Episode 149 - Just Sean and Hayes

[blobofsoul 504]

culture war writings

 

my contribution to the project's call for culture war is a sketching out of a typology of handbook gifs. so far i have come up with 3 types, which i will briefly explain and exemplify below.

 

crossover:

 

subsume the populace of another (qualitatively lesser) cultural phenomenon by infesting its symbols with references to the project, and visa-versa (for the duration of the subsumption). by latching on to a host project, and establishing mappings between the symbols of the different projects, the target populace is subsumed by the project (as it is the greater cultural phenomenon).

 

to maximize the financial gain of the advertisers we select host projects that align with their perception of the average hollywood handbook listener. we will be looking for people with a childlike and consumerist conception of culture, a base and cynical sense of humor, insomnia, anxieties about facial hair and / or convenience stores, no cooking skills... someone who enjoys listening to the artist demean itself, the project and the listener by performing ads.

 

in the example the project is latched onto the muppet show. this type might be accompanied with host specific content. f.ex. changing 'this industry we call showbiz'-bit of the catchphrase into 'muppets' (which is also equips the full catchphrase with powerful sexual connotations), etc.

 

 

red scare:

 

we imprint on the minds of the listener a sense of dread by exposing the listener to references to the potential cancellation of the project. exemplified in the 'card-game' this episode. this will motivate the listener when waging culture war.

 

this example uses various reactions to terror from the movie 'murders in the rue morgue'.

 

 

popular culture:

 

gramsci said that (a new) art needs to 'sink its root into the humus of popular culture as it is, ..., even if it is backward and conventional'. we will be forced to work at a high level of abstraction, because the concrete content of the project has close to zero fertile soil in the everyday life of the average human being.

 

one abstraction that has fertile soil in popular culture, and also frequently appears in the show is violence. for example: the project details how to wrestle a lion and execute police officers bare handed. violence is just one of many abstractions that could be used.

 

in the example the project is advertised an authority on racial violence (from the movie 'zulu'), which is a most popular form of violence (although the project also details f.ex. domestic violence, see carrie-anne moss).

 

[souprman 10477]

The mistake that Charlie Murphy Brown was referring to is this:

https://postimg.org/image/4qb2gfopn/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysV9QB1POas&feature=youtu.be

[Auden 1809]

wait, what's going on Auden? I see souprman mentioned some mistake he made, but what's my role in this? just so's i can prepare for the part. to be clear i am not now nor have I ever been souprman

I was making fun of souprman for mixing up Lizzy's and my name in the image he had uploaded by purposely mixing up your name with souprman's. I picked you because Charlie Murphy Brown is very different from souprman and also based on ur posts you seem v. easy-going so I figured u won't be upset to be used in a joke.

[Joe Lerini 7329]

to be clear i am not now nor have I ever been souprman

But you look so much like him when you're not wearing your glasses.

 

Also, I've never seen the two of you in the same place at the same time.

[Joe Lerini 7329]

this example uses various reactions to terror from the movie 'murders in the rue morgue'.

 

That's a great movie. Lugosi is the man!

 

gramsci said that (a new) art needs to 'sink its root into the humus of popular culture as it is

Mmmm, I love hummus!

 

one abstraction that has fertile soil in popular culture, and also frequently appears in the show is violence. for example: the project details how to wrestle

WCW Saturday Night, 6:05 on the muthaship, daddeh!

[AndrewGoll 1211]

This is for Hayes. These are the Far Sides I have on me right now. The rest are in my hometown. Have a huge collection. Loved you on High and Mighty.

[Charlie Murphy Brown 4977]

I was making fun of souprman for mixing up Lizzy's and my name in the image he had uploaded by purposely mixing up your name with souprman's. I picked you because Charlie Murphy Brown is very different from souprman and also based on ur posts you seem v. easy-going so I figured u won't be upset to be used in a joke.

 

Okay, that checks out. Thanks for including me in your retribution against soup. i thought for a second you'd gone back to your people displeasing ways. But souprman already admitted he's unstable so it is to be expected

[blobofsoul 504]

That's a great movie. Lugosi is the man!

yes, it touches (in a ghastly and violent way) on the staple HH-theme of animal / human-sexuality (gabrus vs hens), lab-scene in particular.

 

if dr. miracle wanted to prove evolution by crossing ape with a female sexual worker, assuming he knew the basics of human reproduction, it's a strech to suggest he didn't realize he should inject the ape's semen into the victims vagina, and not into their bloodstream.

 

dr. miracle definitively wasn't "hittin' it right".

[Auden 1809]

Okay, that checks out. Thanks for including me in your retribution against soup.

You're welcome.

 

i thought for a second you'd gone back to your people displeasing ways.

I never stopped.

 

Sorry, the toner for my printer is kind of spendy. Also, you have never, I repeat never called me a sweetie. It's Ok though, we're still cool.

