Just relax? Penn's voiceovers BUG me!
GRUSIN MICHAEL
Things that bug me about Penn's voiceovers:
Artistic:
I circulate the tapes. Nothing sounds worse, after showing a great
MST to a bunch of friends in Colorado Springs who DON'T get Comedy
Central then to hear Penn's whining voice over the credits, telling
us about some show which aired last year. MST shows are timeless,
and circulated tapes should be pristine copies of the show (IMHO).
(And incidentally all the people I've been circulating tapes to,
now WANT Comedy Central and are calling their cable company...)
Logic:
Penn's argument that he "has" to announce what's coming up next
doesn't stand up to the fact that CC shows their upcoming schedule
during most every commercial break and often immediately after
the show. (And always in Eastern Time. Thank you, Comedy Central,
for ignoring the other 3/4 of the country. Again.) And if he
thinks people will "channel surf" if he doesn't talk loudly and
continuously over the credits, he's not only wrong, he's causing it!
Penn's arrogance:
Penn USED to make a pretty quick comment about what's next, but
recently he's been talking longer and longer; I wondered if this
wasn't in sarcastic response to the requests some of us have made for
him to tone it down; his recent comments (which span the entire
credits, by the way) prove it. Don't you want to shut someone like
that down?
CC's arrogance:
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is a brilliant little show made by some
very creative people in the midwest. Comedy Central is a big cable
outfit in New York City (NEW YORK CITY!?) that SHOWS MST3K. The
relationship should stop there (IMHO), but CC has been pushing MST3K
like THEY thought of it; think back to the "This Is MST3K" special
which consisted mostly of Penn informing us of how great MST3K is (or
was it how great Penn is?). Look at CC's MST ads, where Penn says
over and over, "JOIN US!". CC and Penn act like they own MST3K (and
for all I know, they do). But WE are the ones who watch and love and
understand it, and WE know that without MST3K, Comedy Central would be
"the standup channel". Comedy Central may have the right to talk
over, place logos over, or place a silhouette of PENN over (!) any
part of any MST show, but it seems to me that they should have a
little more respect for the "Crown Jewel" (their words) in their
lineup (political coverage notwithstanding), and possibly the one
show that keeps them afloat.
DISCLAIMERS: (A) I happen to like Penn (and Teller) a lot. But his
head is getting a little too big about this. If CC wants Penn to
drone on about MST, show the MST promo more. Otherwise, as others
have said, let Teller do the credits =). (B) Someday soon I'll have
enough editing capability here to replace every occurence of "Penn's
(self) love theme" with a clean original from an older tape. Problem
solved. (C) Note that I realize Penn Jilette is "just following
orders", so when I say "Penn", I'm just using him as an easy to
remember metaphor for Comedy Central and their annoying policies. =)
(D) for those who think I should really just relax, you're probably
right. But when you (nicely) ask someone to stop doing something, and
they do it more ("I'm not touching you! Is this bugging you?"),
well, that's certainly their right. (Dickweed!)
-Mike (gru...@rintintin.colorado.edu)
"I'm surrounded by idiots of my own design" -Joel, MST3000
Tom Wylie
>Logic:
> Penn's argument that he "has" to announce what's coming up next
> doesn't stand up to the fact that CC shows their upcoming schedule
> during most every commercial break and often immediately after
> the show. (And always in Eastern Time. Thank you, Comedy Central,
> for ignoring the other 3/4 of the country. Again.) And if he
Uh... out here on the west coast, all the time menus are displayed
in western time... e.g. MST3K starts at midnight and the next show
(the A-list) is given a 2am start time. if the times they give are
really 2 hours off from when you get them, you've got an odd cable
hookup is all.
Tom Wylie | What is the difference between apathy and ignorance?
aa...@hal.com | I don't know, and I don't care.
Julian Burger
>
>Things that bug me about Penn's voiceovers:
> the show. (And always in Eastern Time. Thank you, Comedy Central,
I think this little fact may shed light on the matter:
SAST is 1 hour long. The credits sometimes are longer than 1 minute (or
maybe always; I seldom watch anymore). And yet no voiceover during them!
At least not yesterday when I researched this follow up. Does this mean
only CC originated shows are voiceover immune?
I leave you with this parting observation. If CC needs those 54 (or
whatever) seconds so much then why is Penn able to repeatedly rant about
needing them during those precious moments?
Bob Soron
>I leave you with this parting observation. If CC needs those 54 (or
>whatever) seconds so much then why is Penn able to repeatedly rant about
>needing them during those precious moments?
Man, I don't believe you people. You watch the funniest show on TV, but
you *can't take a joke*!
Bob
bobs...@world.std.com
"It's getting harder and harder to act weird" -- Bill Griffith via Zippy
Robert J. Granvin
>In article <CA0Fy...@ucdavis.edu> ez00...@othello.ucdavis.edu (Julian Burger) writes:
>>I leave you with this parting observation. If CC needs those 54 (or
>>whatever) seconds so much then why is Penn able to repeatedly rant about
>>needing them during those precious moments?
>
>Man, I don't believe you people. You watch the funniest show on TV, but
>you *can't take a joke*!
Sometimes things start as a joke, but don't end up being one.
I've only seen one of these "jokes" and I found it offensive; and I
don't routinely argue against the voiceovers...
