Boing Boing » comedy

Short documentary on Patton Oswalt: "To Be Loved & Understood"

Xeni Jardin — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 20:11:46 +0000

Julien Nitzberg's short (10 minute) documentary on comedian Patton Oswalt is out today, via Thrash Lab. Ashton Kutcher executive produced, but don't worry, it's still great. I've written previously about Nitzberg's film, "The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia," which I thought was a terrific film.

The very excellent Megan Ganz has left Community to write for Modern Family

Jamie Frevele — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 22:28:39 +0000

One of Community's most notable and popular writers, Megan Ganz, has announced in a Reddit post that she's taken a position at ABC's Modern Family. While it's sad to see her go, it's hard to blame her for leaving when there is constantly a question about Community's future. But at least we'll get to see two more episodes in Season 4 that were written by Ganz, and she'll be staying on to oversee the editing of those two episodes ("Paranormal Parentage" and the season finale, "Advanced Introduction to Finality"). Said the scribe:

We filmed the bottle episode in chronological order so this was the first line that we shot and I remember sitting at the monitors at 7am on the first day thinking, "If they call action and no one runs in here screaming 'stop the TV-equivalent of presses,' then I will have written a line that will appear on a television show. I'll be a television writer." And the director did call action–as they do–and so I was. Just like that. ...

This isn't the end of me and Greendale. Community was my world for four seasons and my job for three, and has hold of my whole heart like a bad-news high school boyfriend. I'll never really get away. The chemistry is too perfect and the writing room couches aren't really that uncomfortable to sleep on and I just can't stop writing for Britta. Plus I still have to do my editing pass on the finale. I think I left a box in my office, too. Bobrow probably misses me. Better stop by on my way home.

Ganz's voice on Community will definitely be missed, but I prefer to see her gainfully employed rather than suddenly silenced or underutilized. I will probably also really, truly have to start watching Modern Family now.

(via Splitsider)

Photo of Megan Ganz and Annie's Boobs via Community Wiki

Headline of the day: The Lonely Island loves dog turds

Jamie Frevele — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:55:10 +0000

As part of its first comedy issue -- or as I like to call it, "The Sexiest Humans Alive" issue -- Vanity Fair has featured a photo shoot and (unembeddable) interview with the lads of The Lonely Island, Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone. They provide exactly zero information on their future plans and talk about fake cookbooks instead, and I'm okay with that. (via Vanity Fair)

Portlandia holiday preview video: "Vagina Pillows"

Jamie Frevele — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 23:28:51 +0000

(Video link) In this preview of IFC's Portlandia holiday special, Candace and Toni, the persons who run feminist bookstore Women & Women First (Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein), have been surprised with a last-minute babysitting request from Candace's son, played by Bobby Moynihan, who can no longer be bribed with free vagina pillows. Alas, another victim of the patriarchy. "Winter in Portlandia" will air Friday, December 14 at 10:30 PM EST on IFC. In addition to Moynihan, Jim Gaffigan and Matt Lucas will be stopping by! (via IFC)

Modern Seinfeld Twitter account pitches episodes for the Facebook age

Jamie Frevele — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 20:53:45 +0000

What's the deal with texting? Are you being sarcastic? Are you mad at me? Are you typing this while on the toilet? I don't wanna be a meme! Did you ever stop to think about how incredibly perfect Seinfeld would be in today's social media-crazed world? Thanks to the newly formed Modern Seinfeld Twitter account, you can get a 140-character (or less) idea at what a current episode of the "Show About Nothing" would cover. And when you consider all the "nothing" we do all day and how much awkward human behavior it causes, Seinfeld could probably find enough material to last twenty years. (via Twitter)

Omnishambles is word of the year

Rob Beschizza — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 15:11:40 +0000

The Oxford English Dictionary has determined that "omnishambles", referring to situations shambolic in all possible respects, is word of the year. Coined by Armando Iannucci for BBC political comedy The Thick Of It, it has since been used in Britain's real-life parliament to refer to real-life omnishambles. [BBC]

James Urbaniak's "My Bastard Son"

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 18:35:36 +0000

In this web series pilot, actor James Urbaniak documents his new life with his estranged adult son. Co-starring Griffin Newman and Renie Rivas. Directed by David Avallone.

