Kent Brockman News: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

If TV writers need cheap exposition, the easiest way is to have a news [[Show Within a Show]] do it. Usually, the news anchors provide a [[Practical Voice Over]]. Sometimes, they do more than that (see [[Coincidental Broadcast]] and [[News Monopoly]]).

* The live-action movie ''[[Anchorman]]'' had one of these as its main character, although he was a consummate professional until the events of the film take place.

* Another live-action film example comes from ''[[The Kentucky Fried Movie]]'', where between skits a newscaster would pop up with oddball news flashes like "I'm not wearing any pants, [[Film At Eleven]]."

{{quote| '''Casey Wong:''' "On the international scene the Amazon nuclear facility has blown its stack irradiating the worlds largest rainforest. Environmentalists are calling it a disaster."<br />

'''Jess Perkins''': "But don't they always." }}

{{quote| See our brave boys and girls on the front line of the bug war! Research on captured Bugs informs us about the enemy! [Censored shot of a bug tearing apart a cow]; Army representatives visit schoolchildren and let them try live ammunition! Join the forces: service guarantees citizenship! Would you like to know MORE?}}

* The [[Woody Allen]] movie ''[[Bananas]]'' began with Howard Cosell himself presenting the "live, on-the-spot assassination" of the leader of [[Banana Republic|San Marcos]].

* In ''[[Bruce Almighty]]'', Bruce/God's "adjustments" to Evan Baxter's brain reduce Evan to babbling incoherence: "Caca poo poo pee pee..."

** Bruce's own live televised reactions to the news that Evan got the anchor position...

{{quote| '''Bruce:''' Back to you, ''fuckers''!!}}

* In the Live-action/cartoon movie ''[[Osmosis Jones]]'', cellular newscasters get into a brawl against each other as the film peeks into the stressful climax. When the ordeal was over, we see them again, but this time with bandages as a comedic result of their feud.

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* On ''The [[Weird Al]] Show'', while flipping through channels, Al would always pass by a newscaster (also played by Yankovic) who would be reporting on a mundane, nonsensical, or just plain pointless "story". ("This just in...Ping-Pong spelled backwards is Gnop-Gnip.")

* ''[[The Muppet Show]]'' had the recurring "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBvbzQfMNik Muppet News Flash]" sketch, where a myopic commentator would deliver some odd bit of news, for example a downpour of anvils or localized tidal waves hitting people, and then [[Deadpan Snarker|snidely comment]] on how ridiculous it was. Whatever it was would then [[Dead Line News|happen to him]]. An alternate version had him interviewing some eccentric character played by that week's [[Special Guest]].

{{quote| '''Newsman:''' Well, whenever big news breaks...you certainly won't hear it here.}}

* In the '70s ''[[Sesame Street]]'' would frequently send reporter Kermit the Frog to cover the re-enactment of some classic fairy tale or nursery rhyme; these would never go as planned.

** Not to mention "Newsflash", where the twist is that the 'reporter on the scene' has no idea what he's reporting on. The two "anchors in the studio" usually open the sketch with a vaguely sexual comment before they "realize" the cameras are rolling.

* The spoof news show ''[[The Day Today]]'' and its documentary spin-off ''[[Brass Eye]]'' both used pretty much every single one of these tropes.

{{quote| '''Russell Howard:''' Next on News 24, I'm gonna punch a zebra. Who cares? No one's watching.}}

* In the pilot episode of ''[[Just Shoot Me]]'', Maya gets fired from a news program after rewriting the teleprompter so that a pompous anchorwoman says that a decrease of gang violence was due "to the removal of the frontal lobe of my brain. And in related news, I wet myself."

* Robin on ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'' has done numerous silly things on the air: ridiculous [[Could This Happen to You?]] stories, [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Incredibly Lame Puns]], and bizarre fluff pieces, especially when Barney's getting her to do a bet. When she transferred to Japan, Robin got to report actual news -- with a chimpanzee.

** Also her job on the morning news show, in which she gives CPR to the weatherman after he and the green screen catches on fire. Then she helps a deliver the child of her guest that goes into labor.

