Sunday, January 07, 2007

In Praise of Tom Bergeron

Really, what's not to like? Here's a guy who clearly knows he's a fantastically lucky guy career-wise. His shtick is cracking dumb jokes and relatively-low-level hamming while poking generally-gentle fun at regular folks. And he gets paid for it!

He was fun to watch on Hollywood Squares, and this is coming from an old-school Peter Marshall/Geoge Gobel/Paul Lynde watcher. He was and is a great host on Dancing with the Stars, although landing Jerry Springer obviously got someone in Casting a huge bonus and/or promotion this past season. Finally, he has helped heal this nation by blotting the memory of Bob Saget from that part of the national consciousness that watches America's Funniest Videos, in which I proudly claim membership. (You people, on the other hand, still have a lot to deal with.) In addition to its impact on my unilateral, permanent and irreversible ban on trampolines in the Slattery household (Laura is bummed about that, but no matter), almost nothing beats the show's montage of personal injuries set to music at or about minute 35 of the broadcast. Except possibly the split-screen single shot vs. montage featuring, for example, "How many people will fall on their butt before Aunt Pearl gets her head out of the pail?" As Napoleon in Time Bandits would say, "[American] people running around hitting each other! That's funny!"

Curiously, his time onscreen includes stints on the late unlamented Enterprise, of which I only saw two or so episodes. I mean, how many times can you watch detox showers with curvy Vulcans? I won't answer that, but my point is that I didn't see him on any of the episodes.

I felt that given my limited time available for blogging and all of the Manichean shrieking going on elsewhere, this was the best use of my time. Thank you and good night.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

We have reached a cultural watershed. I do not know who this guy is. Moreover, I have never seen a show, until Dick Clark's New Years 2006, with this fellow Ryan Secrest. A host of "famous" people are now unknown to me (or barely so because my wife gets Entertainment Weekly).

I liked "Enterprise" the best of the Star Trek's without Kirk. I always felt if the going got rough the Captain could call in Harry Dean Stanton for advice.

Why is there a permanent ban on trampolines? Is this so even if the Slattery's move to a place with higher ceilings? Your wife wants one? Have you never seen the "Man Show?" Of course, cable...

jjv(I can't seem to post under google)

Dave S. said...

If you watched AFV for a minimum of five minutes you would understand the trampoline ban. To address the ceiling issue, the problem with trampolines is not what happens when one goes up, but when one comes back down. As I told Laura in relation to Bryan's learning the consequences of fearless behavior, "Gravity is a stern taskmaster."

I did not know it was possible to be ignorant of both Bergeron and Seacrest. Your specialness is reconfirmed once more.

J. said...

Irreversible ban? Boo! Just stick a bunch of soft gym mats around it. At least now I know what to get you as a housewarming present. : )

LOVED this post and the comments. Very funny, Mr. S.