Tig Notaro's "Cancer Set" at Largo now a downloadable album, via Louis C.K.

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 18:16:01 +0000

Comedian and writer Tig Notaro was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. On the Oct. 2 "Professor Blastoff" podcast, she announced that she has undergone a double mastectomy, and there is currently no known cancer in her body. She also spoke about her experience on "Fresh Air" this week.

I note that a number of news outlets are reporting about her post-treatment (?) phase as "cured," or "cancer-free," and wince at that language because the disease is never that simple, and those terms imply something that we hope for but cannot guarantee. But it sounds like her course of treatment was successful and that she is in an excellent place.

Via fellow funnyman Louis C.K., who has had great success with direct-to-fan commerce, Tig's now-legendary set at Largo about her cancer diagnosis is now available for download.

I am not glad Notaro has cancer. But I am glad people with cancer now have someone like Tig to point to all that is laughable, and all that is darkly humorous, about the experience of being a person with cancer.

Telephone management skills, 1957 edition: Stephen Potter

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:51:55 +0000

From the wonderful blog "Vintage Scans," a page from Lifemanship lesson from Stephen Potter, 1957 (11th impression). Potter was a British writer known for dry, mocking, self-help books, and the TV and film projects they inspired.

New Sifl and Olly episodes from Liam Lynch

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 22:46:33 +0000

[Video Link]

Oh, happy day. Genius weirdo video auteur Liam Lynch (@lynchland on Twitter) is making new episodes of "Sifl and Olly." The show originally ran on MTV from 1997-1999.

Now, the Machinima YouTube channel is publishing a new version of the show, "Sifl & Olly Video Game Reviews." Twisted Junk has an interview with Liam about the reboot, and Chris Hardwick's NERDIST has a Q&A with him here.

The September 16 recent episode (above) included a bit about pandas (around 3:05 in), and then, just like magic, a baby panda is born at the National Zoo in Washington, DC. This is a sign that all is right with the universe.

* Some DVDs of the old MTV originals are available on Amazon.

Born Standing Up, by Steve Martin

Mark Frauenfelder — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 20:55:10 +0000

I've always admired Steve Martin. He's smart, funny, and avoids engaging in the kind of behavior that ends up in celebrity tabloids. (He's also a terrific banjo player.) I recently read his autobiography, Born Standing Up, and now I admire him even more.

This short book is about Steve Martin's career as a stand-up comic, which lasted about 20 years and ended abruptly (by his decision) in the 1980s. Martin starts with his childhood, which is full of wonderful anecdotes about working in the magic trick store at Disneyland as a young teenager, and doing magic and comedy routines at Knott's Berry Farm. Martin highly praises the old vaudevillians and magicians he worked with at the theme parks. These stage show veterans took Martin under their wings and mentored him in the art of timing, patter, trick presentation, and joke delivery. Fortunately for Martin, the Orange County high school he attended didn't assign homework, so he was able to spend every waking minute outside of school at the theme parks, learning his craft. (If he had been required to do as much homework as a student does today, he may very well have ended up working alongside his dad as a real estate agent, albeit a funny one.)

Martin goes on to describe how he went on the road, spending years developing his unique style of stand-up. As he describes it, he was not doing stand-up. Instead, he played the role of a foolish comic doing stand-up. In the 1960s, he experimented with his routines in the small clubs of San Francisco's North Beach, sometimes to a completely empty room, save a bartender.

Martin's rise to fame was gradual. But that all changed in the late 1970s when his brand of quirky humor caught on in a big way (thanks in large part to his frequent appearances on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show). Martin went from filling 100 seaters to 1000-seaters. His success begat more success. In a period of months, his audience grew to arenas filled with 20,000, then 40,000, then 60,000 people. His brand of physical humor was impossible for most people in a mega-sized venue to appreciate. Martin was just a white dot on the stage.

The resulting fame, while not entirely unwelcome, was often a drag for Martin. An admittedly shy and private man, Martin said he felt uncomfortable when people on the street would excitedly recite his jokes back to him and expect him to be a wild and huh-razy guy."

