Punked?

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Wait, this actually happened?

Through two late-season collapses in 2007 and 2008 and then the last two sub-.500 seasons, the Mets have endured plenty of criticism and no little bit of mockery. But on Friday night, an employee of SNY, the Mets� network, played a prank � perhaps for April Fools� Day � after the Mets� opening-night loss to the Florida Marlins. The worker, whom SNY would not identify, inserted a few seconds from a 2010 �Family Guy� episode that made light of the Mets� miseries. The few seconds are from a sequence that starts when Stewie Griffin, the sassy baby with a British accent, says, �So far, Halloween is a bigger letdown than being a Mets fan.� The scene then cuts to Stewie, in a seat at a ballpark. An announcer says, �Opening day, and here�s the first pitch � and the season�s over.� The audience watching the Mets game heard only, �Opening day and here�s the first pitch� before the sound of the game returned. Andrew Fegyveresi, an SNY spokesman, said, �It was a very poor decision by an individual employee and the matter is being dealt with internally.� He would not say what position the person held or what sort of discipline would be imposed for the joke.

Holy shit, why is this at all becoming a Mets-have-no-sense-of-humor issue (and not the this-is-a-fireable-offense-virtually-anywhere-in-media issue that it is)? (For the record, I didn't mind the original joke so much.)

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

The Family Guy thing wasn't funny even by itself -- I mean, maybe it would be to stupid people -- but yeah, like anything if can turn into a black eye for the Mets, it will.

[Ceetar]

Yeah, I caught it at the end of the game and was annoyed at it. I do hope the guy gets fired over it (or demoted. He can be the guy that picks the camera to display for the kiss cam)

it also wasn't funny orginally.

[soupcan]

I dunno, I thought the 'Family Guy' snippet was pretty funny and I don't think I'm stupid.

Another funny thing though is that that clip has been available to view on YouTube for at least a year now and when I just went to look for it now I got this message:

This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by MLB Advanced Media.
Sorry about that.

Nothing like shutting the barn door after the horse leaves.

[Ceetar]

I dunno, I thought the 'Family Guy' snippet was pretty funny and I don't think I'm stupid. Another funny thing though is that that clip has been available to view on YouTube for at least a year now and when I just went to look for it now I got this message: This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by MLB Advanced Media. Sorry about that. Nothing like shutting the barn door after the horse leaves.

heh. That's funny. Not even sure they can make that claim..unless you clicked in a video capture of the game with the click and not the original family guy one?

[metirish]

Yeah , how do MLB have a claim on a Family Guy bit?

[Guest The Second Spitter]

soupcan wrote: I dunno, I thought the 'Family Guy' snippet was pretty funny and I don't think I'm stupid..

I thought it was hilarious but haters gonna hate. It was based on the Opening Day 2003 Baseball Tonight game segment-- "the Mets were in pre season form but their fans were in midseason form," as it cut to a douchy Met fan throwing his cap.

[Vic Sage]

soupcan wrote: I dunno, I thought the 'Family Guy' snippet was pretty funny and I don't think I'm stupid.

this. ditto.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

That joke would have worked much better with the Pirates being Stewie's team; they selected the Mets for the big target, and to appeal to those who wouldn't know better. I'm all for being mean for a laugh but the mean oughta be based on something. The joke on the Mets isn't that their season ends as soon as it starts -- it's how it ends when it does. Am I wrong?

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Nah, that's about it.

Chris Rock's riffing from this past week was damn funny (even if it was essentially a series of "we're so poor" jokes repurposed to an athletic context). Hell, some of the Letterman stuff during down years has been black-laugh hilarious. It's funny because it's true AND it's specific.

Plus, let-me-reference-this-"Family Guy"-joke is one of the lazier species of lame-pop-culture-reference humor out there.

[TransMonk]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Am I wrong?

You are not wrong.

[Ceetar]

TransMonk wrote: John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Am I wrong? You are not wrong.

It makes more sense if you look at is as a joke on certain doom/gloom overreacting Mets fans, but even then..

[Guest Edgy DC]

The Rock performance was classic comedy stylings --- the way he kept returning to the refrain. Humor and metahumor simultanelously. And coming from a fan, it was sympathetic and aware, rather than antipathetic and easy-target oriented. I applaud Chris Rock there.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I didn't see the thing on SNY, so I don't know if I would have found it funny or not. I just hope nobody actually gets fired over this. It seems lately that the pitchforks and torches are coming out too quickly whenever somebody makes a public mistake.

