Good Times with Carol Burnett

Every now and then I go on a bender where I will sit or whatever for maybe 3-4 hours and just watch or listen to whatever I want.  I often do this with Whose Line is it Anyway? videos on YouTube.  This time, however, it was The Carol Burnett Show.

Some of you out there may not realize this as of yet, but I love the classics.  Love 'em.  I have a pretty extensive collection (I think) of 50s and 60s music that I absolutely love, the movies are great, and really who can't love the old sketch comedy shows?  And yes, I realize this show was on into the late 70s and really isn't that old, but I don't care.

My most recent bender started because I was cleaning out my inbox in my e-mail.  My oldest saved e-mail is a link to a Burnett Show video.  It was all downhill from there. 'Which video?' you may be asking.  It was (drum roll please) The Dentist.

A hilarious sketch with Harvey Korman and Tim Conway.  And there is plenty more where that came from!  YouTube is a fine source of these videos, and it's also where I spent a good three hours watching sketches, including the bloopers.  My neighbors were probably wondering what I was watching because the laughter didn't stop.

If you've never watched The Carol Burnett Show, then I highly recommend it.  And really the only way you'll get to do it is to spend about $160 and buy some DVDs or you can go on YouTube and watch individual sketches.  Some of my favorites are below, in no particular order.  I also recommend you follow the link and watch the three 'Bust Ups, Bloopers and Blunders' videos.  I did a link because I just couldn't get the videos to show up on here.  These aren't full skits, but they are extremely funny and I don't think you need much experience with the show to get a kick out of them.

Mission Completion!

Well it's been a week since the end of the April A to Z Blogging Challenge.  It's probably a good thing that it ended when it did because it's now the end of the semester and time for finals!  As part of the challenge, however, it is... suggested that everyone do a review of the experience today, so here's mine!

I originally signed up for the challenge as a way to get me blogging on a regular basis, and yes it certainly worked for the month of April.  Unlike a lot of the suggestions on the main page for the challenge, I neither wrote a full list of my chosen topics, chose a theme to write around, nor wrote any posts ahead of time.  That probably made my life a little more hectic than it necessarily had to be, but it worked out so I guess I'm okay with it.

I did have some topics before hand, but as the challenge progressed I actually became quite picky with them and most of the pre-picked topics were thrown out in favor of ones that I thought of on the day.  I really liked doing this because it made the blogs a little more spontaneous, I think, and more enjoyable for me to write.  Take my D post, I thought up that one in the shower and typed it up in about 20 minutes!  The hardest thing about that post was tracking down all the pictures.  And everybody LOVED that post, myself included.  So yes, some of my best work is definitely spur of the moment.

The thing I probably enjoyed the most was the response from my new reader base (and my old one).  Yay!  It's always reassuring to know that people actually enjoy what I'm writing, especially when I don't personally know most of them.

I started the posts with a very tenuous theme, that being things that related me to other people.  Avatar: The Last Airbender = roommate, Binturong = colorguard instructor, Chickadee = Grandma Kenney, MCKD = Dad and friends, etc.  But right around 'I' was when I started to deviate.  'I', 'J', and 'K' can be tricky letters if you ask me, and my inspiration only went so far.  I did try quite hard to stick to my 'theme' but some posts just got away.

All in all I enjoyed the Challenge, as it certainly was challenging in the way I went about it.  At this point in time I have every intention to participate again next year, and maybe then I'll have a bit more structure to my posting.  And then again, maybe not.

T is for...

Tapioca!

Tapioca is actually so much more than just a pudding.  However, I'm not here to talk about the food.  I'm here to talk about the comedy.  For any of you 'Whose Line Is It Anyway' fans, you may recall quite a memorable sketch performed by Colin Mochrie and Ryan Stiles.

Well, okay, you probably recall quite a few memorable sketches with those two.  They were on the British version of the show as well as the following American version.  As much as I have to give the British their due for beginning the series, I really do prefer the American version, simply because of the difference in humor.  I like me some British humor, but when it comes to improvisation?  American all the way, baby.