I hope to have my Gelbart tribute ready for Monday. In the meantime...
Merrill Markoe is one of the funniest people I know. She was the original head writer for Letterman and amazingly he got old while she got younger. It's a Benjamin Button kind of thing I guess. I dunno. Anyway, she's also written great humor books (and unlike mine, she's sold them) and to prove there is no end to her many talents, she also interprets (correctly I might add) the existential dilemma inherent in all Quick Draw McGraw cartoons and life. Hopefully you will enjoy this and see the world differently from now on.
13 comments :
Whence the German dialog? It sounds like it comes from an old angst movie.
dicentra63:
My GUESS is that the voice track laid over this cartoon is Peter Lorre in his climactic speech in the movie "M" (I don't speak german, but there are a few remarks in the comment page on the youtube link for this video that lead me to this hypothesis).
Anyway - that was high-LARIOUS, hope it goes viral.
Exit, stage angst
Doesn't make much sense for somebody who speaks German. The speech is too distracting.
This video is effing brilliant.
It's good -- not as good as the original writer of all the Quick Draw cartoons' take-down of overblown German culture -- but it's still good.
Just read an interview with her online, nice timing. I guess this speaks to the truth that comedy writers are drawing from some deep well of dread and existenial void to fuel the humor. Nicely written for subtitles. I assume the German is Peter Lorre's "M" speech, which certainly makes this black humor - the desperate speech of a psychopathic child-murderer, as a selection for the background audio of this children's cartoon. Minor complaint could be the sound mix - but what do you want at zero budget. Makes a nice bookend with the Mel Brooks 1964 cartoon "The Critic".
Hilarious!!!! Love Merrill Markoe. Her essay, "What I learned from the Dogs" was much quoted in my family.
Merrill Markoe wrote one of my favorite early Letterman pieces, "Dog Poetry." The contrast between the 'serious' parts ("my empty water dish mocks me...") and the moments of unhinged anger ("HEY! YOU GODDAMN SQUIRRELS! I'M GOING TO KILL AND EAT EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU!") was brilliant.
Dear Ken,
sorry to be offtopic, but did you read
http://nerdworld.blogs.time.com/2009/09/08/true-tales-of-conversational-vengeance/
about a writer for the Simpsons encountering an academic snob? Quite entertaining.
Mike
WTF? Should I feel smarter for having seen that, or should I cringe in horror? Oh, the existential dilemma....
Oh Ken, I needed that laff. (Let's just say I'm feeling a little like some of the dialogue today.)
Aber meine Deutsche mussen furchtbar sein - ich kan nicht ein wort verstehen ohne das Titel(?).
you don't know what "noir" means do you ken?
Hilarious...
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