Paul Simon, Kodachrome, Coneheads Highlights!

Posted in Paul Simon, SNL, Youtube Favs on October 1st, 2011 by Willie

I was sitting around in Portland, Maine yesterday with nothing better to do, when on came the “Coneheads” movie.  I haven’t seen in quite sometime, but its one of those movies where you just have to sit through the whole thing.  I was amazed at the parade of 90s comedy superstars appearing in one scene after another.  Not only did you have original SNL stars Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin in their iconic roles, you had Seinfeld stars Jason Alexander and Michael Richards, mega comedy stars Adam Sandler, Phil Hartman, and Drew Carey, and even film indie stars like Parker Posey and Joey Lauren Adams.  When the film was released, it was a commercial dud, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t a cult classic. It contains Chris Farley’s best supporting role ever caught on film, where he plays the unlikely love interest Ronnie, and its riffs on the US immigration experience and laws are spot on and brilliant.  Anyway, I couldn’t get enough of the film, especially the scene where Beldar Conehead gets a 35 mm Kodak camera filled with glorious Kodachrome color film, and shoots his life on Earth with his family in the late seventies and eighties.  It’s a brilliant sequence set to Paul Simon’s classic hit song, “Kodachrome,” from his 1973 There Goes Rhymin’ Simon record.  Bit of trivia, the song was banned by the BBC in England for its use of a trademarked commercial item in the lyrics…kinda unfair considering how much commercialism is imprinted on our lives…just ask Andy Warhol.  So below, check out a sweet homemade “Kodachrome” video someone made, as well as the trailer for the legendary “Coneheads” film….See you next zearl!

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The Liberal, SNL

Posted in Fun and Crazy, SNL, Youtube Favs on March 15th, 2011 by Willie

Woohoo, another comedy video sets off part 19 of my youtube countdown.  This one, “The Liberal,” is from the height of the Reagan universe in the mid 1980s.  It starts off with one of SNL’s greatest dopey theme songs sung by what sounds a chorus of Phil Hartmans.  Anyway, the political themes and jokes expressed in this sketch are utterly timeless.  Conservatives still think poor people are lazy, liberals still believe in birth control, conservatives still accidentally shoot themselves, or their friends, hunting (see Cheney), and liberals are still on the run, abused, and shamefully hiding their core beliefs so as not to offend their conservative opposition.  This all adds up to an insanely genius sketch.  Enjoy.

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