Random Waves of Insight

A while ago I saw the final episode of "Garth Marenghi's Darkplace." Hilarious. A few days ago I watched the pilot. Outstanding. Brilliant!

I love how they've got all the "bad acting" down to a science. One guy gets upset and starts yelling and moving around. Then, as soon as he's said his lines, he resumes his original posture and completely drops the emotions he had. A moment goes by, and finally another guy says, "All right, calm down, calm down." That was great. And then later, one guy says, "Understand?" And another responds, "As crystal." It took a moment to dawn on me that the gag is very likely that "understand" was not the correct line, which should have made use of the word, "clear." (i.e., "Have I made myself clear?" "As crystal.") So one guy screws up his line, and the other guy refuses to deviate from the script, even in the presence of a verbal mismatch.

One of the most hilarious moments I found came after a guy who had unlocked the gates of Hell exploded. His head was still functioning, and he asked his friend Doctor Rick Dagless, M.D. (Garth) to put an end to the pain and kill him. He's in his hospital room, and so the Doc walks over and picks up -- a shovel! Why would that be there?! That's gotta be a gag. Then Dagless looks at his friend's head, and they both start screaming louder and louder, until that sound fades out, beautiful dramatic piano music takes over, and Dagless hits the head like a huge golf ball. It was so outrageous that it impressed me as one of that episode's funniest parts. I also liked the graveyard scene. Action-packed!

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