I think that Daniel Craig is one of the best James Bonds because he hates the character and that comes through his performance of it. But there is one thing that suddenly bothered me about his appearance in Casino Royale, which I think overall is a good movie.
There’s a scene where the bad guy played by Mads Mikkelson tricks him into losing everything. Bond stares at the cards for a long time then gets up, grabs a knife and starts stalking after Mads. He tells his associate to get Eva Green out of the hotel.
This is because he plans to messily murder Mads with that knife. Blowing their cover and the entire mission. He’s only stopped by the CIA agent who tells him that he has not just English money but American money for him to lose.
This can only be seen as James Bond having a giant sulk and deciding to throw a tantrum. The only problem is that his tantrum would have probably ended up with him killed because he decided to slice up a man instead of use his gun. And Mads would have probably still ended up with the money.
Also at the end of the movie, James slides the dealer one of his big old betting tablets that equals about 500 thousand or one million dollars. I am all for tipping service workers but that money was supposed to go somewhere else. That could have put money in the mouths of a lot of different people.
And you might be saying “Frank, Taylor Swift gave her crew over 178 million dollars in bonuses during the Eras Tour.” My response to that is that is money she earned, to do with as she liked. It was not money that was going to go to the public, which is what the money James Bond had just won was going to do.
It just feels a little irresponsible. Both to give away one million dollars and to send this giant crybaby on a mission.
Here’s Victoria Coren Mitchell also dog piling on what an asshole James Bond is. Unlike James she didn’t need her opponent to bleed from his eyes to win several poker championships.
There are a great number of game shows that exist in the world that I would not want to be on. Jeopardy and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? are two where I don’t need to embarrass myself on a national level. I have a podcast for that. Wheel of Fortune, that’s a solid maybe.
Game Changer is a definitive no. Sam Reich, son of former labor secretary and current administration shit talker, Robert Reich, puts his comedians through their paces and through challenges that border on psychological torture. Don’t believe me? Watch any of the Sam Says episodes.
The face of a man who put his dad’s penis on his game show
The whole point of Game Changer is that the contestants don’t know the rules. They have to figure out what the game is as they go along. The first episode shows the three contestants dealing with a lie detector being asked questions about themselves. It turns out it’s their three partners off camera operating it. Another episode has them answering simple questions but they have to find a working to buzz in. They acquire these by doing things such as throwing balls at a buzzer on a wall, calling a pizza place to deliver one or find the book one is hidden inside.
There’s a similar show to this that has set rules from the U.K called, Taskmaster. The setup is simple Greg Davies and his assistant, little Alex Horne(6’2) challenge five comedians over ten weeks to a series of challenges. These range from doing such things as not doing the thing, getting five grapes out of a mountain of flour while wearing flippers and spilling as little flour as possible, trying to figure out what bin Alex Horne is hidden in and a number of other ones. You can find all the episodes on YouTube. Any season is well worth a watch.
I’m not the first person to point out the similarities between these shows. It’s the reason that when people talk about an American version of Taskmaster, they want Sam Reich and Dropout in charge of it. But the main one for me, is the endless playfulness of both shows.
Game Changer can sometimes have some great prizes, such as trips or money but usually the prize is another joke for the audience and contestants. The buzzer episode’s prize was a bug zapper. Those that win Taskmaster get this haunting faux golden bust of Greg Davies.
See you in my nightmares, gold head.
Because of that the contestants are just trying their best to have fun and enjoy themselves. Laughter ratios competence on a scale of 5:1. This is why you hire professionals rather than any person off the street. This brings something else to the table, camaraderie. On Game Changer especially, the groups have been working together for years. Now their personalities take center stage. A lot has been made of annoying and trying to trigger the higher competitive and competent Brennan Lee Mulligan.
I know that you can’t take everything at face value. I know they’re doing it for profit. But the joyfulness is just such a thing that you can’t help but feel it.
I think it speaks to how important it is to keep playing. To keep yourself going and having fun. Not just in a you never know when your day will be your last but it’s good for your heart.
I think it’s good for the soul to do something, that you find funny. Not for anyone else and nothing that would hurt or inconvenience anyone else but just because you think it’s funny. Make up a funny voice that’s only for you plants. Give your cats nicknames that are longer than the introduction of the king of Westeros.
Find people that you love and engage them in play. It could be anything and you would find yourself freed in a way that you don’t know how.
I do this every Thursday night with my friends around the table during DND. For all those that thought it was satanic in the 70s and such, well it’s made of three things: improv, funny voices and maths. I think in the last few years those nights are the ones where I have laughed the longest and hardest. Being in the middle of a big bad’s speech when someone makes a fart noise.
When my father passed away on a Sunday I was left with four long days to grieve. When we got to the virtual table that Thursday, I told the group I didn’t want to talk about it, I didn’t want anyone asking how I felt, I just wanted to play.
And for the first time in those 96 hours, I felt free. I felt light again. The pain was lost in stupid jokes and stories.
We dismiss play because we only think of it as something for children and children waste time because they’re allowed to waste time. The fact of the matter is that play is good no matter the age. It’s not a waste of time because if it gives you all the joy that it’s meant to, isn’t that worth it in the end?
Oh and one final note, I want to love the inclusion of both shows. They don’t discriminate by age, sex, race or sexuality. It furthers the joy of the show.
Franklin Cota, an author and podcaster 