Radio Spiritworld (Inter-dimensional) is the only station broadcasting from the afterlife into the living world. Well, actually it's a half an hour of wonderfully inventive audio-comedy from Peter Serafinowicz and Robert Popper, writers and creators of Look Around You, who between them have worked on or appeared in all the recent British comedies you love.
[iTunes download link]
posted by Kattullus
on Dec 31, 2010 -
12 comments
So what does the question "Why don't you believe in God?" really mean. I think when someone asks that they are really questioning their own belief. In a way they are asking "what makes you so special? How come you weren't brainwashed with the rest of us?" Ricky Gervais explains
why he's an atheist.
posted by swift
on Dec 20, 2010 -
309 comments
After a viral pandemic struck the world a few years ago, scientists had to scramble to stop the spread of the virus but they could do nothing for those who had already been infected. Now those who were exposed face their biggest challenge yet....
High School. [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue
on Dec 2, 2010 -
10 comments
Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon on the set of their new show,
The Trip. An interesting article on the relationship between the two characters on screen and in real life.
[more inside]
posted by Stark
on Oct 27, 2010 -
22 comments
Monica Potts on Louis CK and privilege: "For the most part, people of color are the ones who initiate serious discussions about race and privilege in the public sphere -- and in the world of comedy ... Some white comedians, like Sarah Silverman, tend to joke
about racism, making fun of white people and their ignorance in ways that shock and offend. ... But Louis' comedy is about being a white man -- and about how others view white men. He doesn't accept ignorance as a point of view. Moreover, this isn't the occasional stand-up bit; a significant number of his jokes are about race, class, and gender."
[more inside]
posted by l33tpolicywonk
on Oct 15, 2010 -
75 comments
As mentioned
previously, Toronto's mayoral candidates are almost farcical, with the most boring candidate caught in a
sex scandal, another candidate who has the world's worst case of
foot in mouth disease, and another who thought that presenting himself as a
Mafia Don was a good idea. Thankfully, there's still
Steve Murray. Because Toronto deserves
something. If only he hadn't missed the registration deadline.
[more inside]
posted by krunk
on Sep 30, 2010 -
16 comments
Jenny Hagel has a three part YouTube series about "a dumpy women's studies professor [who] transforms herself into a ghetto fabulous rap star to convince people to care about feminism. When she's finished rapping...they still don't care." Parts
1,
2 and
3.
posted by Kattullus
on Sep 29, 2010 -
33 comments
In the wake of increasingly prominent appearances by South Asians in American television (Mindy Kaling, Aziz Ansari, Danny Pudi), NBC has launched
Outsourced (
preview) (
full pilot on Hulu), a comedy about an American who moves to Mumbai to manage a call center. Featuring a mostly South Asian cast, the show is a potential high-water mark for Indians in popular American media. But is the show's portrayal of Indians progressive, or does it get bogged down in stereotypes and clichéd jokes about spicy food and funny names? Himanshu Suri of art rap trio Das Racist
weighs in.
[more inside]
posted by naju
on Sep 24, 2010 -
89 comments
Don’t just touch Paul Bellini – tattoo him on your arm! That kooky writer from
The Kids in the Hall, Paul Bellini (NSFW
blog), developed cult infamy as a result of recurring appearances on that show wearing next to nothing but a bath towel. Who indeed can forget the subsequent
Touch Paul Bellini contest, in which one Rebecca Klatka of St. Petersburg won the right to do just that? (
Video proof. Inevitable
Facebook group.) A decade and a half later, Eric Cedrone of Buffalo takes the prize for Most Dedicated Fan of Man in Towel with his arm tattoo of Bellini in said towel, voided area used to advantage.
posted by joeclark
on Sep 16, 2010 -
28 comments
Victor Borge (
previously,
gtwo but not fivegoteleven) was well known five his
"inflationary language" routine. The fivemula: number sounds in ordinary language are "inflnined" to the next-highest numbers -- "twoderful" becomes "threederful," "threelips" become "fourlips," "fivefathers" become "sixfathers," and so on.
Here is a twoderful web toy that will inflnine arbitrary text, or inflnine the language of any website.
An example, using a story Borge crenined five this purpose.
[more inside]
posted by grobstein
on Sep 2, 2010 -
24 comments
Can a stand-up comedian's performance be objectively evaluated and ranked? In the recent documentary
I Am Comic [imdb | clips],
Steve Roye demonstrates his product, the
Comedy Evaluator Pro. A "Positive Audience Response" (PAR) score is the percentage of PAR during the time the comedian is on the stage (not taking into account other factors such as venue size, etc.). Of course, this method
stirs controversy about the art vs. science of stand-up.
Ritch Shydner, the protagonist of
I Am Comic, thinks that
booking agents shouldn't rely on PAR scores to choose who gets to be on stage, while the director of
I Am Comic, Jordan Brady, disagrees, seeing
PAR as a way to elevate the quality of stand-up. So, drum roll, please:
Who is the world's funniest comedian? According to PAR score, it's
J.R. Redwater, during this bit at the Pow Wow Comedy Jam. [agree | disagree]
posted by not_on_display
on Aug 19, 2010 -
112 comments
Am I supposed to be laughing or taking notes? Comic Charles Fleischer, who played Carvelli on
Welcome Back, Kotter and voiced Roger Rabbit, gives
a Ted talk which degenerates into what appears to be a dissertation about the number 37 and its relationship to string theory, delivered in a rapidly shifting sequence of accents; watch the audience get more and more uncomfortable as they try to figure out whether they're watching a stand-up routine, a Kaufmannesque prank, or a guy going crazy right before their eyes. TED should have known what they were getting; Fleischer has been performing some form of this routine
for decades. (Warning: numbered suit.)
Transcript of the routine. Fleischer's strange myspace page. (Warning: strange music/talking on click which I can't figure out how to turn off.)
posted by escabeche
on Aug 12, 2010 -
17 comments
"
The TV Wheel was a television experiment created by and starring
Joel Hodgson, of
Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame. Cable network HBO ordered a pilot, but ultimately passed on picking up the show. The pilot episode eventually aired once on Comedy Central as a special presentation following the last new episode of MST3K to be broadcast on that network."
*
The pilot, bookended by introduction segments, is right through this door:
[more inside]
posted by item
on Aug 11, 2010 -
41 comments
