JasonEvans
11-18-2008, 01:00 PM
I am not sure who many of you have heard of Chuck Lorre. He is a writer and TV producer who has been quite successful. He started on Rosanne but really made a name for himself as the creator and EP of Grace Under Fire. He then created Cybill, Dharma & Greg, Two and a Half Men, and The Big Bang Theory. This man is very good at comedy.
Anyway, another thing I am not sure many of you know about is the concept of the vanity card. At the end of an episode of TV, there is a quick flash of the logo or whatever from the production company/executive producer who did the show. It generally is on screen for maybe a second or two. Most people pay no attention to it. This is what is known as a Vanity Card.
Chuck Lorre pays a lot of attention to the Vanity Card. For years he has been writing little notes about life and the world on his vanity cards. For a long time, no one could read them because there was no such thing as a DVR and people just did not bother to pause their VCR tape to read those words flying by at the end of the episode. But, in recent years, the advent of Tivo has made Lorre's Vanity Cards into something lots of people have noticed.
I read them every week at the end of Big Bang Theory and they are insightful and often hysterical. Lorre keeps a record of them on his website (http://www.chucklorre.com/index.php) and, if you have a couple hours to burn, you will find it quite amusing.
I bring all this up because of last night's Big Bang vanity card. It relates to a key moment in the episode which was mentioned in another thread on this board--
This reminds me of the scene in "The Big Bang Theory" epsidoe last night. Sheldon refuses to watch the Clone Wars TV series that his friends want to watch because he hasn't seen the Clone Wars movie yet. Sheldon's reasoning: "I want to be disappointed in the order George Lucas intended."
That had me cracking up.
The episode also contained references to good and bad Star Trek movies with Star Trek 5 being roundly mentioned as the worst of all the movies.
Anyway, at the end of the episode, the following vanity card (http://www.chucklorre.com/index-bbt.php?p=227) appeared. I froze my DVR to read it and was howling the whole time.
Dear George Lucas,
May I call you Mr. Lucas? On behalf of the writers of The Big Bang Theory, I would like to thank you for your astounding body of work, which has awakened the child within us and unleashed our dreams. That being said, we hope you don't take offense at our good-natured jest regarding your most recent animated efforts. Yes they were cheap shots, but we can't help but hold you to a higher standard -- a standard of your own making. In closing, we are all looking forward to Indiana Jones 5 - The Curse of the Golden Catheter. Oops, sorry again.
Very truly yours,
The Writers
P.S. To William Shatner, director of Star Trek 5. Go ahead, sue us.
I also enjoyed the following, which came out shortly before the election.
We have once again arrived at a moment in history where the truth can be defined as "that which you can make other people believe." The methodology for creating that belief is repetition. Say something enough times and it becomes, for millions of people, the truth. I am endowed like a stallion. This is why control of the media equals control of the populace. I am endowed like a stallion. And also why a state run television news channel is so very dangerous. I am endowed like a stallion. Now there are those who would argue this has already happened and that a certain cable news channel is actually a covert extension of our government. I am endowed like a stallion. The fact that the channel is run by a high-ranking party official, an anchor person from the channel became a White House spokesman, and another top-ranking party official became an on-air news commentator is often used to make this argument. I am endowed like a stallion. Of course, this fact would be entirely inconsequential if the oft-repeated falsehoods they attempt to imbed into the Zeitgeist were simply amusing, or at worst, inane. I am endowed like a stallion. But, unfortunately, that is not the case. I am endowed like a stallion. The heavy repetition of lies and smears for political gain are by no means inconsequential. I am endowed like a stallion. Which is why each and every one of us must use whatever resources we have at our disposal to disseminate the actual truth. I am endowed like a pony.
Every so often one of his cards gets censored but he publishes the uncensored version on his website. I liked this censored one.
words that confuse the CBS censor
fecund, penal, taint, titmouse, cockamamie, cockatoo, cocksure, coccyx, ballcock, cockeye, prick, prickly, kumquat, titter, cunning linguist, insertion, gobble, guzzle, swallow, manhole, rimshot, ramrod, come, fallacious, lugubrious, rectify, Uranus, angina, paradiddle, spotted dick, dictum, frock, cunctation, engorge, turgid, stiff, bush, uvula, crapulence, masticate, Dick Butkus, gherkin and, of course, the always bewildering lickety-split.
