#i love being silly i love HUMOR i love COMEDIE i love FRIVOLITY i love HAVING FUN

[2n2n]

How did you find out about JSHK? I mean it’s not that well-known so I’m curious about it, personally I wanted a peaceful manga *cough cough* but I definitely don’t regret it! It gave me so much emotions… to me it’s a masterpiece

Well. I don't know how to say this. I'm sorry if this isn't the answer you wanted. I'm just... a shotacon... by design.... by nature, so, I've been 'aware' of its existence for a long time, as anything within my interests comes to be known. 'The grapevine', I suppose? I'd seen manga panels just floating around, like this, for years

I actually wrote it off initially because, while Hanako looked great, I don't actually get much out of the BL-bait-y genre haha (sordid past). I thought it was probably of a similar tenor to Black Butler, or even something like Ouran Highschool Host Club. That kind of... genre-referential humor, wackiness nonsense... as it was a shounen, probably interspersed by fighting or something... I didn't really want to bother. If I chased after every manga with some nasty black-haired boy.................. the TOILET themeing KINDOF increased the impression that it would be an onslaught of off-color gags, LOL. This image was really like, "ok, looks like he's putting a condom on his tongue, Like Those Images You Know"-- DIDN'T HELP HIS CASE!

Whenever anyone of my general interests liked it, they also treated it as a nasty manga? I guess I never observed anyone who really stanned it; anyone I knew tangentially even was like, "hot twin stuff" "skanky ghost boy" so I was like, I don't really need that ... *shrugs*

It's kinda interesting, you know, but I feel like almost all chatter misrepresented the manga? Whether it was, "it's a funny peaceful silly comedy" or "it's a dirty fuckfest", neither actually pays dues to the heartfelt, romantic, carefully woven nature of JSHK. The story itself. I agree with you, it's a masterpiece. And reading Iro's other writing, and seeing Aida + Iro's friendship over the many years (they post so many chats and convos... from their old blog to twitter), ah there's this unbelievable charm and charisma, a wonderfully infectious energy....? It's so unique. I guess all the frivolity of the manga, that's also kinda present in AidaIro's entire online presence over years, whether Aida is tattling on Iro for stealing the Bavarian cream off her parfait, or Iro's reporting a nightmare they had about a scary MILF chasing them + Aida, or Iro's mishearing Aida saying 'gingerbread' as 'ginger blood' to a cashier, or the both of them discussing what panties characters of theirs would wear, it's all heartfelt... it comes out in the manga, maybe. I'm more familiar with a typical slightly contentious Mangaka+editor relationship...

There are a ton of images and pages that I think, "I would have read this in a heartbeat if you'd only showed me this first". Aida's art alone is drop-dead gorgeous and I never saw anyone pointing to the background composition, color blocking, expressions, etc, which would have totally sold me instantaneously too... I was either seeing the most salacious caps or panels, or the more plain stuff, something funny maybe, I wasn't being shown like, this stuff.... (I know some things are more recent, just bare with me for what I have saved already to give an IDEA)

I was never given an impression it could be so loving, so careful, so impassioned, so loaded with delicate themes and symbols...

EVEN SPEAKING TO MY MOST CRUUUDE NATURE, you could have forced me to read JSHK instantly by showing me this image...............

I would have said, "I gotta-- gotta get in that," ahaha...

for the record though the nastiness is still... there, and a charm point of it all, it's just kinda fascinating it is threaded with all the heartfelt stuff. I mean Iro will be out there joking that if you tell 100 dirty stories rumor is the Molester Woman will show up. They are. Irreverent and the manga IS loaded with salacious imagery, its actually just... more, interesting, the interplay of all of this, watching it all happen. Feeling like I'm going to cry and also feeling like, baited. I do not think I have ever read anything that did both make me think and feel agony and also make me look at tied up boys. Sometimes at the same time....

#avvy's JSHK

[montyterrible]

Puss in Boots, Interest in Plot

There are fairly heavy spoilers below for Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and lighter spoilers for The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

Watching Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) so soon after The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) really helped me further suss out my issues with the latter through contrast with the former.

The 2011 Puss in Boots was kind of a huge surprise for me in terms of quality when I finally watched it last summer. I had skipped it when it first released, along with a lot of other animated films, because I was in that period C.S. Lewis describes in the dedicatory letter addressed to his goddaughter Lucy Barfield at the beginning of his famous novel The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: “I wrote this story for you, but . . . I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales. . . . But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.” Lately, I’ve felt myself sort of coming back around like Lewis describes, and I’ve been catching up on some things, like Puss in Boots.

