Month: November 2015

Deport White Males, Says Not Me

This is a satire piece that I found recently. Usually I’m not one for satire. Hey, I’m sarcastic all the time: “wow all my friends are sooooo cool!” (it’s sarcastic because no friends…that’s how satire works, right?) If it’s a type of joke that everyone makes all the time, it doesn’t strike me as a fantastically good joke.

But sure, satire can be good if it’s done well. I’m not saying this is done well, but it is a funny idea to me. I like the funniness of it more than I like what it’s actually trying to say.

My main problem with satire is not that it’s an “easy” joke, but that it often comes with a political position or “cause.” For me humor is simpler than that. If you’re trying to do something or evoke something besides laughter, you’re over-thinking it. You’re just using humor as a tool. I think humor is good for humor’s sake. And to me, the best humor is humor alone and nothing more.

This piece does seem to be “trying to do more.” It quite sarcastically claims that, amidst all the terrorist hubbub, that white males are the really scary thing in this country: they’re the ones who have been shooting down all the schools. Funny, but I don’t like to read into it too much. Form your own opinion, I guess!

Mark Sundeen is an author and writer for Salon.

In A World On Netflix Is Great

Hey, have I plugged a movie yet? I don’t think so…fertile territory. Fertile ground? Fertile territory? Does anyone say that? I don’t care.

I’ve known this movie was around for a while, but did not get around to seeing it until recently. I loved it. I could see how someone might not love it, but I thought it was written well, wasn’t too slow, wasn’t too weird, and wasn’t too clever. It also had some real substance to it.

It also didn’t hurt that some of my favorite funny people are in the movie: Demetri Martin, Tig Notaro, and Nick Offerman. Lake Bell wrote, directed, and starred in the film and it won some award or something or other. That doesn’t matter. What matters is that it’s about voice over work, which I thought would be a silly concept for a movie before seeing it. And it is. But, it’s done well. And I thought parts were laugh-out-loud funny. That’s saying a lot coming from me.

I’d love to compare it to Amy Schumer’s movie soon and see what I think. Because this movie also has some cameos from celebrities and stuff like that, but never got quite the same hype. We shall see!

Check out In a World.

A Joke About OkCupid

I usually don’t post stuff like this, viral things that people already kind of know about. This is something I found on one of the front pages of Reddit. I know, I know. Anyone who wanted to see this saw it. It’s got like 500,000 views. However, sometimes viral stuff can also be good. I found the video entertaining, mostly, because Mike Bobrinskoy does something that I’ve done a lot of times, and that is to mess with people. He just takes it to the absolute extreme and has a great story from it.

Bobrinskoy reads out, for 10 minutes, a dialogue between him and a “girl” he met on OkCupid. What’s unique about this interaction is that it all reads like a joke. All of the writing in it, although I presume it happened real-time, is actually really funny.

I wanted to share it because it’s a crazy unique story and it inspires me to weird stuff on stage too. Bobrinskoy is a Chicago comic who has only been performing for about 5 years. He isn’t super experienced, but he has the ability to deliver this joke, and that’s pretty good. You can check out his website here. I like the small touch that his ex-girlfriend wrote his about page.

The Figure At The Door

I was inspired by This American Life’s Halloween episode And the Call was Coming from the Basement, a show that featured all “scary but true” stories, to write about a scary true story that happened to me. This is a story about being home alone with my siblings when I was maybe around 12 years old. My sister was around 14 and my brother, 10. At least, this is how I remember it. 

Continue reading “The Figure At The Door” →

W/ Bob & David Out On Netflix

A year or so back, a friend told me about Mr. Show with Bob and David – that I should check out some grainy Youtube recording of it. I had never heard of the thing, but I knew of David Cross from Arrested Development and Bob Odenkirk from Breaking Bad. I just thought they were actors and never knew they did sketch. I thought they were both fantastic and so the existence of a Mr. Show blew my mind!

I did start watching that grainy Youtube video and I couldn’t stop. I watched Mr. Show for hours and it was unlike any other sketch show I’d seen. I had fun. But I was also extremely amazed and excited that anyone else actually enjoyed what Bob and David were doing.

