Capsule Review: How Now, Brown Bureaucrat? [2ACV11]
Eric S.
Odenkirk goes to extremes to be funny, but doesn't show the classical
Groening well-roundedness. The characters are closer to joke-telling
machines than to human, or lobster beings. Some jokes are quite good, and
Nora Dunn is excellent, sexual fetish humor notwithstanding. But instead
of developing Hermes' conflict as an emotional center, the emphasis shifts
to the theme of bureaucracy and how many jokes it's possible to make about
it in 22 minutes. This hasn't been cutting edge humor since the 1980s,
when for example Douglas Adams wrote his PC game Bureaucracy. I prefer eps
more like Douglas Adams' PC Game Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. (B-)
-Eric S. (eas...@psu.edu)
"I stand still, the conclusions jump to me." -Bill McNeal, Newsradio, 1998
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Ben
>-Eric Sansoni: The first Futurama by writer cable/cameo comedian Bob
>-Odenkirk goes to extremes to be funny, but doesn't show the classical
>-Groening well-roundedness. The characters are closer to joke-telling
>-machines than to human, or lobster beings. Some jokes are quite good, and
>-Nora Dunn is excellent, sexual fetish humor notwithstanding. But instead
>-of developing Hermes' conflict as an emotional center, the emphasis shifts
>-to the theme of bureaucracy and how many jokes it's possible to make about
>-it in 22 minutes. This hasn't been cutting edge humor since the 1980s,
>-when for example Douglas Adams wrote his PC game Bureaucracy. I prefer eps
>-more like Douglas Adams' PC Game Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. (B-)
Neither were PC games. They could be called microcomputer games, but that
would just be anal; calling them just games would be best.
>--Eric S. (eas...@psu.edu)
>-
>-"I stand still, the conclusions jump to me." -Bill McNeal, Newsradio, 1998
>-
>- --->
>- ATTENTION STAR WARS & SCI-FI MICRO MACHINES AND ACTION FLEET COLLECTORS:
>- For news, facts, trading, rumors, and discussion join the all-new Star Wars
>- Galoob Buzz Board web/e-mail list at http://www.topica.com/lists/sfmm
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Eric S.
>>
>>-This hasn't been cutting edge humor since the 1980s,
>>-more like Douglas Adams' PC Game Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. (B-)
>
>Neither were PC games. They could be called microcomputer games, but that
>would just be anal; calling them just games would be best.
PC stands for personal computer, which is the perfect way to categorize the
games. Calling them just games would be hopelessly vague to people not
familiar with them. To some people PC may be synonymous with "IBM-PC", but
that's not the strict definition of the term. Besides, you could purchase
those games in IBM-PC format if you wanted to. In fact, you could have
purchased an original IBM-PC copy of Bureaucracy last week on eBay if you
wanted to:
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=289882373
Ben
>-In article <latebird-030...@mdpl-01-057.dialup.netins.net>,
late...@usa.net (Ben) wrote:
>->>
>->>-This hasn't been cutting edge humor since the 1980s,
>->>-when for example Douglas Adams wrote his PC game Bureaucracy. I
prefer eps
>->>-more like Douglas Adams' PC Game Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. (B-)
>->
>->Neither were PC games. They could be called microcomputer games, but that
>->would just be anal; calling them just games would be best.
>-
>-PC stands for personal computer, which is the perfect way to categorize the
>-games. Calling them just games would be hopelessly vague to people not
>-familiar with them. To some people PC may be synonymous with "IBM-PC", but
>-that's not the strict definition of the term. Besides, you could purchase
>-those games in IBM-PC format if you wanted to. In fact, you could have
>-purchased an original IBM-PC copy of Bureaucracy last week on eBay if you
>-wanted to:
>-
>-http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=289882373
I know 'PC' stands for 'Personal Computer', but it is generally used to
mean an IBM compatible machine, and when convention comes up against logic
in language, convention usually wins.
Plus, it isn't just for personal computers. They, and all other
Infocom-format games can be run on anything from a mainframe to a
programmable calculator. I personally have HHG on my Newton and my Mac,
neither of which would fall into the widely used meaning of PC.
--
< Ben >( late...@usa.net ){ http://www.netins.net/showcase/benssite/ }
Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
Eric S.
>
>I know 'PC' stands for 'Personal Computer', but it is generally used to
>mean an IBM compatible machine, and when convention comes up against logic
>in language, convention usually wins.
Well, you're right that these days PC is used to refer to IBM computers
usually. I never really got used to that, and can't guess how that began,
because I personally always call them IBMs, even when I'm only discussing
the two common kinds, IBMs and MACs. I don't really say PC all that much
to refer to computers in general, but it makes a convenient abbreviation
for personal computer, which is a pretty descriptive term. And whether
"PC" implies "IBM" to people or not, I would expect they still understand
what the letters stand for.
>Plus, it isn't just for personal computers. They, and all other
>Infocom-format games can be run on anything from a mainframe to a
>programmable calculator.
Well, that's not really a fair argument. I could say Futurama isn't really
a TV show because I can go to a web site somewhere and view the episode on
my computer as an MPEG file. That doesn't make it a "web show," I think,
because it was originally intended and marketed as a TV show. Similarly,
if Beavis and Butthead The Movie airs on TV, that doesn't make it a TV show
either. And just because Toy Story started out as some kind of computer
video file, we still can agree that it is a movie, even when it airs on TV.
>Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
Technically, you mean "good health." ;-)
-Eric S. (eas...@psu.edu)
"I stand still, the conclusions jump to me." -Bill McNeal, Newsradio, 1998
--->
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