Shakespearean Makeover
April 29, 2010 6:05 PM Subscribe
Juliet, Ophelia, Desdemona: All three met an untimely fate. This could have been avoided if they had a sassy gay friend. [MYTL]
From the comedians of Second City
From the comedians of Second City
I don't understand why they have to ruin it with that moronic catchphrase.
posted by absalom at 6:13 PM on April 29, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by absalom at 6:13 PM on April 29, 2010 [2 favorites]
that moronic catchphrase.
The one that goes "stupid bitch?" Even if a man is gay and is a character in a sketch, I still cringe hearing a man call a woman that.
posted by Michael Pemulis at 6:16 PM on April 29, 2010 [2 favorites]
The one that goes "stupid bitch?" Even if a man is gay and is a character in a sketch, I still cringe hearing a man call a woman that.
posted by Michael Pemulis at 6:16 PM on April 29, 2010 [2 favorites]
amusing concept, but the execution, and that fucking catchphrase, make me feel stabby. no, I'm not talking about self-inflicted wounds.
posted by squasha at 6:20 PM on April 29, 2010
posted by squasha at 6:20 PM on April 29, 2010
I have a soft spot for anyone who mocks Shakespeare's plot holes. Juliet! Fucking go join Romeo in exile! His rich family is sending him money, and you can put off dealing with the family drama! Ahhhhhh!
posted by prefpara at 6:28 PM on April 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by prefpara at 6:28 PM on April 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
"Does Moor mean more?" Love it.
I'd like to see this concept taken outside of Shakespeare. You know who needed a sassy gay friend? Melanie Hamilton from "Gone With the Wind." "Scarlett did WHAT? I'm going to scratch that bitch's eyes out!"
posted by ColdChef at 6:28 PM on April 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
I'd like to see this concept taken outside of Shakespeare. You know who needed a sassy gay friend? Melanie Hamilton from "Gone With the Wind." "Scarlett did WHAT? I'm going to scratch that bitch's eyes out!"
posted by ColdChef at 6:28 PM on April 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
That's Gay has episodes about gay best friends and the gay ex machina.
posted by bewilderbeast at 6:32 PM on April 29, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by bewilderbeast at 6:32 PM on April 29, 2010 [2 favorites]
I thought the execution was pretty good. Reminds me of trashy reality shows. I thought that was the point.
posted by dammitjim at 6:45 PM on April 29, 2010
posted by dammitjim at 6:45 PM on April 29, 2010
"You took a roofie from a priest." Ahahahahaha. Why oh why did they have to have that dumb catchphrase?
posted by joannemerriam at 6:47 PM on April 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by joannemerriam at 6:47 PM on April 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
I love this, but then again, I'm a stupid beeeeeyotch.
posted by banannafish at 6:51 PM on April 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by banannafish at 6:51 PM on April 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
Have I mentioned that my (nonexistent) production of Hamlet would cut out the entire Ophelia goes crazy sequence? Hurts the play I think. Straight from rejection to discovery of death works better and muddies it less. As her sassy gay friend would say, she's a stupid bitch.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 6:57 PM on April 29, 2010
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 6:57 PM on April 29, 2010
Falstaff is the sassy gay friend. A closeted bear, but sassy nonetheless.
And writing Falstaff into Othello or Romeo and Juliet would be fucking awesome.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 7:14 PM on April 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
And writing Falstaff into Othello or Romeo and Juliet would be fucking awesome.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 7:14 PM on April 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by Dreadnought at 7:32 PM on April 29, 2010
Meta filter is my sassy gay freind
Iron Rat, you are now my favorite sassy Meta Filter quipster.
Seriously, maybe it's just the vodka-n-cranberry's kicking in, but that's what I call an auspicious beginning-of-thread.
posted by deep thought sunstar at 7:32 PM on April 29, 2010
Iron Rat, you are now my favorite sassy Meta Filter quipster.