--
\\ Robert J. Granvin User Services Specialist
// School of Statistics - University of Minnesota r...@stat.umn.edu
Lance Visser
+>In article <CA0Fy...@ucdavis.edu> ez00...@othello.ucdavis.edu (Julian Burger) writes:
+>>I leave you with this parting observation. If CC needs those 54 (or
+>>whatever) seconds so much then why is Penn able to repeatedly rant about
+>>needing them during those precious moments?
+>Man, I don't believe you people. You watch the funniest show on TV, but
+>you *can't take a joke*!
If you have watched Penn's "This is MST3k" program, you
would probably understand that this is no joke. voiceing over
bits in the credits is also not funny.
Lance Visser
+>I think this little fact may shed light on the matter:
+> SAST is 1 hour long. The credits sometimes are longer than 1 minute (or
+> maybe always; I seldom watch anymore). And yet no voiceover during them!
+> At least not yesterday when I researched this follow up. Does this mean
+> only CC originated shows are voiceover immune?
It could also mean that only shows that actually have an audience
that measures over 100 people get voiceovers.
I would imagine that MST3k has to be among their few (maybe only)
popular shows. Real smart of these people to get their few viewers angry
by doing the voiceovers.
Bob Snyder
>Penn's arrogance:
> Penn USED to make a pretty quick comment about what's next, but
> recently he's been talking longer and longer; I wondered if this
> wasn't in sarcastic response to the requests some of us have made for
> him to tone it down; his recent comments (which span the entire
> credits, by the way) prove it. Don't you want to shut someone like
> that down?
If I understand things right, Penn is simply a voice actor. He reads what
the VOCA writes for him. The person I think you have a problem with is the
VOCA, not Penn.
>
>CC's arrogance:
> Mystery Science Theater 3000 is a brilliant little show made by some
> very creative people in the midwest. Comedy Central is a big cable
> outfit in New York City (NEW YORK CITY!?) that SHOWS MST3K. The
> relationship should stop there (IMHO), but CC has been pushing MST3K
> like THEY thought of it; think back to the "This Is MST3K" special
They were the ones to bring it to the mass market. They also finance it.
I have no problem with CC doing a little self-promotion while touting
MST3K, since they did take the risk in buying them.
For the record, I did send a letter to Comedy Central. In it, I stated that
the real problem I had was when the Voice Over stepped on the program
content. I also stated that I dislike the Voice Over in general, but could
live with it if they throught they needed it.
Bob
>solved. (C) Note that I realize Penn Jilette is "just following
>orders", so when I say "Penn", I'm just using him as an easy to
>remember metaphor for Comedy Central and their annoying policies. =)
This disclaimer isn't very effective given the venomous attacks against Penn
in your post.
Mark Phaedrus
>In article <> gru...@rintintin.Colorado.EDU (GRUSIN MICHAEL) writes:
>> Penn's argument that he "has" to announce what's coming up next
>> doesn't stand up to the fact that CC shows their upcoming schedule
>> during most every commercial break and often immediately after
>> the show. (And always in Eastern Time. Thank you, Comedy Central,
>> for ignoring the other 3/4 of the country. Again.) And if he
>in western time... e.g. MST3K starts at midnight and the next show
>(the A-list) is given a 2am start time. if the times they give are
>really 2 hours off from when you get them, you've got an odd cable
>hookup is all.
Actually, Comedy Central puts out two different satellite feeds; they
show the same material, but the West Coast feed is delayed three hours from
the Eastern feed. So we folks in the Pacific time zone, watching the
West Coast feed, see "correct" times in commercials and so on, along with
the people in the Eastern time zone watching the Eastern feed. So Comedy
Central is actually only ignoring 1/2 the country. :) (The Central and
Mountain time zones, to be precise.)
--
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\o\ "How'd you like to move a few steps down the food chain, pal?" \o\
\o\ If you enjoy fantasy/SF stories with transformation themes, ftp to \o\
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scott
|>I think this little fact may shed light on the matter:
|>SAST is 1 hour long. The credits sometimes are longer than 1 minute (or
|>maybe always; I seldom watch anymore). And yet no voiceover during them!
|>At least not yesterday when I researched this follow up. Does this mean
|>only CC originated shows are voiceover immune?
IMHO, the reason why CC uses VO's on the end of MST3k is because they KNOW
they will have an audience listening, live or on tape, to Penn telling about
all the other wonderful drek CC will be playing next.
On the other "throwaway" shows (ie. SAST), why bother? ;)
|>I leave you with this parting observation. If CC needs those 54 (or
|>whatever) seconds so much then why is Penn able to repeatedly rant about
|>needing them during those precious moments?
They don't need it. If we were that interested in what was next, we'd know
about it already from reading the TV listings.... gawd.
The VO's to me aren't necessary, and weren't done until recently. Anyone
recall that about two or three seasons ago, MST3k was untainted by these
horrible blemishes? The first time I really noticed Penn was after watching
my tapes of the first Turkey Day Marathon.
s
"Master Ninja Theme Song!!! (boo-chuka-wow...boop-boo-boop-boop...)"
--
sgpa...@eos.ncsu.edu
Scott G. Parkerson | "It was a wedding ring, destined to be found in a
Junior, CSC, NCSU | cheap hotel, lost in a kitchen sink or thrown in
Raleigh, NC, USA | a wishing well." -Marillion, Warm Wet Circles