Saturday, January 26, 2008

The magic of the FA Cup and the internet

I watched Havant & Waterlooville play Liverpool today, thanks to the miracle of streaming video from ESPN's far east broadcasts. If the BBC had had the sense to show the game, I wouldn't have had to, but still, it pleases me to know that there really is no limit to what you can get on the internet if you look hard enough.

It was a great game too - a real who-says-the-magic-is-gone-from-the-F-A-Cup game. Actually, have you ever noticed that nobody ever actually says the magic has gone from the F A Cup, but everybody always makes a point of denying it? It's strange.

And why do I always want to refer to Havant as "Havant & Westfield"? I know the shopping centre in Derby is called the Westfield centre, but I'm sure I know of something with an "and Westfield" suffix, because it just sounds so familiar...

In other news, I'm informed that "Chimp Beats Memory Champion" has made the radio news in Toronto, Canada. It's nice to know that media coverage of all my achievements in the field of memory put together is going to fall far short of all the press I'll get for this thing. I can just tell that "lost to a monkey" is going to become even more widespread than that old chestnut "forgot to set his alarm clock".

And also, while I'm vaguely complaining about things, I've just watched the Friends episode with the following dialogue:

Joey - Why do you call him Gandalf?
Chandler - You know, Gandalf the Wizard!
Joey looks blank.
Chandler - Didn't you read Lord Of The Rings in high school?
Joey - I had sex in high school.

Last time I saw the episode, it was on E4's 5:00pm showing, and they cut out Joey's final line. I've just watched it again at 8:00pm, and that line was still edited out! You can't say 'sex' at 8pm? What is the world coming to?

And if you're going to cut out the punchline, why on earth would you leave the extensive setup intact?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's one thing that really annoys me about the E4 Friends airings - so often you can tell that a line has been cut - they're either cut mid-sentence or you get just the audience reaction.

Maybe you could use your celebrity status to get this issue rectified.

SamT said...

They did the same with ET when they re mastered it! Elliott calls his brother penis breath or something along the lines and they took out penis!! I am sorry but if you saw the original you heard it!
d'uh