Statler And Waldorf From the Balcony 155
An Anonymous Reader wrote in to mention Statler and Waldorf From the Balcony, a short feature on movies.com where the surly Muppets review current films. From the site: "This Week's Episode -
Will War of the Worlds' aliens scare off our cranky coots? Will Bewitched be the end of Will? Plus, Pepe the Prawn begs Miss Congeniality to cuff him."
hello (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:hello (Score:2)
Anyways, sorry you got modded down for your most insightful comment.
Re:hello (Score:2)
Re:hello (Score:2)
These are legit reviews, not just promos.
Re:hello (Score:2)
Re:hello (Score:2)
Re:hello (Score:5, Funny)
Why do we always troll here?
I guess we'll never know.
It's like some kind of torture
To try to get first post!
Re:hello (Score:3, Funny)
You moderators who don't know the muppets should stick to talking like Charlie Brown's adults. "Wah woh wa wa wah whoa."
Re:hello (Score:2)
Re:hello (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:hello (Score:2)
I remember when Statler and Waldorf took on Milton Berle.
He was doing a monologue and they told him he was too close to the audience and to back up. He backed up. They said back up farther. He backed up farther. They told him to back up farther. He asked how far?
They said, "Do you have a car?"
Ba-doom! Thank you! I appear here most evenings!
Re:hello (Score:2)
Really?!?
Boo! Horrible Story! Worst Story Ever! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Boo! Horrible Story! Worst Story Ever! (Score:3, Funny)
Waldorf: And that was nothing like it.
The last vestige of chilhood innocence has died (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The last vestige of chilhood innocence has died (Score:5, Informative)
Re:The last vestige of chilhood innocence has died (Score:2)
It failed with Enterprise, but I'm sure more people liked the Muppets than StarTrek.
A pity I'm too lazy to even consider contacting Disney for a price that we'd have to meet to get the rights away from them.
Disney needs their monopoly of childhood memories (Score:3, Informative)
I wouldn't get your hopes up (Score:2)
Re:The last vestige of chilhood innocence has died (Score:2)
Re:The last vestige of chilhood innocence has died (Score:2)
Well, since the films are in Windows Media format, I think the place where you can do that should be obvious.
Re:The last vestige of chilhood innocence has died (Score:2)
Try watching the dark side "switch" [pixelred.com] commercial for some help.
Statler & Waldorf weren't bad, but they aren't quite cynical enough nor funny enough to think that this will go beyond a handful of episodes.
Personally, I didn't think Bewitched deserved the savaging reviews most reviewers gave it (there have been many, many worse movies lately).
Re:The last vestige of chilhood innocence has died (Score:2)
But then I continued watching it and all of a sudden, a smile crossed my face...then when it got to Pepe the shrimp I actually had some pretty funny things. "Miss Congenitalia 2". lol.
Anyway, as jaded and cynical as I think I am, some things actually break though and make me laugh. To paraphrase Mr. Burns "I don't know much about art, but I know what I hate...and I don't hate th
Re:The last vestige of chilhood innocence has died (Score:3, Funny)
Bart: "Don't worry, amigo. Here, have a crunchy, peanut-buttery Butterfinger(tm) bar to make you forget the pain of childhood memories selling out. Aye carumba!"
Leonardo: "Whoa, hang on a sec, duuude! Eveyone knows the best comfort food for a crime fightin' turtle i
Not even close... (Score:5, Insightful)
Are any of the muppets not being pimped now? Miss piggie and kermit are selling pizza, ugg...
Re:Not even close... (Score:5, Insightful)
No longer living... (Score:3, Funny)
I was never a real muppet fan but these characters always killed me, it was sad to see that the creative team behind this little endeavor didnt make sure that the characters were "done right."
But hey, this was a first, hopefully they will take the constructive criticism and go back to work.
Re:Not even close... (Score:3, Funny)
Neither are their legacies
Copyrights may be forever, but... (Score:2)
Re:Not even close... (Score:3, Funny)
Hey, I was jusy happy to see Alf get out of rehab and pick up some commercial work. I heard his coke problem made John Belushi look like a Boy Scout.
And the "Pets.com" sock puppet get out of 'club fed' after being convicted on 'pump and dump' internet stock charges. I hope he can rehab also and become a contributing member of society.
Re:Not even close... (Score:2, Interesting)
Worse than that, remember the ads for Denny's?
With Miss Piggy ordering several large breakfasts?
Immediately followed by a shot of said breakfasts, which included bacon?
My inner child died the day I saw Miss Piggy advocating cannibalism.
Re:Not even close... (Score:1)
Re:Not even close... (Score:2)
Forced Muppet Labor (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Forced Muppet Labor (Score:2)
It's not very good... (Score:5, Interesting)
The writing is pretty bad, nothing witty or zinging about it.
They don't bad mouth it properly, even when an act was amazing on the Muppet Show they'd hate it. With this they're playing it too soft.
