The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

I read a strange article the other day concerning long-time  Daily Show host Jon Stewart and former Daily Show contributor Wyatt Cenac. In less than two weeks, Stewart will be ending his 16/17-year reign as host of The Daily Show , and seemingly everyone from President Barack Obama to businessman Donald Trump have weighed in on the matter, complimenting Stewart and his show, saying he'll be greatly missed. So it came as a bit of a surprise to read the following headline over the weekend: "Wyatt Cenac: Jon Stewart told me to 'f*ck off' after I challenged him on racially charged impression." While I've never met Jon Stewart face-to-face and don't know the man personally, I have greatly enjoyed his show for a majority of the 16+ years he's been the host and would be lying if I said he hasn't been one of my biggest comedic and literary inspirations. It should also be noted that I largely enjoyed Wyatt Cenac's appearances on the show when he was a...

While part of me is sad to see that there's just one more episode left in the Psych series, another part of me is glad. The reason for that is I've been thoroughly disappointed in the eighth and final season. I started noticing the series going downhill in the seventh season, after six very strong ones. There were still some funny episodes in season 7, but there were also times when it appeared as if, due to the added romantic elements, Psych was going to become like Friends and turn into a romantic dramedy or soap opera. That element has definitely faded in season 8. However, it's been replaced by sub-par writing, extreme randomness, and a sense of, "Were the writers and actors high when making these episodes?" This season has honestly appeared to me to be one where the writers and actors weren't 100% certain if it was going to happen, and at the last minute, decided to gather all the "fun," random ideas they could, and place it on the screen - de...

Following the Philadelphia Eagles' 31-24 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars last night in the team's third preseason game, many Philly sports-writers were quick to label starting quarterback Michael Vick as "shaky," all the while praising the play of backup quarterback Nick Foles. While Foles was very efficient in the second half of last night's game and has been for most of the preseason, I'm still slightly perplexed on the myriad of such articles which were published by Philadelphia writers either last night or this morning. Vick wasn't as sharp in last night's game as he had been in the team's first two preseason games. He completed 15 of 23 pass attempts (65.2%) for 184 yards (8.0 ypa and 12.3 ypc), with 1 touchdown pass and 1 interception. In his defense, the interception was on a pass Vick was trying to throw away while getting hit. However, he held onto the ball too long and would have avoided the pick if he had tossed the ball out-of-...

My mother said the upcoming film 2 Guns looks "cute." The writers would probably be thrilled with that description: Writer #1: "So, what should we call the film?" Writer #2: "Let's go with something macho, alpha-male... How about 2 Guns ?" Writer #1: "I like it! Two guys, two guns - which can be taken in more ways than one, if you know what I mean! Ha!" Writer #2: "Exactly! If there's one thing I want people to think heading into this movie, it's that it'll be cute." Writer #1: "That can be our tagline - 2 Guns is 2 cute or something like that. We'll work on it..."

Juliet Eilperin and Zachary A. Goldfarb of The Washington Post just wrote an article which has me simultaneously chuckling and scratching my head. The title of the article is, "After string of setbacks, more charm may be the last, best option for Obama." In the article, the following is written: "After more than four years in the White House and weeks into his latest effort to woo lawmakers, Obama still isn't very good at using his personal charm to achieve political success. Yet, it may be one of the few strategies the president has left if he hopes to accomplish his remaining second-term priorities, including a sweeping budget deal and a comprehensive immigration bill." Charm? Really? President Obama's best hope at accomplishing his second-term goals is to charm Congress? Okay... So, how is he to do this exactly? How does Obama "charm" Congress? According to one website, the following are all examples of how to charm a person. I will be ...

I talked about this some last week, mainly regarding the TV show Psych , but have to say that in an even broader sense, I've never been one to care much for sitcom romances. I know that probably makes me a "communist" in some people's eyes, but for some strange reason, I watch sitcoms for one reason and one reason only - laughter. If I wanted to watch romance, I'd tune into a drama, a soap opera, or a local bar by the name of Gettin' Lucky Tonight . The tricky part about integrating a heavy-duty romance into a sitcom is that romances take a great deal of time to develop on screen and sitcoms only run for between 20 and 25 minutes (excluding commercials) per episode. If a romance is to be integrated, the writers and actors want to provide a somewhat believable time-table for things to progress between the two actors and like I said, this takes time. Unfortunately, this process typically dominates the show until the couple appears to be believably content and ...

I don't watch a lot of television. I've never gotten caught up in the "reality" television craze. I'm a writer. I appreciate good writing for a show. Holding a camera and waiting to see what people say and do in "real"-life settings (not really) doesn't really do it for me. The only two shows I currently watch with any regularity (excluding The Daily Show and The Colbert Report ) are Modern Family and Psych . Psych is the lesser known of the two shows, as it airs on the USA Network. It centers around a guy (Shawn) who is blessed with excellent observational skills, so much so that he is able to pretend he's a psychic and utilize these skills to help the police solve cases. This has resulted in a very consistently entertaining program. The strongest part of the show, in my opinion, is the chemistry between the two lead characters - Shawn and his sidekick Gus. They work very well together, feed off one another like long-time friends, and appear to...

I've already gone into detail about my belief that the Indianapolis Colts, as good of a story as they were, weren't a true "11-5" caliber team, that rookie quarterback Andrew Luck, as bright as his future may be, did not have a rookie-of-the-year kind of season this year, and that both the team and rookie have been vastly overrated this season on ESPN (and elsewhere). This was again showcased yesterday in the Colts' 24-9 loss to the Baltimore Ravens in the 1st round of the playoffs. The Ravens, having lost 4 of their previous 5 games, led throughout the contest, before placing the exclamation mark on it in the 4th quarter. Andrew Luck's performance was like many others he's had this year. The guy completed 28 of 54 pass attempts (51.9%) for 288 yards (5.3 per attempt), an interception, and a quarterback rating of 59.8. He rushed the ball 4 times for 35 yards (8.8 per carry), lost a fumble, and was sacked 3 times for a net minus of 21 yards (-7.0 averag...

I've given sports writers a hard time due to how fickle and hyperbolic many seem to be, especially regarding the sport of football. I'm amazed at how many quarterbacks can be hailed as the second-coming of John Elway one Sunday and then told he'd be lucky to start another NFL game the following Sunday. As I've come to realize, fans are just as bad, if not worse at times. With me being a fairly neutral observer and lover of the sports world, I don't typically find myself resorting to these kinds of tactics. However, following games on Saturdays and Sundays, I'll sometimes read through message boards and am amazed by what I see. I remember when living in Nebraska, if the Nebraska Cornhuskers' football team lost a game, I'd hear some people calling for the firing of the head coach or the benching of the quarterback (often times both). I've heard similar comments about the Buckeyes' football team since moving to the Columbus area from Omaha about...