20
December
2007

Episode 52 of Upon Further Review!

We’re back, and just in time for the holidays–if you’re a last minute podcast shopper, welcome to the world of Upon Further Review! In Episode 52, we thank listeners for feedback and suggestions before moving on to the reviews: first, we contemplate mortality and minor characters as we look at Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead; second, we look at laughter and live audiences (do those go together?) with our review of Saturday Night Live; and finally, we hear the word (lots of them, actually) with our take on The Word Nerds podcast. As always, we appreciate all of your suggestions, feedback and continued support (our audience is continuing to grow!)–and as always, we ask that you pass the good word (as many of them as you like :) ) to others! (As usual, podsafe intro music is provided by Sharif (“You’re My Girl”), outro by David Henderson (“We Gotta Go”).)

Reviewed in this show:

Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead

Saturday Night Live

The Word Nerds

10 Comments

  1. idiosyncratic idiot:

    Hey guys, thanks for reviewing the show I sent to you. Now while I agree with some of of the points you made (specially about the long and recurring intro), I feel you were a bit on the stingy side when it comes to the final rating.
    The Rosencrantz and Guildestern thing had me cracking myself up here, it is hilarious, somewhat monty-pythonesque. Just found the script, gonna read it for sure.

    That’s it. Laters,

    i.i.

  2. live music » Blog Archive » Episode 52 of Upon Further Review!:

    […] Read the rest of this great post here […]

  3. admin:

    Hey i.i.–well, Greg and Clea were a little split about the show themselves. Probably it would have received a 7.5 if we had half points, but you know how Clea feels about those… :) And yeah, R + G is pretty cool. It’s grown on Greg a little bit since he first saw it…and it helps that he was more awake the second time! Definitely check out the movie if you get a chance.

    Thanks for the ideas, and please keep the suggestions (and comments) coming!

    T.R.

  4. Michael:

    Great show as usual. :) Thanks for the correction regarding my role on Garden Defense. Unfortunately, I’m not looking for a new job, as iWin was a bunch of jerks and laid us all off after we finished. Sigh… Not cool. But oh well, we made a good game. Hopefully I get to keep doing that elsewhere! Glad you managed to beat it, Greg! Hope you had as much fun playing it as we did making it! Happy New Year!

  5. Michael:

    should have been I’m *now* looking… not “not” looking. :p

  6. admin:

    Hey Michael…WHAT?!? We say more about this on Episode 53 (which should be out in the next day or so), but briefly, that’s ridiculous. We’ll be uninstalling iWin stuff posthaste. Still, we’re sure you’ll find a good (better!) job soon…please keep us posted.

    T.R.

  7. Upon Further Review » Episode 53 of Upon Further Review!:

    […] New Year’s resolutions (okay, it’s not that shocking, but it is revealing!) and warn iWin of our displeasure with their latest action before moving on to the heart of the show:  first, we […]

  8. DrumIntellect:

    Sorry for the late response.
    I’m a little behind right now.
    Thanks for the endorsement and we are glad you enjoy the show.

    I read the book a while back (my favorite sojourner recommended it to me), but I didn’t know there was a movie version. I would like to see it.

    I agree wholeheartedly with the complaint against SNL for dragging bits on for too long. I think SNL tends to rely too heavily on slapstick and visual gags, but I understand it harder to write witty banter and clever scenarios than it is to show someone with huge feet or huge hands or whatever.
    I wanted to like MadTV because I really like Mad Magazine, but, at least in the first couple of seasons, it was dreadful. (If SNL drags a dead joke for 3 minutes longer than it should, MadTV will drag it 6 minutes.) Plus, I never understood their signature joke (some Asian lady saying “It looka like a man” see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MADtv_recurring_characters under “Ms. Bunny Swan”). I couldn’t figure out why it was supposed to be funny, since she was obviously saying it just to annoy whoever was asking her the question.

    Michael, I’m sorry about your lost job. Hopefully soon (or maybe even already) the first version of you post will be true and you will have a new job and you will “not” be “looking for a new job”!

  9. admin:

    Hey DI, good to hear from you. And yeah…Greg especially has some issues with MadTV, although the “iRack” skit is really funny…you should check it out if you haven’t seen it. Amen to your comments about Michael–iWin has been warned on our latest show! :)

    T.R.

  10. classic chris:

    Clea, Greg,

    Thanks so much for taking my suggestion!! I just love Stoppard, and hope others are moved to enjoy him, as well.

    Regarding SNL, I’m a fan of the dream team in the 90’s (Farley, Sandler, Spade, Hartman, Rock, Schneider), and there was a good season or so in the Will Ferrell era, but the show really does seem to ride on its brand at the expense of quality. It’s almost as if it becomes self aware and then gets ruined — did anyone else notice how the show was actually getting pretty good a few years ago under the leadership of Tina Fey, until it became a big deal that Tina Fey was the head writer, and then it promptly plummetted back toward the levels of the Anthony Michael Hall era ?

    Word nerds is right up my alley, so I look forward to getting it into the pipeline. Thanks for always finding those cool niche podcasts, it keeps me motivated to listen to all kinds of podcasts, which helps me make times like the daily commute much more valuable.

    See you on 53!

    – chris

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