As I suggested before, the first film surprised me with how “good” it seemed to be—specifically, or most relevantly to this piece, how much of a genuine, enjoyable adventure movie it was, in contrast to the more wry, pop-culture-indebted Shrek film franchise it spun out from. It felt quite separate from those movies, and while I was initially a bit worried about The Last Wish when I saw and felt a stronger link between it and Shrek (via some quick cameos and perhaps a marginally pop-ier soundscape and some level of silliness), it eventually settled into the sort of more dramatically satisfying mode I wanted, and I ultimately enjoyed it a lot, which was a stark contrast to my experience with The Super Mario Bros. Movie,when I just felt like the plot washed over me without much impact, without, we might say, “emotional friction.”

When The Last Wish was new, there was some… discussion online (or at least on Twitter) regarding its depiction of a “realistic panic attack”—what started as a praise and became a lightning rod for mockery. As I was reflecting on the movie after watching it, I found myself thinking about that scene, though not exactly in terms of its portrayal of a mental health issue.

In brief, The Last Wish focuses heavily on Puss having lost 8 of his 9 lives in frivolous ways over the years. Down to his last life, he’s being pursued by the physical manifestation of Death, which wants to kill him for his lackadaisical approach to living in the past. The periodic encounters with Death are presented quite dramatically and borderline horrifically, with Puss experiencing panic/fear/terror at the prospect of losing his life (for good). The “realistic panic attack” is a result of one of these encounters and is where Puss finally allows his new companion, “Perrito,” a wannabe therapy dog, to comfort him, and he also then opens up to Perrito about a falling out with his love interest from the 2011 movie, Kitty Softpaws, that occurred between that film and this one.

The reason this scene stuck with me, post-viewing, is because I realized it was such a good example of what The Super Mario Bros. Movie lacked—friction, and a willingness to let conflicts develop and breathe. So much of the conflict in that other movie felt perfunctory to me, like it was just going through the (Mario-colored) motions of having any kind of dramatic elements. The panic attack scene (and other Death encounters) also stand(s) in contrast to the trend that I hate in writing, filmic or otherwise, where moments of tension are so frequently undermined with “comedy.” Balancing humor and tension is a good and fine thing, but this tendency to not trust the audience—of children or adults—to sit in a moment and feel it for what it is bothers me.

Mario pays lip service to certain internal and external conflicts—the upcoming fight with Bowser, Mario and Donkey Kong trying to make their fathers proud—but I just never really felt those conflicts. The victory over Bowser was obviously guaranteed, and I just didn’t feel the fathers’ disappointment in any meaningful way. Like I said before: “Perfunctory” is the operative word here.

Meanwhile, The Last Wish has other good examples of letting conflicts be felt. The way it adapts Goldilocks and her bears is a great example: They start as just a Shrek-ified subversion of the original fairy tale (since they’re kind of rough -looking and -talking criminal types), but then the question of how all four of them are going to get what they want from a single wish is introduced, and we start to realize that “Goldi” has her own private idea of what the wish will be that puts her at odds with the “family.” We later find out that she wants to wish for a real (read: human) family, which explicitly puts her in conflict with the other bears’ wishes and how they feel about her, but they resolve to still help her anyway because they love her, and then the climax of their story arrives when Goldi gives up a chance to seize control of the titular “last wish” during the all-hands scuffle at the end of the movie and chooses to help save Baby Bear instead. And she and the bears then help Puss and company destroy the magical map to both prevent the evil Jack Horner from getting his own wish and because they already have what they want, we’re told. This is a storyline and conflict that is teased and revealed and that develops and transforms over the course of much of the film’s runtime, offering tension and a certain amount of uncertainty regarding its final outcome.