Martin rode the wave for a few more years, but when he realized that he was no longer doing stand-up, but instead had become a kind of party host for giant throngs of people who wanted to hear him deliver the same stuff over and over again, he called it quits and never did another stand up show. Martin says that until he wrote this book, he rarely gave a thought to the stand-up up career that had made him famous.

I think the best way to read Born Standing Up is to listen to the audiobook, read by Steve Martin himself. That way, you get to hear the way he says his stock lines ("Excuuuuse meeee!") and you get to hear his emotions when he talks about his father (a cold-hearted man who wrote a negative review of Steve Martin's ~~movie The Jerk~~ first appearance on Saturday Night Live, in the company real estate newsletter he produced).

I hope Martin writes a follow-up book that covers his movie and music career, too.

[Update] commenter Petzl says:

Speaking of Martin's self-effacing manner, for years he's been (quietly) famous for handing out these cards.

They're brilliant: he doesn't have to give his personalized signature (which must get old after the first 1000 or so); he gives his fan something uniquely Steve Martin to take away, as well as giving them a "funny story"; it allows him to exit cleanly and quickly.

Born Standing Up

Morgan Freeman and Christopher Walken haiku, by impressionist Jim Meskimen

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 00:20:04 +0000

Jim Meskimen is a talented impressionist, as the videos in his YouTube channel attest. In this clip, he offers his version of Christopher Walken, reciting poetry in the ancient Haiku style of Japan; three lines of five syllables, then seven, then five again. Below, his Morgan Freeman haiku.

Douche.0: Daniel Tosh digs rape jokes, proposes a female audience member be raped

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 22:42:06 +0000

The un-bylined author of the Cookies for Breakfast tumblog publishes the story of two female friends attending a standup performance by Daniel Tosh, host of the notably unfunny Comedy Central show Tosh.0, in which the comedian made some stupid rape jokes. Not that there are any other kind of rape jokes.

“Actually, rape jokes are never funny!,” the woman in the published account says she replied from the audience.

Snip from her version of what followed:

I did it because, even though being “disruptive” is against my nature, I felt that sitting there and saying nothing, or leaving quietly, would have been against my values as a person and as a woman. I don’t sit there while someone tells me how I should feel about something as profound and damaging as rape.
After I called out to him, Tosh paused for a moment. Then, he says, “Wouldn’t it be funny if that girl got raped by like, 5 guys right now? Like right now? What if a bunch of guys just raped her…” and I, completely stunned and finding it hard to process what was happening but knowing i needed to get out of there, immediately nudged my friend, who was also completely stunned, and we high-tailed it out of there. It was humiliating, of course, especially as the audience guffawed in response to Tosh, their eyes following us as we made our way out of there. I didn’t hear the rest of what he said about me.

Now, proposing that an audience member sitting right in front of you in a crowd of mostly men "get raped by, like, 5 guys right now" is in my opinion a whole lot heavier than letting a few random rape jokes drop in your lame standup act. Not that rape jokes are lulzy. But, Christ, what an asshole.

By way of this non-apology, Tosh appears to confirm the woman's story:

all the out of context misquotes aside, i'd like to sincerely apologize j.mp/PJ8bNs
— daniel tosh (@danieltosh) July 10, 2012

the point i was making before i was heckled is there are awful things in the world but you can still make jokes about them. #deadbabies
— daniel tosh (@danieltosh) July 10, 2012

More coverage around the web: The Atlantic, Jezebel, Videogum, ThinkProgress, Feminists for Choice.

The video above, and many others like it, and the dude's entire body of work show that this kind of stuff is hardly out of character for Mr. Tosh.

Jamie Frevele says:

I would like to know why the internet has only suddenly discovered that Daniel Tosh is a fucking pig.
— Jamie Frevele (@jamielikesthis) July 10, 2012

Never liked the guy.

