{"id":570,"date":"2021-03-07T00:34:20","date_gmt":"2021-03-07T00:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ga2so.com\/blog\/?p=570"},"modified":"2021-03-07T00:34:22","modified_gmt":"2021-03-07T00:34:22","slug":"how-to-spend-too-much-time-on-a-joke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ga2so.com\/blog\/2021\/03\/07\/how-to-spend-too-much-time-on-a-joke\/","title":{"rendered":"How to spend too much time on a joke"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

…and how to overexplain a joke<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On one of the many top secret websites I visit, someone started a thread with this question:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s a bizarre sequel to a movie or new season of a previously-canceled show you would like to see where the plot, characters and even tone take a sudden, drastic left turn?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Someone suggested Breaking Badly<\/em>, a Breaking Bad prequel sitcom with Walter White as a science teacher. But I thought it should go farther. I spent far too long (hours, if you count the time fixing Photoshop crashing) making this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Walter<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

…and I wrote: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

BONUS: I have seen roughly one and one half episodes of the show, so my pitch is based almost exclusively on memes.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PITCH: it’s the 80s. Walter is a student at the school where he teaches in Breaking Bad. He’s a go getter with two jobs: car washer and pizza delivery.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every adult from the original show is in school with him, even if the ages don’t line up.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

His mentor and favorite teacher is a nutty science teacher who tells him “With a little work you could be as famous as Heisenberg!”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

His parents are happily married, but dad is always traveling for work. At the end of each episode he shows up in his tricked-out RV (“I can take my business anywhere”) to deliver the moral of the story.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might think “Why did it take so long to make that graphic? Even if Photoshop died, couldn’t you have made something similar in Paint or something?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, here’s the thing: that’s not just a random jumble of early nineties shapes and colors. It’s a pretty darn accurate re-creation of the title card from the sitcom “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
I forgot to put the bevel\/emboss effect on the square and triangle. I bet that was bugging you.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There’s an excellent chance you’ve never seen Parker Lewis Can’t Lose. It only ran for three seasons from 1990-1993, and it isn’t on any streaming services in the US. Corin Nemec played Parker, who was like Ferris Bueller if Ferris lived just a bit farther outside the bounds of reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Parker
Back row: The muscle, the nerd. Front row: The stud, the girlfriend, the inexplicably popular star, the evil principal, the mean sister.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Why did I try so hard to match the original logo? Who would know or care? Why didn’t I pick a show people would actually remember?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those are all good questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also: a Ferris Bueller TV series started at roughly the same time, and it was not popular. Also, it was not good. But it did have Jennifer Aniston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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