β€œLost” Opportunity for Humor

Finale of often-inscrutable series inspires jokes, spoof videos. Check some out...

The idea of a smoke monster sounds pretty funny, when you think about it.

The upcoming finale of "Lost" set for Sunday has inspired much hand-wringing, predictions and chatter among fans about the end of all things Oceanic. For the rest of us, who never quite got into the often-inscrutable show, filled with plot twists and oddities that make David Lynch look like Walt Disney, it's hard to understand the fuss.

Perhaps both sides can find common ground in some of the humor spurred by news that the show's number is up after six seasons.

Even George Lucas, who has seen his creations spoofed over the years, wasn't above cracking some jokes about the big event, even if mostly at his own expense.

"Don't tell anyone," Lucas wrote in a congratulatory letter to "Lost" masterminds Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, "but when 'Star Wars' first came out, I didn't know where it was going either.

"The trick is to pretend you've planned the whole thing out in advance," he confided in the letter, which was read at a "Lost" fan event at UCLA, the Los Angeles Times reported.

What Lindelof and Cuse probably couldn't have planned is that their ABC show would become a cultural phenomena whose success is evidenced, at least in part, by parodies of the program.

Check out some of the videos below, including one by Sarah Silverman, whose show was just canceled, and Dana Carvey, who's getting a new show. (Warning: Silverman's mock "Entertainment Tonight"-style interview with Lindelof and Cuse, who display a sense of humor, is NSFW).

Even the folks at The Basketball Jones weigh in with a bogus courtside "Lost"-related chat between Boston Celtics players Kevin Garnett and Glen (Big Baby) Davis.

But we'll give the first word to Time magazine TV critic James Poniewozik, who also offers some apt last words. He narrated a rapid-fire montage that recaps the show in 108 (a significant number in β€œLost” lore) seconds. He spends about 10 of those seconds occasionally sprinkling in a phrase that tells you all you need to know about the show: "It is complicated."
 

 

'Lost' audio: Garnett explains the island to 'Big Baby' from The Basketball Jones on Vimeo.

Hester is founding director of the award-winning, multi-media NY City News Service at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He is the former City Editor of the New York Daily News, where he started as a reporter in 1992. Follow him on Twitter.

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