[Ceetar]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I didn't see the thing on SNY, so I don't know if I would have found it funny or not. I just hope nobody actually gets fired over this. It seems lately that the pitchforks and torches are coming out too quickly whenever somebody makes a public mistake.

Except it wasn't a mistake. It was intentional, and _that_ is why I support firing/demoting/reassigning the guy.

[metirish]

Ceetar wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: I didn't see the thing on SNY, so I don't know if I would have found it funny or not. I just hope nobody actually gets fired over this. It seems lately that the pitchforks and torches are coming out too quickly whenever somebody makes a public mistake. Except it wasn't a mistake. It was intentional, and _that_ is why I support firing/demoting/reassigning the guy.

really?, it was a silly prank , no one got hurt , no tits were exposed , little johnny is OK ......the youth are not corrupted from it.....come on Ceetar...go grab a beer man.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I dunno. I get the impression that interfering with a live broadcast is one of the Big No-Nos in that line of work.

Lesson least likely to be learned by SNY: Don't hire professionals who work for minimum wage.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I don't know, either. If the broadcast producers want to make a joke, it makes some sense that they all be on board with it. If one guy is flying by his own judgement what would be funny --- and he's not (or even if he is)... he's sort of deliberately undermining a lot of people's best efforts and not a small bit of cost invested.

I don't want to see anybody lose their job, but I can't fault them if that's how they want to run their business. (I'm guessing he/she'll be reprimanded but not lose the job.) I think until/unless the team gets on a consistently winning track, everything around the team will be unreasonably held against them. In this case, they'll be simultaneoulsy criticized for not tightening up the ship and not loosening it up.

Just get me some Chin-lung Hu and I'm good.

[Ceetar]

This doesn't have anything to do with the team. it's simple professionalism.

If someone on Fox News spliced in a clip of "Fox sucks" into a closing segment, they'd be reprimanded at least.

If I wrote "COMPANY NAME sucks" in chalk in my parking lot, it wouldn't go over well.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Ceetar wrote: This doesn't have anything to do with the team. it's simple professionalism... If I wrote "COMPANY NAME sucks" in chalk in my parking lot, it wouldn't go over well.

Well, yeah, 'cause that's not funny. Specificity, man!

[Ceetar]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Ceetar wrote: This doesn't have anything to do with the team. it's simple professionalism... If I wrote "COMPANY NAME sucks" in chalk in my parking lot, it wouldn't go over well. Well, yeah, 'cause that's not funny. Specificity, man!

so if it's funny it's okay? I don't think that's the point.

I'm sure I could come up with better analogies.

[soupcan]

Edgy DC wrote: Just get me some Chin-lung Hu and I'm good.

Amen brother! This guy is gonna crack me up all season-long, wins or losses.

We're talking about Hu again...?


BWAAAAA-HAAA-HAAA!

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Ceetar wrote: Ceetar wrote: This doesn't have anything to do with the team. it's simple professionalism... If I wrote "COMPANY NAME sucks" in chalk in my parking lot, it wouldn't go over well. Well, yeah, 'cause that's not funny. Specificity, man! so if it's funny it's okay? I don't think that's the point. I'm sure I could come up with better analogies.

Just a gentle ballpunch there, sir.

They're well within their rights to fire the kid*, but I hope they just give him scutwork for the rest of his internship and give him a passel of old "Simpsons" DVDs to bone up on some better, funnier stuff to drop in a bumper when he feels like going rogue.

*I'm guessing it's someone to whom I could comfortably and reasonably refer to as kid. Call it a shot in the dark.

[TransMonk]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: ...but I hope they just give him scutwork for the rest of his internship and give him a passel of old "Simpsons" DVDs to bone up on some better, funnier stuff to drop in a bumper when he feels like going rogue.

The Nye Mets are my favorite squadron.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Ceetar wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: I didn't see the thing on SNY, so I don't know if I would have found it funny or not. I just hope nobody actually gets fired over this. It seems lately that the pitchforks and torches are coming out too quickly whenever somebody makes a public mistake. Except it wasn't a mistake. It was intentional, and _that_ is why I support firing/demoting/reassigning the guy.

Something that's intentional can also be a mistake.