I was busy formulating a comment for your last post, but you put Sarah back on my radar. Smitten any intellectual nerve, ran out of time.
The title riff's melody sounds like "There's A Kind of Hush (All Over The World)" by Herman's Hermits (and the Carpenters).
You never fail to make me think, Mr. E!

Brilliant.

Do you mean the song Laid by James? It's C, G and F, I think.

This bed is on fire
With passionate love
The neighbours complain about the noises above
But she only comes
when she’s on top

By the way, the meter of the song's hook, i.e:

On the bed, on the floor
On a towel by the door
In the tub, in the car
Up against the mini-bar

...reminds me of a collection of rugby songs we used to sing at uni, the most innocuous of which, that's fit for printing, went:

You can tell
By the blisters
That it's time to
Use her sister's...

BTW. Silverman's sideways glance to Damon is funnier than Adam Sandler's entire back-catalogue combined.

...but I'm going crazy trying to remember where the title riff comes from. Seems to me it might have originally been only five syllables ("Da-da-da-da-da!"), and that it's from a punk-ish or New-Wavey band from the late 1970s or early 1980s -- like the Sex Pistols or the Clash or Elvis Costello or Squeeze, perhaps. (That's just a hunch -- as is my apparent assumption that they were Brits.) Can you hear it in your head? Something like: "Mus-sels and SA-lads!"

I sorta hear Michael Palin's 'Finland' song: "Fin-LAND, Fin-LAND, Fin-LAND..."

Thanks so much for posting this clip. I hadn't seen it before and I laughed so hard that I almost fell off my chair. Too damn funny!

Sarah's brand of comedy doesn't always work for me, but when she's good, she's very very good.

Now that I've stopped laughing, I'll have to read what you actually wrote about it.

Of all the adjectives that can describe Dr. Seuss' "Green Eggs and Ham," you chose "seminal." Verrry interesting.

Praise is definitely due to Silverman, who wrote and performed this little ditty, and Damon, who participated with gusto. But Kimmel deserves credit for creating the sort of absurdist space where such things can happen. This is the culmination of a long-running gag on the show that finds Damon scheduled for an interview, then getting bumped at the last minute (an obvious, winking contrivance -- as if anyone would schedule such a big star last in an evening's lineup?).

Kimmel's the least appreciated late night host, and maybe the most daring; Conan is silly and funny too, but he lets you in on the joke immediately, where Kimmel maintains a deadpan whenever possible. He might be the truest heir to Letterman, and perhaps the host who has gone the furthest in building on Letterman's innovations.

As a serious internet Film critic arent you supposed to hate clips like that?

Seriously this blog is an oasis of enthusiasm in a desert of pretentious snarkiness

I like green eggs and ham, with apples.

Jim,
i had thought that the kimmel prank on damon was staged. it was real? the way he stormed out seemed over acted. so if it's real then what's the status of kimmel and silverman? is there somewhere i can read up on this more?

have you seen this "promo" for Kimmel & Damon - it plays on the same "My apologies to Matt Damon, we ran out of time" running gag.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T23oNcCFriE

Um, Jim, I'm worried about you. You think this is actually, y'know, funny?

I had a pained expression on my face watching that entire clip. I was actually gritting my teeth. Wow.

I guess that makes me a pretentious snarky asshole...

Sarah Silverman is the most gorgeously cute and foul-mouthed and filthy-minded comedienne since Lisa Lampanelli! Great stuff!

Jim, you know this--as well as the running "we're out of time" gag--was a joke, right?

As David Chase said of the "Sopranos" finale: It's all there.

No discussion of this video would be complete without mentioning "Scotty Doesn't Know" from Eurotrip- maybe the only redeeming part of that movie. It seems to be this video's spiritual predecessor. Its linked in my name.

This also made me think of Team America where the Matt Damon character's only lines are "MATT DAMON!" over and over.

I caught this on Kimmel's show, even though I rarely watch it. Personally I find Silverman's humor to be hit or miss. Sometimes she's very funny, other times it's only "offensive" jokes that are supposed to shock me. But her combination of happy cuteness and vulgarity can be fun.

