Publisher at The American Bystander
is Blogmom of Hey Dullblog. His novels and parodies have sold 1.25 million copies in 25 languages. He lives in Santa Monica, CA, and runs The American Bystander all-star print humor magazine.
Latest posts by Michael Gerber (see all)
- Needed: Paid Research Assistant(s) for a Beatle Project - October 28, 2023
- From Faith Current: “The Sacred Ordinary: St. Peter’s Church Hall” - May 1, 2023
- A brief (?) hiatus - April 22, 2023
Just in case you’d never seen it.
BTW, Kate and I went to see the newly refurbished “Yellow Submarine” last month, which looks gorgeous. That recent viewing reminds me just how wonderful and detailed this parody really is. Two thumbs up from the toughest parody critic you know. 🙂
Nice to know Lennon was a Rutles fan. I’ve always wondered if he heard Tony Hendra’s “Magical Misery Tour” parody of the “Lennon Remembers” interviews:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qrMEEN6WxM
I remember buying the national lampoon album when it came out in the ’70s, especially for that track. The whole album parodied Dylan, Joan Baez, Paul (singing “give Ireland back to the Irish, and Yoko back to the J*ps”)
Perhaps as it dawned on John that he was becoming a parody of himself (encouraging tracks like Hendra’s “Magical Misery Tour”) that he decided it might be a good career to pull back a bit from self-exposure.
– Hologram Sam
Re: the refurbished Yellow Submarine:
Didn’t they digitally refurbish Yellow Submarine back in the 90s? I recall bringing home the newly refurbished movie when my sons were in grade school, so we could all watch. I remember being pleased to see the newly restored “Hey Bulldog” scene (how strange it feels to type that after typing “hey dullblog” so often).
As I recall at that time I also purchased the newly digitally remastered soundtrack.
And yet one gets the impression that this new release is somehow the first time the movie has been restored. That for all these years it has been moldering in some damp warehouse next to Chaplin’s old Essanay prints.
A while back, someone (I believe it was Michael) wrote an excellent piece about “presentism”… does it apply here? That somehow the careful mid-1990s restoration never happened?
My impression of seeing it in the ’90s with my sons (I hadn’t seen it since its first release in theaters at the age of nine) was how three dimensional the animation looked. The little spinning nowhere man, the scenes of old Liverpool… it looked like 3-D computer rendering.
It also made me wish the Beatles had been willing to lend their own voices to the dialog, with their spontaneous ad libs and wit. (Lennon had a true comedian’s gift of making whatever he said hilarious if he wanted to)… The Hey Bulldog scene, where Lennon asks the dogs “Do you know any more?” made me wish they’d been willing to spend an afternoon performing their lines and having some fun with it.
– Hologram Sam
I have a confession to make: I’ve never sat down and watched Yellow Submarine. For some reason I’ve just never had enough interest to make the effort to locate, purchase and watch this film. After reading Hologram Sam’s reviews however, I think I’m going to finally make the effort to watch YS. Hopefully it will be enjoyable, thanks for spurring me on, Sam.
[…] mentioned this sublime Beatles parody band many times before on this blog, but if you love the Fabs there’s never a good time not to celebrate the […]