What better way to start off a column on the first day of spring than with a fresh cat video? It’s called “ Lentl the Singing Kitten” and if it doesn’t bring a smile to your face there might be a problem. “Lentl” isn’t as funny as “Toonces the Driving Cat,” a fixture on “Saturday Night Live” in the early Nineties, but you’ll find yourself playing it over and over. Also, your cats will be interested, to say the least. Mine sat by the computer for 10 minutes after I played this video, determined to find the feline inside.
Moving on, the most talked about video of the month has been the episode of Zach Galifianakis’ addictive Funny or Die talk show “ Between Two Ferns” featuring President Barack Obama as the most special guest this show has had in its six year history. “Ferns” is known primarily for Galifianakis’ comic performance as one of the worst talk show hosts ever (at least I think it’s a performance). In just a few minutes he always manages to offend and alienate his guests, and they usually respond with blatant or subtle putdowns that often fly about his empty head.
The Obama episode is true to form. Galifianakis opens with, “What’s it like to be the last black president?”
Obama replies: “Seriously? What is it like for this to be the last time you ever talk to a president?”
When Galifianakis asks Obama if he might run for a third term, the President responds: “If I ran a third time it would be sort of like doing a third ‘Hangover’ movie. Didn’t really work out very well, did it?”
That’s known as a burn – or perhaps an epic burn when it comes from the most powerful man on the planet.
Like all of Galifianakis’ guests, Obama came to the show because he has something to plug – the problem-plagued Affordable Care Act and the need for millions of young people to sign up for health care before the whole system further suffers.
“Let’s get this out of the way,” Galifianakis says as the interview continues. “What did you come here to plug?”
“Have you heard of the Affordable Care Act?” Obama replies.
“Oh, yeah,” Galifianakis says. “That’s the thing that doesn’t work.”
That’s another example of a burn – perhaps an epic burn in its own right when it’s directed toward our President.
Obama has been criticized for taking time out of his schedule to appear on this very silly show. The official response from his administration has been that he wanted to reach young people with his message about health care and that “Ferns” was an effective place to do so.
The adult in me likes to think that the President ought to draw young people to more sophisticated and journalistically sound platforms from which to impart important messages. The realist in me thinks he made a wise choice. That’s the state of the world today, which isn’t very reassuring. On the other hand, I can’t recall a journalist or interviewer telling Obama to his face that the ACA is a “thing that doesn’t work.” Props to Galifianakis.
Should we urge television networks to consider acquiring rights to “Between Two Ferns” and finding a spot in late night for an expanded nightly edition of this show? I think I’d rather watch Galifianakis do his thing than any of the current network late night hosts continuously pump sunshine up the butts of their celebrity guests, which they all seem to do all of the time, except David Letterman when he’s feeling frisky. Then again, Galifianakis is probably better off keeping his show right where it is. He knows where the cool kids are.
Past editions of “Between Two Ferns” are always fun to revisit, by the way – especially when their celebrity guests are in the news. In that regard, Galifianakis’ September 2013 interview with Justin Bieber is suddenly priceless.
“You know what I was doing at your age?” Galifianakis asks his young guest.
“Finishing fourth grade?” Bieber sneers.
Later, Galifianakis asserts, “You’re too young to be smoking pot and pee-peeing in public!”
At one point Galifianakis actually takes off his belt and gives the Biebs a couple of good swats. That may be exactly what the kid needs.
Maybe you prefer sex and romance over cats and comedy in your online entertainment. In that case check out “First Kiss,” a beautifully produced extended commercial for Wren womenswear that is more like a very short film. In it, filmmaker Tatia Pilieva records the responses when twenty strangers are paired into couples and asked to kiss each other.
Yes, all of the people in the video are attractive, and many of them are models. But that doesn’t really alter the video’s seductive impact. Some of the couples are tentative. Some are nervous. Some are very tender. Others are very funny. If the new ABC sitcom “Mixology,” about strangers in a bar seeking sex or more, was half as engrossing as this little gem the network might have had another hit on its hands.
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