Anyway, I think the reason this works is because of Damon. He's playing with the fact that I don't think he's seen as a cocky "pretty boy" kind of actor. If you pay any attention to Damon, he doesn't seem like the kind of person to act like this. Now, if this was "@#$%ing Matthew McConaughey", you wouldn't laugh, cuz you'd just wanna punch him.

I didn't laugh once when I saw the clip.

Icky.

It's not very funny on its own, and it's even less funny knowing it's the same (and I mean SAME) exact gag from Eurotrip. The final insult - the song from Eurotrip was catchier.

I'm of the mind that if great comedy can be analyzed to this extent then there's something missing.

Normally, I love Silverman. I love, love, love her television show. It's one of the funniest things on any station. This falls more in line with her Jesus movie. Trying too hard to do something that normally seems natural.

I guess maybe in the moment of the telecast it might have inspired a few chuckles, here it falls as flat as most late night talk show host's opening monologues.

Lou is right to think of Team America -- Damon might be hoping this new phrase replaces the retarded puppet meme that has become, in Damon's own words, "a part of my life" (14:55 in this interview with Edith Bowman: http://www.radio1movies.com/2007/08/matt-damon-came.html).

But having now seen the EuroTrip clip which I wasn't aware of, I award Silverman zero points for originality even though her execution of the joke is much funnier because it only works with Damon repeating his own name, like his Team America counterpart.

And Ethan hit the nail on the head: if it was Matt McConaughey you wouldn't be sure if it was a joke or not.

Normally, I feel Silverman sucks...she's not funny, she's just vulgar. I'm no prude, believe me: but she finally came up with something funnier than licking her dog's butthole. I guess we can actually start calling what she does "comedy" with this tidbit...even when she plagiarizes Euro Trip in doing so...

Seriously, the way you're writing about this article -

"Dressed in a snug, lipstick-magenta/pink shirt, she stands out, flush and ripe, from the soft pale light that envelops her. She strolls to the right, from one lush, clean-green tropical split-leaf philodendron to another, a sexy and innocent Eve in the unspoiled Garden of Eden"

"Damon himself, in tight black t-shirt (like snakeskin!), arms stretched cockily over the back of a white couch as if in post-coital repose. He's been seated just outside the frame, all the time, and he gives the camera a knowing, testosterone-fueled smirk"

"Damon launches into a Henry Rollins punk growl and threatens to lunge at the camera, seizing it the way we imagine him grabbing Silverman's waist before they do the nasty title phrase"

You've clearly masturbated to this video and to thought of Silverman and Damon having sex. Some of this article sounds like an erotic novel.

JE: I'm glad you got the joke.

Thanks for the laugh. Damon's always good value when he comes to Melbourne for promos. He's a natural funnyman.
Silverman's good; but too much below-the-belt stuff.
I thought this was a perfect balance of what she does.

Phillip, I thought it was really hilarious, but I concede that it's shelf life is very short. It was basically a surprise party with the camera flipping over to Damon being the Surprise!!! I'm not saying this to convince anyone of my opinion of its hilariousness, but it does seem that, in this era of camera phones and u-toob, some people are losing the separation between live, tossed-off moments and karefully krafted komedy made to last. For instance, I have always hated it when bad puns are written into scripts even though I have a tendency to use them some myself. If they aren't instantaneous the value (if there's any at all) goes down.

Now about your comment on opening monologues--when will this stale requirement end? Night after night I beg Letterman to hurry up and sit down and start talking to Paul--that's when the show gets good. And back in Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect days when he had only a half hour and four guests why did he insist on doing lame jokes about the material he was then going to talk (relatively) seriously about? He was shooting himself in the foot. I do like Craig Ferguson, though, when he gets on a roll just riffing into the camera; that's what a monologue should be.

I can never tell if her schtick is funny because she's cute or in spite of it. Sometimes I laugh and sometimes I find it irritating

either way, that sh*t is bananas.

"or Squeeze, perhaps"

Squeeze, Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)

Look behind the Chalet
My holiday's complete
And I feel like William Tell
Maid Marian on her, tiptoed feet
Pulling mussels from a shell
Pulling mussels from a shell

Sorry Sarah, Your just not funny. Your cute. That's about it, and frankly its not enough. Will you, Jimmy and that lame Adam guy please just go away now.

"I'm not imagining it is you."

Priceless!

Silverman's impeccable timing is showcased in this well crafted vignette'.

Kevin