been an under-appreciated Betty, so watching this show is especially fun. As for the publishing aspect, the magazine office that I'm currently interning in is nothing like Mode's hyper-dysfunctional, high-class office of chaos, fashion and scandal...but after all, it is just a show.

Lost unanswered questions

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the Lost finale, but it did leave me with more than a few questions. I appreciate the inherent mystery that exists in order for Lost to be a good show, but really....they could have given us a bit more to work with. This video is painstakingly accurate with regards to the feelings of millions of viewers like myself. I only know the answer to the very last question, and the answer...is a resounding NO!

Sleepy meerkats

We've been watching BBC's new series called "Life", which I just think of as "Planet Earth" 2.0. The best segment so far has been on meerkats. Check out this video of meerkats falling asleep standing up when they're supposed to be on the watch for predators. Too cute. Too. Damn. Cute.

I think I was born in the wrong country

Watching House Hunters on HGTV makes me want to move to the US. A young couple not unlike Luc and myself were searching for their first home so I figured it would be a particularly relateable episode. I read the blurb in the TV guide before watching the show and it said "a new couple search for a home that reflects both their personalities." But the home buying experience is significantly different in the US, and especially different from Vancouver! It's funny the things that the couple was quibbling over: "A 2 car garage? I would have liked 3..... Hmm, no sinker tub in the master bathroom? ......" When we've gone to see condos it sounds more like this: "Is there a dishwasher? I don't think I could live without a dishwasher. Could we fit a queen-sized bed in the second bedroom?"

One of the houses was a 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom, 2800 sq foot house with a huge backyard with a pool, master bedroom with a fireplace, walk-in closet....the list goes on. And the price? $380,000. You can't even get a tiny 2-bedroom condo in Vancouver for less than about $425,000. In the end, they chose a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom, 2600 sq foot house, completely updated and beautifully landscaped for $303,000. And then I threw the remote at the TV and poured myself a drink.

Obsessed with

Modern Family.
Cam: "I'm kind of like Costco....I'm big, not too fancy, and I dare you not to like me."

Run for the hills

This is a pretty spot-on remake of the Hills. I watched the season premiere (2 entire days off at home have made me go squirrelly) and I can't get over how out of touch these kids are with reality and how out of control their sense of self importance is. I think Audrina put it best when she said to her ex, "you're selfish, you're self-centred, all you care about is yourself." So eloquent, these girls.

I think I watched because I really wanted to see Heidi's bizarre face that makes her look like a 40-year old trying to look like a 20-year old. And I feel the need to satiate this irking curiosity. I can't explain it. I find myself always wondering, "Is this real or fake? This is too ridiculous to be real." It's the same way I feel about Jersey Shore- I haven't given in to that yet, though. And I'm not sure I'll watch the entire season of the Hills- the production of the show is infuriating. Every 20 seconds there's a musical interlude and clips of them all looking at each other with those blank stares. Sometimes I think I can see tumbleweeds blowing by behind their eyes.

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

I knew I had been listening to American Idol performances for too long when I began thinking to myself, "gee, this prepubescent guy is doing a pretty sweet cover of the Beatles." And then I opened iTunes, listened to the original and remembered what music is supposed to sound like. However, after a long day at school, something to zone out to was definitely on the menu. American Idol requires little thinking, and only that little aggressive part of my brain that likes to judge and pretend I know everything about music needs to be alert. "Hmm...it was OK, but too pitchy. And I don't know if I really believed that performance. They didn't sell it with the high notes."

I'm too impatient for all of the judges' comments and the commercials and the useless banter, so I watched about 10 performances on the American Idol website in the same time it would take me watch one bloated commercial break. Overall, not impressed. One girl, Crystal Bowersox, is fantastic- she's natural, she plays the guitar, she doesn't give these awkward, affected performances like the other chumps on the show, and she used a didgeridoo in one of her songs. Overall though, the entire show could use more cowbell.

Thoughts

The universe is most definitely trying to distract me-- there is a Simpsons episode on where Marge is planning a wedding. Give me a break, I'm trying to get some work done here!

This post is brought to you by...

We watched our first episode of Modern Family last night. It was funny, but I don't know how I feel about a show that dedicates an entire episode to product placement. The plot revolved around the iPad- it was the Dad's birthday and the family was desperately seeking out an iPad on its release day. There were quotes galore gushing over the iPad, but I can only remember a few...

-said adoringly while cradling the iPad in his hands: "who's ready for the first day of the rest of their life?"
-"it's a movie theatre, a bookstore AND a music store ALL IN ONE!!"
-blowing out candles on the virtual iPad cake...."it did not just DO THAT!!" .... "But it DID!!"

I know it's naive to complain about product placement, but this was beyond excessive. I'm certain that the writer's didn't originate this iPad-episode concept. It's kind of a chicken and egg question- what came first, the money from Apple or the iPad idea from the writers? I'm going to say the money from Apple...then the writers worked with that they were given. I wonder if this is something we should get used to? Product placement so heavy that entire episodes are based on them. Maybe the Lost survivors on the Island will find a bag of Doritos and spend the whole episode on it?

This is reality?

While watching Survivor a few days ago (on TV at the gym, so technically I had no choice), I noted to myself how much it has changed over the years. I recall watching it in high school, but I don't remember such gratuitous displays of sexuality like greasing up half-dressed people and getting them to push themselves along a lubed up slip'n'slide. This was a 'challenge'. Yes, they had to throw a ball in a bucket at the end of the slippery track, but the real feat was for the viewer, squinting at the screen and hoping the pin-thin women didn't snap any of their twiggy limbs in the process. This made me wonder: how many days (weeks, more like) have they been there for? These poor women look starved to death. It was day 9.

What I'm really wondering, though, is if the show was always like this? Maybe as a naive teenager I didn't notice the inappropriate body images and blatantly obvious innuendos (oxymoron?) being pandered to me every week. It's OK though, because now I only watch quality television like One Tree Hill.