Saturday, January 12, 2008

Which is the Funnier Sacrifice?

See "Mr. Deity and the Murder" and you decide.
(Mr. D is getting too cozy with Lucy here for my comfort.)
Great episode!

Wiki entry Cain and Abel

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

You were right Jimbo. This one wasn't as good as the last one, and I hated seeing you so upset.

Anonymous said...

The BEST thing about living in Hawaii - Getting to see the new Mr. Deity episode before going to bed FRIDAY night.

Happiness. (and maybe just a small bt of exaggeration)

Murphy J. Stillwater said...

Jimbo was fantastic. I'm liking the ongoing Jesus (Hay-Zeus) theme.

Brilliantly written, as always. May the WGA enjoy long walks by the lake of fire.

Anonymous said...

Worth the pain and suffering of the last four weeks! Mean comments rescinded...

Deity, you can stop staring at the black hole and return to Lucy's Love Lair. Kudos.

Anonymous said...

I LOVED Jésus' facial expressions in this one ("Did Mr. Deity create some new chicks or what?") Plus Jésus!chest, always good.

And Larry! Poor, sweet, naive Larry. When will he catch a break?

I also enjoyed reading the website news, very entertaining.

These episodes that have the whole foursome are definitely the best of the lot.

Plus, if I'm not mistaken that was the first aftercredits!sequence. Hoping it's the first of many!

Anonymous said...

Shandy - for the first after-credit sequence, check out Season 1, Episode 7. All the way to the end.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of that episode, is there a Mr. D 'beard continuity error' at ~1:42?

Anonymous said...

father wolf--
I can't believe in my many re-watchings of Mr. Deity eps, I never ever caught that.
Thankyou!

Anonymous said...

i am so damn happy you guys are loving this one!
we had a blast making it!

jimbo

PortlyDyke said...

My two favorite deliveries -- Jimbo's "He was a helluva shepherd", and Mr. D's closing line.

Oh, the bit with Jesse's flapping ear-phone? Genius.

My first time posting here, but I adore your series, and force innocent bystanders to watch it whenever I can.

Anonymous said...

Lucy is looking more devilish than ever!

I wonder how they're going to get Jesus back to being a Jew.

But seriously, folks, there's a lot of theology tucked into this and other episodes. Mostly consistent with what I learned in Sunday School, but from a different perspective.

Anonymous said...

I'm wondering: At what point in the series do you all think that Mr. Deity jumped the shark? Seems a long creative way from Episode One to the latest giggle fest.

Anonymous said...

I'm wondering, too: At what point in the series DO you all think that Mr. Deity jumped the shark? Seems a long creative way from Episode One to the latest giggle fest.

Dave MacD said...

Jumped the shark? Not only does it sound highly dangerous, but I'm pretty sure it's illegal everywhere except Massachusetts.

Anonymous said...

who said there's anything wrong with giggling? i mean come on, please lighten up a bit.
i think it would start to get old if we had 16 episodes of me the Deity standing around philll-osss-o-FIZING about the nature of evil.
the point is this: we've tried to take the characters beyond the bible while still maintaining some historical perspective. I think we've done a good job with that, no?
but hey, at least you're watching so thanks

jimbo

Murphy J. Stillwater said...

The shark hasn't been jumped. There is way too much material yet to be examined and made funny (as if it weren't already funny).

I'd say the shark is jumped when the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse play polo.

Dave MacD said...

Am I blind or did the thumbs up/down thing disappear? I usually watch the RSS feed, but I like to make a point of giving positive feedback where Sony can see it.

Anonymous said...

The shark was jumped when the group dropped the ball of comedic depth and originality, and went for sitcom yuks with a few cosmological softballs thrown in. Some may see that as "taking the characters beyond the bible while still maintaining some historical perspective". Others of us see it as jumping the shark.

Dave MacD said...

I still have no clue what "jumping the shark" means. But I think you're completely wrong. The source of the humor does indeed change from episode to episode, but they go back and forth between what you describe as "sitcom yuks" and religious satire. I think it's a good mix. The reason it is so striking is that the episodes are so short, it's difficult to balance both in a single episode, so it seems that one episode, making it seem as though the Mr. D. crew had "jumped the shark" (whatever the hell that means).

Murphy J. Stillwater said...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark

That link tells all you need to know about "jumping the shark".

Since opinion requires no basis in fact, all opinions are equally valid. And all are equally entitled to disagree. I still think the show is quite funny.

Anonymous said...

well like the yuk yuk every once in a while. i love stuff like curb, arrested development, my name is earl and the like. these shows often go a bit too far, but really if it were just real life all the time, why would i watch?
don't get me wrong, we welcome and appreciate the constructive criticism. i've even talked to murph on the phone about some it and completely agreed with his points. and yes, 4 minutes is really tough to do this in. we never set out to make a show that just makes people think. we want them to smile!
just some rambling.
but again i say thanks for watching

jimbo

Anonymous said...

Wow Murph that's quite an article.
There are very specific criteria to suggest Jumping. IE "Look out for one of the characters getting pregnant"... (Larry?)
It seems to me that something is only likely to Jump when a concept and the material has been thoroughly milked. I can't see Mr Deity EVER jumping because there IS SO MUCH MATERIAL... that's CENTURIES of crazy religious dogma! (CRD)
(Also, on the Mr Deity set, the only time the writers go on strike is when Brian D gets a bad head-cold.)

Anonymous said...

The episode was strong and well-conceived. I LOVE after-credit shots. They are like little presents that bring back all the funny--AND make the audience watch the credits at the same time!

Happy to have you all back in action.

How many more episodes are left for the season??? 25, right? ;)

Anonymous said...

Hi! I didn't mean to sound so negative. Me and my girlfriends here at Fuller Sem became fans of the first few episodes because they were good chalenges to belief systems. We even discussed them in class but the newer ones don't work as well in that way. They are funny but aren't as comically deep. I miss the earlier ones and we wish you would do more like that. Blessings.
Ps. I also had to look up jumping the shark before agreeing with anonymous!

Dave MacD said...

zinfab, I think their Sony/Crackle deal was for 10 episodes total, so unfortunately, we're over the hill. Jimbo, any word on getting "renewed" for another season?

Anonymous said...

that's correct, we signed a 10 episode deal with crackle. no word on season 3 yet or not.
jimbo

PortlyDyke said...

Jumped the shark? No way! Get some perspective -- you've seen sixteen 4-minute episodes, which equates to approximately 3 half-hour sitcom episodes.

Name me a single mainstream sitcom that has established predictable character-relationships, set up and developed several ongoing gags (nietzsche, Jesus as hispanic, etc.), bridged the gap between eternal and current topical material, AND tackled (by my count) over 15 different major theological issues -- all in its first three episodes.

While making me laugh.

I'll worry about Mr. D jumping the shark when I see the "A Very Special Mr. D" episode.

Hmmm. Which might be kinda funny, now that I think of it.

Murphy J. Stillwater said...

I hereby nominate portlydyke for Archangel.

Anonymous said...

It's limbo time! That's right, episode 2/7!

Back to wall-to-wall theology in this one.

(This is the third straight episode where I'm the first to notice & mention. I'm definitely a second-tier Mr. Deity fan, so why am I always the first?)