Sticking With What Works

So, I watched Seth MacFarlane's Almost Live Comedy Show last night. Here's what I learned and what I think Seth needs to figure out - you can get away with saying outrageous things if you have the common sense to hide behind animation. When you say outrageous things just as a guy standing in front of a live audience they aren't nearly as funny as when it's a one-year old cartoon baby with an English accent and a weirdly-shaped head. Just ask Matt Stone and Trey Parker, who created South Park. They tried the "live" thing with BASEketball and while that was an underappreciated movie, it was not as good as South Park. Ever since that time they have had the good sense to stick with what works, which is 8 year-olds in cartoon form and crappy animation. Yes, they tried to do go back into movies with Team America, but that was done with puppets (sticking closer to the formula that works) and when that also turned out to be not as funny as most of the stuff the roll out with South Park they essentially threw up their hands and now are content to just be the South Park guys.

Sometimes I think celebrities become too focused on trying to prove they can do more than one thing. Rappers want to act, actors want to sing and athletes want to rap and act. Most of the time we would all be better off if they would just stay in their lanes. Did we really need Glitter to prove Mariah Carey should only be a singer? I get that MacFarlane may not want to be pigeonholed just as the guy who created Family Guy but, let's be honest, there are worse things you can be known for. Everything he has tried to produce since (American Dad, The Cleveland Show and now the Almost Live Comedy Show) has been decreasingly funny. Also, and I really hate to say this, I feel like this season of Family Guy has not been as good as in years past. I think MacFarlane needs to just concentrate on one thing at a time and I would like it if that one thing is Family Guy.

-Speaking of things that are getting progressively worse (I'm sick and so you're getting the sick person's look at life today) can we all agree to ban together and make Hollywood stop putting out adaptations of A Christmas Carol? People are saying that the latest Jim Carey version didn't make nearly as much money as everyone expected and it must be a referendum on the new actor-less style of movie making. Do we perhaps think instead it could be because there are already around 50 movies based off the book and at this point everyone has seen the story over and over again? That couldn't be it... could it? Here are the only ones that you need to see: Scrooge starring Albert Finney, Bill Murray's Scrooged and The Muppet Christmas Carol. The rest are just pretenders to the throne.

-I can't believe that Steven Tyler may have quit Aerosmith. This is a tragedy of the highest order. What's that? It's 2009, not 1999 - which was the last time they put out any new, good music? Oh yeah, I forgot. Carry on.