Thursday, May 12

The Show Must Go Off

Reportedly, Dennis Miller's show will expire tomorrow. Which may explain his rebranding efforts a couple weeks ago on The Daily Show (as well as Jon's tender treatment of him).

Enough said about Miller, but I never understood why he saddled himself with doing Dennis Miller schtick in the first place. Hell, if Howie Mandell can work without props without notably increasing his cringe-inducing factor, surely Dennis can get a new act.

(Now that I think on it, maybe it was metaphysically impossible for Howie Mandell to become any more of an embarrassment. He was on Comedy Central last week, and I tuned in just to see how much I could take. Twenty-three seconds.)

Dennis Miller's sin was not in siding with the wingnuts (or "being a libertarian", which he seems to think is something distinct). It was in announcing he was giving George Bush a free pass. That wasn't an insult to the audience. It was an insult to Dame Comedy herself.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

No wonder! I have further proof of Denny's rebranding efforts. He's marketing himself as an expert regarding the "Greatest American" for AOL Television.

Of course, the idea of the "Greatest American" seems pretty silly - I mean, is Tom Hanks the greatest American just 'cause he plays one in the movies.

But I digress. I think Denny wants to be a garden-variety pundit, and he probably wanted to be one ever since he found the "Weekend Update" desk chair comfy. Forget funny ha ha - no more jokes - Denny's gonna get serious now. Since today's "experts" don't have to be "experts" in the slightest, why not?

Anonymous said...

Pep- 2 things. First of all, there should be some kind of showdown between Tom Hanks, Kevin Costner, and Mel Gibson to see who is the greatest American (yeah I know. Gibson is Australian, and Costner is actually the savior of humanity, therefore, byu default Hanks is the Gratest American.)

Second, is it weird that Dennis is doing something for AOL TV when he's the spokesperson for NetZero?

Anonymous said...

The CBC did this last summer. They had actual females on the list. Historical figures. Politicians. Scientists. Social activists. People I'd never heard of. It was pretty impressive.
140000 names submitted by viewers.
The Greatest Canadian?
Tommy Douglas, former Saskatchewan premier. The founding father of Canadian health care. A *socialist*.
Swear to God.
Second place? Marathoner Terry Fox. Third? Pierre Trudeau. (One of them liberals.)
Just because I think it's cool that Celine Dion didn't make it in, let me give you the rest of the top ten:
4: Frederick Banting (Nobel Prize in Medicine, discovered insulin)
5: David Suzuki (TV personality, geneticist, author, civil rights activist, environmental activist.)
6: Lester Pearson (Two term Prime Minister, Nobel Peace Prize. Helped create UN and NATO.)
7: Don Cherry (Hockey coach, "Hockey Night in Canada" host.)
8: John A. Macdonald (Canada's first Prime Minister.)
9: Alexander Graham Bell (His family moved there in 1870.)
10: Wayne Gretzky. (Well, he had to be there somewhere.)
I'm guessing when Americans try it, we'll pretty much bottom out with the A List, and a bunch of people will submit "Jesus Christ". We're just kinda that way, Americans.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and a lot of Elvis, too, last I saw on AOL TV ... I'm suffering so much Canada Envy right now.

And, yeah, Yosef, so right regarding the whole NetZero thing. Is he trying to suck up to AOL? HMMMM The Denny Intrigue continues.