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Tim Heidecker and Gregg Turkingtons On Cinema podcast

Started by RickyGerbail, November 26, 2011, 11:46:21 AM

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McChesney Duntz

Would it be fair to posit that, with the forthcoming book (which isn't coming out here in the States until September, in spite of what others have said) and this feature, the On Cinema universe has officially caught up with the Partridgeverse in terms of multi-tendriled world building (and, if the movie's any good, which I have no doubt it will be, may wind up surpassing it in terms of consistent quality, though I'm not nearly as down on Alpha Papa as most here seem to be)? All I know is that these two cats are well on their way to be the pre-eminent US comedy titans of our time (and no slouches on the musical front - both of their recent albums are quite good). Long may they run.

Glad they're doing a movie, wish it wasn't a movie about Tim In Politics but I guess I'll take what I can get. As long as there's a strong Gregg-related side plot.

hermitical

Quote from: McChesney Duntz on July 03, 2019, 07:03:58 PM
Would it be fair to posit that, with the forthcoming book (which isn't coming out here in the States until September, in spite of what others have said)

If you're in LA you can go to the book signing at Book Soup next month

BritishHobo

Just recently started this. I always love falling for a comedy thing, and knowing you have absolutely loads of it to get through. I'm up to season three, and knowing there's enough weird material to inspire 70 pages on here is very exciting.

I was just laughing so hard at the pure mundanity of Gregg saying of Grown Ups 2 that "I'd feel strange showing it to a kid, but, that said, I'd feel great showing it to an adult."

McChesney Duntz

I envy you. It just gets richer and richer as it goes along. It's hard to impart to people who haven't experienced it (or, worse, tried one or two episodes and begged off after that) how, for example, Gregg merely saying "Hey guys!" becomes enough to make me crease up every single time. At this point, Tim & Gregg >> Tim & Eric in my book.

BritishHobo

#2075
God, you're not wrong. I mean, fucking hell, Decker. I was a bit wary of Decker as I'm not that fussed on intentionally bad parody things, but Tim's hideous acting really makes it. Just terrible to an amazing level. Completely unable to get the simplest word or name right no matter how many times he says it. Similarly I was worried that twenty episodes in season 2 would be way too much, but fucking hell what a relentless season it makes. Six episodes of Decker followed by an On Cinema with Tim and Gregg fucked and exhausted, then six episodes etc. Tim and Gregg running out of the studio to get back to production on Decker, and just leaving Ayaka and the baby sat in darkness.

I've never seen anything like this before, it's so good. Gregg has to be my new favourite character. Every time they cut to him in Decker just watching a VHS tape. Like you say, just him saying 'hey guys' is enough to set me off. I was crying at the payoff to Tim's greenscreen interview with Gregg being used in the first season of Decker.

Chollis

Quote from: BritishHobo on July 08, 2019, 09:06:07 PM
I was crying at the payoff to Tim's greenscreen interview with Gregg being used in the first season of Decker.

Ah, magnificent. Have to watch that again now.

garbed_attic

Have you got to any of the Oscar specials yet?

Danger Man

Quote from: BritishHobo on July 08, 2019, 09:06:07 PM
I've never seen anything like this before, it's so good.

Wait until you get to the trial. It's amazing.

BritishHobo

Please do yell at me if I'm doing it wrong, but I've been leaving the Oscars specials until the end. Do they fit into the bigger story much, or are they pretty standalone?

I was genuinely shaken by what Tim did to 'Klington's' collection in the Decker: Hawaii finale. Actually emotionally affected by it a little bit, even more than the madness of the season seven finale with baby Tom Cruise. A bit gutted to think I'm nearing the (current) end of this now, but also very excited and very terrified to see what else can happen in the few seasons I have left.

chveik


Chollis

pourrrr me some bubbly now it's, all you gotta do

colacentral

They fit into the story, and they have some of the biggest belly laughs of the whole thing. One nightmarish moment involving Tom Cruise Heidecker springs to mind, which I won't spoil (though I really want to).

