Lovitz's peak

I still unabashedly love "The Critic"

like holy shit there was a League Of Their Own TV show? he was in something called Pancho's Pizza? "My eyes are up here Penguin"?

xpost

happiness?

hahahahahaha had I read all of the choices I would have voted "My eyes are up here Penguin" because srsly wtf

i think i might be a jon lovitz stan??? who knew

i lol'd just reading the name randall 'randy' pear

sorry, skimmed past Happiness by accident when editing the list -- let's use Pancho's Pizza as the write-in surrogate for Happiness, OK? I'm serious btw.

Hamburger: TMP FTW.

I don't remember him playing a bank in Jumping Jack Flash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK8vVk4_n2Q

Lovitz's first guest role on "Newsradio" was hilarious and one of their best episodes, and then he did a 2nd spot as a completely different character that was good, and then the last season when he replaced Hartman in the cast as a yet another character it was just all too much of a bummer and he never clicked w/ the cast.

no newsradio?

yeah he was great in this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEgMCbq8TPU

i would not have voted for newsradio but it's odd not seeing it here.

xxxxxxxxp

i have seen a surprising number of these films

hey wow i suck, actually took some time to enter stuff and somehow missed a few important things

so OK

if you want to vote for Happiness = vote for Pancho's Pizza

if you want to vote for Newsradio = vote for Cranium Command

hahahaha

do you want to redo the poll and we can lock this thread with a link to the new one, or are you really looking to disenfranchise our lurking Cranium Command fans

i'm actually kind of surprised at all the goodwill here, because even though he's been great in several of these, so many of these just bring up memories of really stupid little walk-on roles in shit shows and movies that i can't believe i ever watched

i would really like to try the Cranium Command/Pancho's Pizza experiment, unless a lot of people speak up and have objections, then i'll reconsider

i saw his first stand-up show, i think. back in '06. he was really, really funny.

http://albums.mouseplanet.com/WDWEpcotWondersOfLifeProcessed/EP_WOL_CraniumCommandMarquee_sowa.jpg

wait, he did standup for the first time a year before he opened his own comedy club? weird.

sorry, i guess he started in 2005...though some googling indicates 1984? i think that's wrong, since he said when i saw him that he'd never really done it before.

I love this dude but damn, he has been in some of the worst stuff ever. North AND Rat Race on the same resume.

I always love seeing this case at the movie store:

http://www.hillsofwoodland.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/madstw-poster-med.jpg

I saw "Mom and Dad Save the World" at age 10 and spent several recesses describing it awe to a friend. She finally convinced her parents to rent it, and then, after seeing it, she gave me the silent treatment for a month. (The same thing happened a few months earlier when I told her about how awesome "Mac and Me" was but, in that case, I hadn't seen the movie & just made up a fantastic hot air balloon adventure.)

i like to think this thread is about a mountain somewhere.

that reminds me, i saw lovitz at an irish bar during a broncos/browns game last season w/his girlfriend (i think?) and some other dudes.

Happiness is clearly this guy's peak and it isn't even fucking on here what the hell

it's here, listed as "Pancho's Pizza"

also the Wedding Singer isn't on here...? (one of several vehicles in which he does a hilariously inappropriate version of the disco hit "Ladies Night")

that was the alternate title for its Canadian DVD release (xpost)

so should we made Bailey's Billion$ = Wedding Singer or should i give up and start a new poll?

i wanted to vote for wedding singer just because of that one part but i don't think it's that important

don't mean to be all Tuomas-y but I am not getting your strange American "jokes". Bailey's Billions and Pancho's Pizza are not, respectively, the Wedding Singer and Happiness

I just hate the idea of having a good thread going and then locking and re-doing it just to accomodate a few poll options that were excluded (which was, admittedly, totally my fault). So my suggestion was to just pick obscure LOL options that nobody would vote for as stand-ins for more popular projects I left out, both because it seems easy enough to do and because it'd be funny to see something like Pancho's Pizza near the top of the results.

I know its standard operating challops to insist on missing poll options but I am totally serious that Happiness was the best thing he's ever done. yes. ACTING

I think his "peak" was punching Andy Dick's lights out.

Came here to post that!

i like french films, pretentious boring french films, i like french films, two tickets s'il vous plaaaaaait

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

The Critic.

Next question.

^^^^

Genuinely one of my favourite 'not top of the bill' actors. Voted for Happiness (or the substitute) but there are so many I could have picked. Dude knows his strengths.

acting!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

ok ppl seriously like the critic better than him on SNL?

yes it is officially 8 better

No. I'm sorry, but no.

Cranium Command (1989) Right Brain 2
Pancho's Pizza (2005) 1

XD

"the critic" was amazing. there's probably like 20-30 great moments from that show lodged in my memory forever.

Whenever he's on Conan it's just so fucking funny it's unreal

every time i see this thread in new answers i think about some big hiking goal or something

lovitz!

love the critic but i think his snl oeuvre wins. i forgot to vote.

totally missed this poll. the critic is right on, tho!

