Episode 3 - Press Tour, Donkeys, And The Brett Favre Mambo
Title: Press Tour, Donkeys, And The Brett Favre Mambo (August 13, 2010)
The week’s episode starts off with Linda Holmes talking about her adventures at the 2010 Television Critics Association Press Tour, where critics enjoy an extended period of detention as networks parade their lineup of new shows. The panel debates the relative merits of the Hawaii 5-0 remake, the not-so-dearly departed Outsourced, Sh** My Dad Says, and MTV’s Teen Wolf. Brief interactions with Shaquille O’Neal, the cast of Jersey Shore, and the giant ball from Wipeout round off Linda’s report. Glen Weldon characterizes the critics at press tour as “leopards in the Serengeti.”
They end this episode with a round of Regrettable Television Pop Quiz, including the Tareq Salahi wine throwing incident involving the Real Housewives of D.C., as covered by The View, and Scream Queens by VH1. This segues into a discussion of the best Auf Wiedersehens in TV’s reality show ecosystem.
What’s Making Them Happy
Trey - James Franco profile written by Sam Anderson for New York Magazine. It leads to a hilarious bit where Stephen Thompson comments, “I thought you were going to say ‘The writer notices a mole.’”
Glen - Adult Swim TV show Childrens Hospital, starring Rob Corddry, which started off as a web series from The WB.com. “What you need to understand there is that Rob Corddry is a guy that wears clown makeup that is very reminiscent of John Wayne Gacy’s Pogo the Clown. He also has blood covering his surgical scrubs.”
Stephen - The noble tradition of the will-he-won’t-he-retire Brett Favre saga. Fun fact: this has actually warranted its very own subcategory in Favre’s Wikipedia entry.
Linda - For some reason, Linda doesn’t have anything making her happy in this episode. Possibly because she’s still exorcising the demons of TCA Press Tour from her system.
Some Episode Highlights
- Stephen’s extended narration of his experience at the Scandinavia Corn Roast in Wisconsin and how he was forced to miss out on an event called the “Celebrity” Donkey Races.
- They play a clip of NBC’s Outsourced, which underwent scrutiny for its problematic accent and funny foreign name-based humor. This isn’t a highlight so much as a lowlight.
- “I’m just snookin’.” “Snooktionary.”
- Glen Weldon mentions a 15-minute cop procedural parody from Adult Swim called National Terrorism Strike Force: San Diego: Sport Utility Vehicle:: or NTSF:SD:SUV::, starring Paul Scheer.
- The first invocation of Brett Favre, football and the Green Bay Packers in PCHH. It will not be the last. They discuss Favre’s propensity towards playing football with high school students in the off-season.
- Peter King, writer for Sports Illustrated, guilty of mythologizing Brett Favre’s heroic suffering.
- “What you can’t see because this is a podcast is that Stephen is holding his cheesehead hat in front of his face and sobbing quietly into it.” - Trey Graham
- “I am four foot, ten, the same height as Mother Teresa… I worked as a church secretary by day and a go-go dancer by night.” - Scream Queens contestant
- Stephen Thompson busts out his impersonation of Iman from Project Runway Canada with, “I’m sorry, you just don’t measure up.”