There are certain things in The Last Wish that are essentially predetermined: We can assume that Jack won’t get the wish (given how obviously catastrophic it would be) and that Puss probably won’t die, and savvy viewers will probably guess that Goldi will give up on her wish as well just based on how these stories usually unfold; however, there are still unknowns here: Like, at one point Perrito seemed to bond with Goldi and the bears, which made me wonder if he’d end up with them in the end as his new family, and no one getting the wish was actually kind of a surprise I hadn’t anticipated either…

What’s critical is that The Last Wish gives its internal and external conflicts room to grow, which is a little surprising given just how many characters are involved. It’s willing to let things linger and develop. Puss’s comedy beard that he grows when he’s feeling washed up is a fun little example. I thought for sure that the beard would just disappear between scenes once he started being more active again; however, it sticks around for a while, until he specifically begs Kitty to shave it off, which is both a funny moment and an opportunity for the conflict between the two to bubble to the surface and be teased ahead of the panic attack scene. Puss is also missing his signature swashbuckler’s blade for most of the film, which changes how he has to fight—first with a stick and then with a little dagger given to him by Kitty. It’s a fun, lasting wrinkle and also an obvious symbol. That sword has essentially been part of Puss since his first appearance in Shrek 2 (2004), and him losing it during the first encounter with Death, when his intense fear is introduced, but regaining it during the final bout, when he overcomes that fear, is a symbolic gesture on top of adding to the drama and comedy. He’s recovered a critical part of himself and is willing to once again fearlessly dance upon the razor-thin edge between life and death that the slender, almost delicate, blade could also be said to represent.

Having said all that, obviously one movie does not need to be written exactly like another one. It’s possible to mischaracterize what I’m saying here as “Mario needs to be Dark!” (because The Last Wish is tonally overall a bit more dramatic and serious), but that’s not it—It’s that one movie treats its conflicts more thoughtfully and credibly, while the other does not. Mario is welcome to stick with “easy,” “light” stuff like a lack of fatherly acceptance if it wants, but it could at least execute that stuff competently so that it actually feels like it matters, and that’s what The Last Wish does.

While I don’t know that I’d claim with any real certitude that The Super Mario Bros. Movie is “condescending” toward children, that is one thing that C.S. Lewis essentially says not to do in his essay “On Three Ways of Writing for Children”: “That is the proper meeting between man and child as independent personalities. . . . An author . . . . is not even an uncle. He is a freeman and an equal, like the postman, the butcher, and the dog next door.” Movies like the Puss in Boots duology or Arthur Christmas (2011—another animated movie I should not have “skipped” years ago) seem to me to embody that principle well. They’re created/written at a level appropriate for children, but they don’t use that as an excuse to do nothing but fart jokes, or to skimp on their conflicts.

#movies #movie review #puss in boots #puss in boots the last wish

[comradekatara]

finally, stupid asks are allowed. what do u think abt the atla girls' haircare routines? how DOES mai get that shine 24/7?

katara’s hair looks an awful lot like mine so i’m just gonna go ahead and assume that it’s naturally that perfect. she only brushes it right after she’s washed it bc otherwise it would get frizzy. it’s wavy enough that it’s easy to braid, and falls in different curl patterns depending on the wash cycle and the humidity. she favors a certain type of conditioner, but actually it doesn’t matter bc her hair will always look great no matter what. yes this is a brag

ok the idea that toph is able to put her hair in that ridiculously complicated updo every day is absurd to me. i know she’s an earthbending genius, but is she also a hair genius??? lets be honest, toph’s hair is one of life’s great mysteries... 

ty lee’s hair is wavy erring on the side of curly, and it’s super long, so she just braids it twice a day – once in the morning and once again before bed, so that it stays out of her face and doesn’t get tangled. it gets frizzy but it doesn’t matter bc it’s in a braid at all times so no one notices. her bangs are super fluffy & cute. in the rare moments that anyone sees her with her hair down she looks so angelic and radiant that mai feels as if she might spontaneously combust 

suki probably has some really complicated haircare routine bc she knows that it’s too short to just put in a bun when it gets greasy. she puts hair oil on at night and is always making sure it looks shiny without looking too thin either. she’s traumatized by how greasy her hair got at the boiling rock and she never wants to have stringy, damp hair like that again. but she’s also obsessed with making sure that it looks effortless, so when people ask she’s like “yeah i barely even brush it haha” 

mai’s hair is just naturally shiny bc it’s so straight, she can literally comb thru it with one of those fine-toothed combs that have always eluded me. her hairdo, like toph’s, is also ridiculously complicated (it’s a rich girl thing) but she knows how to pin it up like second nature at this point. tho once she gets in a life-altering fight with her parents, she decides to just straight up shave her head. she grows it out again afterwards, but it was fun to be bald for a bit. twinning w/ aang :) 

azula’s haircare routine WAS normal (as normal as fire nation royalty can be about their hair, that is) until her mom started talking to her thru the mirrors..... and well...... u know the rest (i am also of the belief that eventually she gets a buzzcut) 

