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     Brian Vinyard is 26 years old and currently attends Catonsville Community College where he's the Arts and Entertainment editor of Red and Black, the campus newspaper. Brian's many interests include computers and the Baltimore live music scene.

       MTV'S TOM GREEN IS FUNNIEST MAN ON TV.

                                                                                        Brian Vinyard

     Over the weekend I was talking to a 95-year old man and I asked this man who has lived through almost the entire 20th century for some words of wisdom: "What have you learned about the world that you can share with me, sir?"
     The one thing he said will stick with me for the rest of my life. He said, "People are crazy!"
     I must agree with this man. But what do we do if we accept this undeniable truth about ourselves? Well, we could follow Tom Green's example and embrace our insanity. MTV's Tom Green is the funniest man on TV, if you want my opinion. He is the latest import from Canada, the country that gave us comedians Dana Carvey and Jim Carey.
     If you haven't seen this show, the best way I can describe it is... a cross between South Park, Jerry Springer and a Fox "Caught on tape" special. Basically, when you watch this show you keep repeating to yourself, "This guy is crazy, nuts, he'll do anything."
     That's the thing that makes him great--he will do anything, absolutely anything.
     "Like what?" you ask. Well, the most oustanding example I can give you is this: Tom went to his grandma's house where a friend of his just happened to leave his briefcase. When they opened the case, inside they found about a dozen battery-powered adult massagers.
     Grandma didn't have a clue what they were or what people used them for. Tom played dumb and wondered aloud, "What are they, Grammy?"
     So they put their heads together and came up with some practical applications for the multicolored bedroom toys. The next thing you know Tom's grandma is rolling dough with a vibrator and turning it into a kitchen utensil for whipping eggs. The cherry on the cake so to speak is when Granny is using it as a spoon. Can you imagine your own grandmother? It's priceless.
     The Tom Green Show has that car accident magnetic pull--you can't look away even if you want to. When asked about his style of humor, Tom Green put it this way: "When you watch somebody reacting to me walking into a store and pouring moustard down my throat, you feel their discomfort, but you're in the comfort of your home enjoying watching people in really awkward situations. When I'm sucking milk out of a cow's udder, that's not intended to get a laugh... it's more disbelief. And it's a good way to teach people about nature."
     MTV's John Miller, senior VP of development says, "The audience is watching Tom, saying, 'This is the kind of stuff my friends and I would do... if we had more balls.'"
     The Tom Green Show is one of MTV's biggest hits on prime time. It's No. 2 among 18-24 year-old viewers and No. 1 among 12-34 year-olds.
     You can see this fearless prankster for yourself Monday nights at 10:30 pm.
     My sources tell me "new episodes beginning in Mid-April will find the comic scattering his grandpa's ashes in innapropiate places (like the boy's underwear section at Wal-Mart) and sipping strangers' drinks from afar with a six-foot straw."
So to sum everything up, Tom Green is crazy just like you, but the difference is that he is being himself in front of one million viewers a week.

                                                                  Brian Vinyard

                                                  March 25,1999

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