The real reason I can't stand Tosh.0 is that it and Daniel Tosh have degraded Peter Tosh's google rank.
— Xeni Jardin (@xeni) July 5, 2012

Guys. Real shocker in@danieltosh rape joke brouhaha? Was at a @DaneCook show. Tosh is so lame, he managed to make Dane Cook look classy.
— Xeni Jardin (@xeni) July 10, 2012

Louis CK's direct-sales concert: $6MM+ and running, and scalping all but extinguished

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 21:00:25 +0000

A report from Louis CK's no fees, no scalpers direct-sales concert tour: Mr CK is up more than $6 million, and scalping is down to less than one percent (compared with 25 percent for his other, traditional-sales events). CK has been approached by scalpers who defend their practice by saying it's legal. He replies to them in this statement to Laughspin:

Contact with these scalpers has been enlightening. They tend to respond with indignance and a defensive posture “Hey man! Scalping is NOT a crime!” We’re not treating it as a crime or even a wrong-doing. We are just competing with them, on behalf of my fans, to enforce the terms and conditions of our ticket sales and to keep the prices down. It’s worth the effort, it’s working and it’s even been kind of fun.

Which is a pretty good reply. "I'm not trying to get you outlawed, I'm trying to make you obsolete."

Louis C.K. addresses ticket scalpers: ‘It’s a tremendous risk’ (Exclusive) (via TechDirt)

$4.5M in 72h

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 03:08:03 +0000

Louis CK's experiment in direct retailing the tickets for his upcoming comedy tour is a huge success: $4.5M in business in three days!

Louis CK direct-sells tickets to his next concert tour - no fees, no scalpers

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 15:51:25 +0000

Having disrupted the traditional concert DVD distribution system with his ground-breaking DRM-free $5 download video, comedian Louis CK is now preparing to go on tour and he's going to cut out all the sleazy ticket brokers slimy scalpers, and other middle-men, and sell the tour tickets direct to fans. Tickets are a flat $45 each. He says he'll make less than he would if he went with an expensive ticketing service, but he wants to make his shows affordable.

Making my shows affordable has always been my goal but two things have always worked against that. High ticket charges and ticket re-sellers marking up the prices. Some ticketing services charge more than 40% over the ticket price and, ironically, the lower I've made my ticket prices, the more scalpers have bought them up, so the more fans have paid for a lot of my tickets.
By selling the tickets exclusively on my site, I've cut the ticket charges way down and absorbed them into the ticket price. To buy a ticket, you join NOTHING. Just use your credit card and buy the damn thing. opt in to the email list if you want, and you'll only get emails from me.
Also, you'll see that if you try to sell the ticket anywhere for anything above the original price, we have the right to cancel your ticket (and refund your money). this is something I intend to enforce. There are some other rules you may find annoying but they are meant to prevent someone who has no intention of seeing the show from buying the ticket and just flipping it for twice the price from a thousand miles away.
Some of these rules may be a pain in your ass, but please be patient. My goal here is that people coming to see my shows are able to pay a fair price and that they be paying just for a ticket. Not also paying an exhorbanant fee for the privalege of buying a ticket.

LouisCK.net | I'm going on the road (via Waxy)

Me the People (book trailer)

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 01:08:41 +0000

[YouTube Link] One of the funnier and more beautifully produced book trailers I've seen in a while! It's for the just-released book "Me the People," by Kevin Bleyer. Via Jason Wishnow:

Kevin Bleyer (Emmy Award winning writer for the Daily Show) personally rewrote the Constitution of the United States and needed his author’s portrait painted in the neoclassical style. I’d never been to a life drawing class before but heard they involve nude models.

Faces familiar to Daily Show fans include Kevin Bleyer, Jason Jones, and Samantha Bee. Directed by Jason Wishnow.

Gilbert Gottfried reads erotic best-seller "Fifty Shades of Grey"

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 18 May 2012 22:39:54 +0000

Were I anatomically capable of having a boner, Gilbert Gottfried's reading of the best-selling erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey would kill it dead. Forever. (collegehumor.com)

Hasan Minhaj nails the Ashton Kutcher/PopChips dumb racist ad debacle (funny video)

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 09 May 2012 00:58:45 +0000

[Video Link] "You have a shitty accent. You're not even being racist correctly. If you're gonna be racist, come correct with your racism."—Hasan Minhaj. YouTube, Twitter, Facebook.

Anil Dash, whose familiar mug appears briefly in Hasan's video here, has a few things to say about the matter.