zuko meticulously shaved his head every single day for three years, then he chopped his ponytail off and proceeded to not brush his hair at all for months. at this point, it’s safe to say his hair basically just has a mind of its own, and may as well be its own character on the show

sokka stops shaving the sides after his dad tells him he’s proud of him. i know it’s also to blend in better with the fire nation, but i feel like that detail is important. i like to think he also puts some braids in as he gets older. not exactly the same hairstyle as hakoda, bc the wolftail is iconic, but smth to illustrate how he’s matured

aang shaves his head every day. hows that for a haircare routine

#the gaang and #this ask is weirdly topical considering the art im about to post..... #hmmmmmM!!!!! #i love hair symbolism #but know nothing about haircare tbh #bc i was blessed with the worlds most perfect hair already #love and light <3 many blessings <3 <3 #asks #romanarcadia #also fwiw i am not opposed to stupid asks as long as theyre topical #i love being silly i love HUMOR i love COMEDIE i love FRIVOLITY i love HAVING FUN #as long as said fun still involves some sort of... uhhhh..... using ya brain #u feel me?

[unnursvanablog]

The TV shows I watched in 2020 / part 2.

Episodes I finished: 😊

Snowpiercer: I wasn't sure if it could live up to the movie and in my opinion it didn't even get close to it. I wasn't into the murder mystery. After a few episodes I was just watching it with one eye.

The Last Kingdom: What can I say, I'm incredibly fond of period shows. The Last Kingdom managed to tell a very contained story within each series that always managed to grab me and I had to know what happened next, while also raising the stakes for the next seasons and so on. I found this part of British history new and exciting and I liked the strategy and the comradery that we got to see here. This show is incredibly male centric tho and does fall into the traps that can come with that, which can be annoying.

Maximilium: Epic and sad. I really want to watch more period shows, and just shows in general, that is not contained to like British history or medieval fantasy inspired from that part of Europe. I really liked this show, I found it really pretty to watch and really well excecated.

Was it Love?: In my opinion this drama started of well. It was just some fluffy comedy with a ridiculous plot and I was just having a great time with it. But then over time, the episodes just got more frustrating and boring and so did the characters. It takes a bit of a skill to have four guys fighting for the attention and love of the main character and none of them end up being a good option.

It's Okay not to be Okay: unfortunately I thought the story here was stretched a bit too far, even though the basic story was cool and interesting. And that led to me not enjoying it. Most of the supporting characters were boring to me and therefor I got bored watching their filler scenes and product placements just so these episodes could be over an hour long. The story was not long enough to fill in every episode and it just dragged on.

Flower of Evil: I was amazed at how much I ended up loving this drama. It normally not the type of thing I go for. They were dramatic, dark and very emotional and I never knew what was going to happen, it kept me on the edge of the seat all the time. I loved it.

Cursed: this show had a really great idea, it tried to do something new with the Arthur legend. But they just weren't well written at all and just end up being a pretty big fantasy cliché.

The Medici: Masters of Florence: Neither the second nor the third series reached the same heights as the first one did for me. But still, this is a good period show. I just do not find the main character in the second and third series that interesting. He kinda irks me.

Ottoman - Rise of an Empire: A really fun and informative tv show / documentary. I knew little about the Ottoman Empire so I found it very exciting. And I do like battle strategies.

Record of Youth: I wanted to get so much more from this drama than I got. I cared so little about most of the character and even the ones I did care about didn't seem to do much towards the end. A little too slow for me, the plot wasn't interesting and I'm tired of some kdramas saying that they are about these two or more characters, but then just focus on the male character and the female lead is just there for the romance. It was a waste of both my time and Park So Dam's time.

The War of the World: A very interesting sci-fi period piece. Really well done, would have liked a better ending that answered all the questions I had, but I enjoyed the ride a lot.

The School Nurse Files: These episodes were so weird, but I mean it in a good way. I felt like I was watching a long and weird Doctor Who episode from the Russell T Davies era. They sometimes felt a little bit confusing and would have liked if the story was a bit more concise.

Lovecraft Country: This became this odd blend of horror, fantasy-adventure tale and then some sci-fi - Some of these episodes gave me a little Indiana Jones feel, which I enjoyed. At times it felt all over the place, yet it did serve a purpose. I expected more horror if anything, as I had been told it was really scary, but then I didn't really get scared. Maybe because I'm not the targed audience for these shows, as a white person from Europe. Really interesting show tho. Well worth the hype.

