Thursday, April 9, 2009

Breaking Doors Breaks Me Up

So my dad’s up for a few days. He loves The Beverly Hillbillies. I loathe it, but there’s only one television here, so I’m forced to watch. I find nothing funny about The Beverly Hillbillies. Bad jokes, canned laughter, inane plots, asinine characters, a complete lack of nostalgic value. So yesterday, there was an episode in which Granny becomes a wrestler. A really good wrestler (Episode 191; "The Great Tag-Team Match"). She's windmilling her opponents over the ropes and out of the ring. Granny retires the champion and refuses to wrestle anymore. The promoter tries to trick her into wrestling again—he's received lots of fan mail requesting her to wrestle again, and he smells big bucks. The promoter, the “Boston Strong Girl” (who Granny previously defeated), and her father (also a wrestler) go to the Clampett mansion to challenge Granny to a rematch. Granny refuses, so the Strong Girl's father picks Granny up and throws her through the front door. We see Granny crash through the door in fast-motion and land on the pavement outside.

I let out a hearty guffaw.

Later, my dad’s watching another episode (Episode 197; "From Rags to Riches"). Mr. Drysdale is trying to coax his surly wife into a replica of the Clampett’s backwoods shack. He finally does, and the Clampetts, figuring that the Drysdales are gonna be doing some loving, begin to leave. There’s a wide-angle shot as they’re walking away, and suddenly, Mr. Drysdale goes crashing through the front door of the shack in fast-motion and lands a full 10 to 12 feet outside.

Another big laugh from me.

I get it.

The Beverly Hillbillies is funny when someone's being thrown through a door!!!