Seriously, maybe it's just the vodka-n-cranberry's kicking in, but that's what I call an auspicious beginning-of-thread.
posted by deep thought sunstar at 7:32 PM on April 29, 2010
A sassy gay friend ... or a a sexually confused graduate student with low self esteem.
posted by jb at 7:32 PM on April 29, 2010
posted by jb at 7:32 PM on April 29, 2010
"You took a roofie from a priest."
Second City also did the wonderful The People vs. Friar Laurence, which I caught in Chicago about five years ago out on Navy Pier and which mocks the inanity in Romeo and Juliet. If you like seeing ol' Shakes get mocked you can buy the soundtrack on CDBaby.
posted by phearlez at 7:55 PM on April 29, 2010
Second City also did the wonderful The People vs. Friar Laurence, which I caught in Chicago about five years ago out on Navy Pier and which mocks the inanity in Romeo and Juliet. If you like seeing ol' Shakes get mocked you can buy the soundtrack on CDBaby.
posted by phearlez at 7:55 PM on April 29, 2010
I was unsure about the Romeo and Juliet one, and I also find the catchphrase to be upsetting, but, "Ophelia, he stabbed your dad through a curtain. So instead of drowning yourself, you're going to write a sad poem in your journal, and move on," was pretty funny. So B-, I guess.
posted by Caduceus at 8:15 PM on April 29, 2010
posted by Caduceus at 8:15 PM on April 29, 2010
Complain all you want about catchphrases, do you have any idea how many AskMe's would be set off on the right foot if the first comment was: "What are you doing? What are you doing? What, what, what are you doing?"
posted by piratebowling at 8:16 PM on April 29, 2010 [25 favorites]
posted by piratebowling at 8:16 PM on April 29, 2010 [25 favorites]
My sisters and I have been texting each other for weeks now:
PISS POOR ATTITUDE
and
He stabbed your father through a curtain
posted by oflinkey at 9:09 PM on April 29, 2010
PISS POOR ATTITUDE
and
He stabbed your father through a curtain
posted by oflinkey at 9:09 PM on April 29, 2010
Clever deconstruction of Shakespeare's plots utterly ruined by the Saturday Night Live effect. That's a shame.
posted by Mayor Curley at 9:12 PM on April 29, 2010
posted by Mayor Curley at 9:12 PM on April 29, 2010
The "stupid bitch" thing is annoying, but once he calls himself that it bothers me less. These are so funny I can overlook a lot of things that might normally bug me. wherefore means WHY, not WHERE!
posted by Solon and Thanks at 9:30 PM on April 29, 2010 [4 favorites]
posted by Solon and Thanks at 9:30 PM on April 29, 2010 [4 favorites]
I thought Horatio was the sassy gay friend.
posted by thivaia at 9:40 PM on April 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by thivaia at 9:40 PM on April 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
Two peeves, which probably ignore some intended humor, so no one take offense here. :)
Juliet - Member of a fairly well-off family. She didn't want to spend her life slumming it (even if doing so with a considerable unearned income), she wanted the right to rub elbows with the cream of Venice's upper crust. Tough to do from your lovely villa on the outskirts of middle-of-nowhere.
Ophelia - Plot device. Makes Hamlet's madness look an awfully lot more convincing ("So, bummer about your dad, at least you have that cute little... Oh, drowned, you say? Um, nice weat... er... wet spring we've had, good for the crops. If we get some sun, I guess. Yeah. I'll just, uh, go stand over here behind this arras, thanks? Okay, NOW what did I say?")
And half of another peeve - Neither Chris rock nor Robin Williams should ever play Horatio. Ever.
posted by pla at 10:24 PM on April 29, 2010
Juliet - Member of a fairly well-off family. She didn't want to spend her life slumming it (even if doing so with a considerable unearned income), she wanted the right to rub elbows with the cream of Venice's upper crust. Tough to do from your lovely villa on the outskirts of middle-of-nowhere.
Ophelia - Plot device. Makes Hamlet's madness look an awfully lot more convincing ("So, bummer about your dad, at least you have that cute little... Oh, drowned, you say? Um, nice weat... er... wet spring we've had, good for the crops. If we get some sun, I guess. Yeah. I'll just, uh, go stand over here behind this arras, thanks? Okay, NOW what did I say?")