The Haunting of Hill House: Very cool show. I really enjoyed how each episode just raised the bar and you could start to see the story more clearer and better with every passing episode. And seeing how the house affected this family throughout their lives while we got to know the characters and their backstory was brilliant. You hate and love and understand almost every single character, as they all have their own baggage to carry. Really well made horror.

The Haunting of Bly Manor: eh, I felt like they never reached the same heights as the previous series. The story wasn't as captivating, the horror not that great, and I had already seen where the story was going long before it happened.

La Révolution: The story started slowly, but there was a really cool mystery at the center of it and this escalating tension that really just grabbed you and pulled you along. I also just really like a lot of the character. I thought it was a very interesting take on the French Revolution, and the horror elements surprised me in a really good way. I like period dramas that have horror elements to them. It's just a mix of two things I like. Visually it was stunning, it was well crafted, well acted and I'm excited to see more of there is more.

The Tale of the Nine Tailed: There was something about this drama that just didn't capture my heart, although I think the idea is cool and I really enjoyed how myths and other things were woven into the story. It always felt like it was trying a bit too hard to be like Goblin, you could see the influence there, and it just left me a little cold. The second leads and their story were also just a lot more interesting than the main ones. I got quite bored like half way through it.

Private Lives: I really liked this drama in the beginning. I loved how much it centered around the female characters and the story seemed cool. It sometimes jumped between timelines, which I did not like and I don't think it helped too much with the mystery. And once the more political aspect of the mystery started to creep in I found myself not as into it. And I wanted more comradery.

Birthcare Center: Cute and quite silly, but in a good way. It's really short, only 8 episodes in total, so it never dragged. I loved the whole cast and the dynamics that the character had and I felt like it did talk about some important topics about motherhood and the expectations set on women - says I who is completely childless. I enjoyed it, but I was not incredibly into it either.

The Crown: I don't think I have enjoyed this show as much as this season. In this season I had someone to root for and someone to emotionally connection to. A lot of the characters in this show are interesting, but very cold and distant, and I find it hard to relate to them, which can make it hard for me to fully get invested. But Diana was absolutely the heart and soul of this season and I loved her. The show needed her.

Queen's Gambit: I've never found chess interesting until I watched it in this show. I found it amazing how these episodes managed to create a whole story about chess tournaments and how it affected all of these characters. Amazing story, the characters were complex, and each episode just became more and more exciting and interesting.

Barbarians: I shall say it again! I love historical shows and period dramas. It isn't anything new under the sun, it feels a bit like other period shows such as Vikings, but I enjoyed it. I felt the story grew with each episode, with the first episodes being a bit more formulaic as they were setting up the story. But each episode always ended in a way that I just wanted to know more, there was something that grabbed me and I had to watch the next episode.

Sweet Home: quite a fun horror, and I usually really like how Korea does horror so while it did hit some sweet spots it also does follow some of the common apocalypses and horror tropes and I did think it brought too many new things o the table when it comes to these stories. I felt like a lot of episodes sort of lacked tension and just fell a bit flat.

Bridgeton: I love a costume dramas, especially like these romantic ones, with a hint of humor and a whole lot of yearning. I have a tendency to fall into such stories and people's lives, although it seems rather frivolous and unexciting to people who don't enjoy this romance. I sympathized so much with these characters and their ridiculous lives. I couldn't stop watching this show and it became all I thought about over the days I was watching it. There is something new about it, but it still rather familiar and maybe not as progressive as you might want at all times. For me, the main romance lost me a bit towards the end, but it was a great fun.

Show I did not finish: ☹

OCN Train: I am sure it was a well made show, I have not heard any bad review about it, just not the kind of drama that is really for me or to my taste. If I am suppose to watch and enjoy these types of show it sort of needs to do something amazing for me to be hooked into a murder mystery.

The Devil Punisher: I decided to try watching a drama from Taiwan again, since I had not done so for years and year. And although I thought the idea was cool, the first episodes were rather long-winded, all over the place and really about everything and nothing at the same time. So I just gave up.

Run On: I could actually feel it from the first episodes that this drama was not for me. Just not the kind of story that I am into at the moment. Mostly just about the lives of the people in it, but there is no bigger plot that pulls you forward. Too slow and light and not really about that much.

#TV Show Reviews #tv show review #Drama Review #kdrama reviews

[oldschoolgameshowguy-blog]

TJW = WTF?

