Brilliant fun from Kevin Tenglin and Erik Kissack featuring Nick Offernan as a narrator with entirely too much influence over proceedings and Shawn Parsons as a hapless gunslinger. A 16:9 version is on YouTube.
Filmmaker Eric Kissack tells the story of a lone gunslinger who walks into a saloon and begins to hear a voice -- the all-knowing narrator.
In a small town in the Old West, a weary man enters the room. Suddenly, an omniscient voice begins to narrate the scene, revealing who the gunslinger is and what he's about to do.
But the characters in the film can hear the voice, too.
The narrator quickly divulges the deepest, darkest secrets of the people in the saloon. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that the narrator wants nothing more than to see a "ballet of death."
Featuring the mellifluous voice of comedian Nick Offerman.
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Evidently Port Townsend, Washington has a real sense of humor. Read the rest
Children of the 80's will remember the disturbing puppets from satirical puppet show Spitting Image and the video for Genesis' Land of Confusion. Co-creator Roger Law has confirmed that a pilot has been filmed, with hopes of a new series focusing on major celebrities like Donald Trump and Mark Zuckerberg.
Jeff Westbrook, a writer on The Simpsons and Futurama, is serving as show-runner, and caricaturist Adrian Teal is working on the puppets. You can get a glimpse of the Trump puppet in action in this clip:
(Images via Avalon and The Guardian.) Read the rest
I haven't watched Saturday Night Live in years, but I might start again just because I like Chloe Fineman's impersonation of Elizabeth Holmes so much. Read the rest
The Mr. Creosote sketch from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life went viral this weekend after director Quentin Tarantino was alleged to have said it's the only scene in film he was ever disturbed by. Watching it, it struck me that I'd never actually seen the whole thing, and that you might not have, either.
I read somewhere, perhaps Michael Palin's autobiography, that under the hot studio lights and the long, technical takes, the food matter on the set began to reek and one of the extras vomited for real. Read the rest
Every day, for reasons best understood by herself, Megan Amram ("it's this weird, sexual, anti-comedy comedy that's 'in' right now") posts "Today was the day Donald Trump finally became president" to her Twitter feed.
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From the look of things, The Art of Self-Defense looks to be full of toxic masculinity and Iron John bullshit--to hilarious effect. Jesse Eisenberg is at his best in movies where he plays the straight man: deadpan, confused and terrified.It looks like that's all going on here.
I haven't been interested enough in a film to bother seeing it in the theater, for a while now. This flick might just break my watch-it-at-home streak. Read the rest
Ben writes, "First featured on Boing Boing in 2010, the fan-supported TV series JourneyQuest has continued for nine years(!) and is now Kickstarting a fourth season. It's an open world with a copyleft license, proving that encouraging sharing, remixing, allowing commercial derivatives, and not treating fans like criminals can still lead to success."
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The wonderful comedienne, Tig Notaro, doesn't watch a lot of TV or films and doesn't really keep up with popular culture. As a result, she doesn't recognize celebrities. She's turned this liability(?) into a fun show, called Under A Rock with Tig Notaro. Well-known celebs come on and she (aided by her announcer, Amazon's Alexa) questions them in an attempt to guess who they are and what they are famous for. I've gotten a big kick out of the first three episodes.
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I was already a Terry Pratchett fan and a Neil Gaiman fan in 1990, when their comedic novel Good Omens showed up in the bookstore I worked at, and I dibsed it, took it home over the weekend, read it in huge gulps, and wrote an enthusiastic review on a 3x5 card that I tacked to the bookshelf next to it on the new release rack at the front of the store; I hand-sold hundreds of copies, and have read it dozens of times since.
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Last night, I went to see Public Domain: The Musical at the Actor's Company Theater in West Hollywood. I had no idea what to expect, but I was prepared for the worst (I've been to shows at fringe festivals where I would have walked out in the first five minutes, except I was the only person in the audience), and I was totally wrong. I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard.
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Ahead of a summit between Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, authorities in Vietnam have kicked out Kim impersonator Howard X. Howard is on his way back to Hong Kong, reports the Beeb.
Howard X says officials have since told him his visa is "invalid", but says he has received no further explanation.
"Satire is a powerful weapon against any dictatorship. They are scared of a couple of guys that look like the real thing," Howard X, who was wearing a black suit and thick black glasses in the style of Kim Jong-un, told reporters.
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Jason from the Comedy on Vinyl podcast writes, "I've spent the last eight years interviewing people from Rachel Bloom to Harry Shearer about their favorite vinyl comedy albums on my podcast, 'Comedy on Vinyl.' A few weeks ago, inspired by the brilliant podcast 'Mystery Show,' I decided to do something new, as I attempted to uncover the true identity and life story of long-lost comedian Dick Davy. A character comic, a white guy who won over The Apollo, and a civil rights activist who later settled into obscurity, Dick Davy's story temporarily took over my life and renewed my faith in comedy as a potential agent for change." (MP3)
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Louis CK is in disgrace in so many ways, and while comedians have often found humor in shocking and sorrowful current events, the combination of CK's lack of credibility and the extraordinary tastelessness of his jokes about the activism of the survivors of the Parkland high school shooting are a bridge too far.
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I first encountered Jeremy Hardy as a panelist on Radio 4's News Quiz, where he frequently reduced me to tears of hysterical laughter; I went on to buy the full back-catalogue of his old Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation shows and devoured them, going back for several re-listens.
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Bob Einstein will be sorely missed. Read the rest
As is the case every year Maximum Fun's Jesse Thorn has posted a special episode (MP3) of the Bullseye podcast, anthologizing excerpts from the best comedy albums of the year.
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