May 5 2006 LRRcast

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This week's video, its concept, shooting and fart jokes, more on the new codec.

Vital Statistics

Featured Video: Wyy

Date: May 26, 2006

LRRcasters: Graham Stark, Paul Saunders

Runtime: 30:51

Synopsis

People other than Graham and Paul eventually being on the LRRcast, comedic voices, in stereo!

The idea for the video started with its name (submitted by James), and everything followed from there. Many people had made fun of the name 'Wii' previously, and it's a very silly name, so finding a new way to make fun of it was difficult. They didn't want to repeat the "Snakes on the Brain" storyline, and Penny Arcade had already done a similar Wii comic, so that was out.

Nintendo had used 'wii' for 'we' in press releases, and the idea of official Nintendo communications threatening legal action while using that substutition was funny, but it couldn't be translated into a video easily. 'Wii' was trademarked by Nintendo, so the plot quickly switched to Nintendo demanding fees for casual use of the name. The phrase "monosyllabic expressions of jubilance" came up very early in the writing process.

Now the basic storyline was set: early scenes with gamers, legal action, and a meeting of people outraged at Nintendo's actions. The anti-lawyer charm was the same foam pint of Guinness sold by Bob the Angry Flower in a previous video.

Generating the smoke from the melting lawyer at first involved burning paper in a can, which became very, very hot, but didn't produce suitable smoke. Morgan suggested burning flour, but there wasn't any available, so coffee grounds were substituted on the theory that since it was darker than flour its smoke would be darker as well. Whether that's actually true, the grounds worked; in the rush to get James into position, Paul missed his first shot. The sound of James melting is soda being poured out in reverse.

Graham had to move slightly when Morgan popped out of the window to keep the pane from smacking him in the head.

The scenes in Graham's bedroom were lit only by the computer screen, a lamp across the hall, and some LCDs, so the lighting worked out pretty well.

The man-thong is actually a dance belt, but it wasn't certain that anyone would know what that was, so it was called a thong - and then Morgan improvised "man-thong". The belt was left over from a senior-year production of "Kiss Me, Kate" in which everyone had to wear tights. Underwear can't be worn with tights, and going commando isn't an option, so Graham had to wear the dance belt instead. Run away from anyone suggesting you wear one for fun.

The fart jokes were originally from a desire to have the phrase "I'm going to (verb)" present, and an acronym for the grassroots activist group was needed for the verb, but they couldn't think of one - although they joked that they could always use 'fart'. Graham had recently received some Mel Brooks movies on DVD, and Brooks never met a joke he didn't like, including really tasteless ones; his movies were the inspiration for the joke.

Paul rejects the idea that lowbrow fart jokes are beneath LRR, pointing out that LRR doesn't have a witty standard to fall beneath and that fart jokes can be very funny. Also, never watch comedy with subtitles on, because expecting the jokes often ruins the humor. Some quick discussion of "Blazing Saddles" and "Spaceballs" follows. In conclusion, Graham and Paul write things that make themselves and their friends laugh, stuff they find funny. If you find it funny as well, that's great; if not, that's okay, because something new will be coming next week. Sheer Stupidity, musicals, fart jokes - it's all funny. Except maybe "Girly Magazine Quiz".

There's a brief discussion of the new compression codec, too.

Trivia

  • Under the right conditions, flour is explosive. Burning it would probably have been a bad idea.
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◀ ●∙∙∙ April 28th, 2006: Hagiography Today   May 12th, 2006: Underpantaloons ∙∙∙● ▶
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