The Last Post

Wow. The end. I'll never post here again. (But I will try and keep the clips as current as I can.)

Before I post the clip, I'd like to thank a few people.

First, I'd like to thank the people who knew me before MeTube was a twinkle in my eye, who came by on a regular basis. That means you, Jim & Steph in Maine, Zach and Heather in DCish, Mike Daisey in NYC, Paul in NJ, and John in LA.

Next, I'd like to thank those who met me through MeTube. It's nice discovering all those out there who have a similar way of thinking. So thanks to Millie Wink (who still kept watching even after the offensive stuff), Sam L., The Great White Dope (who made me understand how important it was to credit your sources), and Deputy Dog (who doubled my traffic when he recommended me on his web site).

Most especially, I'd like to thank Jason Soto. He said to me (I'm paraphrasing through Elvis in "Suspicious Minds"), "Let's don't let a good thing die." So he'll be taking over the MeTube mantle. I give you MeTube: The Next Generation. Jason has my confidence, and I look forward to seeing what he'll do.

UPDATE: I have gone on to start another blog, similar to MeTube, except it's geared toward pop culture that touches on Maine, however tangentially. If you're interested, check it out here.

Now, let's go on to the final clip.

I weighed a lot of options for this. I would like to post the last scene in WKRP, to mirror my posting a scene from the pilot on my first post, but this is one of those shows that keeps getting pulled from YouTube, so forget that.

I thought of posting other sitcom final scenes (Newhart, Cheers, M*A*S*H), but that's speaking more for them and not for me.

I already posted the Saw Doctors' "I'll Be On My Way" back in January. (What an awesome song that is.)

But to be honest, there was one clip I've had in mind for months, and nothing could have possibly proved itself better. It's the final moments of Dr. Strangelove, where Vera Lynn sings "We'll Meet Again."



Take care, God bless, and I truly do look forward to some sunny day.

The Last Guest

Johnny Carson's final Tonight Show was just a bunch of clips and him saying goodbye to Ed, Doc & America. It was the episode before, the last one with guests, that meant something. Robin Williams was one of the guests, but the other, the one the night belonged to, was Bette Midler. She performed a parody of "You Made Me Love You," and later she closed the night with a beautiful rendition of "One For My Baby (and One More For The Road)." She later won an Emmy for Outstanding Performance in a Variety Program for this.



For pianist Marc Shaiman's memories of that night, click here.

The Last Laugh

Before I knew Statler and Waldorf were hotels, I knew them as the two old codgers on The Muppet Show. As a kid I loved them for their "Ahhhh-ha-ha-ha-ha" laughs; when I got older, I loved them for their smart aleck heckling. Never was it greater than when they tore Milton Berle a new one.



Anyway, you'll remember that every show came to a close with one final zinger from the two of them. Here's five and a half minutes of them.

The Last Lecture

There's a book coming out today from Randy Pausch called The Last Lecture. It's a tradition at some colleges and universities to have professors give a lecture and imagine it to be their last. In Pausch's case, when he was asked to do so, that wasn't such a hypothetical - he'd just been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

The resultant talk has become semilegendary. YouTube has a 75-minute version here, but Oprah used her Oprah powers and got him to squash it down to ten minutes. The points, and they're powerful, wonderful points, come across just fine.

Please don't skip this just because it's an extended clip. Take the time. You'll not be sorry.

MeTube Extra: I knew this was going to happen

No sooner do I announce my impending departure than I find a bunch of videos that I simply can't keep to myself.

First, here's one I've been hoping to find for a long time. Woody Allen, early in his career, did some work for Allen Funt's Candid Camera program. Here he dictates a love letter to an unsuspecting secretary.



One more Sesame Street bit I (L is for) love, love, love.



And then there's Steve Riks. He's a UK comedian got hundreds of clips on YouTube where he does impressions of various musicians. His McCartney and Freddy Mercury are pretty awesome, but here I'd like to just focus on his Lennon...



...and his Bowie.



Like I said, his Lennon and his Bowie.

Clinton's final days

When President Clinton was coming to the end of his time in the White House, he made this short film, which was shown at the White House Correspondents Dinner.



Believe it or not, there were some people who griped about this, saying the leader of the free world shouldn't be spending his workdays filming comedy. I think some people are paid not to have a sense of humor.

Fun fact: Clinton ad-libbed the part where he watches the clothes go round.

The Best of MeTube 2

Last year I posted my favorite clips from the previous twelve months. I'm not going to make it to the two year mark, but I still came up with ten favorites since that posting.

