"Phineas and Ferb" TV Show

That cartoon show on Disney, “Phineas and Ferb,” is awesome.  I love how they randomly break into song at random times throughout the show.  I want "Kids, Defeat That Gelatin Monster" as my new ringtone.  Do you have any idea how much work, thought, planning must go into that show to come up with several songs per episode?  I remember some a&e reviewer saying about the show “Glee,” that the writers could not possibly come up with original songs for every episode.  Well, Phineas and Ferb does it.  They can handle it, so why can't Glee?  I love all the characters.  Question-- why does Ferb have a British accent if he’s American?  Answer-- he gets that from his father.  Um, yes, but--

Moving on.  I love the character Baljit, the sweet nerdy science-y, very high-frequency-voiced Indian kid.  You see, Asians meaning Far Easterners have been in popular culture for so long that they have been gaining cool ground; they are no longer seen as science nerds.  However, South Asians, individuals from the Indo-Pak subcontinent, are just recently entering pop culture.  Many people are not aware of them yet, so I am happy that the “Phineas and Ferb” creators have acknowledged this rather sleepy cultural trend that is barely tiptoeing in the snow towards us.

One theme of the show that demonstrates how ingenious the creators are...
....and the thing that drives Candace the older sister completely batty... is the fact that one problem solves another problem.  Somehow it always works out that Doofenschmirtz Evil, Inc.'s latest R&D project renders moot Candace’s latest complaint about her brothers.  Doofenschmirtz manages to cancel out any ricochet [[[or delayed-reaction]]] effects on society or the space-time continuum that Phineas and Ferb’s latest endeavor causes.

I don’t know why this show receives almost no media hype whatsoever.  Whereas that other show, SpongeBob Squarepants, has been hailed everywhere, from SNL to Conan Obrien, to MSNBC.  It made a huge splash on the collective psyches of our nation, and it is forever ingrained in our sense of selves.  (By no means do I mean to malign SpongeBob of course.  I love SpongeBob; I totally named my kitchen sink scrub brush after him.)

"Community" TV Show

I only recently started watching the television show "Community."  Yes I had heard about it before now; I understand the first season just ended with the 2009-2010 season.  I had seen the pre-air promos way back last summer.  But the few times I caught the show on TV, I always happened to catch the very few, very boring episodes.  Like the paintball episode.  I swear I've seen like a million TV shows where the people take a game of paintball waaay too seriously.  And there was the psychology episode where the students finally start taking notes on the psychology teacher, kinda predictable.  In related news, maybe I watch too much TV.  Anyway, on to more optimistic things.

I love the speed and pacing of this show.  Jokes come at you fast and furious, a hundred miles a minute. By the time the first joke sinks in, they've already delivered the next one.  Try to keep up, sweetie.  Plus, I can relate to the show because I went to community college myself.  And I gotta say, whoever does the set design, has it absolutely on the money.  I wonder if they film on an actual vocational/technical college campus.  The libraries, the study rooms, the dean's office, all that good stuff, that really is what a community college looks like.  And I am loving that school spirit clap thing that keeps playing in the background throughout the first episode.

Boring shows that are full of themselves and so enamored by their own witty selves like “The Office” get awards and crap out the wazoo, get hyped everywhere by everyone in the media.  And "Community" gets no recognition, nothing.  I didn't even bother to pay attention to this show until I happened to be watching NBC one late spring evening and they were running a "Community" marathon.

I like the way that the jokes are deployed.  A lot of other shows will set up a bon mot or observation, and then will immediately, apparently to rebel, will demonstrate the complete opposite as an exhibition of the opposite extreme to tear down the set-up.  Even some of our beloved favorites do this:  The Simpsons, 30 Rock, Scrubs, there are others.  But “Community” doesn’t do that.  They are much more creative, and somehow always get me.  Witness this exchange during the Christmas episode, between the Joel McHale character and the bully.

***Update:  Darnit, youtube removed the video.  That stinks.  Well, take my word for it, it was funny.

I didn’t think he was really going to be so naive as to actually try that…  Oh wait, he did.  Admit it, it’s not original to see victims try to stand up to the bullies on TV.  "Community" is building upon the jaded cynical audience who have seen tons of the same crap recycled on TV -- we have seen victims stand up to bullies and it worked; more recently we have seen victims stand up to bullies and it did not work because the TV show was trying to be irreverent and wanted to show the painful truth behind all that feel-good psychology crap.  So we're really not sure what direction "Community" will go.

However, the constant other-TV-show references merely make them seem waaaaaaaayyyyy too self-conscious.  It’s like they are shifting uncomfortably in their seats and saying in a slightly whiny voice, "We know.  We’re going ahead and accusing ourselves of this before anyone else can.  We’re going on the offense and preemptively addressing ourselves so that no one else can accuse us of it."

It’s like they're trying to prove too hard that they are uncomfortably aware that they are picking and choosing little bits and pieces of inspiration from all manner of TV shows that have come before them.  Then the writers and producers and directors thrust some reels into my hand.  "Yeah... we know the places that we are taking cues from.  Here are the spools that we found to prove it.  Preemptive strike."  Still, funniest show I have seen in a while.