This is what a lot of my in-laws sound like when they speak English:
It's pretty awesome.
Showing posts with label comedy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label comedy. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Zombies and the absurd
If you know me well, you also know that I'm a big fan of zombies. In addition to my zombie fandom, I'm a fan of absurdist comedy. What do you get when you put them together. Well, the answer was not clear until Andy put the following bit together:
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
They were this really funny comedy troupe
at long last, my DVD collection will finally be complete.
The State is finally coming.
I just hope that it's as good as I remember it.
The State is finally coming.
I just hope that it's as good as I remember it.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
The daily show gets daily showed?
On Tuesday Bill Maher came on the daily show. In '99, Bill Maher came on the daily show and had some pretty interesting things to tell John Stewart about McCain.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
I've been watching a bit too much tv.
I've discovered a show called "Top Gear".
It is a fantastic show. The hosts are incredibly funny and the editors of the show really know how to cut the video.
If you have an opportunity, I suggest you watch it. I haven't laughed this much since I watched 40 year old virgin for the first time.
It is a fantastic show. The hosts are incredibly funny and the editors of the show really know how to cut the video.
If you have an opportunity, I suggest you watch it. I haven't laughed this much since I watched 40 year old virgin for the first time.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
cheer one's self up with trivialities
So I decide to check out some onion news to cheer myself up:
Pre-Game Coin Toss Makes Jacksonville Jaguars Realize Randomness Of Life
Works every time.
Pre-Game Coin Toss Makes Jacksonville Jaguars Realize Randomness Of Life
Works every time.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Joss does it again
The thing about this Whedon character is that he's a big geek with an odd personality and atypical communication skills, but he seems to be highly empathic and skillful with dialog. This helps him write funny, wacky, deep, interesting, and real characters from a totally off-the wall perspective. I've been a fan of everything he's done (except the buffy tv series, because I haven't been able to bring myself to watch a long series on a high-school vampire hunter just yet) and the following new episodic web content is also pretty fantastic:
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
More british funny people
I would like to advertise, for a minute if I could, the excellent news satire podcast "the bugle"
I find it very funny. I listen to it on the bus ride to campus and I often laugh out loud, drawing looks from fellow passengers. Several of their very good jokes do require some basic knowledge of World History and British sports (football = soccer, cricket = baseball-1st2nd&3rd base+boring*10). It is not as funny as the daily show but certainly as clever as the onion given that it's just two guys writing the jokes. John Oliver, of the daily show fame, is one of the two writers/hosts.
If you have a bit of audio time to kill (you could listen to it as you cook or cut your toenails, for example) I do suggest you give it a shot. Try episode 2 for starters. Though episode 1 is equally good, episode 2 includes a guest segment involving the recurring character "The American" which is excellent.
I find it very funny. I listen to it on the bus ride to campus and I often laugh out loud, drawing looks from fellow passengers. Several of their very good jokes do require some basic knowledge of World History and British sports (football = soccer, cricket = baseball-1st2nd&3rd base+boring*10). It is not as funny as the daily show but certainly as clever as the onion given that it's just two guys writing the jokes. John Oliver, of the daily show fame, is one of the two writers/hosts.
If you have a bit of audio time to kill (you could listen to it as you cook or cut your toenails, for example) I do suggest you give it a shot. Try episode 2 for starters. Though episode 1 is equally good, episode 2 includes a guest segment involving the recurring character "The American" which is excellent.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Is anyone else psyched by this awesome movie?
I'm a gigantic fan of absurdist drama (or Le Théâtre de l'Absurde though I'm slightly less keen about the stuff that came from France, probably because of the loss in translation). It is a love I discovered in 12th grade English class. I think it comes from my adoration for wacky comedy like that of the state (where the hell is the DVD MTV?).
Anyway, I also love movies about the undead, specifically zombies. I'm a giant zombie fan, a love I discovered after Night of the Living dead came into the public domain. But although I really like the zombies, I'll take a vampire movie just as well.
Which is all why I am incredibly excited about the film "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead" which is a comedy that brings the genius of the absurditst, Tom Stoppard play (and excellent film) "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" together with Vampires. Also, the trailer for the film makes it look pretty funny.
Hurrah, I say.
Anyway, I also love movies about the undead, specifically zombies. I'm a giant zombie fan, a love I discovered after Night of the Living dead came into the public domain. But although I really like the zombies, I'll take a vampire movie just as well.
