Saturday, March 6, 2010

The Buried Life

The Buried Life is a show on MTV.  Although I'm not really sure what the title means, its about a group of guys who after college decided they didn't want to just jump headfirst in the rat race.  They wanted their lives to mean more so they decided to do more. 

Somehow they ended up with this giant purple bus, not sure on the details of this show, traveling the country doing things on a list that they made up of everything they wanted to do before they die.  Some of them are very big things, including playing basketball with the president.  And while they're doing these things that they've always wanted to do, they do something for a stranger that the stranger has always wanted to do.

I always thought this concept sounded pretty cool.  I'd rather be riding around on a purple bus trying to figure out ways to do cool things than going to an office and sitting behind a computer all day too.  Although I thought the show sounded cool, I've never actually watched it.  MTV shows are hard to get into because they're on at weird times and they replay them 685 times apiece (I've counted).

Anyway, I'm coming to my point and I swear I have one, I watched this show for the first time this morning and was shocked by the episode that I saw.  Their "mission" on this particular day was to tell a joke on a late night talk show.  When they said it it almost sounded way too easy.  I thought for sure as soon as a producer heard about these guys and their mission they would immediately want them on the show.  Wrong.

They first started with Letterman.  They got to speak with a couple of producers, who the next day sent them an e-mail wishing them all the best but letting them know that they wouldn't be on Late Night.  So they drove all the way to California to try the others.  Kimmel kicked them out, as did Leno.  (At some point in there, one of them even got arrested.)  Finally, they tried several different ways to get ahold of Conan and he even eventually shot them down.  Even Coco!!

What kind of world are we living in when a few kids with a dream can't even make it on a late night talk show for thirty seconds to tell a joke?  I thought their fate was sealed, but they eventually accomplished their mission: on a spanish speaking talk show.  The guy who told the joke did it in spanish and it was still funny.  It involved a naked man and an elephant, a classic setup.

I'm sorry if I've ruined this particular episode's suspense for you, but from the lack of discussion with everyone I know I'm pretty sure not very many people watch this show including up until today me.  I think I'll start watching it from now on, at least when I can catch it (which shouldn't be too hard with 685 reruns floating around). 

I almost forgot, they helped a blind man ride a horse again which he hadn't done in 20 years since he lost his sight.  The guy cried when he got on the horse.  How can you not love that?

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