December 2, 2014

The Yawn.

Perhaps you witnessed it, on this week's episode of "The Comeback":
While Valerie [Lisa Kudrow] is talking to the landlady, Mrs. Yi (AkikoKato), she spontaneously erupts into what could have been a seizure, a mating call or an alien birth, but it turns out to be simply…a yawn.

"[Akiko] is a woman with a genuine accent and she made a choice to yawn because she thought the character was tired," explains writer and co-executive producer Amy B. Harris... "So that's a perfect example of Lisa's improv. That was not in the script. (Akiko) just sort of made some interesting choices and it was 3 am. And when Lisa saw the yawn, she just said, ‘What is that?' and then several beats later, ‘Oh, it's a yawn.' She never breaks."

But the people working behind the scenes? They could not have broken more. "I remember it was 3 am and we were all sitting in a random apartment building parking lot just rolling around laughing," Harris says. "Honestly, I don't know that I've ever laughed that hard in my life. We were dying laughing." 
But you probably missed it, because hardly anyone is watching "The Comeback." It's a big ratings flop. A yawn.

22 comments:

David said...

Too bad. Lisa Kudrow is fabulous.

Anonymous said...

Maybe someone was talking about Paul Klee?

FullMoon said...

Harris says. "Honestly, I don't know that I've ever laughed that hard in my life. We were dying laughing."

Haven't laughed like that in a long time. Laughing so hard you can't breathe or talk. Then you or your friend says something to compound it and it only gets better.

Would probably cause heart attacks among the old gang to laugh like that now.

Babies and little kids can laugh like that,easily.

I used to make funny faces for little kids riding in shopping carts at the store, just to see them smile or laugh. One kid started screaming real loud, so my wife and I had to get the fuck outa there. Kid probably grew up to be a liberal.

veni vidi vici said...

The failing-ratings hail Mary will be "the Yoni".

bleh said...

I really enjoyed the first season. Saw the first episode of season 2 and though, "what the hell is this crap?" I can't bear to watch more.

HJA said...

I didn't even know it was on yet! I'll check it out, glad you mentioned it. As far as yawns go, note that Zoe Saldana yawns conspicuously and for humorous effect in "Guardians of the Galaxy," during their slow-motion, walking-into-battle shot. Maybe yawns are in this season.

Michael Fitzgerald said...

That first sentence is constructed so that Kudrow is the yawner, not the landlady. Not good writing.

madAsHell said...

Bobby Keys has passed away.

Chance said...

I realize Althouse is a devotee of the original, but for me it was virtually unwatchable. I stalled out half way through that first season.

Titus said...

I watched a couple times and found it depressing. Web Therapy is much better.

tits.

CatherineM said...

The first season was a ratings flop too.

I caught up at Mom's house. Still love it. I loved her seeing the paparazzi, and somehow thinks it's for her, but it turns out to be for Juna who is now a major star and sad Valerie chases her with paparazzi. "Baby girl!"

Beth said...

The Comeback is decent buy I love Web Therapy.

Carl Pham said...

Come, this lament lacks imagination. There must surely be an opportunity here for law schools to become unlaw schools, that could usefully train lawyers to forget their antisocial ways, return to civil society and become contributing members of it, kind of like the way there are programs to re-integrate drunks, criminals, and the insane after they've paid their dues or become stable on their meds.

rhhardin said...

The Hippo

A Head or Tail—which does he lack?
I think his Forward’s coming back!
He lives on Carrots, Leeks and Hay;
He starts to yawn—it takes All Day—

Some time I think I’ll live that way.


- Roethke

Skeptical Voter said...

Is there a show named "The Comeback"?

If there is, it's news to me.

Unknown said...

Terrence Bean. Why does his show have such low ratings?

Smilin' Jack said...

But you probably missed it, because hardly anyone is watching "The Comeback." It's a big ratings flop. A yawn.

A yawn is the high point of the show, and it has low ratings? Truly, America has become a nation of philistines.

Be sure to let us know when the series comes out on Blu-ray--just based on this post, I can't wait to buy it from Amazon.

virgil xenophon said...

I stumbled across it the other night for the first time. "What is THIS?" I asked myself. Couldn't believe anyone could have possibly convinced themselves to put any money into that load of crap

donald said...

Unfortunately for me, the only time I ever laughed that hard was standing in formation at reserve duty, when I got to thinking about a Bob Newhart episode I'd seen the night before. I couldn't stop. Just couldn't.

Beldar said...

The cable networks are making the best television ever.

But they also still make stinkers as bad as anything on network TV. Often, as here, it's because they're enamored of network TV stars who've never really done that well on pay-TV (Lisa Kudrow being one).

tim maguire said...

Is the show as badly written as that excerpt? I spent a lot of time trying to suss out how Akiko's yawn was an example of Lisa's improve before finally giving up and moving on and, oh, that wasn't an example of Lisa's improve. In fact, it's never really clear what Lisa's improve was. Asking "what is that?" That's improve? I guess, though the author doesn't do much to help me out.

tim maguire said...

"improv" X4