Funny as hell, but mostly because of the voice over by the announcer, Webb. "Fishing with John" wouldn't be the same collection of episodes without the voice-over magic that is created. The episode with Willem Dafoe is definately the best, followed by the two-parter with Dennis Hopper. The episode with Matt Dillon seemed very awkward (and is explained in the commentary) for both guest and Lurie. And the episode with Tom Waits, you just knew that Tom didn't want to be there after his "episode" on the rusty tug. Funny bizarre stuff which pretty much has nothing to do with Fishing. It's too bad Lurie didn't get to bring Flea like he originally wanted (the Japanese film company pretty much forced Matt Dillon upon him) ... the Chilli Pepper's weren't the big band they are now when FwJ was filmed. I'd certainly love to see John Lurie film a few more episodes. A reprisal with Willem Dafoe would be awesome. That guy was just so relaxed and comfortable. The commentary is well done and gives a lot of insight into the filming. Watch the Willem Dafoe commentary first. You'll be very surprised by it.

You work for Criterion, right?

I'm with ya! The ice house episode was hilarious.

...for the longest time, I thought I was the only person in the whole world
who actually liked these short films ... glad to see that I'm not alone!...
(...and, yes, they are quite funny!...)

. . .

Count me (and my wife) in; we're huge Jarmusch/Waits/Lurie fans, so we snapped up "FWJ" as soon as it got released.

Dafoe proves himself to be a real mensch, Waits shows his human side, Hopper proves he's a gen-yew-wine nut, and Dillon proves he's worried about his public image. It's a weird little masterpiece.