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{{Short description|American comedy web series}}

factoids

SPAMasterpiece Theater (or S.P.A.M. Theater) is an American web series starring humorist John Hodgman where he does dramatic readings of unsolicited email spam received by Boing Boing editors in a parody of Masterpiece Theatre. The series featured images and videos from Creative Commons-licensed media.

Background

S.P.A.M. Theater

In 2008, S.P.A.M. Theater debuted. Each episode features a dramatization of email spam. Originally, the series featured images and videos from Creative Commons-licensed media from the image hosting and video hosting website Flickr and the nonprofit digital library Internet Archive. 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{{'}}s Xeni Jardin reads her own email spam. In the fourth episode "The Proposition," Erik Sheppard of Voice Talent Productions contributes a voice.

SPAMasterpiece Theater

File:2008 John Behrens and Sean Bonner at Xenis BBtv Office.jpg|thumb|left|John Behrens and Sean Bonner talk about SPAMasterpiece Theater in Xeni JardinXeni JardinOn October 1, 2008, Jardin announced the official debut of the web series SPAMasterpiece Theater—almost a month before the American release of John Hodgman's satirical almanac More Information Than You Require. Hodgman described it as "true tale[s] 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. 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 {| class"wikitable plainrowheaders" style"width:100%; margin:auto;"

style="color:#000000"! style="background:#F4E300"| No.! style="background:#F4E300"| Title! style="background:#F4E300"| Directed by! style="background:#F4E300"| Original air date{{Episode list| Title = Part one, HOWITZER CANNONPANTSPart two, THANKS, MAURICE| DirectedBy = Erik David ClappBrian Luke ChiiShawn KellyBoing Boing editor Xeni Jardin described part one as "a spiritual and pharmaceutical parable that ends not with resurrection, but erection[,]" while part two: "one of dozens of emails received by Boing Boing editors from a disturbed man in Canada who sought cash, justice, and an end to 'Mind Controlled Hatred.'"| LineColor = F4E300}}{{Episode list| Title = Part one, FOR MY DAUGHTER'S SAKEPart two, DE@L OF A LIFETIME| DirectedBy = The Grapes of Wrath (film)>Grapes of Wrath meets ''The Spanish Prisoner'' meets an Cash machine>ATM," while part two: "a tasty dish of word salad."| LineColor = F4E300}}{{Episode list| Title = Love Song of Kseniya| DirectedBy = Romance scam>Romance Scam enticement from the fictional spamtress "Kseniya," written in mad heroine prose worthy of a Tennessee Williams play."Part two: "'80s electrobeats and word salad merge as one."| LineColor = F4E300}}{{Episode list| Title = The Proposition| DirectedBy = style"color:#000000"">

SPAMasterpiece Theater {| class"wikitable plainrowheaders" style"width:100%; margin:auto;" style"color:#000000"

! style="background:#F4E300"| No.! style="background:#F4E300"| Title! style="background:#F4E300"| Directed by! style="background:#F4E300"| Original air date{{Episode list| Title = John Hodgman in BBtv's SPAMasterpiece Theater (comedy)| DirectedBy = Dana DevonshireJohn Hodgman himself describes as the dramatization of "true tale[s] 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."| LineColor = F4E300}}{{Episode list| Title = John Hodgman in BBtv's SPAMasterpiece Theater, Vol II: "Wuthering Wire Transfers."| DirectedBy = Dana DevonshireThe Stomatologist, in which we answer a lovelorn Russian woman's age-old question, 'Why I cannot find my special the man?'"| LineColor = F4E300}}{{Episode list| Title = John Hodgman in BBtv's SPAMasterpiece Theater, Vol IV: V1V4 M3X1CO.| DirectedBy = Dana DevonshireV1V4 M3X1CO., in which we explore supply chain management solicitations with the help of luchadores, mariachis, beautiful black-n-white señoritas from the silver screen of our abuelitos, and GIANT NARCO-KITTEHS WITH UZIS."| LineColor = F4E300}}{{Episode list| Title = Unicorn Chaser: John Hodgman Spamasterpiece Theater Bloopers - Boing Boing Video| DirectedBy = Dana DevonshireMore Information Than You Require (Amazon.com>Amazon link)."| LineColor = F4E300}}

Music

The first four SPAMasterpiece Theater episodes opened with a chiptune remix of Jean-Joseph Mouret's "(Fanfare-Rondeau|Rondeau: Fanfare)" (1735) 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 might want to look at this." In a retrospective celebrating the anniversary of Boing Boing TV, BBC Online{{'}}s web producer Ellen West described SPAMasterpiece Theater as "It's like Adam Curtis doing a nonsense Power of Nightmares."

See also

• List of portmanteaus

References

External links

• {{official websiteweblink}}
• {{YouTube|id=Sc8sJzyQFDA|title=SPAM Theatre (Boing Boing tv)}}
• {{YouTube|id=7QEFnxaIswM|title=John Hodgman in BBtv's SPAMasterpiece Theater (comedy)}}

{{John Hodgman}}