(via Aman Ali)

Funny video series "Old Jews Telling Jokes" returns with all-new, even older elders telling even funnier jokes

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 03 May 2012 14:01:36 +0000

Video director and wonderfully funny guy Eric Spiegelman tells Boing Boing,

The new season of Old Jews Telling Jokes begins today, featuring jokes we recorded in Boca Raton. We've been on hiatus for almost a year, and it's good to be back. The joke that begins our season, about a bull and an enema and a bridgekeeper, is one of the best I've heard. Also, a bit of trivia. We have a new logo for the show, and it was designed by Milton Glaser. I'm not going to lie, I feel like that's a pretty great honor.

Embedded above: I've selected a joke from the new season told by Irving ‘Brownie’ Brown, a gentleman who is 102 years old. Below, the bull enema joke, as told by Charlie Seibel.

Alan Partridge movie announced

Rob Beschizza — Tue, 01 May 2012 18:35:13 +0000

There is to be an Alan Partridge movie. Alan, for those not in the know, is the vain, mean-spirited, emotionally broken protagonist of a pitch-black British comedy series--think David Brent with notes of Bill O'Reilly and Goebbels. A "best of" is embedded above for your cringing pleasure. [Norwich Evening News]

Aziz Ansari and others follow Louis CK's lead with $5, DRM-free comedy concert downloads

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 02:29:43 +0000

Aziz Ansari, an extremely funny standup comedian, has just released "Dangerously Delicious," a comedy special that follows Louis CK's Live at the Beacon Theater DIY, DRM-free concert video, which netted CK over a million dollars. Ansari, who was an outspoken critic of SOPA and PIPA, is also asking for $5 for his DRM-free download, and has a very good ecommerce setup for buying and downloading the video, and is also using it to promote an upcoming tour.

Ansari isn't the only comedian who's trying this. As Mike Masnick notes on Techdirt, Jim Gaffigan is also following suit. Masnick laments that both Ansari and Gaffigan are slavishly copying CK's exact methodology, and wishes that each would experiment some with pricing, delivery and so on, in order to learn if there are ways of improving on CK's experiment.

The one thing that concerns me a little about this is the fact that the deal terms are identical. I can understand why they're doing this. It's basically "don't mess with what worked for Louis." But I worry that the message people are getting is "$5 direct offering off a website is the secret." I don't think that's it. Lots of people have offered up a product for download off their website for a variety of prices. The key to making it work is not just the pricing. It's the way the offering is presented. I think it would be even cooler if some of these comedians experimented a bit more with branching out creatively around this business model. It wouldn't be hard, for example, to build on what various musicians have done, and offer up different tiers of support. Or something else. The real opportunity here is in how it's presented -- in a way that treats fans as fans, rather than assuming they're criminals or that there needs to be a big impersonal gatekeeper in-between the fans and the artist. But, unfortunately, some are going to look at these experiments and say "the lesson" is "$5 off your website is the secret." And when that doesn't work for some content creators, they're not going to understand why.

The triumphant return of Dr. Steve Brule

Xeni Jardin — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 17:31:57 +0000

A new season of my favorite lifestyle improvement edu-tainment program, Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule, airs tonight at 1230am on Adult Swim.

Caturday: cat vs. printer (video)

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 19:27:41 +0000

[Video Link]

An internet classic from 2010 by Chris Cohen. (via @nytjim @janinegibson @bengoldacre)

Looking for Lenny: Lenny Bruce, comedy and free speech

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 22:47:35 +0000

Looking for Lenny is a new documentary about Lenny Bruce and the way that free speech issues still resonate today. It's packed with comedy/spoken word legends talking about Bruce, from Robin Williams to Phyllis Diller, Mort Sahl, and Henry Rollins.

Looking for Lenny (Thanks, Dustin!)

