(S02E11) When I watch shows in order to review them for TV Squad, I try to simply sit back and enjoy them as if I were any other fella sitting down to enjoy a TV show. In other words, I try not to get hung up on every little nuance and line of dialogue because I want to appreciate the show as it's meant to be, not turn it into some kind of archaeological dig where I over-examine every detail and completely suck the enjoyment out of the experience. I like to look for little details, of course, but I don't want to lose the whole package. This is my way. Yes, it is.

However, I can't completely neglect the blogger/writer part of me that knows he's going to be typing out something about the show once it's over, and some things I would normally ignore get stuck in my craw because of it. For instance, I thought this recent episode of Tom Goes to the Mayor was very funny, but there were two moments I felt were somewhat beneath the usual bizarre humor I expect from Tim and Eric. The first was a "Benny Hill" chase sequence, which has already been spoofed a million times, and a Scooby-Doo style "unmasking" at the end, which, to be fair, was pretty damn surreal, but I still felt it was a little too easy. These are minor complaints though, and the rest of the episode was pretty funny, I thought.

Oh, those Czechs. They do have a sense of humor. There's a show on public television in the Czech Republic that makes fun of the American obsession with reality programming, which is also sweeping Czech television. A zoologist created a weekly reality program featuring four apes at a zoo, called Unmasking. The creators of the show put 16 cameras in a pavilion at the Prague Zoo, to allow viewers to watch the gorillas do what they do (you can also watch them online). The goal of the program is actually to educate the public about gorillas. For the last three months, viewers have seen the apes mosey, groan, scratch themselves, sleep, eat, preen, and generally be ape-like. The producers launched a write-in campaign for the Czech public to choose their favorite gorilla. The winner receives 12 watermelons.