Welcome to our new book review column here on Ground Control called I Wanna be Literated!
We are going to try and keep this column up with not-just-music-related and not-just-brand-new-books. Some will be topical, old, some new, some borrowed, and almost all of them blue. We are proud to start you off with a humdinger, and hope you keep coming back. After all, Punk’s Not Read.
Sometimes the line between content and bonus feature gets blurred a bit. For having such a short run, Mr. Show is arguably the greatest comedy sketch show there ever was. It was funny, edgy and smart, and lucky for us, the DVDs will always be there for us to watch. The cast is so funny that even the audio commentary on all the episodes can stand on its own.
It’s been eighteen years now since Mr. Show ran its course, but now we've blessed with reunion of the cast – after a fashion. David Cross, Bob Odenkirk, and Brian Posehn are on the road doing sketches, standup, and promoting this book of scripts called “Hollywood Said No!” which, as the title says, has a bunch of scripts for movies and sketches which never got made.
And how does it hold up? Surprisingly well – especially if readers use their imaginations a bit. Here we have two movies, “Bob and David Make a Movie” and “Hooray for America,” in their entirety and after getting the hang of script-reading, one can imagine these scenes being performed as regular Mr. Show sketches (especially “Bob and David Make a Movie,” which plays like a long Mr. Show episode). And just like Mr. Show, the quality is there in almost every page. Both movies are filled with witty dialogue (Bob playing the almost-straight man in all their conversations), hilarious Mr. Show-esque situations and pacing, and deal with smart topics. The results are pretty fantastic, and one wonders why these movies never got picked up over the years. It’s the perfect companion for any fans of the show, or honestly, if you want to see how comedy can still be fresh and relevant. And it’s painful to read through the short sketches at the end since they are perfect for TV right now!
There’s no question – these idea and sketches are great. The only question now is, “Why isn’t there a Kickstarter for these scripts?”
Artist:
www.facebook.com/officialdavidcross
www.bobodenkirk.com/
www.brianposehn.com/
Book:
Hollywood Said No!: Orphaned Film Scripts, Bastard Scenes, and Abandoned Darlings from the Creators of Mr. Show is available now from The Hachette Book Group. Buy it here directly from the company, or here on Amazon.