And half of another peeve - Neither Chris rock nor Robin Williams should ever play Horatio. Ever.
posted by pla at 10:24 PM on April 29, 2010
Chris Rock as Horatio? I really disagree, pla. That would be outstanding.
With Martin Lawrence as Hamlet, Chris Walken as the ghost of the King, and a play-within-a-play full of your momma jokes.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 10:30 PM on April 29, 2010
With Martin Lawrence as Hamlet, Chris Walken as the ghost of the King, and a play-within-a-play full of your momma jokes.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 10:30 PM on April 29, 2010
pla -- Juliet does actually plan to run away with Romeo; unfortunately, it involves playing dead, roofies and a friar. There are several comedies in the period that play this sort of thing for laughs.
Ophelia's suicide doesn't really seem to bother Hamlet much, except in a very general way. Then again, young love would be a bit out of place amongst the piles of corpses.
The only role Robin Williams should be allowed to play is Polonius, and that's only because he's supposed to be irritating as hell.
posted by jrochest at 12:32 AM on April 30, 2010
Ophelia's suicide doesn't really seem to bother Hamlet much, except in a very general way. Then again, young love would be a bit out of place amongst the piles of corpses.
The only role Robin Williams should be allowed to play is Polonius, and that's only because he's supposed to be irritating as hell.
posted by jrochest at 12:32 AM on April 30, 2010
The catch phrase makes me cringe, too (so I hope he reads this thread & drops it), but otherwise I liked 'em!
posted by kanewai at 1:44 AM on April 30, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by kanewai at 1:44 AM on April 30, 2010 [1 favorite]
Ophelia's suicide doesn't really seem to bother Hamlet much,
It's hard to know cause of Hamlet's whole pretending to be insane thing, but he does jump into her grave and start a pissing match with Laertes about who loved her more.
posted by angrycat at 4:55 AM on April 30, 2010
It's hard to know cause of Hamlet's whole pretending to be insane thing, but he does jump into her grave and start a pissing match with Laertes about who loved her more.
posted by angrycat at 4:55 AM on April 30, 2010
I've actually seen productions of Romeo And Juliet done as a straight up madcap comedy with death at the end.
It can work, but a lot of it was how funny Elizabethan English sounds when it's going by really, really fast.
posted by The Whelk at 7:39 AM on April 30, 2010
It can work, but a lot of it was how funny Elizabethan English sounds when it's going by really, really fast.
posted by The Whelk at 7:39 AM on April 30, 2010
Nah, those chicks could have avoided trouble if they had a good dose of self-respect -- no one can save you but you. It's all part of the age old question why everyone wants to save a damsel in distress except the damsel herself...
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 9:28 AM on April 30, 2010
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 9:28 AM on April 30, 2010
The only role Robin Williams should be allowed to play is Polonius, and that's only because he's supposed to be irritating as hell.
Polonius can be irritating, but watching Bill Murray play him in Hamlet (2000) was a pleasure. Murray was perfect.
posted by homunculus at 1:35 PM on April 30, 2010 [1 favorite]
Polonius can be irritating, but watching Bill Murray play him in Hamlet (2000) was a pleasure. Murray was perfect.
posted by homunculus at 1:35 PM on April 30, 2010 [1 favorite]
Cheer up, you melancholy Dane! (speaking of great riffs)
posted by prefpara at 2:16 PM on April 30, 2010
posted by prefpara at 2:16 PM on April 30, 2010
That sassy gay friend would've been a lot more useful before Ophelia went all nuts with the flowers and Juliet decided on the fake death thing. Obvz they should've gotten sassy gay men to be these girl's nursemaids.
I did giggle though.
posted by NoraReed at 4:39 PM on April 30, 2010
I did giggle though.
posted by NoraReed at 4:39 PM on April 30, 2010
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posted by Iron Rat at 6:13 PM on April 29, 2010 [4 favorites]