FYI: Homosexual Savagery

Jason Jones did a great segment on a don't ask don't tell purporter. Though the topic is fairly obvious at this point. Obviously homosexuals should be able to fight in the military, thinking otherwise has zero reasons other than biggotry (yes, it is), but the guy in the interview has some really ridiculous claims about history and so the segment ends up fairly entertaining. Jones also does a good job of hitting the guy with some fairly obvious and damning questions-counterpoints.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Gay Reichs
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Canadian link.

You know what, I've heard gay people refer to themselves as savage before, but I think they meant it, well, in a gayer way. (Hey, David)

More savage than natural men.

Signs of Life

Wow, it's been a while. School is wrapping up quickly, with lots and lots of work to do, and I'm on the hunt for a job (if you know anyone looking for a wise-ass blogger send me an email), so I've been shitty with the blog.
I've collected a few things over the last bit that I thought I could post about but never got around to it. So how about I do just a quick rundown.

1. The Bechdel Test - I didn't need a test to tell me that Hollywood is male centric, but this test is a fairly damning and practical way to think about women in movies.
2. That South Park death threaten-er got arrested for being stupid in front of an FBI agent apparently. I hope some people greet him kindly when he gets to prison.
3. Um:Quick, someone get him some honey before he joins the new Avengers movie (perhaps a Mary Sue for Whedon ...)
4. Moreover:Darth Vader in a Wes Anderson flick.
   
5. And finally, though not directly related to humour, Glenn Beck hate is as good as chuckles around here so... go fuck yourself Beck.
   

Also, apparently Jon Stewart has a beard. Rub it in Stewart. Rub it in.

props Boing Boing for many of these list items.

Futurama on the Radio

Or well just Billy West, who is half of Futurama on his own really.

West appeared on Fresh Air this week and talked a little about how he created many of his Futurama voices. It's interesting to hear him talk about how he creates his voices, and how he thinks about voice acting. His explanations for Zoidburg and Zap are pretty funny, and I'm pretty impressed to learn that he does all the voices live when they record, so really sometimes he just sits with a mic in front of him and talk with himself.

Here's the link to stream or download.

Simpson Infographic

Seems like these infographics are all the rage nowadays. Here's one for the Simpsons. My take away: voice actors are pimps, especially Azaria, Shearer, and Castellaneta, and that Lisa isn't pulling her weight.

I'd love to see a Futurama one, but then it would only be Billy West.

via /Film

TT: Schmucks and Guns

So Steve Carell and Paul Rudd have teamed up for another comedy, this time Carell playing the supporting role. I don't know if this represents their respective careers, Rudd on the way up after a couple of well received flicks, and Carell on his way down after a series of poorly received films, but it looks like it puts both actors in back in their comfort zones. Rudd gets to play the nice and wise ass straight man and Carell gets to the be the clueless/harmless weirdo.

Dinner for Schmucks is apparently a remake of some Swedish film, which is based of some play. I know some of that information is wrong (particularly the Swedish part) but I can't find the correct information in the 3 minutes I was willing to look for it. The trailer makes the film look pretty funny if not emotionally/narratively predictable. Really though, Carell and Rudd are enough for me to buy in.

The second trailer does not inspire as much confidence in me as the first. It's for the generic sounding Operation: Endgame which stars a bunch of people, most notably Rob Corddry, Jeffrey Tambor, and Zach Galifianakis. It's also straight to DVD, which is usually a bad sign.

/Film talks about the possible reasons why, from mediocre movie to movie company politics. Whyever, it looks like something I'll try but won't be disappointed if it blows. I've embedded the red band trailer so it's NSFW, but here's the link to the green band trailer.

Corddry seems like the standout performance in this. To me, he's always had a mean streak in his comedy and so this sort of role, where he needs to actually seem dangerous, might be just the right opportunity for his particular brand of charisma.

On a final side note, did you notice Galifianakis is in both trailers, indeed is in 60% of comedy trailers nowadays. I think Galifianakis is a funny guy, but I think he's running the risk of over-exposing himself. Notice how people react to Michael Cera or Seth Rogen nowadays? We'll see.

My Elevator

Hey. I had to write a"scenerio" last week for one of my classes. Essentially the assignment was meant to help us explore imaginary users for devices we plan to re-engineer in terms of sound interaction. I wrote my "scenerio" with a certain lack of seriousness because a) I'm a bit (?) of a wanker and b) because I may be incapable of taking anything seriously.

Anyways, I think you might find at least one of my jokes funny if you actually enjoy reading my blog.

After the jump.

Now that's Comedy makes a Porno(?)

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The Force is Strong in these Directions

I'm a sucker for these stupid Star Wars GPS commercials. I laughed embarrassingly long at the first Darth Vader video (roundabound!) and this morning I saw a new Yoda video. I convinced myself before watching it that the first video was just a fluke and that I'd roll my eyes at this new video's lame pandering and become irritated as these videos continued to hit the YouTubes.

But I didn't. I laughed heartily at the pandering. Whatever, I can laugh if I want to.

A) He says roundabound!
B) I always loved the Yoda's first appearance in Empire, when he was a crazy hermit, and so this little video warmed the cockles of my laugh heart.

Dagobah!

The Bicycle Thief: William Shatner

I give a lot of love (love is the same as hate right?) to Star Wars here at Now that's Comedy, but Star Trek can be just as funny. I mean, had I been blogging at the time, I would have loved to post about Patrick Stewart's appearance on Extras, and William Shatner is always a source of amusement (how can you hate a man that embraces his own self as a self parody?).

But I digress, the point is this funny video with Nimoy and Shatner at some (possibly) 70's con wherein Nimoy attempts to prove, through anecdotal evidence, that Shatner is not a nice man.

I like when Shatner tries to bite Nimoy's ear. Or kiss it. Whatever he was planning on doing, I'm sure it was better for us all that he stopped.

Bam, first Star Trek tag.

Hot Tub Time Machine v. Casual Sexism

So, Hot Tub Time Machine. I first heard about this movie on /Film, when all that was knew about the film was the name of the film (and subsequently a little about what the film was about) and who was in it. The title alone had my interest, the shear absurdity of the main conceit tickled me, and the pedigree in terms of casting helped a lot. High Fidelity is a favourite for me, so I knew John Cusack could do comedy, Rob Corddry was always decent, if not charismatic, on the Daily Show, Craig Robinson gets some of the best jokes in The Daily Show, and Clarke Duke was great in the relatively unknown (web?) series Clark and Michael. Long sentence though it may be, I was pretty stoked for the movie.

Is stoked, a word, out of vogue? Is it just a stoner thing now? Sometimes I worry my vocabulary is full on lexical hipster-anachronisms. Full review/rant after the jump.