Sports: The Big Game

Sunday’s big game. The passion. The rivalry. The tail-wagging.

That’s right, it was the 2022 Puppy Bowl. If you didn’t hear, Team Fluff won. Coaches and commentators were Martha Stewart and (of course) Snoop Dogg.

It’s 2022 in America, so some very, very bad boys tried to offer online betting on the Puppy Bowl. No treats for them.

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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Television

“Television,” written and recorded by Lula Wiles, 2021. Lula Wiles is the trio of Eleanor Buckland, Mali Obomsawin, and Isa Burke.

Lula Wiles website

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The Bookshop

“The Bookshop,” a 1967 sketch featuring John Cleese and Marty Feldman from At Last the 1948 Show.The show got its title as a joke on how long it took BBC TV commissioners to nake programming decisions.

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Vaccination on Sesame Street

Seasame Street wants U to get back together, after U get vaccinated.

More:

“Sesame Workshop, the Ad Council, COVID Collaborative and CDC Launch New PSAs About COVID-19 Vaccines,” press release

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Healthy, Vaccinated Families on Seasame Street

Louie and Elmo explain why you should get vaccinated.

More:

“Sesame Workshop, the Ad Council, COVID Collaborative and CDC Launch New PSAs About COVID-19 Vaccines,” press release

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Vaccinating Seasame Street

Seasame Street feels hopeful about vaccinations.

More:

“Sesame Workshop, the Ad Council, COVID Collaborative and CDC Launch New PSAs About COVID-19 Vaccines,” press release

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Why TV Sitcoms Stopped Using Laugh Tracks

When they filmed or taped TV situation comedies, producers found that studio audiences often didn’t laugh in the right places. Sound engineer Charley Douglass developed the Laff Box, and editors used it to “sweeten” sitcom soundtracks with “canned laughter.” Over the last 10 years, the laugh track has disappeared almost entirely. Cheddar explains why.

More:

“The invention of laughter: Charley Douglass and the laff box,” Valentina Palladino, The Verge

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It’s Beginning ….

On the shelves of Retail America, it began to look like Christmas the day after Halloween. The perfume and electric shaver ads began appearing a few weeks later. Try to dig yourself out of the blizzard of consumerist frenzy.

Veep Candidates on SNL

Joe Biden’s choice of Kamala Harris may not guarantee him the presidency, but it makes Maya Rudolph a shoo-in for Saturday Night Live guest slots. A Washington Post video.

More:

“Maya Rudolph created a memorable Kamala Harris impersonation on SNL, and fans desperately want her to return,” Michael Cavna Washington Post

“Maya Rudolph: the unambiguous winner of the Kamala Harris VP pick,” Oliver Milman, The Guardian

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2020 State of the Union: Re-Runs of 1950s TV Westerns

U.S. President and reality TV personality Donald J. Trump performed his State of the Union address on Tuesday. He called it “The Great American Comeback,” and it all seemed to come back to re-runs of 1950s television Westerns. Mr. Trump outlined midcentury America’s whitest historical myths, and his reference points were all TV shows he saw as a toddler, Wyatt Earp (ABC TV, 1955 to 1961), Davy Crockett (ABC TV, 1954 to1955), and, with a nod at inclusion, Annie Oakley (syndicated from 1954 to 1957). He glorified How the West Was Won (MGM 1962 and MGM Televison, 1976 to 1979), seemingly reducing the genocide of Native Americans to some kind of divinely-ordained case of eminent domain. A reference to the Alamo (Disney 1955) overlooked the fact that Crockett and his comrades were illegal aliens in 1836, and some of them enslaved other human beings.

When Americans say “God Save the Republic,” we’re not not talking about the Republic Pictures Western fantasy films of Tex Ritter, Gene Autry, and Roy Rogers. So Happy Trails, pardner. Only 270 days left before the presidential election. Saddle up.

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Image (“Trump on TV, with apologies to piñatero Dalton Avalos Ramirez“) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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