Which is all why I am incredibly excited about the film "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead" which is a comedy that brings the genius of the absurditst, Tom Stoppard play (and excellent film) "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" together with Vampires. Also, the trailer for the film makes it look pretty funny.
Hurrah, I say.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
lies and ethics (and getting preachy about doctrine)
I highly recommend the radio show "radiolab".
One of the more recent episodes is about deception: What is a lie, how do people manage to lie, and what results from lies. In that respect, the claim of the final segment on the show is that to be deceived in a fundamental way (the kind of deception that is like learning that your wife of 2 years is actually a con artist with 3 other husbands in various parts of the country) causes a real deep scar in the fragile psyche of a human being. And this result might or might not be categorical. A big lie causes a big hurt, a medium lie causes a medium hurt, and a little lie causes a little hurt (on average). But that hurt, big or small, can be long lasting and can negatively affect the human interactions of the victim for the rest of her life.
I'd never given the matter much deep thought, but the radio program's topic led me down that path (as many of these radiolab episodes tend to do). I thought about what a society which finds lying acceptable would look like? Could such a society even exist? I posit that it couldn't, that if a group of people living together could not trust one another and thus depend on one another would soon cease to exist. This might sound like an obvious conclusion but it has pretty serious implications.
You see, I was reminded of lying's 9th place on the list of 10 commandments and this reminded me about the argument often made by many middle-of-the-road believers about the fundamental truths we receive from the holy books.
It goes like this (an argument I've actually heard my own ears being made on at least 2 occassions): There are folks who believe that a world free of religion would, much too quickly, descend into chaos because it is the Bible (qoran, torah, etc) which provides those critical lessons of morality. If we stop looking to the holy book for moral guidance, we could lose morality altogether as it is not a knowledge that can be acquired innately or through day to day experience.
I have always looked at a counter-argument from the basic perspective that morality can be achieved through non-religious means, but this train of thought about a society of liars made me think of a similar, but more effective counter-argument. If it is the case that morality is not innate and that it is actually interlinked with the inception of, just for one example, the ten commandments provided on mt Sinai to the Israelites, then we must assume that during the Israelites' wondering of the desert, post-exodus, none of them had a problem with lying to each other. Similarly, if one of them intentionally killed another, the rest of the tribe would not cast the murder away but would find that act simply morally ambiguous at worst (best?). But, lucky for them, once God provided the laws, order was established, that murderers and victims of lies suddenly knew who was right and who was wrong.
Even from a naive sociological perspective, we must admit that
Critical thinking alone should give one plenty of ideas about where, other than a holy book or religion, morality might come from. But until today, I haven't really thought about what the old testament would tell us about morality if we assume a priori that morality does come from God by way of two stone tablets or spoken word directions to the chosen people.
Of course, one can still argue that our innate sense of right and wrong is a divine gift, but if you are willing to accept that then you really couldn't attribute anyone's immoral behavior, as many people do, to not reading the appropriate biblical passage or attending the right church.
So, the question is, if we are innately moral (whether through divine intervention or as a result of living in a functional society) then what else do we have to learn from the qoran (or torah, or bible, etc) that we can't learn from each other?
PS. One of the problems with bible literalists is that they are easily persuaded to believe that homosexuality is a sin. There are a couple of passages in the bible that, pretty unambiguously say that man-on-man and woman-on-woman sexlove is not acceptable. But this can lead to a paradox involving the fifth commandment (about honoring mom and pop), from what I can tell. Because what happens when the gay man or woman is your mother or father? Has anyone ever asked these crazy protesters, who hold up signs that say "jesus hates fags" what he would do if he found out his father was gay?
One of the more recent episodes is about deception: What is a lie, how do people manage to lie, and what results from lies. In that respect, the claim of the final segment on the show is that to be deceived in a fundamental way (the kind of deception that is like learning that your wife of 2 years is actually a con artist with 3 other husbands in various parts of the country) causes a real deep scar in the fragile psyche of a human being. And this result might or might not be categorical. A big lie causes a big hurt, a medium lie causes a medium hurt, and a little lie causes a little hurt (on average). But that hurt, big or small, can be long lasting and can negatively affect the human interactions of the victim for the rest of her life.
