David Kronke was appointed Mayor of Television after a bloodless coup in 2000. Since then, he has improved infrastructure, championed greater educational opportunities and fought for reforms that have utterly erased corruption and incompetence from the television industry. Since Mr. Kronke has ascended to power, Television is a far better place. My impersonation of Rank TV
I admit it: I’ve been watching the baseball playoffs. And I can state one thing categorically: Thank God the Rockies swept, if only because that means an end to those “Frank TV” promos.
Frank Caliendo is some impersonator – maybe you’ve seen him doing those John Madden impressions during Fox’s Sunday football coverage – and he’s going to have a late-night show on TBS. A little of him can go a long way, and during TBS’s baseball coverage, there was a lot of him.
And OK, I’ll concede that his Madden is kind of funny. But some of the other spots that ran ubiquitously during baseball were, well, maddening.
He does George W. Bush, but then, everyone does Bush. His Jack Nicholson is about as accomplished as one you’d hear from a drunk in a bar. His Robin Williams is so good he has to preface it with “It’s me, Robin Williams” (like a bad editorial cartoonist who has to write “Cheney” across the chest of his sketch of the Vice President). It took me a while to get that he was doing Al Pacino. And there’s one that I guess is supposed to be Robert De Niro (but then, even Robert De Niro doesn’t do a good Robert De Niro anymore).
Of course, it didn’t help that all the spots had to be baseball-themed; there’s just so much you can do with that, so maybe I was cringing more at the material than the impressions. But make no mistake: I was cringing at the impressions, too.
It just seems so Rich Little, like something my grandfather would laugh at were my grandfather still alive to laugh at insipid things. Impressionists skirt by on recognition gags far more than other comics, who have to develop material that’s actually funny.
So what do I get in the mail today? Auuugggh! A “Frank TV” clock! Or at least a very good imitation of a clock. With not one but four pictures of the guy in his various guises. Anyone want to take this thing off my hands?
And what do I find in amongst my Email? Double auuugggh! An invitation to a taping of a “Frank TV” episode! At least they’re offering cocktails with Frank – or someone very much like him – afterwards; if you sat through 90 minutes of that, you’d need a few drinks, too.
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Oh, and those Dane Cook promos for the baseball playoffs are pretty annoying, too.
And what’s up with those commercials for some investment company with the tagline: “Never outlive your money?” Uh, given the number of people in debt in this country, can this commercial be interpreted as a call for mass suicide?
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What do you think? Have you seen this guy’s act? Am I missing something?