"Wet Hot American Summer"

D&D was stupid in the first place

yeah that was the point idiot

D&D original movie was great. I thought the prequel was decent, in a movie-rental when you are sick home from school kind of way. Lots of rehashed jokes but they came across as these new actors being affectionate towards the original movie. The sequel was just rehashed jokes made new through mean spirited-ness. Just crass going through the motions with a dose of post-modern "we're out of ideas and we know it wink-wink" self-satisfaction.

Anchorman had a similarly mean-spirited sequel, like someone was hired to modernize the comedy and make it edgy for the inevitable "UNRATED Special Edition DVD".

Rewatching AD right now. It gets better the more I watch it, like the original series. I remember not liking it at all at first cos it focuses more on "oh i see how they did that, that's clever" humor and less LOL humor. At least the AD cast and writers tried to do something new with their second chance.

i remember so little about dumb and dumber that i am now questioning if i ever even saw it. maybe i just saw the entirety of the movie in 20 minute segments on tbs over the course of 10 years

v excited for this Netflix Content

how is this a good idea?
has there literally been one TV or movie property where "bring it back from oblivion" is anything but

I would have felt the same way considering Michael & Michael Have Issues and Wanderlust, which were both not bad but still kinda disappointing. However, They Came Together was really funny and is the first thing Wain & Showalter have written together since nearly 10 years ago. I'm hopeful that the process of collaborating on that movie sparked some momentum and is part of the reason why they decided to continue with a series.

looking at old newspaper/print reviews on rotten tomatoes and man a lot of people really hated this movie. i had no idea.

Ebert's review, in full:

Hello muddah,
Hello fadduh--
Here I am at "Wet Hot American Summah."

Wow I hate it
Something fierce--
Except the astrophysicist David Hyde Pierce.

He lives in a
Cottage nearby
And boy can he make Jeanane Garofolo sigh.

She's the director
Of Camp Firewood,
Which turns before our eyes into Camp Feelgood.

She is funny
As she's hurrying
Through the camper's names, including David Ben Gurion.

She dreams of bunking
David Hyde Pierce,
Who fears a falling Skylab will crush them first.

(Chorus)
Let me leave,
Oh mudduh faddah--
From this comic romp in Mother Nature...
Don't make me stay,
Oh mudduh faddah--
In this idiotic motion picture.

Every camper
And each counselor
Is horny, especially Michael Showalter.

He lusts after
Marguerite Moreau's bod,
But she prefers the lifeguard played by Paul Rudd.

The camp cook,
Chris Meloni,
Goes berserk because he feels attacked by phonies.

He talks to bean cans
And screams and moans
Periodically because of Post-Traumatic Anxiety Syndrome.

(Chorus)
I want to escape,
Oh mudduh faddah--
Life's too short for cinematic torture.
Comedies like this,
Oh mudduh faddah--
Inspire in me the critic as a vulture.

Ben and McKinley
Achieve their fame
As campers whose love dare not speak its name.

Ken Marino
Doesn't go rafting
Prefering Marisa Ryan, who is zaftig.

Watch David Wain's
Direction falter,
Despite the help of co-writer Showalter.

They did The State,
On MTV,
And of the two that is the one you should see.

Thoughts of "Meatballs"
Cruelly hamper
Attempts by us to watch as happy campers.

Allan Sherman
Sang on the telly.
I stole from him, and he from Ponchielli.

Wet Hot American Summer provokes insane rage in some people, it's really weird

Yeah, it was poorly reviewed when it first came out, and so was The State's TV show. They were both largely reevaluated and positively discussed in subsequent years.

Ebert hated a lot of comedies that are now well regarded

http://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/michael-showalter-and-david-wain-interview/

Wet Hot American Summer provokes insane rage in some people, it's really weird

absolutely! most friends I've shown/recommended it to have loved it, but there have been a couple that had a very strong hatred for the movie, and for me for recommending it...like "this is honestly the worst/least funny movie I have ever seen"

arrested development redux has struck the fear in me for this weekend.. my wife on the other hand cant contain her giddiness.

