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The Outrageous Okona

I'd rather watch Shades of Gray or about 15 rounds of "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" from Voyager than watch The Outrageous Okona again.

I think I read that Whoopi wrote the "droid/noid" joke herself. She didn't like the joke as written, so came up with another one. And yes, Data was correct. Not funny in the slightest.
 
The problem with the droid-noid joke is it's a 24th century joke that has to be explained to a 20th century audience to understand why it's funny.
 
Melakon said:
The problem with the droid-noid joke is it's a 24th century joke that has to be explained to a 20th century audience to understand why it's funny.
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This guy got it.

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I remember when Droid phones were coming out, the commercials indicated that "Droid" was a registered trademark of Lucasfilm.

I wonder if was their trademark in 1988, and if they made a stink to Paramount about the usage of "droid".
 
I guess an episode about a charming rogue and a study of humor should be written by someone who knows how to BE a charming rogue, and people who have a sense of humor. I get the impression neither type was available for this.
 
I don't know. Maybe it's the new HD picture or something, but I actually found myself not really minding this episode so much anymore.

Yeah the "Okana charm" does get laid on a bit thick at the beginning, but eventually I found him pretty fun and likeable to watch. Plus, as someone said, it's the freakin Rocketeer!

As for the Data subplot, I thought Spiner actually managed to make that work, despite the iffy writing. And some of his lines (like the "jumping around like an idiot" one) actually cracked me up. I also liked Guinan's "Bring better jokes". And it was actually kind of heartbreaking at the end when he realizes the crowd's laughing isn't genuine.

In the end, it may just be a nothing fluff episode, but at least it's got a little bit of life to it. Which is more than you can say for many TNG episodes.
 
I just wonder where Data got the idea to do the over exaggerated 1930s/Groucho Marx comedy routine when delivering his jokes.
 
Given TNG's talk of the death of baseball and television, we can only suspect that comedy as we know it is also a lost art in the 24th century, relegated to old holodeck reruns. Jerry Lewis was pursued for the Piscopo role, but was committed to a film or something.
 
Yeah. Joe Piscopo as the ultimate comedian role model.
That required more suspension of disbelief than I'm capable of.
 
*Watching it now*

Kill...KILL... KILL!!!! Manos has decreed it! KILL! KILLLL! KILLLLLLL!
 
The problem with that episode is that they didn't make Okana convincingly likable. His pickup line to Terri Hatcher was embarrassing and obviously written by people who've never personally had success flirting with women. It wasn't believable that everyone thought he was so cool and that he was good at picking up women.
 
I would have to agree with SFDebris' conclusion in his review of this episode: Go to the annual Columbus Day parade instead!
 
Epsilon IX said:
I would have to agree with SFDebris' conclusion in his review of this episode: Go to the annual Columbus Day parade instead!
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Ha? A lot of people work that day, though.

Of course I'm probably completely missing the point of the joke, but oh well
 
It's not a terrible episode, but it definitely doesn't really keep my attention. The funny thing is, I was watching it and my roommate walked in towards the end and summarized the A story pretty well as a cross between a Soap Opera and a High School Drama.
 
Re: The Outrageous Okana

sonak said:
the character is a laughable failure as a "charming rogue" type. It's a sure sign that he's not one if the episode keeps TELLING you over and over again what a charming rogue he is.
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A problem early TNG has a lot of, I've found watching the HD broadcasts. In "The Schizoid Man" we meet a dickish, rude, unpleasant, bigoted old man who everyone agrees that their impression of him is 'brilliant', despite the fact the single time he evinces anything remotely resembling brilliance it's his hijacking of Data's brain, a secret until near the end of the episode.

Or "Loud As A Whisper", which gives us a cocksure negotiator who brushes off the very idea of researching the origins of a conflict as being irrelevant to his job yet is so amazing at it people who've literally never seen him refuse to have their negotiations handled by anyone else and he's responsible for adding the word 'peacemaker' to the Klingon vocabulary.

Forbin said:
Yeah. Joe Piscopo as the ultimate comedian role model.
That required more suspension of disbelief than I'm capable of.
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In fairness to the episode the ultimate role model was said to be some guy who's great at quantum mechanics jokes. Joe comes up when Data asks for something more lowbrow instead (but he is indeed terrible).
 
^I remember an SNL where the guest star was Don Rickles, the ad-lib king. Piscopo became his victim, and (IIRC) couldn't come up with a single come-back during the whole show. It was brutal, hysterical, and it really showed Piscopo's limits.
 
JirinPanthosa said:
The problem with that episode is that they didn't make Okana convincingly likable. His pickup line to Terri Hatcher was embarrassing and obviously written by people who've never personally had success flirting with women. It wasn't believable that everyone thought he was so cool and that he was good at picking up women.
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He would have been more believable with, "Hi, I am Okona and I have a twelve inch penis. Wanna see?" Then at least Terri Hatcher would have a plausible reason for falling for him.
 
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