January 17, 2007

6:17 PM

What If...Bob Dylan wrote almost every song of the last 30 years in his heyday, but never got around to recording them properly? New York City's Post Show Ensemble dredges up lost footage for No Direction, Period.
posted by beaucoupkevin (38 comments total)

That seemed a little harsh, let me try again, constructively.

I think the problem lies in the execution, not the concept. The idea of Dylan singing all those songs is funny, but it should be presented in a different way. For instance, instead of a modern Dylan taking credit for them, he should be distancing himself from them, only to have the footage prove him wrong (kindof like they did with the last song, but...well, hopefully you see what I'm saying.)

Oh, and the "My Hump" song is WAY too obvious and drawn out. Everyone knew where it was going from the word "Hump."
posted by ColdChef at 6:34 PM on January 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

That was a little bit funnier than I was expecting it to be.
posted by interrobang at 6:44 PM on January 17, 2007

Augh! My earlier comment disappeared! In it, I suggested that I didn't care for the video. Then, I decided to explain exactly WHY I didn't like it.

The way it's edited though, I looks like a deranged person, which, of course, I am.

And I did laugh a wee bit. But not as much as I could have.
posted by ColdChef at 6:48 PM on January 17, 2007

I laughed at this way more than I expected. Ah, the power of low expectations...
posted by Kattullus at 6:52 PM on January 17, 2007

That's funny.
posted by lee at 6:54 PM on January 17, 2007

I liked it.

To my mind, it is officially Teh Funnay.

The part with "Joan Baez" had me laughing out loud.
posted by Afroblanco at 6:55 PM on January 17, 2007

I enjoyed that rather a lot, thank you for sharing!
posted by newfers at 7:01 PM on January 17, 2007

I like this pastiche of Dylan's subterranian homesick blues by Weird Al better. (YouTube)

Although I am not a fan of weird al, I do like a good Dylanesque palindrome now and again.
posted by isopraxis at 7:03 PM on January 17, 2007

Ok, I couldn't watch the whole No Direction, Period thing (my thumb spontaneously twitched and clicked the back button at "lovely lady lump") but the dylanesque palindromes video is really funny.
posted by lastobelus at 7:50 PM on January 17, 2007

Ummm...I don't think America--or the world, really--needs another incongruous juxtaposition involving Baby Got Back. I really don't.

That aside, good comedy rule of thumb: once the punchline is spoken, end the joke. In this case, that would've happened at 0:35.
posted by the sobsister at 7:53 PM on January 17, 2007

isopraxis, thanks for posting that Weird Al video. So ridiculous and funny.
posted by Milkman Dan at 8:28 PM on January 17, 2007

Metafilter: we don't think anything is funny. Then we analyze exactly why.

You're a bunch of pretentious bastards.
posted by nyxxxx at 8:31 PM on January 17, 2007

Dylan Rules -even as a parody.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 8:34 PM on January 17, 2007

eh, nyxxxx, it was only funny for a half-minute or so. then it kept on going.
posted by nonreflectiveobject at 8:35 PM on January 17, 2007

nyxxxx: I was thinking that your name would be better with a fifth X, just to give it that "extra boost" it needs to be fully "exxy." I applaud your decision to not go for the commonly-used "triple x" (often denoteing illicit sex or perhaps illicit Australian alcohol), but a fifth X might just push it into that level of "X"-enntricity needed to make people reflect: "Was it a typo? Did he accidentally hold down the X key too long? How does he remember how many Xes to type when he logs in? Is he related to Zyzzyx Road? And which one, the one with Tom Sizemore or the iPod-only release?" After the first X, my expectations became bloated for a satisfying climax, but I found myself let down when it ended so abruptly at the fourth instance of the second to last (or third to last, if Y isn't busy as a vowel) consonant in the alphabet. So close, but I feel as if you're just missing your potential as a user. I prefer the Weird Al pastiche.
posted by Milkman Dan at 8:43 PM on January 17, 2007

I had the opposite reaction to nonreflectiveobject, I found the beginning painful, but it got progressively funnier and funnier.
posted by Kattullus at 8:45 PM on January 17, 2007

Made me chuckle, thanks!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:50 PM on January 17, 2007

i thought it was damn funny. *sigh*


...I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken...
posted by nola at 8:58 PM on January 17, 2007

I watched it again. It starts out funny and then becomes progressively less so. Plus, the "Dylan" makeup is awful.

The fake hairpieces were somehow a lot funnier to me this time, though.
posted by ColdChef at 9:38 PM on January 17, 2007

Also, why is "Joan" singing about her lump if she was (as he said) self-conscious about it?

