UnScripts talk:Fishing with Jim

This article is a stab at writing a text parody of the short-lived TV show Fishing With John. Since the show itself is a parody of dull fishing shows, this article may be doomed to failure.

Be that as it may, the first two episodes of the real show are available online (at least as of this writing). The first is on Google Video here, and the second -- the one with Tom Waits -- is on YouTube. Search on the key "Fishing with John Tom Waits". The full series of five shows has been published on DVD (Criterion Collection). ----OEJ 02:54, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

I don't know about the show, but I loved the article. It reads kind of like a Hunter S. Thompson adventure without the LSD. It was randomness with a focus - ALMOST ALWAYS GOOD. It was blessed with an imaginative consistency. And it's funny on its own, even though it is a parody - very difficult to do. The writing and organization were very good. It had a skillful flow. It reads well as a simple story. The images were quite good, especially the fish. Very appropriate. Miscellaneous: It's hard to do silly well, but in reading your article one senses that one is in the hands of a master. Wherever it came from is not as important as the thing itself. Might be even funnier that way. Being a technophobe, I tend not to visit strange sights. Sorry. Thanks for a fine article! Well done!--Schizo Master 19:31, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the comments, Schizo Master.

This is kind of an experiment -- articles formatted purely as screenplays or as scripts are I think considerably less likely to succeed than regular comic essays. The original "Fishing With John" shows are not really a laugh-a-minute. Except for the narration I think they're mostly ad-libbed, and they tend to be pretty deadpan and understated -- but if anyone is really interested you can probably dig them up at a comprehensive video rental store (not Blockbuster or Hollywood video, but the kind of store which is likely to stock the TV series Red Dwarf and all of Werner Herzog's movies). Probably the most widely known sequence is where Tom Waits puts a live 14-inch bottomfish down his pants because "...that's what I've usually done in the past when I've been depressed...there was a time when I was very depressed and I...it needs to help. It helped me."

Anyway. I had fun writing this, and since I have not yet received my first paycheck from Uncyc (it's in the MAIL? What do you mean, in the mail for 18 months?!?) then I guess fun is why we're all writing! Hugs to all, ----OEJ 23:08, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

From Pee Review

Well, this is a parody of a parody (see the article's discussion page), so it starts life with a handicap, sort of like a duck with bananas for legs. What d'ya think? ----OEJ 16:01, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

Humour:	5	Pretty good, but drags on and isn't very Encyclopedic.
Concept:	6	Very original, but still drags on.
Prose and formatting:	7	well done.
Images:	7	The images work well with the article.
Miscellaneous:	8	Good, needs some shortening. I particularly loved the narration.
Final Score:	33	This may not seem too high right now, but with work and a bit of shortening, it can work.
Reviewer:	--Emmzee 19:39, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks very much for the review, Emmzee. I was kind of thinking the general response might be about what you describe. The piece has two strikes against it. First, it's written as a script or a screenplay, and that makes heavier demands on the reader than a comic essay (or different demands, anyway). Second, the humor is of the deadpan, understated variety -- which often fall flat.

I am without doubt caught in the universal folly of the amateur writer: I can "hear" the characters' voices in my imagination, since I imagined the piece myself, and so I think they're funny; but of course other readers do not have that advantage.

Well, it's an experiment. It would be funny to hear it read aloud as an audio play, with appropriate sound effects...though I doubt I'll get around to recording it any time soon.

I may rework it eventually as a more conventional piece. I dunno. I'm embarrassed that we have no article on piranha fish -- or even on fisherman! -- or on capoeira fighting, so I may do those instead. Thanks again, ----OEJ 22:32, 15 March 2007 (UTC)