Patch Adams doesn't NEED a director's cut! It's long enough as it is!

First of all, I heard Tom Lehrer on the radio last night. On NPR (no surprises there, really), they played "The Wild West Is Where I Wanna Be." That was pretty cool. The only other times I can recall hearing Lehrer's music on the radio were on a kids' program (on another public radio station, natch), where they would occasionally play "The Elements," "Pollution," and "New Math." For what it's worth, I believe that same program is where I first heard "Birdhouse In Your Soul."

Speaking of unexpected things, they were showing an unedited version of The Big Lebowski on Comedy Central last night. Apparently they'll sometimes do stuff like this late at night, but I'm not exactly a regular Comedy Central viewer (I don't even HAVE cable at home), and I know their reputation is to censor the crap out of everything. I mean, I remember hearing that they censored parts of UHF.

Speaking of censorship, I also watched Cecil B. Demented. This was another movie from Netflix, delivered at the same time as Last House on the Left. Why I bring this up is that there was actually a reference to Last House (or, more accurately, the promos for it) in Cecil. Quite an uncanny coincidence, if you ask me. Anyway, I did enjoy Cecil quite a bit. There were a lot of funny swipes at the movie industry, including several references to Patch Adams. bethje had already watched the movie with commentary by John Waters, and she played some of her favorite parts for me. Waters mentioned something about how Patch Adams really disturbed him, like an old lady seeing Pink Flamingos for the first time. (For what it's worth, I haven't seen Pink Flamingos, but I have, unfortunately, seen Patch Adams.) Then he started talking about how people should start dressing up as characters from Patch Adams, and getting Patch Adams tattoos. I don't remember everything he said, but it was amusing. I also heard him talk about the Satanist character, mentioning that so many self-styled Satanists are actually little girls who listen to heavy metal music, and that he always poses for pictures with them at signings.

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Inside Your Heaven

I forgot to mention that, last night, bethje and I finally watched the last two episodes of this most recent season of American Idol. It seemed worse than previous seasons' final episodes. Maybe it's just because I'm getting tired of the show, but I seem to recall the one with Ruben and Clay, for example, being better. Of course, the songs that are written specifically for the show pretty much always suck, with the absolute worst being that "Every time you touch me, I become a hero" or whatever that they did for the charity CD this season.

I think that the show needs more sarcastic contestants. About the only time any of them will ever talk back is when the judges say something negative, and even then it's usually with something moronic, like Justin Guarini responded to a negative comment from Simon Cowell by asking the audience, "Okay, but what do YOU think?" No one ever seems to come up with a snappy answer to Ryan Seacrest's totally inane questions ("So, what's it like coming from [whatever backwoods hick town the contestant is from] to LA, and being up here on stage?"), for instance. I wonder if the relative docility of the contestants is due to something in their contracts. The thing is, when you watch the interviews with the Jaded Journalist, some (but not all) of the contestants show traces of having genuine senses of humor. But then, on the show itself, it's all zombie-like "This is the greatest thrill of my life!" crap. I guess it could just be the pressure of it all. I mean, I know that, even if I had pages of snappy retorts planned out, I'd probably choke when I was actually in front of the cameras and the audience.

I'm not totally sure why so many bad singers agreed to come on the show again. I guess they figure any exposure is good exposure. And what sixteen-through-thirty-year-old would want to be accompanied by Kenny G? Of course, you could say the same thing about Barry Manilow, and he got a LOT of exposure on the show's third season.

That said, I guess the right person won. I don't have anything against Carrie Underwood, although I can't help thinking of "underwear" whenever I hear her last name, because I have the mind of a five-year-old. Maybe now that she's famous, she can market "Underwood Underwear."

( Yes, Virginia, there are quiz results in this post )