Soul Plane 2: The Blackjacking!

Rewatching the The Boondocks while rereading the comic strip has reminded us of this hilarious film trailer. The fictional film, Soul Plane 2: The Blackjacking! combines some of the best elements of the comic strip's relentless criticism of black movies and TV of the 1990s and early 2000s with the more extreme and uncensored satire of the TV show. One can see how Aaron McGruder was able to show how completely absurd and over the top UPN, BET, and the infamous black movies of the late 1990s and early 2000s really were. 

Peep Show Laugh Track

 

If you ever wanted to know what Peep Show with a laugh track would be like, this Channel 4 Charity Comedy Gala clip is a good example. While it is always fun to see Jeremy and Mark doing mundane things together (which they do in the show, sometimes eating at restaurants like the Indian one where Jeremy requested 4 naan) or going to a pub, this clip captures our duo at their best. The clip here is quintessentially Peep Show but I think we're all glad that the show did not  use a laugh track...

Revisiting Peep Show

 

We found this recent 20th anniversary special on Peep Show quite hilarious and interesting. They even brought into the actresses who played Dobby and Nancy! It was fascinating to hear about the writing process and how the writers and central cast perceived the show, its development over time, and what worked well about the show. Like they admit, the show had to end because Jez and Mark were no longer young men. It probably also helped that each season only consisted of 6 episodes. That meant that by the end of the 9th season, one could not get tired of the show. Alas, any American adaptation of Peep Show would probably ruin everything that worked so well...

The Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy

Douglas Adams is one of those interesting science fiction writers I've only recently come to know. Despite listening to a few episodes of the radio series and watching some of the 1980s TV series, Adams and his approach to science fiction comedy was mostly unknown. However, after reading the first in the trilogy of five novels and nearly done with the second book, one can see his appeal. Adams is a master of absurd and, to me at least, deliberately somewhat poor writing for the absurdist universe he crafted. The second novel, Restaurant At the End of the Universe, excels with its existential and time travel humor. Highly recommend.

Carlin on Charlie Rose

Enjoy an interesting and too brief interview from 1996. George Carlin is one of American comedy's greats, and here he articulates some rather fascinating influences and how his comedy shifted in the 1990s and 2000s. While one may take issue with his detachment from the outcome of our current 'experiment,' Carlin's probably right in how he traces the roots of comedians and attests to their importance.

Peep Show

The stars and some of the writers of Peep Show discuss the show, the writing process, stories, and more. Peep Show is my favorite British comedy series, perhaps because of the socially awkward and post-university settings of the two flatmates, the travails of urban life and masculinity in turbulent times. Much like Community and Fresh Meat, two comedies that helped define my university life, Peep Show was the perfect comedic accompaniment to life for those in their 20s or early 30s. I will sorely miss this program. 

Our Man in Havana

Graham Greene's hilarious Our Man in Havana is both more humorous and entertaining read than The Comedians, but doesn't exploit the Cuban setting as effectively Port-au-Prince in the other famous novel. Maybe it reflects my own greater familiarity with Port-au-Prince than Havana, a city I have never visited, but Havana does not come to life as easily here as Port-au-Prince and Duvalierville in Comedians. Sure, the famous nightclubs, the Paseo, and Havana's whorehouses and gambling dens (and the many pimps, bootblacks, and crooked cops) are key to the story, with the Batista regime tumbling, yet something was amiss here. That said, Greene's novel manages to fuse comedy with prescient visions of the importance of Cuba in the Cold War and the imminent Cuban Revolution, and all through a tale of sheer absurdity poking fun at the British Secret Service! Anyone who romanticizes pre-Castro Cuba should read this entertaining novel just for an idea of the volatile period of Batista or the institutionalization of Havana's existence as entertainment for tourists. Oh, and Captain Segura ain't got nothing on the macoutes of Duvalierist Haiti. 

A Portrait of the 'Typical' Madisonian

The following is a short satirical piece written in honor of my time in Madison. The caricature of the typical Madisonian, Leaf, is based on several people I encountered and knew too well. Enjoy!

