Hornswaggler | The culture, the humor, a bit of the sports, not so much the politics, and the workplace distraction
Hornswaggle is an alternate spelling of
hornswoggle, an archaic word that means to bamboozle or hoodwink. I take my
pronunciation from the late Harvey Korman in "Blazing Saddles" --
"I want rustlers, cutthroats, murderers,
bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits,
vipers, snipers, conmen, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers,
buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswagglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train
robbers, bank robbers, ass kickers, shit kickers and Methodists!"
The new show "Crank Yankers" (actual prank calls animated by amusing puppets) on Comedy Central isn't half-bad. Tracy Morgan ("Oh Snap! We jumpin' out the box!") is on it, which is cool. I've seen two episodes. The one where Special Ed ("I've got mail! Yay!") calls the computer assistance line is hysterical, though at the very end it gets too redundant. Without even directly attempting to do so, it delivers the best skewering of AOL that I've seen. Have you observed those dumb AOL ads where "actual people" are saying stuff like -- "I love it when my computer says 'You've got Mail'! It just never gets old!"? It occurred to me that Special Ed can be regarded as a representation of the retarded individuals (and people from the Midwest -- no offense, Midwest readers) who must surely comprise AOL's target demographic for that ad campaign. The second Special Ed bit, where he calls a travel agent about a trip to Hawaii, was not as good. Also funny is the self-proclaimed "chigger", Mooshu, the Chinese hip hop afficionado who calls a record store in the bit that I saw.
"Crank Yankers" is the brain child of Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Corola of "The Man Show" (the often tasteless -- natch -- and sometimes funny talk show/sketch deal) and further proof that they cannot be written off completely. They're definitely funny guys. I guess what it comes down to is sensibility. Personally, I lean more towards stuff like Mr. Show. If I could go out to dinner with a couple comics, Corola and Kimmel wouldn't come close to David Cross and Bob Odenkirk. If I were going to, say, a strip club with a couple comics, however, it would be Kimmel and Corola hands down.