Actually, I came up with more, but some links are no longer live, while others are in constant danger of coming down. So these are my top ten favorites that I hope will stay on YouTube for a long time to come. (The future will show us how ridiculous that last sentence turns out to be.)

10. The top 10 WTF moments in Mystery Science Theater 3000.



9. One of the "Two Girls, One Cup" reactions.



8. The incredibly filthy Ed McMahon.



7. "Thriller" a cappella.



6. The Police via A Charlie Brown Christmas.



5. The Saul Bass Star Wars credits.



4. Fenway Park sings the National Anthem.



3. "The Laws Have Changed" video by the New Pornographers.



2. The final scene from My So-Called Life.



1. Perry Como - Still Alive.



Bubbling under: Woody Allen in Play It Again, Sam...



and "When Your Mind's Made Up" from Once.



Cheating? Hell yeah! Whattaya gonna do, fire me?

I drop a bomb on you

This is the final week I'll be running MeTube. My last entry will be on Friday, April 11.

I'm going to move up to Maine and live in an Airstream trailer and write a novel. I'll be living off the grid - no phone, no electricity, and no Internet. I'll drive into town once a week or so to check emails and such, but the days of carousing among the clips are coming to a close.

Also, to be honest, not having the means to surf the nets will provide me with some much needed discipline. If I learned one thing from my unexpected forced withdrawl last month, it's that I can get a lot done when I can focus.

So any more dubbed clips of FDR swearing...



...or X-rated trailers created by the makers of Scooby-Doo...



...or oddly compelling clips my friends send me (thanks once again to Paul in NJ)...



...or even clips of people licking their own elbows (you'd be amazed how many there are)...



...will have to come to you from somewhere else.

I've got a great bunch of final clips lined up for this week, so let's go out with a bang. Thank you all so much for stopping by, and now, let the wild rumpus start!

Sesame Street favorites

You know, I've posted a veritable ton of clips from Sesame Street on this blog, and they're all pretty darn great. But, as Johnny Depp says in Chocolat, not my favorite.

Herewith my top five all time Sesame Street clips.

Number 5: Ernie and Bert play "What Happened Here?"



Number 4: E & B again, this time going over why there's a cookie on the table. I've been known to say, "Why is that, I ask foolishly." No one's ever spotted the source before, though.



Number 3: I'm a dog, I'm a workin' dog, I'm a hardworkin' dog. How can you not love that guitar?



Number 2: The Great Cookie Thief. Cookie Monster's shrug at 1:29 is a thing of beauty.



And far and away number 1: Cowboy X. Yiiiiippeeeeeee!



Tomorrow: a very important announcement...

The blind leading the blind

Happy birthday to my mom up in Maine! To celebrate, I'm dedicating these clips to her.

First we have the final scene in the 1970 TV movie Jane Eyre, where Jane (Susannah York) reunites with a blinded Mr. Rochester (George C. Scott). That megaromantic score is by John Williams.



Now Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman. Mom loves this scene; she would have me cue it up on the videotape on such a regular basis that I can still recite 90 percent of the dialogue from memory.



Lots of great character actors in this, led by the very young Philip Seymour Hoffman, hiding in Big Daddy's pocket.

Since that clip is ten minutes long, here's something much shorter - every "Hoo-ah!" in the movie.

Th-th-th-th-that's awesome, folks

One of the features of YouTube that I'm quite fond of is their "Related Videos" column. The "If you liked this, try this" approach has landed me a lot of great finds that I likely would never have come across otherwise. This was especially true for tonight's entry.

Here a number of great Looney Tunes moments are set to "Dancing in the Dark" by Bruce Springsteen. The too-perfect visual for "I check my look in the mirror" made me laugh out loud.



But here's the thing - great as this is, I only found it because it was in the "Related Videos" file. It was connected to this piece of genius - a pairing of What's Opera, Doc? with "Bohemian Rhapsody."



Considering these are the two greatest opera spoofs of the 20th century (sorry, Marx Brothers fans), I'm amazed nobody thought of combining these before.

Coming soon to DVD

Happy April Fool's Day (shoe's untied! Bwahaha!), everyone. Today I'd like to take a look at a few of the DVDs that are being released this month. Anything to get the hype rolling.

Juno is due out soon, as is There Will Be Blood, but I don't think those guys need the hype. So I'll throw my inconsiderable weight behind these four - Walk Hard, a faux-Johnny Cash story, due out on the 8th...



...Lars and the Real Girl, about a man and his artificial gal pal, coming out on the 15th...



...and two, count 'em, two movies with the fan-tan-tastic Philip Seymour Hoffman - Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (4/15)...



...and The Savages, the week after that.