"Hi, my name is Leaf. I am a vegan whose favorite meal is bean soup with bay leaves, kale chips, and quinoa. I only shop at the food co-op for obvious reasons. My preferred gender pronoun is they, and while I can excuse racism, I draw the line at animal cruelty. My hobbies include biking, camping, and brewing kombucha. On Friday nights I enjoy discussing institutional racism in a whites-only party while drinking PBR. Oh, and the only music I listen to is stuff so underground you probably haven't heard it yet."

Other Space

"Be a buddy, not a bully."

For fans of Community, The Office and Red Dwarf, Other Space is like a dream come true. Paul Feig's show possesses the sci-fi comic genius of shows like Red Dwarf with the meta-ness of Community for a strong, albeit short, first season. The show is so wacky and full of potential, from James Franco's little brother parodying a certain famous actor to a coffee machine leading a robot coup, there is something for everyone. Unfortunately, an 8-episode run is not the most conducive for character development, so relationships are a little rushed instead of the usual sitcom approach of longer story arcs. There are creative ways in which the show's writers manage to get around this issue, however, with the aid of science fiction tropes. Definitely worth watching for any fans of Feig or science fiction comedy, so check it out on Yahoo Screen.

Bill Cosby's Fatherhood

Finally got around to perusing Cosby's Fatherhood. In many ways one can see how The Cosby Show follows many of Cosby's ideas of how the 'modern father' should raise his children. Indeed, Cosby's model of fatherhood is similar to 'traditional' narratives in some ways, but is far more engaged in criticism of misogynistic and outdated gender norms. Indeed, Poussaint, the Haitian-American psychiatrist and friend of Cosby who contributed to the hit sitcom (Haitians really do have a tendency of showing up where you don't expect them) also shares Cosby's take on how 'traditional' roles of fatherhood often led to emotional distance from children. Poussaint, who grew up in East Harlem in an apparently working-class family, regretted never being close to his father until the latter was on his deathbed, something Poussaint attributes to traditional models of father-child relationships. Cosby and Poussaint believe fathers should show emotional bonds and reveal more of themselves to their children, something I agree with, as would most people today, I think. Cosby wants such an open relationship with his children that he would want all fathers to be able to discuss puberty and sex with their teenage progeny, as well as have an engaged father during the pregnancy and infancy periods. 

While I can agree with much of Cosby's take on how fathers should interact with their children from the cradle to college (especially the critique of sexist gender roles where mothers are supposed to do all the child rearing on their own, cook, clean, something that came up in The Cosby Show via Alvin, Sondra's misogynistic boyfriend/husband of Caribbean descent), and I enjoyed the accessible and humorous writing style, it was a little too 'wholesome' and cared too much about assuaging whites and the status quo. Cosby actually praises Thomas Jefferson, uses almost only white American and European references (besides some talk of jazz and how all fathers hate the music their children like). Oh well, that is to be expected. For a black comedian of Cosby's era to become popular and retain that crossover acceptableness to whites, he has to cater to mainstream notions of "America" and popular culture to a certain degree (though he did celebrate black culture through art and music in the sitcom). Furthermore, Poussaint's introduction to the text spouts some stereotypical nonsense about how absentee fathers are to blame for child poverty. I am sure Poussaint recognizes the nuances of child poverty in America, but it sounded uncomfortably similar to his and Cosby's more recent work on blaming the black poor for their own condition. Regardless, Poussaint's introduction struck me as classist and perhaps a chastisement of poor blacks in particular, though single-mother households are increasingly common across race lines.

A liberal muslim homosexual ACLU lawyer professor and abortion doctor

I first heard about this last week, but only read the actual story online last night at a friend's house. Everything about it is funny, and its an excellent parody of conservatives in this country. Smirking "Jewishly" is one of the highlights.

http://toosiblog.tumblr.com/post/12856396341/a-liberal-muslim-homosexual-aclu-lawyer-professor