I think it would be hard for them to have come up with a worse idea, except maybe if it were to get into extremely bad racist jokes, violence and sexual content. That's about the only thing they could have done to make this a worse desecration of my childhood.
Re:It's not very good... (Score:3, Informative)
Now, granted, I grew up watching the muppets and I would still gladly watch them today ( reruns of course ). They were smart and funny. Simply amazing works of art.
So I went into this with somewhat high hopes.
I have to say, this is the first time slashdot has really let me down.
Re:It's not very good... (Score:2)
I thought it was pretty weak, but the shrimp got in at least two good lines.
Re:It's not very good... (Score:2)
They took two of my favorite characters from one of my favorite shows and perverted them in a horrific way.
It would be like big bird pushing viagra.
That this comes from disney is not surprising, they are one of the worst souless companies out there. That an editor of slashdot would endorse this enough to post this is the true tragedy here.
Which is why this particular editor's posts will no longer be seen by me.
Don't shoot the messenger (Score:2)
You must have been trained by the government on how and where to assign blame, weren't you?
Re:Don't shoot the messenger (Score:2)
Your logic is..baffling.
Re:Don't shoot the messenger (Score:2)
Re:It's not very good... (Score:2)
What if you ran across it on your own. Would you have the consistency to blame yourself?
Re:It's not very good... (Score:3, Interesting)
Newsflash: your childhood was not all it's cracked up to be. Atari wasn't that good, the B-52s were NEVER cool, some of the writing on the Muppet Show downright stunk. Funny? Nearly always. But rarely "witty or zinging".
I laughed. That's all that really matters. If you don't like it *gasp again!*, click your close button.
Re:It's not very good... (Score:2, Insightful)
No it wasn't, some things stand the test of time and are still good now, some things you try them out now and wonder what on earth you saw in it when you were young. Go back and watch old Muppets episodes. They were good, and still are.
Re:It's not very good... (Score:2)
Au contraire!
I thought Ops Linebacker I & II were VERY cool!
Lots of new parking lots in Hanoi...
Re:It's not very good... (Score:2)
Re:It's not very good... (Score:2)
This is the stupidest thing I've ever seen. The voices were WAY off, the acting was HORRIBLE, they weren't really all that negative at all.
I hope this is the ONLY 'episode' that is created. If they make any more, the spinning in Hensen's grave will spin him right out of it (to hopefully take revenge on those who created this crap).
--
telnet://sinep.gotdns.com [gotdns.com] -- TW2002 and LORD registered!
Re:It's not very good... (Score:3, Interesting)
And they'd make some pretty clever jabs, too- like the time when their "opinion" of the show dropped through the floor over the course of about 5 seconds.
S:"You know that wasn't half bad."
W:"It was okay."
S:"I've seen better."
W:"It was pretty bad!"
S:"It was horrible!"
W:"Booo!"
S:"Booo!"
Much of the beauty of S&W was that you ONLY saw them doing their brief little bit, and that little bit was pure
Re:It's not very good... (Score:2)
Waldorf: Just when you think this show is terrible, something wonderful happens.
Statler: What?
Waldorf: It ends!
A clue to the funeral letter... (Score:2)
There's a book an Amazon [amazon.com] called "What a Way to Go: Fabulous Funerals of the Famous and Infamous" about interesting funerals, and Jim Henson's in it. They don't have the entire letter, just a quote which might help you...
Yeah, I searched a bit and couldn't find *anything* which is odd, since I thought the entire human collective knowledge was out there
Good luck ! Post it or email me if you find it.
Re:It's not very good... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:It's not very good... (Score:2)
Yip, Yip...Book...Book (Score:2)
Sesame Street, 25 of My Favorite Memories [progressiveboink.com]
To quote the originals... (Score:3, Funny)
Sorry (Score:4, Funny)
Heard about it... (Score:2)
On the snooze-ometer... (Score:2, Funny)
That made me want to slam my head on my desk (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:That made me want to slam my head on my desk (Score:2)
WiMP?! (Score:3)
sorry disney... (Score:3, Interesting)
Better scripting fellas!
Saw the video... (Score:3, Funny)
No, not funny.
Re:Saw the video... (Score:1)
Where can I get a copy of that monster? A blackout would have great.
what the (Score:1, Funny)
i expected some witty and funny stuff and all i got was the content mafia abusing two puppets to promote their latest brain farts.
I knew this day would come... (Score:3, Funny)
Good times ahead!
Muppet Porn? (Score:5, Funny)
Does this imply some sort of Muppet porn flick? I'd watch that for a dollar!
Re:Muppet Porn? (Score:2)
Ah, but it's been done [imdb.com]
Re:Muppet Porn? (Score:2)
Re:Muppet Porn? (Score:2)
Re:Muppet Porn? (Score:2)
( Wild Muppet sex ensues )
Re:Muppet Porn? (Score:2)
Re:Muppet Porn? (Score:2)
Ugh (Score:2)
Yeeesh! (Score:1)
Hey, I liked it. (Score:2)
An aside..
