DVD Commentary
So I was watching my Chappelle Show DVDs this weekend and it prompted me to talk about what makes commentaries bad to me.
sidenote: Not that it's some great feat or anything, but I called Neal being a phony, sorry bastard after I heard him on Season 1's commentary. As those of you who've heard it probably noticed, you can sense that he was just way too excited and used "we" and "us" too much like him and Dave had a fuckin hive mind or something. The whole time he came off alternatively as "look at me, I'm down with Black people" and "look at me I'm down with Dave Chappelle." Both of which were creepy as hell.
So back to the point bad commentary:
In this scene...
I really hate commentaries where the people describe the shit we can already see. "Oh, this is the scene where we make fun of R. Kelly!" Really? I would've had no idea, if you hadn't told me, Stabler. It's commentary not audio captions for the visually impaired.
Plot "explanation."
Somewhat related to the above issue, when commentators "explain" the facts of the show as if the viewers haven't already seen the show and/or as if the show were more complicated than it really is. Best example, Oz. Tom Fontana was constantly doing both the above thing and this one. So he'd be like "In this scene Beecher and Keller aren't speaking. See Keller broke Beecher's legs so Beecher is mad at him." ....That was deep, Tom. And required the thoughtful output that you gave.
I get it. They often do these commentaries years after the show/movie was filmed. And in cases like Tom's, they are doing commentary for one episode out of however many in a whole season, so they are really explaining to themselves to feel caught up. I got it. And I don't even expect them to re-watch the ep/movie beforehand (though it would be nice!). I do, however, expect them to not treat the viewers like idiots. AND to remember that while they are searching for clues, we have the whole season at out disposal. So "reminding" me why some minor plot point occurred when I just saw it in the ep I watched beforehand it annoying as shit.
"I'll tell you about it when we're done."
It doesn't happen often, but every once in a while when there's more than one commentator one person will bring up something then suddenly remember that they are being taped and midway through telling the story become tight lipped and tell the other(s) that they'll reveal the rest to that person in private. Just don't bring the shit up at all.
Key grip commentators
No offense, I'm sure the boom operator worked very hard on the film, but I gives a shit about what s/he has to say about the movie. If you can't get the starring actors, director or writer(s) to do the commentary, then just don't have a commentary at all. No one cares about what the guy who checks the lighting has to say.
Something else that doesn't happened outside of Chappelle Show DVD but I felt was noteworthy, Neal kept saying jokes were "weird" when *he* didn't understand them. It drives me up a damn wall. During the Player Hater's Ball sketch when Dave/Silky says that Puffy "looks like Malcolm X before he converted to Islam" Neal said "that's a weird joke." Um, no, white boy. It's not "weird." It's fuckin hilarious. Your ass just never saw Malcolm X so you don't get the reference.
Another noteworthy bad commentary was Training Day's. Antoine Fuqua did it and it was just boring as shit. Also the commentary on Brown Sugar, done by the writer, boring as fuck.
I HIGHLY recommend anyone to listen to ANY Spike Lee movie with commentary because Spike is just off the hook. lol He names names. He goes off. He is just extra real. The commentary of Bamboozled is hilarious to me because he goes IN on this woman that wrote a review of the movie in the Village Voice. I don't remember her name, but he definitely says her name. And he talks about how he called her up and cursed her out after he saw the lies she printed. Excellent. He also talks about Tommy Hilfiger and how Tommy confronted him for how he was depicted in the movie... And how little he cares. lol
Another good commentary is the one for Anchorman. Completely insane with all sorts of random people on it. Lou Rawls is on the damned thing for no reason. It's random and hilarious.
sidenote: Not that it's some great feat or anything, but I called Neal being a phony, sorry bastard after I heard him on Season 1's commentary. As those of you who've heard it probably noticed, you can sense that he was just way too excited and used "we" and "us" too much like him and Dave had a fuckin hive mind or something. The whole time he came off alternatively as "look at me, I'm down with Black people" and "look at me I'm down with Dave Chappelle." Both of which were creepy as hell.
So back to the point bad commentary:
In this scene...
I really hate commentaries where the people describe the shit we can already see. "Oh, this is the scene where we make fun of R. Kelly!" Really? I would've had no idea, if you hadn't told me, Stabler. It's commentary not audio captions for the visually impaired.
Plot "explanation."
Somewhat related to the above issue, when commentators "explain" the facts of the show as if the viewers haven't already seen the show and/or as if the show were more complicated than it really is. Best example, Oz. Tom Fontana was constantly doing both the above thing and this one. So he'd be like "In this scene Beecher and Keller aren't speaking. See Keller broke Beecher's legs so Beecher is mad at him." ....That was deep, Tom. And required the thoughtful output that you gave.
I get it. They often do these commentaries years after the show/movie was filmed. And in cases like Tom's, they are doing commentary for one episode out of however many in a whole season, so they are really explaining to themselves to feel caught up. I got it. And I don't even expect them to re-watch the ep/movie beforehand (though it would be nice!). I do, however, expect them to not treat the viewers like idiots. AND to remember that while they are searching for clues, we have the whole season at out disposal. So "reminding" me why some minor plot point occurred when I just saw it in the ep I watched beforehand it annoying as shit.
"I'll tell you about it when we're done."
It doesn't happen often, but every once in a while when there's more than one commentator one person will bring up something then suddenly remember that they are being taped and midway through telling the story become tight lipped and tell the other(s) that they'll reveal the rest to that person in private. Just don't bring the shit up at all.
Key grip commentators
No offense, I'm sure the boom operator worked very hard on the film, but I gives a shit about what s/he has to say about the movie. If you can't get the starring actors, director or writer(s) to do the commentary, then just don't have a commentary at all. No one cares about what the guy who checks the lighting has to say.
Something else that doesn't happened outside of Chappelle Show DVD but I felt was noteworthy, Neal kept saying jokes were "weird" when *he* didn't understand them. It drives me up a damn wall. During the Player Hater's Ball sketch when Dave/Silky says that Puffy "looks like Malcolm X before he converted to Islam" Neal said "that's a weird joke." Um, no, white boy. It's not "weird." It's fuckin hilarious. Your ass just never saw Malcolm X so you don't get the reference.
Another noteworthy bad commentary was Training Day's. Antoine Fuqua did it and it was just boring as shit. Also the commentary on Brown Sugar, done by the writer, boring as fuck.
I HIGHLY recommend anyone to listen to ANY Spike Lee movie with commentary because Spike is just off the hook. lol He names names. He goes off. He is just extra real. The commentary of Bamboozled is hilarious to me because he goes IN on this woman that wrote a review of the movie in the Village Voice. I don't remember her name, but he definitely says her name. And he talks about how he called her up and cursed her out after he saw the lies she printed. Excellent. He also talks about Tommy Hilfiger and how Tommy confronted him for how he was depicted in the movie... And how little he cares. lol
Another good commentary is the one for Anchorman. Completely insane with all sorts of random people on it. Lou Rawls is on the damned thing for no reason. It's random and hilarious.