Noodle Lizard

Quote from: BritishHobo on July 09, 2019, 10:48:32 PM
Please do yell at me if I'm doing it wrong, but I've been leaving the Oscars specials until the end. Do they fit into the bigger story much, or are they pretty standalone?

I was genuinely shaken by what Tim did to 'Klington's' collection in the Decker: Hawaii finale. Actually emotionally affected by it a little bit, even more than the madness of the season seven finale with baby Tom Cruise. A bit gutted to think I'm nearing the (current) end of this now, but also very excited and very terrified to see what else can happen in the few seasons I have left.

I would suggest watching everything in sequence - including the Oscar Specials.  A lot of what happens in those has knock-on effects in the following season(s).

Same with Decker - you really have to watch those episodes alongside the concurrent On Cinema episodes for maximum effect.  Especially during Port Of Call: Hawaii, when they're growing increasingly knackered due to flying back and forth to Hawaii to film episodes between their On Cinema duties.

BritishHobo

There's a good playlist on YouTube that has everything in order, although it doesn't have Decker from season 4 onwards, so I'm currently trying to find somewhere to watch that.

I can't believe how funny I find the most mundane lines in this show. Just the thought of Gregg mentioning the 'twenty episodes and two-hour season finale' of Decker vs Dracula is enough to set me off.

Captain Z

The first Oscar Special, while being part of the timeline, is mainly funny for watching real Tim & Gregg corpsing, and the producers obviously trying to prompt this with the stock images that pop up on screen. There's at least one moment where Tim has to turn away from the camera for a good 30 seconds or more. There's less of this as the specials go on, where the humour arises more from the characters and plot points.

I think Decker becomes more separated from On Cinema at series 4, apart from subtle consistencies such as Tim's gloved hand.

Noodle Lizard

Decker became its own thing on adultswim, more or less.  As far as I remember, Tim said they had to bargain to keep On Cinema going as adultswim wanted them just to do Decker ("an action movie but shit and zany!!")  Anyway, you'd have to torrent those seasons, but personally I only care for it up to Season 3: DvD anyway.  Once it hit adultswim proper, it became a bit more ... well, adultswimmy and had less to do with the wider OC universe.

hermitical


Noodle Lizard

Quote from: hermitical on July 10, 2019, 07:54:01 PM
what would you have to torrent?

Season 4 of Decker onwards (I believe).  The stuff that actually aired on TV.  It's not on YouTube and isn't even available on adultswim's website I don't think.

hermitical

I
Quote from: Noodle Lizard on July 10, 2019, 08:08:02 PM
Season 4 of Decker onwards (I believe).  The stuff that actually aired on TV.  It's not on YouTube and isn't even available on adultswim's website I don't think.

Six seasons seem to be on Adult Swim, I had to use a VPN to view them though - are these the ones you are talking about?
https://www.adultswim.com/videos/decker

I've got a Mega.nz link for all of those as well.


BritishHobo

Quote from: Noodle Lizard on July 10, 2019, 07:43:41 PM
Decker became its own thing on adultswim, more or less.  As far as I remember, Tim said they had to bargain to keep On Cinema going as adultswim wanted them just to do Decker ("an action movie but shit and zany!!")  Anyway, you'd have to torrent those seasons, but personally I only care for it up to Season 3: DvD anyway.  Once it hit adultswim proper, it became a bit more ... well, adultswimmy and had less to do with the wider OC universe.

That's mad! I suppose if it's more popular fair enough, but so far it's only really as funny as it is because it's an extension of the On Cinema universe - that's still the main, central thing. Overblown action parodies are ten-a-penny, it's knowing the characters behind it, and the behind-the-scenes drama, that enhances Decker (Kington in season 2 answering every call with total disinterest while in the middle of watching VHS tapes is incredible - or ordering a small popcorn at a bar).

That said, I am glad to hear the focus comes away from Decker a bit, even though I loved the conflict over Dracula vs Decker. I like how Gregg goes from being quite a meek subject of Tim's abuse in season one to fighting back more and more until he really loses it over the cancellation.

