"Something seems different, Herb." "Besides us being left out?" "Yeah."

May 31, 2016 7:33 PM

Captain Disillusion (previously) has himself become disillusioned with his own show's format. Fortunately, a mentor from another era has returned to give him guidance.
posted by BiggerJ (7 comments total)

I think Beakman's schtick has held up remarkably well - if anything, it's a little more refined and thorough here, perhaps working within the confines of a minor web-series budget allowed a bit more focus on the science, and less on the props-and-jumpcuts. I enjoyed it!
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:09 PM on May 31, 2016 [3 favorites]

Everyone in this does a great job but Beakman's talent for timing and hitting such clear, neatly juxtaposed and well-framed silhouettes is really impressive to me. He makes it look easy.
posted by bonobothegreat at 8:32 PM on May 31, 2016 [3 favorites]

Oh My GOD!!!!
Back in 1994 I used to email back and forth with Paul Lazoom (Beakman) regarding his show and science and all kinds of stuff. Like weekly, for 1994-1995. We talked about all kinds of stuff on the show, all kinds of science stuff and whatnot... And then I forgot to email him... and it just peetered out as a result. But, this was awesome nostalgia. I was all - wow he's ripping off Josie pretty hardcore and Beakman goes ahead and comments on it!

Ah, nostalgia... Thanks BiggerJ!
posted by Nanukthedog at 8:47 PM on May 31, 2016 [2 favorites]

Paul Zaloom still does live shows as Beakman, and the TV show is still hugely popular in Latin America where it plays in endless reruns (which would explain the nod to Mexico - I'm reminded of Donald Duck's insane popularity in Finland resulting in Don Rosa doing a Scrooge and Donald story set in Finland - luckily for him, as any MST3K fan will tell you, it's home to the great grandpappy of all macguffins, the SAMPO).
posted by BiggerJ at 9:20 PM on May 31, 2016 [2 favorites]

ZALOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

I remembered his puppetry in a garbage dump from Mondo Beyondo as a kid and was glad to see later that Beakman was a success. I ran into him and watched his more politically-minded puppet shows at Bread & Puppet up in VT in 2000 (and maybe earlier?), and all I could blurt when I met him was something totally unmemorable like "you are really great" or something about Beakman, which seemed to annoy him a little. (But Bread and Puppet was becoming a madhouse by that time and it was a hot day out in the sun to be doing puppetry for drugged out kids who were there only cause the dead weren't touring anymore... )

ahem... So I have no idea who Capt. Disillusion is, but when the girl showed up, I immediately thought, "It's gonna be Zaloom." YAY I WAS RIGHT. Thanks for posting this.
posted by not_on_display at 10:01 PM on May 31, 2016 [4 favorites]

Something I discovered in the link about his Latin American popularity: eacatly how popular is he over there? THIS POPULAR. (Entire live show starring both Beakman and his Mexican dub voice. URL skips to start of show.)
posted by BiggerJ at 3:10 AM on June 1, 2016 [2 favorites]

I'm not allowed to watch Captain Disillusion videos anymore. He threw me out of organized skepticism himself after I criticized him for making a lazy joke about Anita Sarkeesian talking too much.
posted by Scattercat at 11:37 PM on June 1, 2016