Like most shows, you have to watch a few episodes to appriciate it. This is true of pretty much every show out there - As you get to know the mannerism and other 'Ism’s of the characters, you will appriciate the writing more and more - This is especially true of the short-form shows that lasts 20-25 minutes like New Girl.
Before you LEAP to the keyboard with great examples of the opposite, please bear in mind that there are no absolutes.
I hope they let him get some of his improv talent out.
I loved him on Who’s Line.
I saw him with David Steinberg at the DPAC recently. It was more a back-and-forth Q&A thing than pure standup, and Steinberg walked him through his career. There was an extended riff on Popeye, which was hilarious and boiled down to, “We started filming in Malta, it rained for three straight months, the studio stopped paying the bills and brought all the tech talent back home, and I made up the ending of the movie while we were sitting around drinking because none of us had any idea what the hell to do.” Remember the shot where Shelley Duvall is being “attacked” by the octopus and it looks like she’s wrapping the tentacle around herself? It looks like that because she was wrapping the tentacle around herself, because the critter wrangler had been recalled back to the States.
even that’s not very funny because it’s such an overused trope in comedy. I call it FOTB slapstick.
I love New Girl. I think it has a lot to do with Zooey Deschanel the fact that she’s been my go-to “celebrity I’d bang” since before I hit puberty. But I do laugh at it a lot.
It’s kind of annoyingly twee and quirky but it’s got Schmidt, which is enough to keep me tuned in already.
You really have no fucking clue what slapstick is, do you?
I’m guessing you think the foreigner skit is frikkin’ hilarious and original?
Sure, slapstick is physical, but anything that is as stupid or overused gets the same designation from me.
If he hadn’t done Popeye, he might never have done his Popeye blowjob bit, which is the funniest thing I’ve seen from his recent career.
What comedies do you like, mashakos?
Really liked Extras when it was on.
(awaits posting of lame clip from said show, which is going to need a bit of effort)
The thing is, words matter! While you may find it cool or interesting to apply your own definitions to terms, that road leads to all kinds of issues and conflics, as we’ve seen already in this thread. So, its pretty weird you apply your own definition to slapstick knowingly, and then wants us to read your mind and understand it, instead of just writing the, you know, actual words for what you mean.
That ‘immigrant’ scene wasn’t slapstick, and there is nothing wrong with slapstick.
And while I’ll admit that Extras is a far better show than New Girl, it still had a lot of pitfalls and jokes that don’t land, like almost any show.
I dunno, guys, I wouldn’t say New Girl is high art. It’s just a sitcom that’s far better than most other sitcoms while still being kind of mediocre. It’s like Modern Family.
I’m just saying that if you can’t tell that New Girl is made by smarter people than, say, the Big Bag Theory, that’s on you.
Actually, considering the obscene ratings that Big Bang Theory gets, it seems the smarter folks are there.
Yes, and Hemingway died a billionaire. Come on.
I’m not disagreeing that BBT sucks and is written for the general audience. (The constant braying of live audience laughter is enough to turn me off.) No one can deny that it’s a monster hit.
I’m pointing out that creating a show that gets a zillion viewers and makes mad money isn’t some accident of fools. There’s a reason that Chuck Lorre is considered the most successful producer in TV history. Everything he makes is gold. He’s literally not had a pilot that didn’t get picked up for at least a full season in his 20-year run. There isn’t another show creator in Hollywood that can say that. I’d say he’s a pretty savvy guy regardless of how I feel about his products.
Coincidentally I was bored at the end of work day and got lost in a wikipedia-hole, but here’s one of Lorre’s vanity cards about failure.