A CBS Classic is Revived But Changes Nearly Everything (And Not In A Good Way)

“From Hollywood…it’s the game where knowledge is king and Lady Luck is queen...”

Sadly, the “knowledge” is largely gone from TBS’s revival of “The Joker’s Wild”, a classic CBS game show that rewarded actual book knowledge with cash and prizes of up to $25,000. Entertainer Snoop Dogg brought back a new version of this Jack Barry vehicle in October of 2017 and for those who remember and loved the original, this one is a huge disappointment. First, though, let me comment on the few plusses the show has.

It’s worth watching the show - once - to see the beautiful new set. Barry would have been proud (even envious). The designers created a stage that’s colorful, lively and engaging. You even hear slot machine sounds like you’d hear in a real casino. The 1990 revival had its own technology-driven machine – three TV monitors where the category wheels would “spin” but they weren’t terribly exciting to watch. At least with modern technology, the new Joker machine is something truly impressive.

Sadly, that’s where the list of positives end for me. There’s so many things about the new version of the show that I disliked upon viewing the premiere. The audience. The questions. The changed flow of play. And most certainly the host. If you’re a fan of Snoop Dogg, you’ll probably hate everything I’m about to say and dismiss me as a “hater”. Fine. But if you don’t know Snoop, you may agree with me. 

Snoop’s persona – at least on the show – is that of a drug-friendly casino operator party guy with a streetwise sense of humor. That, of course, is nothing like Jack Barry or, really, any other quiz show emcee of any of the classics. Even Gene Rayburn of legendary “Match Game” fame was wild and wacky without seeming stoned. And I don’t find Snoop’s manner appealing – in the context of a quiz show. As a music performer, not being all there can add to an artist’s charisma. But not for leading a vehicle like this. (Michael Strahan of ABC’s “The $100,000 Pyramid” would have been a finer choice to helm this revival. Frankly, I can think of at least a dozen other people I’d rather had been at the helm of the new “Joker”.)

Snoop is supposed to be the main draw for the show - but with the original, it wasn't about the host. It was about the game, at least for the viewers. Jack Barry was an affable host, like many emcees of the day, but he wasn’t playing a version of himself, and a seedy one at that. He was actually trying to clean up his image, having been implicated in The Quiz Show Scandals of the 1950’s. He needed to be squeaky clean. Luckily, it worked.

A good game show host - to me - knows how to set up tension and the big moments. Snoop seems too high - or high acting - to be tense about anything. It’s all about laughs, money, and that “big-ass” slot machine. If you’re watching a game, as a viewer, you don’t want to be going, “What just happened?”

Snoop has famously said “The Joker’s Wild” was one of his favorite shows growing up, and that he used to watch it with his grandmother. Why was it a favorite? Was it the big money? The set? It looks like that the oversized slot machine what fascinated him because I don’t get the impression it was the intellect displayed by the contestants. I don’t think Snoop would have done so well as a contestant on the CBS original.

The new version of the game is not a general knowledge quiz – at least, as you’d see on “Jeopardy!” with Alex Trebek. (I wish there were more examples of knowledge game shows on American TV but they’ve all but disappeared – American TV producers presume that the average viewer doesn’t find book smarts entertaining. When I was growing up, viewers had more selections – among the better of them, “The Who, What or Where Game” and “College Bowl”. Even shows like “Gambit” or “Hollywood Squares” had questions where viewers could learn something factual.)

On the new version of “Joker” questions are more about streetwise subjects or comedic themes. The category names are too silly to recount here, but I was reminded of the equally frivolous names chosen for categories on the 2000 “Pyramid” revival with Donny Osmond (which I was glad to see bite the dust). Sometimes it’s possible to be too cutesy.

Even the 1990 version with Pat Finn, disappointing as that was, had quiz questions about real topics – they were given as definitions, where the player had to define the person, place or thing Finn read off his cards. The message Snoop’s “Joker” sends is that there's zero value in knowing school subjects or facts. With who made it into the White House in 2016, this show is suitable for a “post-fact” era.