I'd never given the matter much deep thought, but the radio program's topic led me down that path (as many of these radiolab episodes tend to do). I thought about what a society which finds lying acceptable would look like? Could such a society even exist? I posit that it couldn't, that if a group of people living together could not trust one another and thus depend on one another would soon cease to exist. This might sound like an obvious conclusion but it has pretty serious implications.
You see, I was reminded of lying's 9th place on the list of 10 commandments and this reminded me about the argument often made by many middle-of-the-road believers about the fundamental truths we receive from the holy books.
It goes like this (an argument I've actually heard my own ears being made on at least 2 occassions): There are folks who believe that a world free of religion would, much too quickly, descend into chaos because it is the Bible (qoran, torah, etc) which provides those critical lessons of morality. If we stop looking to the holy book for moral guidance, we could lose morality altogether as it is not a knowledge that can be acquired innately or through day to day experience.
I have always looked at a counter-argument from the basic perspective that morality can be achieved through non-religious means, but this train of thought about a society of liars made me think of a similar, but more effective counter-argument. If it is the case that morality is not innate and that it is actually interlinked with the inception of, just for one example, the ten commandments provided on mt Sinai to the Israelites, then we must assume that during the Israelites' wondering of the desert, post-exodus, none of them had a problem with lying to each other. Similarly, if one of them intentionally killed another, the rest of the tribe would not cast the murder away but would find that act simply morally ambiguous at worst (best?). But, lucky for them, once God provided the laws, order was established, that murderers and victims of lies suddenly knew who was right and who was wrong.
Even from a naive sociological perspective, we must admit that
- if lying is accepted within a society, then people would quickly cease to communicate in a meaningful way, that no critical information exchange would take place, and that the members of such a society could never depend on one another
- if intentional killing was acceptable within a society then all of the mild benevolent members would quickly die off leaving rage addicted psychopaths to slowly kill each other off.
- if adultery was acceptable this would quickly lead to a generation of illegitimate children for which no one, except for their mothers, could feel responsible. And that such a social problem would lead to the death of many of these children (or their mothers) from poverty.
Critical thinking alone should give one plenty of ideas about where, other than a holy book or religion, morality might come from. But until today, I haven't really thought about what the old testament would tell us about morality if we assume a priori that morality does come from God by way of two stone tablets or spoken word directions to the chosen people.
Of course, one can still argue that our innate sense of right and wrong is a divine gift, but if you are willing to accept that then you really couldn't attribute anyone's immoral behavior, as many people do, to not reading the appropriate biblical passage or attending the right church.
So, the question is, if we are innately moral (whether through divine intervention or as a result of living in a functional society) then what else do we have to learn from the qoran (or torah, or bible, etc) that we can't learn from each other?
PS. One of the problems with bible literalists is that they are easily persuaded to believe that homosexuality is a sin. There are a couple of passages in the bible that, pretty unambiguously say that man-on-man and woman-on-woman sexlove is not acceptable. But this can lead to a paradox involving the fifth commandment (about honoring mom and pop), from what I can tell. Because what happens when the gay man or woman is your mother or father? Has anyone ever asked these crazy protesters, who hold up signs that say "jesus hates fags" what he would do if he found out his father was gay?
Monday, March 10, 2008
the unexpected is funny
The comedy troupe "improv everywhere" is a genius. I just watched their newest 'episode': Food Court Musical and was very pleased. Of course, the downside is that to see them live you need to be at the right place at the right time.
USA! USA! USA!
The Colbert Report shows us what a little American innovation can lead to:
In all seriousness, the guys working at the Report are not only funny, but they've got some amazing editing skills. Check out that extra long pause they left in on the penultimate shot. That's gold!
In all seriousness, the guys working at the Report are not only funny, but they've got some amazing editing skills. Check out that extra long pause they left in on the penultimate shot. That's gold!
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Friday, November 16, 2007
Warning: this here post is extremely not safe for work (it's also very sophomoric)
Every once in a while I'm reminded of the type of art that used to make me laugh when I was a silly little teenager. So when I watch videos like the one I linked to here the smile you might see on my face is not a result of the silliness of the art's content, but a result of my fond memories of childhood.
I present to you, an honest to god song (in the form of a fan-made music video):
Smell Yo D**k
Foolproof way to find out if your man is cheating
I present to you, an honest to god song (in the form of a fan-made music video):
Smell Yo D**k
Foolproof way to find out if your man is cheating
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