* Occasionally seen in sitcoms set in TV/radio stations: ''[[The Mary Tyler Moore Show]]'', ''[[WKRP in Cincinnati]]'', ''[[Murphy Brown]]'', ''[[News Radio]]'', ''Back to You'', etc.

* The cases on ''[[Boston Legal]]'' are occasionally commented on by outspoken legal analyst Gracie Jane, a parody of Nancy Grace. One episode also featured a reporter named Wolfgang Blitzkrieg.

** "Next up; weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq. Find out what this means for your weekend, after the break."

* An important part of Ken Finkleman's ''[[The Newsroom]]'', with Peter Keleghan's Jim Walcott serving as the Brockman.

* An episode of ''[[The Flip Wilson Show]]'' featured Flip and George Carlin in a newscaster skit that allowed Carlin to use this bit (and I'm paraphrasing) "Scientists discovered a new number between 6 and 7. They're calling it bleem."

* Pretty much the entire news team in ''[[Back To You]]''.

* ''[[Parks and Recreation]]'' has Joan Callamezzo, host of the morning show ''Pawnee Today'', who often tries to undermine or snark on her guests on air. (There's also Perd Hapley, who's just kind of a doofus.)

* The French puppet show ''[[Les Guignols De L Info]]'', running since 1988, is entirely about this trope. The anchor Patrick Poivre d'Arvor never misses an occasion to make snarky comments just after interviews or shows naive agreement when explained horrible things by "officials" (like the marketing plan to sell… the War in Irak). He is not above bullying (puppets of) journalists of other channels who have been fired or suspended for some reason, like David Pujadas or recently Harry Roselmack, treating them like trainees who must learn from him. And sometimes, we switch to [[Kent Brockman News]] ''inside'' the show, presented this time by Jean-Pierre Pernaut, the anchor of the 13 o'clock news on TF1 (a channel considered blatantly rightwing, pro-government, anti-strikers and anti-public servants) which has a tendency to show anecdotes about the "deep traditional France" or the holiday departures rather than important news.

* ''[[Attention Scum]]'' had a recurring skit starring [[Johnny Vegas]]: 24 Hour News, As Read By a Man Who Has Been Up for 24 Hours. It started as a reasonably coherent, if tired and slightly drunk sounding location anchor, but gradually devolved until it was just Johnny Vegas in a rumpled and soiled business with a bottle of cheap booze yelling "NEWS!" over and over again.

 

 

== Toys ==

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** Earlier ''[[Ratchet and Clank]]'' games had recurring robot reporter Darla Gratch.

* [[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines|Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines]] has a TV in the protagonist's hideout. It's delivering pretty normal news... Except when you play as [[The Mad Hatter|Malkavian]], which turns the news into Kent Brockman variety.

{{quote| '''Anchor''': Los Angeles was left shocked today, following a vicious gun battle between the LAPD...and you. They were all like, "BANG! BANG! Ya filthy varmint!", and you were all like "POW! POW! Oooh, you [[Looney Tunes|wascally wabbit!]] You got me!"}}

* ''[[Midtown Madness]] 2'' had at least one announcer like this (out of three or four); one of their race-opening lines ended in "...probably because I'm not wearing any pants!"

* PC space shooter ''[[Galactix]]'' opened with this report: "In today's news, Brazilian lumberjacks cut down the last tree in the rainforest. A spokesman for the Acme Toothpick Company said, 'Gee, that's too bad.'" only to be interrupted by the alien overlord announcing his intention to conquer and enslave humanity. The anchor even looked a bit like Kent Brockman.

* The news show seen at the beginning of ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 4'' doubles up as a fairly straightforward marine biology documentary, with the news relegated to bouncing, barely readable tickers displaying the weirdest stories ever (such as describing an accident victim as 'beheaded but in stable condition' and mentioning a 'Ghengis Khan impersonator spotted near Vancouver armed with an automatic machete').