Their rating of WotW was falling asleep in the beginning to be awoken by the massive explosions.
Went to see this with my dad, who actually did fall asleep during the beginning of the movie. And the explosions didn't even wake him up, I had to poke him awake.
When's the funny part start? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:When's the funny part start? (Score:2)
Run a belt down there, and have it turn a rotor that runs into a dynamo. From the current that is generated from this, power a large Disney logo sign. This will, naturally, make him spin faster. Which will make the logo brighter. Which will make him spin faster. And so on.
You can see what this leads us to. The laws of thermodynamics are being broken in this house. But perhaps not if we consider grave-spinning a supernatural force. This allows us to keep thermodynamics in most conditions
I guess I'm the only one who liked it. (Score:5, Interesting)
People have been accusing me of being out of touch with the rest of the world. I guess this cements it.
I thought it was funny, and the kind of thing I'd watch every week. Not super funny, mind you, but good enough to see again.
Re:I guess I'm the only one who liked it. (Score:2, Funny)
-Peter
Re:I guess I'm the only one who liked it. (Score:3, Insightful)
Beside, on
Re:I guess I'm the only one who liked it. (Score:2)
Way Off.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Way too much chatter, and far too 'happy'.. it's supposed to be short glib responses that are cynical and comedic, not conversational or 'talk-show-host'.
Way to totally miss the boat on this one, this is a disgrace.
Not as bad as suggested. (Score:3, Interesting)
Just not the same anymore. (Score:4, Insightful)
Richard Hunt, who was the original voice of Waldorf, he passed away in 1992. Jim Henson was the original voice of Statler and the world lost him back in 1990.
It seems that the new voice of Waldorf is now being performed by Dave Goelz who is the voice of Gonzo the Great, Fozzie Bear and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew. While, now, Jerry Nelson is doing the voice of Statler. Mind you, it's a reprise of the role. He played it in one of the original pilots for the show, 'Sex and Violence'.
All in all, the new voices completely bother me. I have to say that the new voices bother me more than anything else about the new Muppets. It makes it very difficult to try and be objective about the new Muppets when Jim Henson was personally responsible for many of the characters' voices.
Re:Just not the same anymore. (Score:2)
Re:Just not the same anymore. (Score:2)
Bill Barretta [imdb.com] has performed Pepe the Prawn since "Muppets Tonight" back in 1996.
He also does that voice for Pepe in the new "Muppets Wizard of Oz".
I don't believe Pepe existed prior to "Muppets Tonight".
Re:Just not the same anymore. (Score:2)
Re:Just not the same anymore. (Score:2)
Miss Congenitalia! (Score:2)
Best line - and it wasn't even delivered by Statler or Waldorf.
They need a new compatriot in the balcony - somebody named Hilton would do...
How are those trousers coming?
This is news? (Score:2)
Re:Proprietary WMV files = crap (Score:1, Insightful)
And MOV is better? (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh, and if I actually want to watch it fullscreen I have to PAY for the damn privilage... I don't think so.
Ridiculous anti MS drivel.
And yes, I know there are alternatives to using quicktime itself... but there are for wmv files too... I didn't write the first post did I?
Re:And MOV is better? (Score:2)
The parent post mentioned nothing about
But when I went and saw WMP load in Safari, I clicked out. Not because I'm anti-MS, but anti any propriatory format posted online -- it's just tactless and shows a complete lack of understanding of just what the hell the internet is.
Personally, the only acceptable file format for the web at large is mpeg.
As an aside, I agree with your rant about
Re:And MOV is better? (Score:2)
Some codecs used in QuickTime like Cinepak and Sorensen are proprietary, but (for example) MPEG-4 is not. (Although MPEG-4 does involve patents, licenses are available to anyone.) Not like WMV, where every codec has to be reverse-engineered.
Ridiculous anti-Apple drivel.
Re:And MOV is better? (Score:2)
Yes, but at least MOV files play correctly. I guess I shouldn't expect much, but on my Mac wmv files have never played correctly and the player itself is awful. With the QT viewer at least the sound and video stay relatively synced and you can play the thing back as many times as you like without having to re-stream. Or whatever is happening when you click the play button in Windows Media
Re:Pepe's description of Miss..... (Score:2)
Quicktime sucks. (Score:3, Insightful)
How can you be so enamored with a player that doesn't even support playlists, anyway?
Re:*waves hand* (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I remember the Muppet show (Score:3, Funny)
Statler: I can't beleive it's come to this.
Waldorf: Well, it can't get any worse.
Statler: They made me smile! And for a movie I didn't even see!
Waldorf: You think that's bad? I'm still waiting for this freak to get his hand out of my butt!