Great Squanderland Roof: funny BBC radio drama about austerity

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 02:01:07 +0000

Julian Gough sez, "I get the feeling you and some of your readers are, um, not entirely unconvinced by austerity as an economic strategy. So you might like the BBC's free Drama of the Week podcast. It's a satire on Eurozone austerity economics called The Great Squanderland Roof, by, er, me. It's free, downloadable worldwide till Friday, and it stars some great actors, like Dermot Crowley who was in Fr. Ted and, er, Return of the Jedi. What can we do but laugh? Hope you like it. Here's the official BBC blurb on it:"

Jude lives in a henhouse with no roof, in the bankrupt Republic of Squanderland. Purchased for ten million euro at the height of the credit bubble, his henhouse has been rated the asset in Europe most likely to default. To solve this small but symbolic problem and restore confidence in the markets, Europe's leaders need a plan. Sadly, putting a roof on Jude's henhouse quickly escalates out of control. Soon they are committed to building a roof over the entire country, half a mile above the startled voters... But what happens when a structure that's too big to fail finally fails? To the horror of Europe's bankers and politicians, Jude comes up with a dramatic (and rather romantic) solution to the Eurozone crisis... 'The Great Squanderland Roof' stars Rory Keenan as the hapless Jude (whose recent credits include 'The Kitchen' at the National, 'A Dublin Carol' at the Donmar and 'Birdsong' on BBC TV) in his debut BBC Radio role, Dermot Crowley as a banker turned government minister, and Stephanie Flanders, the BBC's Economics Editor.

The Great Squanderland Roof 2 Mar 12 (Thanks, Julian!)

Nyan Cat orchestra: composer creates classical music variations on a meme theme

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 23:54:42 +0000

[Video Link].

Craig Davis Pinson, a composer who is a Boston Conservatory student, writes in the liner notes for the video embedded above:

This is a set of variations written on the melody heard in the Youtube video Nyan Cat. It is an experiment, in which I tried to find the limits of how far I could transform the melody before it begins losing its identity. The theme is known as Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!, originally posted by username daniwellP on the Japanese video sharing website, Nico Nico Douga. The Nyan Cat phenomenom has become ingrained in popular culture, and amazes me both in its sheer absurdity and its freakishly colossal popularity. However, fascinating as they are to me, the origins of the theme are not played upon in this composition. Instead, I treated Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya! as pure musical material from which to generate music. The motivation to use this theme came from my repeated viewings of the video, and slowly realizing that it is a strangely alluring melody. Therefore, this is my tribute to Nyan Cat. Credit goes to daniwell-p for creating this theme, prguitarman for creating the gif animation, and saraj00n for joining them. Theme used for non-commercial purposes as per daniwell-P's request.
On a large scale, the work is structured along a simple alternation pattern. The theme and its variations alternate, similarly to rondo form. However, the theme is progressively dissolved, meaning that each time it returns it contains less percentage of the source material. This chipping-away continues until there's nothing recognizable left. In the variation episodes, more tools are employed to change the essence of the theme, especially, pronounced changes of duration, texture, harmonic character, and of the intervallic makeup of the melody. Each of the variations has its own defined character, and they contrast sharply with one another in mood and technique. Despite of the contrast of its sections, the piece exploits a long-scale narrative arc, playing on the contrast between the theme's duration - which remains essentially consistent at each iteration - and the durations of the variation episodes, which seem to grow out of control as their proportions become subverted.

This is a recording of the Juventas Ensemble performing the premiere of the work, on the Composer Recital Series 12, February 9, 2012 at Seully Hall in The Boston Conservatory. Many thanks go to this amazing ensemble for valiantly performing a very demanding score! I really appreciate it!!  
Juventas New Music Ensemble:
Lidiya Yankovskaya, Conductor
Zach Jay, Flute
Marguerite Levin, Clarinet
Julia Scott Carey, Piano
Yohanan Chendler, Violin
Drew Ricciardi, Viola
Rachel Arnold, Cello

(thanks, @parches!)

Pronunciation Guide: extremely funny videos on how to pronounce things

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:05:09 +0000

[Video Link], via Sean Bonner. I LOL'd, then cried, then hit play again and LOL'd some more. CONTAINS HELVETICA.

On this day in 197A

Rob Beschizza — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:19:14 +0000

A rundown of one week in British music history, courtesy of "Top of the Pops", via Charlie Brooker.

Marx Brothers history

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:23:54 +0000

The latest installment from the great pop culture podcast Tank Riot is an in-depth look at the Marx Brothers. The lads cover the Marx's personal lives, their filmography, their place in the histories of Vaudeville, film and radio, and more besides. MP3