I’m glad they’re back with five Neflix original episodes, W/ Bob & David. Watch the trailer. Also, Mr.Show on Youtube is below. Have fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyZ9l8anS9I

 

 

The Meltdown With Jonah And Kumail Is Great

Do you want to know what it’s like to hang out in the back of a comic book store with all the best comedians in the world? That’s exactly what Meltdown is: a weird, almost fantastical place where comedians just come to hang out and shoot the shit. Oh, and tell hilarious jokes.

When I first heard of Meltdown, I was like, “Whoa, this is just like The Creek and the Cave, but, like, with really famous comedians.” The Creek and the Cave is a comedy club in Long Island City where I and a bunch of other fledgling comics hang out and talk in between sets and shows, but the somewhat huge difference is that none of us are quite famous yet. The comedians at Meltdown are doing the same thing, except it’s comedians who are on TV all the time, touring the country, and doing their own bigger and better things. But they like to come to Meltdown every week to hang out in the back room because, well, it’s fun.

It’s a hilarious concept for a comedy show: to have two hosts who take way too long on stage at the top, just messing around with the audience and riffing with one another. Like, way too long. And then they bring up all of their friends to do stand up after. Typically, an absolutely awful format for a show. But Jonah and Kumail do it so well and go on for so long that the actual length of their banter becomes funny.

The show is also especially cool for me, because my first show in New York was in a tiny, cramped comic book store. This one is much bigger and cooler. But, it’s totally the same in my mind.

You can watch the show on Comedy Central.

Comedy Central Presents: Zach Galifianakis, Then Vs. Now

You know that guy Zach Galifianakis from the hangover. You know him from his Splitsider top 20 comedy album of all time, Zach Galifianakis: Live at the Purple Onion. But, six years before that, in 2001, he was on Comedy Central Presents. And you can hear the difference.

Check out this recording of his 2001 special and compare to Live at the Purple Onion and who he is now. It’s some of the same material, but the character is even more extreme.

It’s fascinating to see how he grows and develops his delivery over those six years.

Shout out to a friend who suggested these videos!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUZRuKWJ3Uo

John Mulaney: The Comeback Kid Now Out On Netflix

This past Friday, John Mulaney’s new special, The Comeback Kid came out on Netflix. What makes it cool is that it’s kind of like a small theater film. I really loved the intro to the special. Without ruining too much, the special was shot in Chicago and there are a bunch of artsy clips. I donno: It worked. I’m from Chicago too. I thought it was classy. And there was a talking dog. That’s hard to do.

The stand up itself was good: I’ve heard some of the jokes before, but hey that happens. He closed on ten minutes about when he met Bill Clinton, which is a great joke. It’s also why he titled the special the way he did: you’ll see. I also think it’s sort of his comeback to stand up comedy after his television show was taken off the air.

If you’re like “whoa I need more convincing,” here’s an article about the special. Check it out on Netflix!

Birthday Jokes, It’s My Birthday Whatever

Today marks the 23rd anniversary of a day I remember nothing about. Why was it important? Who was there? Did anything cool happen? I doubt it.

So, I’m gonna share this Jim Gaffigan stuff about birthdays. Sorry for all the Gaffigan love lately, but hey. It’s THE birthday joke. Wait no, I’m not going to apologize! I do what I want! It’s my birthday!

Watch the video, it will make what I just wrote funny (maybe?).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At97qw6H7_s

The Worst Jim Gaffigan Ever Bombed

I remember my worst time quite, quite clearly. It was a five-minute set in the darkest, quietest room I’ve ever been in. It was horrible for me, and I don’t even mind bombing that much.

It’s refreshing to hear big time comics talk about their worst bombs, because it’s humanizing. They weren’t always awesome all the time.

Here’s a little video of Jim Gaffigan talking about his worst bomb, I believe was filmed right before he went on The Tonight Show. I actually don’t really consider his story a “bomb,” even though that’s how he sells it, since he saved it and the audience was fine. But hey, maybe Gaffigan never bombs.