My eyes are getting weary
My back is getting tight
I’m sitting here in traffic on the Queensborough bridge tonight
But, I don’t care ‘cause all I want to do…
is cash my check and drive right home to post a tweet about Game Of Thrones 12 years after this sitcom went off the air
We have some questions.
First of all, let’s provide a little context. You may have noticed that social media last night was essentially nothing but a running stream of hot takes about the final episode of Game Of Thrones, arguably the biggest TV show in the world at the moment. (Though let’s not forget, its ratings historically don’t even come close to touching those of The Big Bang Theory, if you want to spend some time thinking about what really matters to people.) It was a rare opportunity for us all to come together as a singular culture, celebrate our common interests, and opine as to whether someone else should have run that fictional country. But amid the deluge of tossed-off jokes and unnecessarily outraged expressions of anger about why there wasn’t more Brienne or whatever, a single tweet rose to the top. A shining, erudite example of the reason we all look to social media to enrich our lives.
Yes, the official Twitter account of CBS’ The King Of Queens chimed in to cheerfully zing the HBO drama with a genteel reminder of TV’s true king, ensconced back in time on his royal couch, making easily digestible jokes about how women are just obsessed with correcting our every little failing, am I right, fellas?
So, a few queries. While we admire the dedication to maintaining an official Twitter account for a decade-old CBS comedy, we’re curious as to who, exactly, is tasked with maintaining it? Does this person simply scan the day’s news headlines and attempt to tie in Kevin James’ small-screen alter-ego? The account has a solid track record of posting on a near-daily basis, which means there’s a clear vested interest in preserving the show’s involvement with the world around us. Does the sentient corporate entity known as CBS dream of the halcyon days of old? (I.e. the aughts?) Do androids dream of electric sitcoms?
The account current has 21,200 followers, which, fair enough, we all like what we like. If you are one of these people, do you follow it for the retweets? The quizzes asking which character from the show you’re most like? We’re honestly just wondering what you get from it. If it’s nothing but a daily reminder of a sitcom that made you laugh, then hey, good on you. But is it something more? Is it a hope that Doug Heffernan will rise from his grave, like one of the Night King’s undead minions, to deliver packages to the living? That he might stagger, zombie-like, onto other shows, to deliver his signature combination of goofball charm and G-rated garrulousness?
Whatever the answer, we’re on board. We want more. Perhaps some photoshopped images of Kevin James in his KOQ uniform beating down John Wick? Snapping Thanos’ neck? We all know who the real finger snapper is. To you, the noble person assigned the Night’s Watch-like duty of keeping this account active, we say: Keep us in your thoughts. Do not let us down. And thus your watch begins.
42 Comments
Talk all the shit you want about KoQ (I certainly do), but the stripper pole episode is a comedy classic.
Or the one where Patton Oswalt has no more lines so he just decided to just stand in one place like a statue for the rest of the episode and NO ONE FUCKING NOTICED.
What!?
I guess it wasn’t the entire episode, just the opening scene. My memory was foggy.
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/hilarious-patton-oswalt-reveals-strange-prank-he-pulled-in-old-king-of-queens-episode/
I’ve never understood the appeal of Patton Oswalt. I think I saw 2 of his stand-up concerts. I think I chuckled a couple of times. But that’s it. It’s not that he’s a bad guy. He’s just kind of a nothing. He doesn’t bring anything to the table.
Which episode is that? Lol!
I still remember the episode:“Honey, you can brag to all your friends after”“Oh sure, I’d just be like ‘Hey did you know Tubby just nailed me on the bubble wrap’”I don’t know why but that line just kills me years after seeing it.Oh, and the motorcycle episode was probably my favorite.
Legend tells us that the once and future King of Queens slumbers in a cave under Citi Field, to return when his borough faces its hour of greatest peril.
When Burger King goes bust?
I’m pretty sure this show still does solid syndication numbers. It’s on TBS every night
And morning. After work, I usually toss TBS on as background noise because they air Everybody Loves Raymond, The King of Queens and Seinfeld for like a four hour block.
This is one thing that keeps me from cutting the cord. Tossing on Everybody Loves Raymond in the background seems perfectly reasonable. For some reason I would have very bad feelings about myself if I had to go into a streaming service, and consciously tell it to play a specific episode of that same show.
I’m really surprised none of the streaming services I’ve used have a make your own programming block thing where you pick like four shows and plays an episode of one, then the next, etc. Either random or in order.