Thank you to everyone who's helped me with where to find yer further adventures of Decker. Diving into it again now.

Noodle Lizard

Here's the quote from Tim, in case you were curious:

Quote from: https://tv.avclub.com/tim-heidecker-on-the-world-of-film-criticism-real-and-1798277326It started kind of amusingly as a real misunderstanding of how movies work or are made. I would go and make various scenes from Decker and I'd show them, and Gregg is just so ashamed and embarrassed to witness this display of ignorance of how movies are made—this idea that you'd shoot a scene, show it, and then shoot another scene. But Adult Swim saw that and said, "We're really happy that you're exploring this intricate web of a soap opera on On Cinema, but that thing you're making there, that's actually a show we understand. A James Bond movie poorly made—please make more of those." We were like, "Well, we will make more of those, but it doesn't work for us unless we make more On Cinema." You can't have one without the other. It's just not as fun.

Quote from: BritishHobo on July 10, 2019, 11:31:47 PM
That's mad! I suppose if it's more popular fair enough, but so far it's only really as funny as it is because it's an extension of the On Cinema universe - that's still the main, central thing. Overblown action parodies are ten-a-penny, it's knowing the characters behind it, and the behind-the-scenes drama, that enhances Decker (Kington in season 2 answering every call with total disinterest while in the middle of watching VHS tapes is incredible - or ordering a small popcorn at a bar).

Yes.  The best episode of Decker 2 was the one where Gregg's idea to come up with a plan is for them to sit in the dark, blandly commentating on Good Morning, Vietnam.  There's a great shot of him just staring at the TV with this slightly insane grin.  A classic Gregghead episode.  Of course, if you were to follow the in-character Twitter and YouTube comments at the time, this would be the one episode that Tim dismissed as being "not very good".

Petey Pate

Quote from: Noodle Lizard on July 11, 2019, 12:46:34 AMOf course, if you were to follow the in-character Twitter and YouTube comments at the time, this would be the one episode that Tim dismissed as being "not very good".

At the same time on Twitter, Gregg said that Kington is a character who 'doesn't know as much about movies as the actor portraying him'. This was to cover his mistake of saying that Robin Williams won an Oscar for Good Morning Vietnam.

robotam


Chollis

just picturing Lanoi Arnold saying "mon" is cracking me up

BritishHobo

Quote from: robotam on July 11, 2019, 03:11:14 PM
You can read the tweets associated to each episode on the timeline.

Ooh, that's fantastic, thank you. I am thankful for this thread generally, as I've been following along with the episodes and I wouldn't have seen the superb ending to the 500 Movies in 500 Days plot without (I think) Noodle Lizard posting the tweets at the time.

I can't be arsed to go back and find it now, but the funniest thing linked in the thread was a blogpost and a series of tweets from Gregg after The Hobbit didn't win an Oscar. It was astoundingly accurate to the voice of a certain type of internet geek, who get really invested in a particular thing and then lose absolutely any sense of proportion when something they disagree with happens. There's a couple of people I've had on Facebook in the past who've done exactly what Gregg does, just a seemingly endless stream of posts where the same phrases get repeated and the tone is completely disproportionate and hysterical about how objectively stupid and evil the decision in question is.

FUCK I LOVE ON CINEMA AT THE CINEMA

BritishHobo

Also taking a longer look at that On Cinema timeline website, that is an amazing resource. Almost makes me want to start the whole thing over again.

chveik


Noodle Lizard

As someone else said, just wait til you get to The Trial.

For my money, big a fan as I am, there are some pretty weak moments - if not entire seasons - later on in the run.  But then they'll always throw in something like The Trial to remind you just how great it is.

Chollis

Quote from: Noodle Lizard on July 12, 2019, 12:11:18 AM
But then they'll always throw in something like The Trial to remind you just how great it is.

and maybe throw in a little can of Mace spray because there's some pretty unsavoury characters in that one!