ON THE DL

Simmy Kay of MTV Talks Silent Library. Plus Headlines and Yelling Fire In A Crowded Theatre

Today’s show features an interview with MTV writer Simmy Kay - you may remember him as the Cloud in the Jimmy Dean commercials - talking about his new show Silent Library. But first, Nick and I talk about the top stories in sports and get into a real argument about blogs, steroids and yelling fire in a crowded theatre.

We run through yesterday’s big events, including the NBA and Stanley Cup Finals. We get a game seven in the hockey, which is awesome even if we do hate the two teams involved. There isn’t much better than a game seven in sports, is there? Speaking of that, we discuss some of the responses we got from our talk about our favorite National Championships on yesterday’s show. People killed me for putting poker into the equation. Most of you agree with Nick that March Madness is the best National Championship. I still stand by the US Open.

Back to last night, we talk about the NBA Finals. People who talk about how great the NCAA tournament is should watch the quality of play in the NBA playoffs. Yes, I’ve been converted. But how can you not be when Orlando shoots 75% from the field in the first half...and it’s still a close game! Amazing play and the NBA has a good series at hand.

Speculation Station:

Yesterday we briefly touched on the blog post questioning if Raul Ibanez is on some performance enhancing substances. What we didn’t

know yesterday when we discussed it was that it was turning into a big story in Philly. First, John Gonzalez of the Inquirer wrote about it. Then Jim Salisbury asked Ibanez about and got his thoughts. In part:

"You can have my urine, my hair, my blood, my stool - anything you can test," Ibanez said. "I'll give you back every dime I've ever made" if the test is positive.

"I'll put that up against the jobs of anyone who writes this stuff," he said. "Make them accountable. There should be more credibility than some 42-year-old blogger typing in his mother's basement. It demeans everything you've done with one stroke of the pen.

A blogger talking about his fantasy team turned Philly on its head. It’s that easy. Nick takes issue with the post and it’s ramifications. “You can’t yell fire in a crowded theatre,” says Nick. But did he yell fire? Or did he simply state that he smells smoke, or something that resembles smoke, and that there may be fire somewhere? And did Gonzalez, overhearing that question, yell “THIS GUY SEES FIRE!” It’s an interesting debate that honestly I didn’t expect and we clearly didn’t plan. So listen, and let us know who you agree with. Seriously, Nick wants emails on this, so tell him he’s wrong.

Culture Pop:

My old college friend Simmy Kay returns to talk about his new show on MTV called Silent Library. If you’ve heard of Silent Library before it’s probably because there is an old Japanese game show that this incarnate has been adapted from. Kind of like Wipeout on ABC, MTV is hopping into the “Japanese games shows can be hilarious” motif. Unlike Wipeout, this one might actually be funny.

So what exactly is Silent Library? In a nutshell it’s Jackass for money, but the only way to win money is to not make noise while performing the Jackass-like stunts. In a library. Simmy makes it sound much smarter than I do. He points out that there’s an inherent hilarity in watching people try to hold back laughter. Blame Mary Tyler Moore I suppose.

We talk about the process of getting a TV show from ‘hey let’s make a TV show’ to the point of actually have a show on TV. We also discuss the importance of secondary viewing for a show like this to catch fire. How important is YouTube and other online avenues to the lasting success of this show? People may not watch the show when it’s on (starting next Monday at 6pm on MTV) but they’ll surely watch the clips that get sent around the internet.

Speaking of clips sent around the internet, we talk about Conan’s debut and the recent appearance of Zack Morris on Jimmy Fallon’s show. We agree that Conan has been good and will be hit or miss just like his

old show. But his hits will be huge hits. Fallon....not so much. The Zack Morris thing was very good and would have been great if they could just recast the Fallon character with someone who is, you know, funny.

I ask Simmy, who has made a living writing words for other people to say, what it’s like writing for a host who doesn’t deliver the line how you want. How hard is it to write something funny when the person delivering the line isn’t?

Again, watch his show. Especially if you like people being put in ridiculous situations while hilarity ensues around them. Honestly, I think the better show would be a bunch of comedy writers sitting in a room coming up with ridiculous ideas for college kids to do for cash prizes. Maybe in season two.

Housekeeping:

More Blogs with Balls plugging. Go to this thing. And thank you for all the emails this week. We really appreciate the growing interactivity of our listenership. It helps make the show better. It really does.