You're a sweetie, and it would really please me if you would let me squeezie

That's high praise coming from Joe. He knows from sweet; he's the OC (Original Clementine).

[Jack Johnson P.I. 3649]

This is for Hayes. These are the Far Sides I have on me right now. The rest are in my hometown. Have a huge collection. Loved you on High and Mighty.

I was hoping they would talk more about Far Side. When I was in middle school my mom got me "The Complete Far Side" for my birthday and I read them both over at least 5 times. I remember bringing them on a road trip once and regretting it because they were so gashdang heavy and uncomfortable to read on my lap.

 

This is my fav:

[TVsFredSavage 502]

I finally googled what the character's name was on Wonder Years, which I have never seen an epidode of. Up until now, I thought all the "Kevin" stuff was a reference to Home Alone.

[Auden 1809]

Julie Klausner's favorite podcasts are HH and The Best Show. (And guys, the current season of Difficult People is fantastic.)

 

Heads up to all you podnerds, Hayes is on the latest episode of High and Mighty with Joey Garboni.

 

Jake and Amir are slackin because the ep isn't on their site yet

http://headgum.com/p...igh-and-mighty/I

 

It's up now: http://headgum.com/e...ayes-davenport/

Thanks for the heads up! The interview was delightful!

 

- Sidebar: I love that Sean mentioned Non Sequitur on this week's HH. Danae is great.

 

- Hayes and Jon don't like Mary Worth?! With strips like this?!

 

 

- Hayes had an internet girlfriend. Ladies.

 

- Sean had a tennis scholarship for college! That explains Steffi, Teen Pope, and his knowledge of Michael Chang.

 

- Hayes said something about how by the time this episode of High & Mighty airs, they might not be doing HH anymore. D: Is the show really in trouble?

[TVsFredSavage 502]

Not from me. If you dont believe me, which seems likely, I am sure one of the true heroes of the internet will just edit my comment and count on me doing nothing about it, which I wouldnt, actually. It would be nice if someone would tell my friend I am not a fucking lunatic though. Depression, ADD, and crippling anxiety do not mean I lack the capacity to be reasonable. I would even argue that I am better at it than most people.

[CiscoKid 1973]

I finally got a pic of my three roommates hanging out, could have been better but herected you guys go

 

[SteveH 11126]

 

This is my fav:

 

I don't get it

[Larry Birdemic 588]

 

I don't get it

 

If you don't get this one, you ain't never gonna "get it" my friend.

[SteveH 11126]

I was just kidding. I have a few thoughts on it...

 

The cow itself is very zen, very much in the moment. This is an in-your-face, right now cow. He looks at you directly, confronting you straight on with his own goofy existence as if to say, “Here I am, a being that makes no sense, yet here I am. Deal with it.”

The flat line for eyes is absolutely essential, symbolizing both the mental density and the bland inscrutability of a cow. One is tempted to wonder, why does a cow even have a brain? Yet it does. Go figure.

 

Before the cow we see a table, upon which have been placed four objects for our consideration. The observer naturally wishes their significance to be explained.

 

Request denied. These are “Cow Tools.” You tell me.

 

Item 1: A kind of saw. For a cow??

Larsen reflected later that the first tool was a mistake, because it looked too much like a saw. I think he’s being too humble. The cow-saw is a wonderful start to a progression of increasingly vague and ambiguous objects. What would a cow need with a saw? Note that a cow’s ability to hold onto any of these objects is the least-emphasized factor.

 

Item 2: Back scratcher? Grass hoe?

The saw was fairly obvious, a bit of symbolic hand-holding. Now we enter the next level in this Twilight Zone. It’s some kind of pole ending with a couple curved tips, and a smaller one pointing the other way. Looks a little like a garden fork, possibly a cow back scratcher…Doesn’t this require, um, fingers?

 

Item 3: Practice Udder?

Or maybe cows play curling? The guesses necessarily become wilder, because the object is more ambiguous. A kind of cylindrical protrusion sticks out, but we’re not sure we even want to know what it’s supposed to be. Shame on you for even thinking that. Troubling, thus hilarious.

 

Item 4: WTF??

Larsen finishes off the collection with the utterly vague kind of proto-tool that bedevils archaeologists. We’ve seen this before on science shows – a barely-altered lump of something that we are confidently told was used by primitive man for some exceedingly clever purpose, while we sit back and say, “Oh, really?” Meanwhile, we stumble over similar objects in our back yard, and there’s not a cow for miles.

 

What Larsen did with a few apparently crude lines was to confront us with the sadly difficult job of interpreting artifacts. The cow represents the ultimately unknowable nature of whoever might have used the little objects we find strewn about at dusty digs around the world. Could Picasso have said it with more economy? Would it be funny?