* ''[[Sim City]] Enhanced'' had [[Full Motion Video]] clips including reports on the disasters that you unleashed, [[Verbal Backspace|er]], happened to befall your city, which were usually happening [[Dead Line News|right on top of the newsroom]]. The news anchor thinks that reports of a rampaging monster are all just a joke [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo0L3QqLAk0 until it squashes her], reports a plane crash with [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfouzLxyWyc some odd details], fails to take her own advice over remaining calm [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZj5VfJHVtY in the face of a meltdown] and also reports the meltdown at a nuclear power station [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZj5VfJHVtY next door to the studio]: everyone else has been rushed to hospital except her because "[[Black Comedy|I don't have insurance]]".

{{quote| '''Anchor:''' In other news, I'm not wearing any pants. More on this after the weather.}}

* Kelly, editorial cartoonist for ''[[The Onion]]'', is close to one of these. [http://www.theonion.com/content/cartoon/dec-08-2008 This] is a good example.

{{quote| '''Carol:''' And once again I am reporting live but have nothing new to report. In the interest of filling time I will be interviewing students who are still here with the hope of appearing on TV.}}

* A news anchor in ''[[Tales Of Gnosis College]]'' shifts from a national security story to a discussion of deep issues about the meaning of human life to the local sports report, treating all as being about equally serious.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

** At one point it's implied that Brockman only covered the fall of the Berlin Wall because his infant daughter convinced him to. This is referenced in an episode wherein, at the advice of said daughter, he dedicates his entire half-hour news broadcast to a children's doll (this reporter found it hard to ''stop talking''), and mentions only just before the fadeout that, on that same day, ''the president was arrested for murder''.

** The tail-end of a report: "...leaving the vice-president in charge." It's accompanied by a very small picture of the White House, with a thin trail of smoke leaking out. He then goes on to cover some plot-related local issue.

'''Arnie:''' [[I Am the Trope|You're not the time, Kent!]] ''YOU'RE NOT THE TIME!'' }}

** In the episode ''You Kent Always Say What You Want'', it is also subtly implied that he was not happy about having to interview Homer in regards to winning his 1,000,000th Ice Cream cone at the ice cream parlor, especially when it forced him to abandon doing a heated discussion on the War in Iraq, but he ended up having to do so due to one of his show's sponsors being the same Ice Cream company that Homer won the contest in.

{{quote| '''Morbo:''' ''(all the time)'' "[[Third Person Person|Morbo]] WILL DESTROY YOU!"<br />

'''Morbo:''' (presiding over a presidential debate) "I now present puny human #1, puny human #2, and Morbo's good friend [[President Evil|Richard Nixon]]" }}

** The casual attitude taken to his threats could be explained by his behaviour with his wife - at a party she adjusts his bow-tie and he snaps at her, "Stop it, it's fine, I will DESTROY you!" This would suggest that's just the way his species acts normally. Then again, he has also stopped reporting to take a note about human weaknesses and referenced his people's mighty space fleet readying for an attack in the near future. You can't help but love him though; indeed, Fry said as much when seeing the news back in the 20th century in Bender's Big Score. "I miss Morbo."

** In an episode of South Park where a whale is stolen from an aquarium, one on-site reporter makes a fairly on-topic joke: "It certainly is a WHALE of a problem down here." To which the reporter at the desk responds, "Yes, I can hardly BEAR it." Cue odd looks.

** ''[[South Park]]'' also has a variety of weird field reporters, generally [[Twofer Token Minority|Threefer or Fourfer Token Minorities]], to do remotes. (Curiously, almost all the weird field reporters, when on-screen, appear to be consummate professionals for the most part: "Thanks, Tom!...") The form is usually "Live, with that story, is..."

*** The "Simpsons Already Did It" episode even showed Kent Brockman himself as part of a hallucination where Butters sees the entire town as Simpsons characters.

** During the fourth season, a recurring gag in news stories was to have the scene begin with the character(s) watching the tail end of a story about the ever-increasing size of Hillary Clinton's ass.