And while the singing was adequately "Dylan-esque", the interview parts should have been less coherent with more Bob-like rambling. Like a ham-fisted mailman striking justice into the spines of the schoolgirl marionettes.
posted by ColdChef at 9:42 PM on January 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

Whoa! Step away from the PCP Chef.

Everyone knows that marionettes are not of the phylum Chordata. They don't have spinal chords. That is the purpose of the strings: To tie them to their keeper(s).

/wildly searching his collection of mexican marionettes for evidence of removed spinal chords.
posted by isopraxis at 10:02 PM on January 17, 2007

(the H is silent)
posted by isopraxis at 10:07 PM on January 17, 2007

I vote for funny. Thanks.
posted by donovan at 10:13 PM on January 17, 2007

This was really good. His Sixties Dylan was dead on (very Don't Look Back), which kept life in the one trick pony of a joke. His modern day Dylan, well, he didn't much try, which is a shame. At least he didn't fall into doing Dylan in the unintelligible sneeeeer so favored by a generation of hack comedians.
posted by Nahum Tate at 10:22 PM on January 17, 2007

I wanted to like this. Back in college I did a mean Dylanesque "Like a Virgin" and I've applied the technique selectively over the years, e.g. "Oops!... I Did It Again". In this process, however, I have learned that *cough*

less is more.

Anyway this may have just sucked all the fun out of one of my trademark attempts at making pop culture references to take the edge off my dorkiness except it only intensifies it, really.
posted by dhartung at 10:33 PM on January 17, 2007

If I had a time machine you would never have heard of Bob Dylan. You would have heard of vbfg though - the greatest American songwriter from the north of England, ever.
posted by vbfg at 11:27 PM on January 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

No, nyxxxx. You mean...

MetaFilter: It was only funny for a half-minute or so. Then it kept on going.
posted by roll truck roll at 11:29 PM on January 17, 2007

nyxxxx writes: You're a bunch of pretentious bastards.

And you're an all-too-easily amused plebian who thinks any thrown-together video crap you see on the internet is hilarious.*

*You'll have to admit, this is the only reply your ill-informed comment deserves.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:45 AM on January 18, 2007

Unless, of course, nyxxxx, your comment was a joke, in which case, please assume my reply was a joke as well!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:00 AM on January 18, 2007

Ever wonder about the opposing "what if?" Say Bob got to New York, in 1960, then developed a heroin habit, became a street bum that no one wanted to deal with & never recorded anything at all? How would it have changed the face of folk, rock & the peace movement as we know them today? And I know it's fun to lampoon his singing style, but he's actually a way better vocalist than he gets credit for, and a lot of the jabs seem undeserved. The vid: I chuckled a little.
posted by Devils Rancher at 5:19 AM on January 18, 2007

he's actually a way better vocalist than he gets credit for

Definitely, especially when you consider the (almost) lost art of phrasing.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:40 AM on January 18, 2007

"Look, I'm singing silly, contemporary songs like '60's-era Bob Dylan" is just about the oldest, stupidest, most played-out joke in the book, not least because everybody, their dog, and their dog's fleas can do and has done the Bob Dylan impersonation just as well as this guy.
posted by koeselitz at 9:32 AM on January 18, 2007

And that's no defense of Dylan. But seriously, when was the last time you heard somebody go "hEYY, I'm siih-INGING like BOB DYL--uuhn?" Five minutes ago? Yeah, me too. Stupid joke.
posted by koeselitz at 9:34 AM on January 18, 2007

Metafilter: We're pretentious bastards
posted by Megafly at 11:09 AM on January 18, 2007

Someone directed me to this yesterday. It may have been done (in a plethora of ways) before, but come on, haters...

The duet version of "My Humps" doesn't make you want to see Dylan in on a copycat performance of that in real life?

I'm going with funny.
posted by freudenschade at 11:14 AM on January 18, 2007

me-WOW, a place to hide your wallet!
HA!
posted by lisalisa123 at 12:57 PM on January 18, 2007

well i got a laugh from a)No Direction, Period... but I'm in agreeance with the length being too lengthy mclentherson b) Weird Al's pastiche c)nyxxxx and of course d) Milkman Dan's response to nyxxxx. the days are just packed here in mefi. i love you all. muahh!
posted by lisalisa123 at 1:17 PM on January 18, 2007

Most tv comedy skits go to long. That was the beauty of Kids in the Hall or the State. They would 30 minute shows and weren't afraid to do a 5 second skit.

Even then, some of theirs went too long.
posted by nyxxxx at 3:59 PM on January 18, 2007