Word: weirdnesses
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Muppeteer] Caroll Spinney did a radio interview, and he brought Oscar the Grouch. The interviewers were like, "But nobody can see him." Well, we're portraying these characters. We can't just sit there as ourselves and do that voice and personality. We're puppeteers. It's kind of weird for us to sit in front of people, even if it's radio, and not have the puppet there...
...question that stumped Kaplan was about the origin of a particular textile. “It’s from India,” he said, “but it doesn’t look Indian because it was Anglicized in a weird...
...eager for the language skills of Muslims, and has been awarding signing bonuses and expedited citizenship (for the two-thirds of enlistees who are legal aliens) since 2003 to recruits fluent in Arabic, Dari, Farsi, Kurdish and Pashto. (The Army's website, in its typically patriotic but omnisciently weird way, declares these 450 new soldiers - all sent to Afghanistan, Iraq or the Horn of Africa - "100% support the Global War on Terrorism.") During Ramadan, fast-breaking dinners are regularly held at the Pentagon and other military installations. Because Muslims cannot eat or drink from dawn to dusk during their holy...
...Gentlemen Broncos” follows the same basic trajectory as “Napoleon Dynamite.” An insular, stammering kid, whose quirks far outnumber his friends, meets a couple of equally weird outcasts. He is forced to start living outside of his fantasy world and gains a modicum of acceptance for who he is in the process. The hero in question in “Gentlemen Broncos” is Benjamin Purvis, played by relative unknown Michael Angarano. Benjamin lives in a small Alaska town with his mother, and copes with the death of his father by immortalizing...
Most of the absurdity comes from the dialogue and props, while the acting remains deadpan. Clement, as Chevalier, recycles his character from “Flight of the Conchords” (which basically involves as little emotion as possible), simply adding feathers, weird leather ensembles, and an earpiece to become the science-fiction god. The rest of the actors follow suit, with the notable exception of indie veteran Jennifer Coolidge, who plays Benjamin’s bubbly, excitable mother. The unabating deadpan irony, when combined with the ludicrous plot, serve to estrange the characters from us rather than endearing them...