The Shining as a Seinfeld-style sitcom

"I know I'm not the first person to put a laugh track on The Shining," writes youtoobmember, "but I couldn't resist doing my own version of it." The result is funny for a minute or so, then increasingly unsettling: it seems to remove the safe pop-culture patina that The Shining has picked up over the years. The Shining - The Sitcom (Seinfeld Style) [YouTube]

• [HubrisSonic]

  There is something wrong with some people. 

• [Michael_J_Walsh]

  Try this version – http://youtu.be/vNTtOphnfJA

  • [millie fink]

    Yup, so much better, even if it is a blast from five years ago.

  • [Sekino]

    This one is much better because the music has been replaced as well (and the editing is fabulous).

    I cannot find the ‘Seinfeld’ one funny because I can hear the original creepy music in the background and no amount of laugh tracks can make up for it. The Shining creeped the beejesus out of me from the very first 10 seconds on account of the music alone.

    • [Petzl]

      I agree, the editing and music choices are just superb. It’s absolutely indistinguishable from an actual “feel-good” movie’s trailer, while using undoctored clips from a horror movie. (My “favorite” was the kiss scene– gruesome if you remember the context, but completely innocuous if you haven’t seen it.)

  • [Jenz Seeger]

    Aww, hrm, ehh, I kind of like both trailers, sure the Shinefeld one puts it on real thick, but what the eff?

    Darn, I wish I could go back to not knowing The Shining, watch one of those trailers and then rent/buy/watch the movie

    *mind ‘splodes*

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    This one isn’t a parody of The Shining; it’s a parody of sitcoms.

• [Bryan Denley]

  Pretty sad when you promise funny for only a minute and can’t even deliver on that.

• [Christopher]

  Somehow the laugh track makes it even more terrifying…like there’s a whole audience of psychotics watching Jack’s breakdown.

  Next week: Humbert Humbert shoots Clare Quilty. Hilarity ensues. 

  • [James Hotelling]

    It reminds me of the “twisted sitcom” setting of the scene in Natural Born Killers, where horrifying inhumanity is set to a laugh track and ’50s musical cues. All the more terrifying for the veneer of humor that’s put over it, like a guillotine that has been upholstered with a floral print.

• [anelson]

  This works well for me.  It reminds me of the last scene of the movie itself: Kubrick lets the 1920s music play until you hear the sounds of an audience getting up and leaving.  Like the ghosts orchestrated the whole show for a little entertainment.

• [Stefan]

  Sounds just like the time I saw it at a midnight show in Boston–Worst audience EVER.

  • [LeeRF]

    I was once part of the worst audience EVER. The local cinema was showing 2001: a space odyssey and we had planned on scoring some acid and watching it out of our box. However, the acid didn’t happen so we got very very drunk instead and then spent the whole time pretending to be on acid. Being really obnoxious and loud saying stuff like, ‘woah man, trippyyyyy’. Fellow audience members were shouting at us to stfu but we carried on regardless. Of all the crap I did in my youth this is the thing I am most ashamed of. Please Stanley forgive me.

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    When I saw Shallow Grave, I was the only person in the theater laughing through the whole film. It seemed like a black comedy to me.

• [Vege]

  Then it’s good to follow it all up with The PSYning
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPP5Bvtr2Dg

• [orangedesperado]

  I find the Shining really hard to watch because of the similarities between Jack Nicholson’s character’s psychotic breakdown, and the way that this plays out in a really terrifying domestic violence scenario (all haunted elevators, seductive ghosts, creepy twin apparitions, REDRUM precognition, Scatman Crothers aside).

  I find this Seinfeld-ized version even harder to watch. Her terror at being stalked by her murderous husband is good for laughs ?

  Yes, I understand that this is a work of fiction. Yes, I understand that this is an ironic take on some iconic moments in that film.

  No, I don’t understand why domestic violence is funny.

  Can someone explain this to me ?

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    The point is that we laugh at what we’re told to laugh at. Not that it’s funny.

    • [orangedesperado]

      But who is doing this telling ?

      Is it a sheep-like response to the sound of other’s laughter ?

      Are laugh tracks an insidious form of social programming ?

      • [Antinous / Moderator]

        If you listen to a laugh track for half an hour, you may remember having enjoyed the show even if you didn’t. And that will make you more likely to buy Palmolive.

• [pjcamp]

  I swear to god, the human brain fills in for reality if events get ahead of perception.

  I was scrolling down this page pretty fast, and for a second, as this item came into view, I swear I saw Brent Spiner instead of Jack Nicholson.

  And now I can’t stop thinking that Commander Data in The Shining is a goddamn awesome idea.

• [Art Carnage]

  Always thought the movie version of The Shining was weak, and Nicholson’s acting choices sabotaged the production. Over-the-top is far less frightening than a controlled just-below-the-surface menace. The mini-series was a far better interpretation of the novel than the feature film was.