Bits and Pieces

Bits & Pieces by Alan Turkus, flickr

​Since last week’s blog offered two posts for the price of one (and since I've been battling a bad cold), I thought I’d offer just a few light bit and pieces I’ve run across this week that you might enjoy.
 
Two follow-ups from the Emmys last week (and then I’ll be done with TV and the Emmys for a while, I promise. I realize not everyone likes TV and, even more, not everyone has the premium cable channels that many of those nominated shows are on).
 
I was surprised to hear host Jimmy Kimmel actually use the g-word (that’s genre, for anyone new to this blog and my ability to see genres anywhere and everywhere). Kimmel's comment on genre,

​With talk shows all hosted by white male nominees, the genre is ironically titled Variety

Shakespeare showed up at the Emmys, too, with remarks on the genre of comedy. Or at least that’s how Damon Wayans Jr introduced his category

​“Shakespeare said there is no comedy more pure than the Variety sketch.” 

Shakespeare by Jeremy Tarling, flickr

Following up my posts on the syllabus, I saw Kevn Gannon's first post on the DIY Syllabus this week. He comments on the statements of institutional policies overtaking the original purposes of a syllabus, and advises a return to the learning-centered syllabus. This is first of a series, he notes, so his topic would be worth following.

The comic strip Candorville reprinted a strip from 2014 that reminded me of Amy Schumer’s take on comedy skits (I wrote about it in one of my earlier posts about whether we all just follow genres thoughtlessly, like sheep). Two guys standing at a bus stop. One comments on the local sports team, the other on the weather. When the first objects about the different topic, the character says it makes no difference what you actually say. "Stranger-small-talk be interchangeable, Bruh. It never mean nothin' no-way."
​
Darrin Bell of Candorville has played with genre expectations before. In another strip, his character writes a realistic screenplay that has the audience watching characters search for a parking space for half an hour. A convention we probably don’t even notice, the routines of daily life that stories skip right by. As the character’s friend replies,

Cliches are clichés for a reason”

So for your viewing pleasure and to give you a laugh, here is the skit from Inside Amy Schumer, from Comedy Central, that shows the sitcom's cliched genre conventions degenerating into empty blathering.

I hope you'll share any follow-ups to our topics that you run across. May your week be filled with only the cliches that still work for you, and may the bits and pieces of your week help you smile