The reviews have been pretty middling, but that's right in line with the original movies, so I'm still hopeful.

There are surely people who get the movie and just don't think it's funny, but my theory is that a lot of the people who get legit worked up about it (and, more recently, about They Came Together) are mad because they kinda fundamentally don't understand the tone/approach.

yeah, there's a guy I comic I knew back in college who has a podcast now, and he often rants against WHAS, arguing that there aren't any actual jokes, just silliness that people are afraid not to laugh at for fear of not appearing hip

i want to live in a world where WHAS is really hip

you are posting in that world right now

but instead i live in this world, where those guys down the street wearing their denim jackets are always walking around not looking at me or paying attention, saying to themselves "god i'm so hip", and then that bankteller who always acts like she doesn't recognize me and wears the work-appropriate shoes, saying "i am hipper than you" to herself, i bet

xpost dammit i was trying to do some worldbuilding here

ha sorry

oh, it's ok

(i bet you're ordering food online tonight, hipster)

listen to one of Marc Maron's interviews with members of the State where he is clearly still jealous that they were the hip comedy thing back in the mid-90s.

eh they were like third in line behind Mr. Show and KITH imo tbh a lot of the State stuff left me cold (and still does) - feel like they blossomed afterward

you're forgetting they were on MTV

same.

one of the things i love about David Wain projects is the sense that he's just doing what makes him (a presumably weird, jaded comedy dude) laugh. "actual jokes" are usually not on the list, and that's fine.

xp

That's a bug up Maron's specific ass. I'm sure they were influential, and probably moreso to a very particular generation of comedy people, but probably not as much as Mr. Show or KITH.

That Ebert review is so cringey

I don't know how this became an argument about the relative hipness of KITH and the State. I was talking about someone from a "very particular generation of comedy people" who either revere or hate the State in a way similar to how music fans from that time still get worked up about GBV or something.

I was responding to Shakey. I'm not disputing their influence, I'm just not personally aware of it. My younger brother's probably about as big a State fan as I am a KITH fan.

By which I mean: he's the one superfan I'm aware of.

this is one of my fav non-state state-ish sketches from the 90s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSzCyZhFPqo

I think the State was kinda hip, in a comedy nerd kinda way. Like UCB or MST3K, at the time it would be a VHS tape you maybe had to track down. I didn't have MTV when it was on but later made friends that were into the State and Stella and they had the tapes and DVDs.

First time I saw this I thought it was funny but not that amazing. Years later it was on netflix and I watched it w some friends and their parents and it was hilarious, everyone enjoyed it. The parents were pretty hip tho, a musician and an art teacher.

I may have held it against the State that they were on MTV at the time/didn't seem as "edgy" as KITH and Mr. Show, who could get away with swearing, drug refs etc.

i couldn't watch They Came Together. i mean i started to watch it. maybe i have become one of those people who didn't think wet hot was funny when it came out. i really wanted to like it.

i watched wet hot with rufus the other night. he thought it was funny.

cyrus wasn't home. figured rufus is a cool enough 12 year old to handle it.

i was trying to explain to him about the shows that made comedy what it is today. mr. show. ben stiller show. the state. upright citizens. kids in the hall.

aw I really liked They Came Together, more than WHAS probably

also shut up about your old tv shows grandad

(j/k)

you have to start them off with Ernie Kovacs

Marx Bros or gtfo

Strictly Mutoscope for my kids. What the Butler Saw is fuckin classic comedy, fuck SOUND.

Punch Magazine

fuck it hire a commedia dellarte troupe or at least one arlechino motherfucker to pretend to try/fail to catch/eat a housefly, all while wearing a creepy mask

if we're going to create the perfect drama nerd let's do it RIGHT ilx

my kids like buster keaton and the marx brothers. they had no time at all for charlie chaplin. i tried to get them into ernie kovacs by telling them that their grandpa worked on the show but i think it's too slow/obscure for them.

Does Netflix premiere shows right at midnight on the day of? How does this work? I've never anticipated a Netflix series before.

midnight pacific time

Then how long until it's posted on illegal video streaming sites I'm asking for a friend