That kind of functionality has been a long time coming, but I’m waiting to see how these companies will use it to shoehorn their own original content into my background noise.
That’s what originally turned me off to the pay services like HBO. Too much original programming and too little Hollywood movies. I’m not saying that the quality of HBO’s programming is bad. On the contrary. But you could make the highest quality show in the world and if it’s about a topic that I have no interest in, I’m not going to watch it.
“Hey, Reed, it’s your cousin Marvin…Marvin! Listen, you know that new killer feature you been looking for?”
While you’ve got him on the phone tell him to let people save and upload “playlists” too.
This is why I wish Hulu had a “random episode” button it just feels weird to pick an episode of Seinfeld instead of just having one come on.
There is one place we differ. My wife and I almost always have a Seinfeld DVD in the blu-ray player, and just start the series over when we finish. This isn’t nightly by any means, just something we do when we run out of ideas.
My wife and I keep the Dr. Katz set by the bedroom DVD player and usually one of us goes to sleep to an episode every night. Occasionally we go through all of Home Movies between repeating Dr. Katz. Both shows are perfect background noise, very little of the plot or humor is visual (and we probably have all those gags memorized anyway).
For my mom, it’s I Love Lucy -> The Dick Van Dyke Show -> The Mary Tyler Moore Show -> Dinosaurs -> The Office. And then back to Lucy again.
There are a couple of strange transitions in there…
I really wish there was at least something between Mary and Dinosaurs representing the 80’s.
The sad thing is, there really weren’t a lot of good sitcoms in the 80’s that stand up today. My wife and I are currently watching Cheers. It’s fine, but it really isn’t that great in retrospect. Prior to that we re watched Frasier (backwards I know) and it’s a much better show. If I look at the 70’s there are some good shows that still stand up really well, like All In The Family. Maybe I’m just forgetting something from the 80’s…
Back when I was amassing Simpsons DVDs that was an issue, too. I actually thought about converting them all to video files so that I could shuffle them, back when I had the free time to even consider such a thing.
I guess people are gonna like what they’re gonna like, but the idea that someone dug up the Twitter password for a CBS sitcom that went off the air over a decade ago hurts my soul a little bit.Anxiously waiting to see what the Designing Women Twitter account thinks now.
They didn’t “dig up the password”, they’ve been posting a few times a week for a while. I’d argue that makes this even weirder.
I got a King Of Queens notification for this?!?
I’m “friends” with The Office, Community, and Parks and Recreation on facebook and they still post content on the regular. I don’t question it. Apparently if a show is a big enough hit in the social media age, the accounts will keep on going forever.
I think the best job ever would be to be social media manager for a sitcom that ended over a decade ago. That would be what, five or ten minutes of work a day?
I’m thinking that job would be a high risk/low reward kind of gig. Nobody thinks the job is very important so it’s relegated to some lowly minion who is barely more than an intern, and nobody notices until you inadvertently hit some hot button land mine with an edgy or easily misinterpreted tweet. And then you’re the fall guy for all the bosses who are “shocked” by the tweet.
We all know who the real king is.
I guess that explains how dragons breathe fire. They’re just the most luxurious model of Vogner that Strickland sells. Take that, Thatherton!
“Everyone was dressed up and playing make-believe. That part was asinine.”
I tell ya what, that’s some high-grade propane.
Ya know, people HAVE been known to keep up an interest in a show after cancellation. Where did you think all those Star Treks came from? Hm?
Somebody is cosplaying as Doug Heffernan? I mean, other than half of the male UPS drivers out there?
My take on the current state of TV…I program my box to show Everybody Loves Raymond, The King of Queens, Seinfeld, Friends, Law & Order and The Big Bang Theory. Aside from my sports breaks, I could live on a deserted island by myself and be OK if I just had those shows to watch. Actually, I think I would need Star Trek to be thrown in from time-to-time. Anything except Discovery!
Shoulda been Stannis
Also, did Kinja somehow get worse and is no longer going to let me easily see if I have any notifications?
It just occurred to me now, for the first time in my life, that the title “King of Queens” is referring to Queens, NY. Of course!
I always assumed it was some kind of sly dig at the “shlubby husband gets up to trouble while killjoy wife keeps everything from falling apart” dynamic – he considers himself the king while the queens actually run the place. Clearly I gave the writers too much credit here.