This one always makes me snicker:

Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.
This one always makes me snicker:

Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

Merlin Mann: “Fringe politicos are like Latin teachers dressed as pandas. They think you’re hating on Latin, but really you just think pandas are funny.”

Image courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.
Even as an eleven-year-old back in 1978, I knew as soon as the voice-over went…
with special guest stars…Beatrice Arthur! Art Carney! Diahann Carroll! The Jefferson Starship! Harvey Korman!
…that something was about to go terribly, terribly wrong with the Star Wars Holiday Special, a show so terribly bad that even George “I’m no longer qualified to tell good from bad” Lucas has disavowed any involvement with it, no matter how minor.
Now, thanks to the miracle of Google Video, you too can enjoy the so-bad-it’s-goodness of the Star Wars Holiday Special, either in the tiny window below or on its Google Video page at a larger size. After watching it, Episode I: The Phantom Menace seems like The Godfather in comparison. At least Phantom Menace had the decency to not include a scene featuring Bea Arthur doing a Broadway number and dancing with Greedo.
Click here to watch a larger version.
If you can’t bear to watch all two soul-crushing hours of the Star Wars Holiday Special, you’re in luck: some kind soul has created an edit that sums it up nicely in five minutes. It spares you a lot of painfully bad wookie pantomime…
Click here to see the video on its YouTube page.
Here’s a comedy family tree that shows all the spiritual descendants of two British comedy television shows: At Last the 1948 Show (whose cast included John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Marty Feldman) and Do Not Adjust Your Set (whose cast included Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Eric Idle) .Their influences can be traced from these two TV series you might not have heard of all the way to South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut.

Click the image to see it at full size.
Image courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.
Here’s a photo of a poster I saw on the train on the way to work today:

A quick reminder: