Comic for Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006

Posted: 12:01 am, Tuesday, January 3rd

I love that I make a strip about how it's acceptable to cry at Rudy while Ron has his Rudy Sucked but He'd Start at Boston Collitch t-shirt on. Really should've thought that one through a bit more. Oh well.

So, hey! We're all back now! Well, I think CK is still in Scotland and Crownover might still be in Arizona or something, but just about all the rest of us are back from the holidays and kicking some ass today. Or being bummed out that we're at the office. I'm going to let you guess which of the two I am.

I've been meaning to do a strip about the Extreme Makeover Home show (or, as I call it, the Mega Room Show) for a while now. (I could never remember the name of Trading Spaces back in the day, so I called it the Room Show, and that's where Ty Pennington got his start, in case you're wondering why I call it the Mega - is anyone still reading this?) 2.0 and I used to watch it all the time and we still tune in more often than not (thanks to the Simpsons sucking), and 2.0 cries without fail. Of course, it's pretty hard to not tear up in the face of the onslaught of cancer-ridden one-legged war vets with three cute-ass moppet kids who all have debilitating mold allergies and live in a Dickensian slum. And by the way, I'm not kidding about the last episode of the Wonder Years. I'm not sure who I've shared this story with, but I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've shared it on a large stage.. OK, my buddies and I all went back to campus for the first home game after gravitation back in fall of 2000 (the A&M game). I got in town first and crashed at my buddy's who was still in school. My buddy was this big Navy ROTC dude, very tough guy. So I got in Friday night and we were going to go to the Backer for the lovely atmosphere of the place, but Pentzien had to shower first. I was clicking around his cable while he was in the shower and happened across Nick at Nite and the final episode of the Wonder Years. Pentzien had been in the shower for a while already, but I couldn't resist trying to watch the last ten minutes. Of course, he comes out of the bathroom at the exact second that I'm tearing up because the music from the Natural is playing and Kevin Arnold's dad dies two years later. I think I told Pentzien I was allergic to his cat. So, um, Pentzien, if you're reading this, and I'm sure you're not, uh, it wasn't Hercules. It was the Wonder Years.

Now that I've shared that, m'ise well also share that I teared up at the end of King Kong the other day, too. Jackson got more emotion out of a computer-generated ape than George Lucas has in three generations of actors. I think Jackson should reimagine the Star Wars films next.

You know what else made me cry? The Fiesta Bowl. Well, no, it didn't, but I guess I have to address the Fiesta Bowl, huh? In haiku form:

Catch the ball, Sammy.
Somebody pick up the blitz.
I hate the Buckeyes.

Wow, that came to me with surprising ease. Um, I guess that pretty much closes the book on the season. I was 9-3 in my predictions (going my predictions, we were 12-0 and national champs), co-worker Ivor (who, it should be noted, I'm pretty sure won the season-long office pick 'em) was 7-5. Wrapping up last night's game, I will say that at least we were legitimately beat by a team - I don't think much the squad could've done would have prevented the beating last night. Hard to give up over 600 yards to the other team and still come away with the win. But, hey - Irish in '06, baby. National champs. Stone.

2.0 got me the Undeclared box set for Christmas - I mentioned it a while ago, but reserved gushing over it since I hadn't actually seen the show since it's original run in 2001-2002. Holy God, that show is brilliant. We've already watched the whole show (all 17 episodes!) and a few of the commentaries. I was already down on Fox because of their canceling Arrested Development, but reminding myself of the awesomeness that was Undeclared really proves to me that they have untrained chimps running that station. Part of Undeclared are so real that I squirmed in my seat more than I did during the first season of the British Office. I guess a lot of the show was improv, but, man, sometimes, I'm not even sure if they were filming actors or just awkward kids in a dorm room. Also, Seth Rogan: comedy genius. He was the younger friend with the tats in the 40-Year Old Virgin (directed by the creator of Undeclared) and was Ron and a co-writer of Undeclared. After a while, I just started laughing whenever he appeared on-screen. He didn't even need to say anything half the time, I would just laugh reflexively. Do yourself a favor and queue this show up on your Netflix. Of the 17 shows, there's maybe three that are just eh. The rest: super.

Also from 2.0 for Christmas: European Kit-Kat bars. If you find yourself in Europe ever, buy a Kit-Kat. They are mighty fine. Over the Thanksgiving I was in Italy, my buddy Bay and I skiied into Switzerland and ate lunch at a chateau at the top of the mountain. Bay bought a Kit-Kat. "This," he said in all seriousness, "is the best Kit-Kat I've ever had." In a shockingly un-Bay moment, he actually gave me a break, as the saying goes, and broke me off a piece of that Kit-Kat bar. It was, indeed, the best Kit-Kat bar I've ever had. And now I have a stocking full of them. Excellent.

Skied? Skiied, right? We're going with skiied.

I'm sure there are other tales of Christmas, but none are all that compelling to a mass audience.. We went to a joint bachelor/bachelorette party at a burlesque bar near Soho the other night, that was pretty cool. We rang in the new year with the ninjaconsultants and their friends, narrowly avoiding what was sure to be a disastrous experience with a bottle of Vermeer several years past its expiration date. MNP figured out how to view this site from a Blackberry, making her, I'm sure, the only person to ever view this site from a Blackberry. 2.0's friend Nikki and her fellow closed on a house. I ate at a place not only improbably named Jeremiah's, but it was also founded in 1978, just like me. The subway worked every time I needed it, that was pleasant. I mistakingly bought an album from the iTunes store while trying to use a gift certificate. If you think this is boring, imagine the stuff I decided *not* to share.

Uh, there was more, probably some links and stuff, but tOSU kicking the crap out of anything resembling a Notre Dame defensive player and/or quarterback has kind of got me down. So, yeah. I dunno. Sun'll come out tomorrow.

bullfrog

Hm, seem to have misplaced the comments from E and the Secretary yesterday.. We'll screw with that in the morning. Night, all.

Also, evidently jumped the gun in updating by a minute or two. Shoot.

also brilliant? freaks and geeks with seth rogen.

Yeah, 2.0's decided Freaks and Geeks is next up.

I wrote this post in the living room and was too bummed after the bowl game to bother getting the links up to everything - I'll be doing that throughout the day.

I've also perked up a bit because the team got manhandled in the '88 Cotton Bowl against A&M and won the title the next year, and, despite being thoroughly outplayed, we were still two plays away from getting the ball back down a score in the last two minutes. Although it would've been nice if anyone besides Zibby had played some defense.

Here is my souvenier from TX (the local website about Tom Delay):

http://www.brazosriver.com/index.html

I haven't had much time to puruse the site.

Frog,

you must have been watching the game with the sound off, because did you hear that brady quinn's sister is dating the goon from osu?

did you know what she thought when said goon sacked brady?

don't you wonder when they'll be getting married?

don't you want to know what brady quinn's sister thinks about the wildfires in Texas?

You don't? Well musberger sure did.

but he didn't ask the really important question: is brady quinn's sister just a manly woman or a womanly man or something in between.

Wait, Brady Quinn has a sister? Seriously? Was she in the stands last night? I wonder why ABC didn't ever cut to her?

Kidding aside, I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure Musberger went from Quinn's sister dating Hawk to being engaged to him midway through the third quarter. Did anyone else catch that? I'm almost positive that happened.

Yup, I definitely heard a "and Hawk has just sacked his future brother in law". But I think that was just Musberger trying to be cute (cuz he's SO good at it).

Yeah, we caught the change in relationship status, too. WHo was the girl in front of his sister that she kept hugging and groping?

There's a younger Quinn sister, could've been her.