The Most Awesome Thing I Saw this Week (Dec 6-16)
When that last vote came through for Bob, I cheered for a Survivor winner for the first time ever. He was cool and funny at the reunion show, and really made me very happy. (Last time I was happy about a Survivor finale: “Yes! It wasn’t Rupert!”) Sure, Corinne tried too hard to be mean, Randy was nearly crazy with hate, and Sugar actually flipped off the jury. But the point is, Bob won! That right there is pretty awesome.
Second Place: You know, Adult Swim has been pretty hit-or-miss with their new programming lately. I mean, you couldn’t pay me to get through an episode of Superjail. But The Drinky Crow Show, based on Tony Millionaire’s long-running Maakies strip is pretty fantastic. It’s a great mix of cynicism, crude humor, almost subliminal beauty, and booze logic, all wrapped up in a bizarre nautical fantasy world. Last week’s episode, The God of Monkeys, was really a standout.
Uncle Gabby finds religion to help him deal with guilt. Specifically, he orders a Monkey God off the Internet. It’s actually just a larger-than-average monkey, but Gabby (an average monkey) worships him anyway. It all climaxes with a trip to an island volcano that can elevate anyone to Godhood. Most of the cast, as well as some inanimate objects, ascend to holy levels. Along the way, they break the fourth wall and find themselves to be the fantasies of a comatose Tony Millionaire, who is himself the fantasy of a non-comatose Tony Millionaire. It’s a meditation on the nature of the universe, only with a series of hernia jokes.
And on an animation geek level, the looks of the show is gorgeous. The characters are computer-animated, but they composite Millionaire’s pencil drawings over the framework. This creates fluid movement without losing any expressiveness. It really stands out among the mostly Flash-animated offerings on Adult Swim. It’s weird and beautiful, and you should be watching it.
Adult Swim doesn’t want us embedding the video, but you can watch it online here:
http://www.adultswim.com/video/?episodeID=8a2505951df2bc7b011e07b5779301c5
DonAlthough my second place selection is really the best thing I saw, I’m giving out my first place vote to The Daily Show and their tribute to Rob Riggle who left the show last week after a 5-year run. Their segment, “R.I.P. – Riggle in Perspective” was hilarious and touching.