Just found a torrent of The Critic. Loved the show when I was a kid, and it definitely holds up! Has that early/mid-period Simpsons glow about the humor in parts, mostly cos alot of those writers were involved. A few episodes are so surreal and sardonic they seem like they could have been by Conan O'Brien. Also, I did not know that Judd Apatow was a writer for the show either!

Yay James L. Brooks!

The cutaway shows are pretty surreal and extreme, and the pacing at times feels like Family Guy basically ripped them off more than anyone else.

Lovitz is great as Jay Sherman, but every time his father Franklin speaks its LOL time.

Currently obsessed with the "GET TO KNOW ME" sketch from SNL. One of his best.

i think of tales of ribaldry at least once a month.

lol me too

doing a rewatch of The Critic, my god this still makes me spit take laughing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DckGotoquLw

i would have thought he'd have, like, 50 small roles in decent movies just based on his fame/face/name but boy oh boy he picked some stinkers to be in. maybe he didn't have an easy time of it. or at least 50 famous disney/pixar voice-acting parts. but no not really. Big is his biggest movie. how did he not get the shady manager/lawyer parts in half the comedies of the 90s?

or at least one sitcom to star in? weird. maybe he is famously difficult. how did his agent never pitch a sitcom where lovitz plays a two-bit con man who begrudgingly takes his sister's kids in after his sister dies?

lmao @ the comments on that clip

Not that I’d vote for it (never seen it and the poster is problematic) but High School High is conspicuously absent considering it’s probably his only theatrically released name above the title solo star vehicle.

or at least one sitcom to star in? weird. maybe he is famously difficult. how did his agent never pitch a sitcom where lovitz plays a two-bit con man who begrudgingly takes his sister's kids in after his sister dies?

― scott seward, Thursday, December 12, 2024 9:35 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

not sure if he's famously difficult, but the way norm macdonald and dana carvey talked about him on "norm macdonald live" seemed to indicate that lovitz is kind of insufferable

He’s on a syndicated panel game show with Adam Carolla and Jamie Kennedy among other C list comedians. It’s the worst thing on television and when I’m subjected to it Lovitz is the worst part.

My god, THAT'S saying something.

Write in for slamming Andy Dick’s face into a bar.

I think a lot about when Lovitz was on Conan in a wheelchair and at the end of the segment he says "Goodbye Conan, I have to go to the bathroom" and Conan says "Do you want me to push you out" and Lovitz says "No, I can push it out myself."

If ppl is going to constantly call Norm the best talk show guest, we gotta start repping for Lovitz as 2nd place

yeah, Lovitz is excellent in conversation with some people.

I see a bunch of full episodes of The Critic are on YouTube now, when I looked a couple years ago a bunch of them were region blocked

I think the show holds up pretty well actually, I agree with Adam upthread that it was this show, not The Simpsons, which primarily inspired Family Guy. despite that it's still pretty funny! Duke Phillips and Franklin are still two of the funniest characters in any animated show I think. I remember thinking Duke was great beacuse he was like a more nuanced and likeable take on Mr. Burns, a guy who was evil but still had some kind of heart and humanity, though obviously now we realize Mr. Burns was a way way more realistic portrayal of that sort of person

Casting Charles Napier as Duke was the icing on the cake.

Tubi has them all but it was malfunctioning last night.

Duke is hilarious, I love the episode where he talks about how he was a self-made man starting w/ his fried chicken business and someone walks into the studio and orders a fried chicken meal and Duke takes the order and slides the guy a biscuit out of his pocket.

that and Jay eating things that aren't made to be eaten, i.e. "and this book's cover is made out of pressed ham!" "No it isn't!"

or

'something's burning my lord, Kum-ba-yah'
'i think it's you, daaaaad'
'Kum-ba-YAHHHHHHH'

He’s on a syndicated panel game show with Adam Carolla and Jamie Kennedy among other C list comedians. It’s the worst thing on television and when I’m subjected to it Lovitz is the worst part.

― papal hotwife (milo z), Thursday, December 12, 2024 2:01 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

milo, are you posting from Guantanamo?

xxp and having Maurice LaMarche doing a ton of voices, including Jay's hunky Australian friend. one of the cool things about watching the show growing up was recognizing the voice actors from everything else you were watching, sometimes it's the exact voice too - Marty is Chucky from Rugrats, Doris is the lunchlady from The Simpsons, Maurice's voice for "The Brain" shows up a bunch. apparently the voice of Jay's girlfriend in Season 2 is the lady who does Bart Simpson

No, the Alice the girlfriend was Park Overall, the sassy southern receptionist from TV's Empty Nest.

I think it was Margot, his sister, that was Nancy Cartwright doing the voice (aka Bart)

I really love the theme tune of The Critic (Hans Zimmer!)

ahh yeah you're right. I knew she was one of them. and yes the theme song is great, almost catchier than the Simpsons one, there's a bit with a walking bass line that I really love

one of the funniest bits I thought was Marty going to the United Nations school, with the kid from Easter Island

oh and

Eleanor: At least, Guernica is ours!
Franklin **drives through painting with monster truck**: Take that, Guernica!

I have definitely said "This iscmy bar the worst performance of Porgy and Bess I've ever seen " many a time