This Week In Joe’s Basement, episode 06: Alone In A Dark Room

Joe turns off the lights, plunging the show into total darkness. In the absence of vision, however, strange sounds emerge. A search for a leaky faucet begets an odyssey of noisy mishaps, progressing to a full-blown Beauty Contest in the dark (interrupted by some pesky mimes.). These conceptual, audio-based high jinx were inspired by the great Ken Nordine, to whom Joe’s Basement owes a considerable debt. AIR DATES: February ?, 1990

Description:

Alone in a Dark Room – an atheist vision of life after death.

Joe turns off the lights, plunging the show into total darkness.  In the absence of vision, however, strange sounds emerge.  A search for a leaky faucet begets an odyssey of noisy mishaps, progressing to a full-blown Beauty Contest in the dark (interrupted by some pesky mimes.)

Finally Joe turns the lights back on, the interlopers scatter away.

Mark resumes the discourse, puzzling over a broken cigarette with his doppelganger (his own image on a TV set.)

These conceptual, audio-based high jinx were inspired by the great Ken Nordine, to whom Joe’s Basement owes a considerable debt.

Production Notes:

By this time, the crew had abandoned side projects to focus on Joe’s Basement.  It shows: this is the first episode made with clear intent to amuse the viewing public.

At the end of this episode, Joe introduced a P.O. Box for viewers to send mail.  “Anything you send to us, no matter what it is, will be presented on the air,” Joe promises.  “We’d love to know that there’s someone – anyone – actually watching this program.”