 

Now I apologize, for having explained the joke, I have systematically drained all the blood from its ability to elicit spontaneous laughter. However, having approached this singular masterpiece, it is my sincerest hope that Larsen’s other cartoons will be at least a bit more accessible. Sometimes it is not the answer that is funny, but the question.

[Spunky Foonerism 8561]

Julie Klausner's favorite podcasts are HH and The Best Show. (And guys, the current season of Difficult Peggy ople is fantastic.)

 

 

Thanks for the heads up! The interview was delightful!

 

- Sidebar: I love that Sean mentioned Non Sequitur on this week's HH. Danae is great.

 

- Hayes and Jon don't like Mary Worth?! With strips like this?!

 

 

- Hayes had an internet girlfriend. Ladies.

 

- Sean had a tennis scholarship for college! That explains Steffi, Teen Pope, and his knowledge of Michael Chang.

 

- Hayes said something about how by the time this episode of High & Mighty airs, they might not be doing HH anymore. D: Is the show really in trouble?

 

Speaking of Mary Worth and non sequeters, my mom figured out that she could download high res images of comic strip panels. She would take single panels from soap opera comics, ones that are extremely bizarre out of context, like the last panel above, and print and frame them.

 

There are a bunch of them on the wall in her dining room, but the I can only recall one of them right off the dome. It's an extreme close-up of a young woman holding what was probably a microphone but could also be a lollipop, and saying "Hot dogs are full of chemicals and chicken beaks."

 

P. S. Thanks for all the puppies and kitties! If you ever need a like from me, that's a very reliable way to get it (unless your pet is ugly). Certainly much more reliable than trying to be clever or funny.

[apocowarg 2696]

I was just kidding. I have a few thoughts on it...

 

 

You mean this blog post from 2008 has a few thoughts on it.

 

http://agonist.org/cow_tools_revisiting_a_comic_masterpiece/

[AndrewGoll 1211]

 

You mean this blog post from 2008 has a few thoughts on it.

 

http://agonist.org/cow_tools_revisiting_a_comic_masterpiece/

 

Oh, SNAP!

[lizzy 1946]

Lizzy please tell us about this weird painting.

When my parents first got the cabin like 12 years ago, that weird picture of a plane came with it. My sister and I went on a mad collage spree around the same time, and I believe she is the one who decided to put the ballerina on top of the plane. She has remained there ever since.

 

THE END; NO MORAL

[Just Add Pepper 2026]

*checks into forums for the week*

Oh, SteveH is plagiarizing old blog articles? Ok fuck this.

*closes window*

*but not before making a snarky post, baby *

[FaceLikeThunder 2114]

Internet can be a funny thing.

[Charlie Murphy Brown 4977]

Bienvenidos a una Presentación Especial. HHFFFL Episode 150 Week Four Match-ups:

 

nohorseman's Podcast Hosts doing an iTunes Review Bit & In Memory Of Vinyl Stickers on Average Cars (2-1)

VERSUS mwn's Two Nice Cold Beers & Robert Kraft (2-1)

 

Just Add Pepper's Dick Jokes, vaping hard af blowing huge clouds &being smartest kid in class but not do work (1-2)

VERSUS souprman's Knights of Columbus & the Power of David Bowie (2-1)

 

CiscoKid's Cool Breeze from Open Window, final statue of liberty scene in og planet of apes & Babe the blue ox (2-1)

VERSUS Number 1 Cheeba Hawk's Jimmy Stewart going "whahh!" in Hitchcock movies & other half of handcuff (2-1)

 

greggy's The Troops (minus Marines), Tahini sauce, kickstarter toaster & T-hanks' hair in the da vinci code (2-1)

VERSUS ButReallyWhy's Fart sound, TCOAPSAHAOTLARTiCA, 4 vintage Weird Tales & YakkoWakko.com (1-2)

 

SteveH's Roy Scheider, The Marines, Sean & Hayes & the NE Patriots (3-0)

VERSUS Joe Lerini's Mutant League Football, ASMR videos & Gluten (2-1)

 

lizzy's (Hot Mean) Draft Beer & Gord Downie's shiny leather suits (1-2)

VERSUS Engineers w Super Soakers & Sharks w Laser Beams attached to their Heads (0-2)

 

Larry Birdemic's Manti Te'o, Pokemon Go & the notion of playing season in memory of Big Floppy Guy (1-2)

VERSUS Danny Boy Wizard's The Pietá & the Memory of Big Floppy Guy Outside Car Dealerships during Sales (1-1)

 

Fabio's Socks' Half a Handcuff & Ryan Lochte's Olympic Armed Robbery Story (1-2)

VERSUS Bo Jackson from tecmo Super Bowl, Katie Ledecky & AZ Cardinals D (0-3)

 

Sunday sunday sunday!

[Asteck 1250]

A few months ago I went to the desert to look at flowers and plagiarized a Far Side comic while I was there. Cool shirt huh guys? (actually it was very hot and not cool at all haha!)