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With any outlandish celebrity, there seems to be a point where the ridiculousness of the news surrounding them no longer has the ability to shock the average consumer. Today’s announcement that Kanye West is helping develop a “hip-hop puppet show” for Comedy Central has forced me to decree that the rapper/producer/design maven/blogger has reached that zenith of absurdity.
First, today’s news.
Comedy Central has teamed with Kanye West for a project described as hip-hop meets the Muppets. A half-hour pilot has been shot for the project, tentatively titled “Alligator Boots.”
It’s from Jackhole Prods., the production company founded by Jimmy Kimmel, Daniel Kellison and Adam Carolla that also was behind Comedy Central’s puppet-centric “Crank Yankers.”
The project, which is under consideration for 2009, would feature music produced and performed by West and fellow rapper Rhymefest, both of whom are serving as executive producers on the pilot alongside Kellison.
West also hosts the pilot; the idea is to have a different celebrity guest host for every episode, similar to the setup on the original “Muppet Show.”
As someone who is adamantly pro-puppet based television programming, it makes me happy that Kanye is bringing back the proud tradition of popular musicians interacting with felt, a tradition that was once held aloft by artists such as Leo Sayer.
The most immediate predecessor for Kanye’s show is clearly Q-Tip and Snoop Dogg on Chappelle’s Show.
Still, is there any potential Kanye news item that wouldn’t be plausibly believable at this point? I fully expect a link to an article on Google News tomorrow announcing that Kanye’s purchased the Russian space program for cash.
Kanye West Has Hand In Puppet Pilot [Billboard]
I hope he also ran this idea past Jenny Lewis so he could get her thoughts on the matter. I would guess that she is similiarly pro-puppet.
My friends, this “zenith of absurdity” is what we commonly refer to as The Tyson Zone.
The Tyson Zone is based upon Mike Tyson, who in the early 90’s became the first modern day celebrity to reach such grandiose levels of absurd behavior that, if a friend said Tyson did something unbelievable (e.g., created a hip hop show, singlehandedly brought back whooping cough, fathered a llama, etc.), you would have no basis to say you doubted it.
Dennis Rodman reached this level in the mid-90’s. Britney had a brief ascendance to the status. R. Kelly is clearly there. And Kanye is now entering this pantheon.
Embrace it.
I think you’re onto something, Dan. Kanye and other celebrities like him are kind of like the episode of The X-Files or House where you finally throw up your hands and go “oh fuck it, now they’re trying so hard to shock me that it’s actually boring.”
Bill Simmons, the Spors Guy at ESPN, has a name for when a celebrity has reached the point you describe, where anything they say or do does not surprise you: the Tyson Zone. Kanye West has indeed hit the Tyson zone. In a related note, who has seen just how badly Kanye dances in that Fonzworth video?
+ Watch video
Hey, another excuse to post this.
Sadly, given that Jackhole is involved, it will probably look more like this, than that awesome Chappelle clip…
And this:
Wu-Tang clan did show up on Crank Yankers, and it was -teh funneh-
(but I was high).
This was reported by SOHH.com in July of 2007…
It won’t be as good as “Wondershowzen” It’ll probably be slightly better than whatever his last LP was.
It’s too bad HBO has officially scrapped the Curb Your Enthusiasm-esque Kanye/Larry Charles series -
[www.independent.co.uk]