New “Joker” isn’t even the same game structurally. Designed to fit within a single-half hour, with no carry-over champions (even the current incarnation of Family Feud with Steve Harvey lets families stay five days to win a new SUV), this version of “Joker” is a contest to see who can amass the most money during game play, not whether they can reach a particular amount. That dramatically changes the game. There are fewer moments for natural tension. A wrong answer to a question can’t be picked up by an opponent for credit, as in the original version. There is no “final spin” rule if a player reaches the winning amount before players have had an equal number of spins. And a three-Joker spin is lame, as it only counts for $500 towards a daily total. There is no Joker’s Jackpot, no five-game big payoff, and no sizzle associated with getting Jokers anymore, no matter how much the audience joins in with “Joker! Joker!! Joker!!!!”

Speaking of the audience (and the players), in scanning with my eyes, I didn’t see anyone present over the age of 30.  Just a soundstage full of twenty-somethings. Snoop is probably the oldest person on that stage. The original “Joker” wasn’t so narrow in its appeal, and that might have been part of the reason it was a classic – you could see students, fathers, mothers, teachers, artists, young adults, older adults, everyone. It seems that Snoop’s version of the show basically says, “If you ain’t a club kid, or you don’t dig me, you too old.” I think lots of college students across the country who tune in “Jeopardy!” daily would disagree. (I was also non-plussed by the standing ovation at the beginning of the show – I remember when standing ovations had to be earned.)

If you ran the original CBS version of “Joker” now, it wouldn't connect with Snoop’s target audience on the TBS version, because that target audience doesn't value book knowledge – at least not in this arena. Get outta here, nerds – you’re not wanted here.

I am also not a fan of “lovely assistants” unless they “work.” It seems that these days, a female assistant (it’s always gotta be a female) is comely and attractive but doesn’t necessarily have much in the way of personality. Catch 21’s Nikki was pretty but bland also. The last show with a “lovely assistant” I could handle was “Wheel of Fortune” - Vanna White may be long in the tooth, but she has depth and seems more real. On the original CBS version, Jack handled the entire show, solo – and even the 1990 revival with Pat Finn was a single-star affair.

How could this version of “Joker” ever have been green-lighted for production? Simple - times have changed. Broadcasters and production companies are greedier than ever, and ever eager to push the envelope to get a new generation of viewers, and the eyeballs advertisers covet. I suppose some of that is to be expected, but taste seems to have been lost with it. And it borders on sacrilege to take an old brand and put something else entirely with it - it’s just wrong.

“The Joker’s Wild” was never intended to be a comedy game show. There have been other game shows that were expressly designed as humor vehicles - “Make Me Laugh”, “The Hollywood Squares”, “The Gong Show”, “Match Game”, “Every Second Counts”, “Can You Top This?” - but taking a venerated quiz and turning it into a comedy vehicle isn't a good idea. If I had my way, this show would have been called something else.

Another part of the problem is that the industry itself has changed since the 1970s - indeed, the concept of entertainment is more than TV and radio - and producers, accountants and suits are greedier than ever, wanting a guaranteed success. Most folk under 30 now have TV, streaming music, social media, gaming consoles, and dating/hookup apps to entertain themselves. And so TV has to have bigger and bigger spectacles to push the envelope – witness, a game show with open drug references (“420”).

And then you have what I could call “new generation” producers – folks whose interest is in leaving their own mark on a classic genre rather than respecting what made the genre work – it’s all about them. I have seen revivals come and go in recent years, but they never stay. They all have to be edgy. They all have to be “explicit”. They all have to be bawdy. I dare one game show packager out there to bring back a classic (I’m thinking “The Big Showdown” from ABC) without retooling every g’damned thing from top to bottom for an exclusive 18 to 24 aged demographic. If I had the independent wealth and connections, I’d do it myself but...here I sit, typing a blog instead.

Richard Kline’s company tried to redo “Joker” in 1990 by changing nearly everything and it was a flop – only after several months in did they try to retool the game with classic “Joker” rules, but it was too late then. However, having seen this new “Joker”, that ‘90 version is no longer the worst.

TBS is a cable channel so they can show offerings like this. I just cannot imagine CBS running this - except as a gag. If Snoop’s “Joker” gains traction, look for an SNL parody one of these coming weekends.

If you wanted to have a game show in a night club - and all that implies - you'd get Snoop’s reboot of “The Joker’s Wild”. With the exception of the beautiful new set, there is little that a fan of the original CBS “Joker” will enjoy. “Jeopardy!” or quiz show fans can rightfully wince. And TBS? Nice gimmick, guys, but you better promote the hell out of this show to your millennial “base” to make it a commercial success.

Meantime, I will stick to reruns of the classic CBS show on You Tube.

GRADE: F

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