As you can see, context is everything.
--Jason "a goldmine of clever stuff" Evans
Anyway, another thing I am not sure many of you know about is the concept of the vanity card. At the end of an episode of TV, there is a quick flash of the logo or whatever from the production company/executive producer who did the show. It generally is on screen for maybe a second or two. Most people pay no attention to it. This is what is known as a Vanity Card.
Chuck Lorre pays a lot of attention to the Vanity Card. For years he has been writing little notes about life and the world on his vanity cards. For a long time, no one could read them because there was no such thing as a DVR and people just did not bother to pause their VCR tape to read those words flying by at the end of the episode. But, in recent years, the advent of Tivo has made Lorre's Vanity Cards into something lots of people have noticed.
I read them every week at the end of Big Bang Theory and they are insightful and often hysterical. Lorre keeps a record of them on his website (http://www.chucklorre.com/index.php) and, if you have a couple hours to burn, you will find it quite amusing.
I bring all this up because of last night's Big Bang vanity card. It relates to a key moment in the episode which was mentioned in another thread on this board--
This reminds me of the scene in "The Big Bang Theory" epsidoe last night. Sheldon refuses to watch the Clone Wars TV series that his friends want to watch because he hasn't seen the Clone Wars movie yet. Sheldon's reasoning: "I want to be disappointed in the order George Lucas intended."
That had me cracking up.
The episode also contained references to good and bad Star Trek movies with Star Trek 5 being roundly mentioned as the worst of all the movies.
Anyway, at the end of the episode, the following vanity card (http://www.chucklorre.com/index-bbt.php?p=227) appeared. I froze my DVR to read it and was howling the whole time.
Dear George Lucas,
May I call you Mr. Lucas? On behalf of the writers of The Big Bang Theory, I would like to thank you for your astounding body of work, which has awakened the child within us and unleashed our dreams. That being said, we hope you don't take offense at our good-natured jest regarding your most recent animated efforts. Yes they were cheap shots, but we can't help but hold you to a higher standard -- a standard of your own making. In closing, we are all looking forward to Indiana Jones 5 - The Curse of the Golden Catheter. Oops, sorry again.
Very truly yours,
The Writers
P.S. To William Shatner, director of Star Trek 5. Go ahead, sue us.
I also enjoyed the following, which came out shortly before the election.
We have once again arrived at a moment in history where the truth can be defined as "that which you can make other people believe." The methodology for creating that belief is repetition. Say something enough times and it becomes, for millions of people, the truth. I am endowed like a stallion. This is why control of the media equals control of the populace. I am endowed like a stallion. And also why a state run television news channel is so very dangerous. I am endowed like a stallion. Now there are those who would argue this has already happened and that a certain cable news channel is actually a covert extension of our government. I am endowed like a stallion. The fact that the channel is run by a high-ranking party official, an anchor person from the channel became a White House spokesman, and another top-ranking party official became an on-air news commentator is often used to make this argument. I am endowed like a stallion. Of course, this fact would be entirely inconsequential if the oft-repeated falsehoods they attempt to imbed into the Zeitgeist were simply amusing, or at worst, inane. I am endowed like a stallion. But, unfortunately, that is not the case. I am endowed like a stallion. The heavy repetition of lies and smears for political gain are by no means inconsequential. I am endowed like a stallion. Which is why each and every one of us must use whatever resources we have at our disposal to disseminate the actual truth. I am endowed like a pony.
Every so often one of his cards gets censored but he publishes the uncensored version on his website. I liked this censored one.
words that confuse the CBS censor
fecund, penal, taint, titmouse, cockamamie, cockatoo, cocksure, coccyx, ballcock, cockeye, prick, prickly, kumquat, titter, cunning linguist, insertion, gobble, guzzle, swallow, manhole, rimshot, ramrod, come, fallacious, lugubrious, rectify, Uranus, angina, paradiddle, spotted dick, dictum, frock, cunctation, engorge, turgid, stiff, bush, uvula, crapulence, masticate, Dick Butkus, gherkin and, of course, the always bewildering lickety-split.
As you can see, context is everything.
--Jason "a goldmine of clever stuff" Evans