Things I Find Terribly Vexing This Month, Vol.1

I'd completely forgotten about this until I heard a mention of Mr. Coffee on an episode of Seinfeld a a minute ago (the episode where Jerry dates the Miss America pageant contestant for anyone curious). There was a comic book that came out about the time the first Spider-Man film was released that, not surprisingly, featured a return of the Green Goblin. Following a heated battle between Spidey and the Goblin, the two were so winded that they had to rest against a wall; it was during this downtime that the Goblin told Spider-Man that before settling on the "Green Goblin" he'd briefly considered calling himself "Mr. Coffee", making the two laugh. But only the two of them. I thought it was a pretty lame joke, but at least I get why the characters would laugh.

So, seven years later I'm in a supermarket and I find a copy of this... how can I put this... "deluxe edition" comic book that had a few pages of new material, some remastered old issues from the 1960s all dolled up with modern coloring techniques, a couple of handbook profiles, and a history of the Green Goblin done with some text and images from older issues. Since I was catching the bus home and had a good half hour to kill, I started reading some of that back-matter, specifically the skippable the "Green Goblin Saga" history thing. (Just so we're clear, it's just the history thing that's pretty skippable. Not the handbook profiles -- I get a real kick of those. The "Saga" stuff leaves me cold.) But anyway, I'm reading this thing and it gets to the origin of the Green Goblin and mentions that Norman Osborn considered Mr. Coffee as a name before going with Green Goblin.

Now I'm normally big on obscure references and callbacks and archaic trivia and all that, but really now -- "Mr. Coffee" is canon? A lame joke is now an arguably key component of the Green Goblin's history?

Just so we're clear, I'm not angered or anything by how "Mr. Coffee" has seemingly become such an important part of the Green Goblin's back story. It might read that I'm full of rage, but I assure you I'm, if anything, relaxed to the point of distraction here (I've had to proofread this post several times already just to be sure it makes sense). Still, I find this terribly vexing. I mean, really -- Mr. Coffee? Yeesch.

 

Feeling Nice and Mellow Today

Not much to say, but I'm enjoying the sun today, sitting back with some nice reading material, drinking some coffee, and leaving the TV on in the background with Saturday afternoon's constant stream of "Seinfeld", "Simpsons", "Family Guy", and "Daily Show".

Really, a perfect lazy Saturday. Nice and mellow.

Thoughts as I'm Watching "Seinfeld"

I'm watching the sixth season of Seinfeld on DVD and two things come to mind.

1) Third Rock From the Sun wasn't a very good TV show. Sure, it had it's moments, but once the novelty of the premise and the performances wore off, there really isn't much there. It all boils down to the reason I stopped watching it during the run and why it died a slow painful TV demise -- there was just no progression and it was the kind of show that needed it. Not a big sweeping change to the status quo or anything, but some forward movement. If a show is based around a gimmicky premise, it's a necessity after a few years. I thought That 70's Show was running in circles after a while, but the core idea behind the show, that basically of teens hanging out, is solid enough there are directions to go with it organically. Third Rock From the Sun's premise is that they were aliens on Earth to study humans while pretending to be humans. Unless you do something to shake things up you're going to start repeating yourself after a while. Wouldn't have even needed to be a big change, maybe something as simple as Mary finding out the truth, or Sally marrying Officer Don while keeping the secret going. There were subtle changes to the status quo over the years on the show, but it invariably reset itself after a while, and that lack of forward momentum killed the show. Why bother with a new episode when you've seen the same dozens of times before?

2) What ever happened to that woman Kramer got pregnant in "The Chinese Woman" episode of Seinfeld? Not that they confirmed she was pregnant, but that whole thing seems an odd thing not to get back to.