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''SPAMasterpiece Theater'' (or ''S.P.A.M. Theater'') is an American
On October 1, 2008, Jardin announced the official debut of the web series ''SPAMasterpiece Theater''—almost a month before the American release of
web series
A web series (also known as webseries, short-form series, and web show) is a series of short scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet (i.e. World Wide Web), which first emerged in the late 1 ...
starring humorist John Hodgman
John Kellogg Hodgman (born June 3, 1971) is an American author, actor, and humorist. In addition to his published written works, such as his satirical trilogy '' The Areas of My Expertise'', '' More Information Than You Require'', and '' That Is ...
where he does dramatic readings of unsolicited email spam
Email spam, also referred to as junk email, spam mail, or simply spam, refers to unsolicited messages sent in bulk via email. The term originates from a Spam (Monty Python), Monty Python sketch, where the name of a canned meat product, "Spam (food ...
received by ''Boing Boing
''Boing Boing'' is a website, first established as a zine in 1988, later becoming a group blog. Common topics and themes include technology, futurism, science fiction, gadgets, intellectual property, Disney, and left-wing politics. It twice wo ...
'' editors in a parody of ''Masterpiece Theatre
''Masterpiece'' (formerly known as ''Masterpiece Theatre'') is a drama anthology television series produced by WGBH Boston. It premiered on PBS on January 10, 1971. The series has presented numerous acclaimed British productions. Many of these ...
''. The series featured images and videos from Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...
-licensed media.
Background
S.P.A.M. Theater
In 2008, ''S.P.A.M. Theater'' debuted. Each episode features a dramatization ofemail spam
Email spam, also referred to as junk email, spam mail, or simply spam, refers to unsolicited messages sent in bulk via email. The term originates from a Spam (Monty Python), Monty Python sketch, where the name of a canned meat product, "Spam (food ...
. Originally, the series featured images and videos from Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...
-licensed media from the image hosting and video hosting
An online video platform (OVP) enables users to upload, convert, store, and play back video content on the Internet, often via a private server structured, large-scale system that may generate revenue. Users will generally upload video content vi ...
website Flickr
Flickr ( ) is an image hosting service, image and Online video platform, video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was previously a co ...
and the nonprofit digital library
A digital library (also called an online library, an internet library, a digital repository, a library without walls, or a digital collection) is an online database of digital resources that can include text, still images, audio, video, digital ...
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
. The second episode "FOR MY DAUGHTER'S SAKE/DE@L OF A LIFETIME" featured the voices of Russ Gooberman and Dana Devonshire. In the third episode "Love Song of Kseniya," ''Boing Boing
''Boing Boing'' is a website, first established as a zine in 1988, later becoming a group blog. Common topics and themes include technology, futurism, science fiction, gadgets, intellectual property, Disney, and left-wing politics. It twice wo ...
''s Xeni Jardin
Xeni Jardin (; born Jennifer Hamm, August 5, 1970) is an American weblogger, digital media commentator, and tech culture journalist. She is known as a former co-editor of the collaborative weblog '' Boing Boing'', a former contributor to '' ''Wir ...
reads her own email spam. In the fourth episode "The Proposition," Erik Sheppard of Voice Talent Productions contributes a voice.
SPAMasterpiece Theater
On October 1, 2008, Jardin announced the official debut of the web series ''SPAMasterpiece Theater''—almost a month before the American release of John Hodgman
John Kellogg Hodgman (born June 3, 1971) is an American author, actor, and humorist. In addition to his published written works, such as his satirical trilogy '' The Areas of My Expertise'', '' More Information Than You Require'', and '' That Is ...
's satirical
Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...
almanac
An almanac (also spelled almanack and almanach) is a regularly published listing of a set of current information about one or multiple subjects. It includes information like weather forecasting, weather forecasts, farmers' sowing, planting dates ...
'' More Information Than You Require''. Hodgman described it as "true tale of romance, adventure, infamy, and low-cost prescription drugs, all culled from the reams of actual, unsolicited emails, received here by us and people like you -- what we call SPAM." The hosted series included dramatic readings by Hodgman in a parody of ''Masterpiece Theatre
''Masterpiece'' (formerly known as ''Masterpiece Theatre'') is a drama anthology television series produced by WGBH Boston. It premiered on PBS on January 10, 1971. The series has presented numerous acclaimed British productions. Many of these ...
''. In 2010, '' Boing Boing Video''s Jardin was picked as "Curator of the Month". She commended the series with "These were so much fun to put together."
Episodes
S.P.A.M. Theater
SPAMasterpiece Theater
Music
The first four ''SPAMasterpiece Theater'' episodes opened with achiptune
Chiptune, also called 8-bit music (although not all chiptune is 8-bit music), is a style of electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video gam ...
remix of Jean-Joseph Mouret
Jean-Joseph Mouret (11 April 1682 in Avignon – 10 December 1738 in Charenton-le-Pont) was a French composer whose dramatic works made him one of the leading exponents of Baroque music in his country. Even though most of his works are rarely per ...
's " Rondeau: Fanfare" (1735
Events
January–March
* January 2 – Alexander Pope's poem '' Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot'' is published in London.
* January 8 – George Frideric Handel's opera '' Ariodante'' is premièred at the Royal Opera House in Covent ...
) by Hamhocks Buttermilk Johnson.
Reception
''Vulture''s Matthew Perpetua praised the series with "Hodgman's deadpan delivery is typically excellent, but we're particularly fond of the deliberately pretentious juxtaposition of stock footage in the dramatizations.PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
might want to look at this." In a retrospective celebrating the anniversary of ''Boing Boing TV'', ''BBC Online
BBC Online, formerly known as BBCi, is the BBC's online service. It is a large network of websites including such high-profile sites as BBC News and BBC Sport, Sport, the on-demand video and radio services branded BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, t ...
''s web producer Ellen West described ''SPAMasterpiece Theater'' as "It's like Adam Curtis
Adam Curtis (born 26 May 1955) is an English documentary filmmaker. Curtis began his career as a conventional documentary producer for the BBC throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s. The release of '' Pandora's Box'' (1992) marked the in ...
doing a nonsense Power of Nightmares."
See also
*List of portmanteaus
This is a selection of portmanteau words.
Animals
* globster, from glob and lobster
* Hvaldimir, from Norwegian ''hval'' (whale) and Russian President Vladimir Putin, ''Vladimir'' Putin
* lorikeet, from lory and parakeet
Hybrids
*wikt:cattal ...
References
External links
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:SPAMasterpiece Theater 2008 American television series debuts 2008 web series debuts American comedy web series