** Also poked fun at is the tendency of news organizations to relegate minorities to support staff, with "Asian Reporter Tricia Takanawa", and black weatherman Ollie Williams and his "Blacku-Weather Forecast," where he just yells out a succinct description. ("ISS GON' RAIN!" "ISS RAININ' SIDEWAYS!") Apparently he talks like that all the time, as demonstrated in his cooking segment ("EGGO!"), his helicopter traffic report ("EVERYBODY LOOKS LIKE ANTS!") and his adopt-a-pet segment. ("WHO WANTS THIS DAWG?!") One episode explains Ollie's speech patterns as the result of alcoholism.

** The second episode of ''Family Guy'' involves the TV transmitter getting destroyed, taking out TV for all of Quahog. This results in the following situation:

''Cut back to Tom and Diane, who have [[Oh Crap]] looks on their faces again, but this time, Tom has a wooden paddle in his hand and Diane is bent over'' }}

** Drunk Billy was the Quahog 5 News Traffic Cam helicopter pilot. In the episode "Dial Meg for Murder", Drunk Billy tragically dies in a fatal collision with a highway overpass. In anticipation for this moment, colleagues Tom Tucker and Diane Simmons present a pre-prepared collection of accidents and near misses from Billy’s career.

* ''[[A Pup Named Scooby Doo]]'' used a newsflash wherein the newscaster [[No Fourth Wall|conversed with the Scooby gang]].

* ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]'' has Chet Ubetcha, who like [[Adults Are Useless|all the other grown ups, is very dim]]. He's also very short, and has size issues. He often reports on the aftermath of Timmy's wishes. He has a daughter called Yvette who takes his job when the kids take over the world. In the episode, "The Secret Origin of Denzel Crocker!", his mother, Nanette, was also an anchorwoman, and in the episode "The Good Old Days!", his grandfather, Chester, was a radio announcer.

* ''[[Sheep in The Big City]]'' had two anchors, one of whom would give "unrelated" stories that were obviously related, once repeating the same story.

* ''[[Drawn Together]]'', of course, has several versions of [[Kent Brockman News]], which, like ''every other'' aspect of the show, is deranged and nonsensical. The anchors usually state something that either [[Crosses the Line Twice]] or inexplicably correlates to the characters directly.

* Ace Palmero from ''[[The Replacements]]''.

* Hank Anchorman from ''[[Johnny Test]]''.

** Also the regular newscasters (Bob and Barbara), who tend to laugh at whatever they report the few times they've shown up.

{{quote| [Picture of a box of kittens in the corner of the screen, sound clip of a cat meowing]<br />

* Mike The TV from ''[[Re Boot]]'' fits this role, often with huge amounts of [[Large Ham]].

* ''[[Planet Sketch]]'' has Mike Today and Sally Van who have gender related arguements when they do their newscasting.

* ''[[The Tick]]'' - events on the show are often reported by news anchor Brian Pinhead ([[Its Pronounced Tropay|pronounced 'Pin-ADE']]).

** And then it gets better as Phil and Lil whisper insults about each other to Chuckie.

{{quote| With only a short time before the comet "Dad's Ball" flattens us all into pancakes, people all over the world are doing things they always wanted to do. Today, a man married himself (cut to the Red Guy marrying himself). And I always wanted to do THIS! (climbs on the desk and takes off his suit to reveal a weenie costume underneath) Look at me! I'm Weenie Suit Man!}}

* ''[[Generator Rex]]'' has the tabloid news show "Ultimate Exposure", which is also the focus of the episode "Exposed."

* Act III of ''[[Doctor Horribles Sing Along Blog]]'' gives us two rather hammy TV news anchors whose coverage of Captain Hammer's "inspirational acts of heroism" segues neatly into the following gem -- "Next up, who's gay?" (For extra humor, the [[Gilligan Cut|next line]] is sung by Captain Hammer's [[Camp Gay]] [[Fan Boy]].) They are later shown weeping uncontrollably on the air over {{spoiler|<s>Penny</s> What's-her-name's death}}.

* Segments on the ''[[The Onion|Onion News Network]]'' tends to run with this, especially ''In The Know'' and ''Today Now!''.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==