In the summer of 2007, an enormous spider web was found in East Texas. It caused scientist to ponder its existence and visitors to gasp at its profound beauty.
Ok, ok, Texas. I guess you can be pretty sweet at times. The idea of all these different species of spiders working together to make a football field sized web is a pretty good metaphor for what humans are incapable of doing. Humans are a little too enthnocentric and in need of borders. I can’t tell if the inability too see beyond one’s own tiny little made-up world is sheer laziness mixed with generally being dumb, or if it’s because there are people who have large monetary investments and therefore a great stake in keeping peoples’ worlds small — like if there were no borders defined then they would not be able to logistically maintain control and subsequently profit. How ironic that this happened in Texas, a place that I stereotypically think of as culturally intolerant and as a place where ignorance is virtually encouraged. You guys should thank those spiders for a little positive PR, Tejas. Suriously.
IFC and Nerve.com have compiled a list of the 50 best comedy sketches of all time. That’s a serious claim but granted, there are some chestnuts in there, like the State’s “$240 worth of pudding” sketch:
Seriously worth checking out the list if you’re having a bum day.
From The Hollywood Reporter, about the “criminal” finding an alibi confirmation via cutting room floor footage from the show Curb Your Enthusiasm, created by Larry David:
Catalan had been jailed as the primary suspect in the May 2003 killing of a 16-year-old girl. His alibi? He was attending a Dodger game with his 6-year-old daughter at the time of the murder. But because it couldn’t immediately be proven, Catalan remained locked up.
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“It just so happened we had a camera rolling with a wide-enough lens to have Catalan in the shot. But we didn’t shoot in very many sections that night. If we’d picked a different section, the man is still in jail.”
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“You know, I think Larry did enjoy this whole thing,” Weide maintains. “The fact that it was so clearly inadvertent is what’s most important to him. This didn’t implicate him as having directly helped someone.”
First of all, there is a website to combat liberal bias? Is that because Tracy Morgan is able to find the humor in the fact that this country isn’t as racism-free as it likes to think?
Meh whatever. The kinda of a-hole that needs to contribute to a site like that just promotes the fact that controlling the media is more important than the issues.
They warn their readers that the following quote from Tina Fey on SNL a few weeks earlier contains sacrilege:
And maybe what bothers me the most is that people say that Hillary is a bitch. And let me say something about that: yeah, she is, and so am I. And so is this one (pointing at Amy Poehler). And you know what, bitches get stuff done. That’s why Catholic schools use nuns as teachers and not priests. Those nuns are mean old clams, and they sleep on cots and are allowed to hit you. And at the end of the school year, you hated those bitches, but you knew the capital of Vermont. So, I’m saying it’s not too late Texas and Ohio. Get on board. Bitch is the new black!
Is that not conservative bias toward Jesus-y stuff? Or perhaps prejudice toward the truth leaking out through comedy? Anyway, professional comedians sometimes use an old literary chestnut called “hyperbole,” I’m sure non ALL nuns are psychos. Sorry if you don’t have a sense of humor or a world view based on real life, and don’t tell me “mean old clams” isn’t an awesome phrase.
I always love new blood at SNL. People generally don’t like cast member rotation but look at what Kristen Whig has brought to the table. That girl rocks.
But this guy, Donald Glover seems pretty good. Here’s a good one from his site:
Mike Myers and Deepak Chopra were on the Sundance Channel’s program Iconoclasts recently. It was basically a fusion/comparison of comedy and spirituality, which was pretty illuminating.
Here’s stuff Mike Myers said, or that he said other people said. I felt this was worth logging just because these types of utterances are such rare gems:
“Lenny Bruce defined comedy as pain plus time.”
“Rob Reiner said comedy is when you fall into a pit and are impaled by a spike, and tragedy is when I stub my toe.”
“Haha and a-ha! are related industries.”
“It’s like most comedians, I want to be the architect of my own embarrassment. I will slip on that banana peel, thank you very much. I will drop my pants to my ankles, thank you very much.”
Jerry Seinfeld on the Deiter character: “You’ve managed to break all the rules of American parody, you’ve parodied something that nobody knows”
“My hope for what I do is not quite like progressive rock and it’s not quite I’ve suffered for my art and now it’s your turn. But there is just a little bit like I would like to do comedy where it did not exist before.”
It is amazing to have this insider look at comedy. It’s very meta. I don’t know if Mike Meyers would be who he was if he had all this “behind the laughter / behind the music / the making of / DVD extras” type of stuff available to him while he was developing his art. Nowadays there’s a SHITload, including another one to checkout, History of the Joke hosted by Lewis Black.
When you are actually amidst the act of creation, I don’t think it’s possible or even beneficial to actually be thinking of any of those things. You have to just let that kind of stuff sink in by giving it time, but just empty your head of any of it when you are live.
David Letterman’s Worldwide Pants production company, which owns both Mr. Letterman’s CBS show and Craig Ferguson’s “Late Late Show” that airs after it, was able to craft an interim deal with the Writers Guild of America that allows its members to come back to work and write monologues and skits. “The Tonight Show” and “Late Night,” however, are owned by NBC, which means Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien are left to their own devices to fill time. (If you want to see for yourself, Defamer.com has posted video of each of the late night hosts’ monologues.)
Would it be shocking to say that, at least for now, Mr. Leno and Mr. O’Brien are more interesting to watch? David Letterman’s effort reminded me of the days when Norm McDonald used to imitate him on “Saturday Night Live” — right down to the odd peals of laughter that Mr. Letterman interjects after various remarks. In other words, it was almost as if Dave hadn’t been off for eight weeks. Oh, sure, Mr. Letterman’s opening monologue made reference to the bushy beard he has been growing since the WGA went on strike Nov. 5, but much of the rest of the material fell flat — especially a Top 10 list that relied on complaints from striking writers.
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The “without a net” feeling was what set Mr. Leno and Mr O’Brien apart…
Conan was definitely trying to kill time last night, but it was pretty funny watching him try to do that.
As part of a company-wide green initiative, Jack has come up with the idea of creating a green mascot for NBC.
This episode has Al Gore and David Shwimmer, who is sort of annoying. When Alec Baldwin’s character admit’s that Greenzo is the first name that came out of his head, why do I feel like that’s the first thing that actually came out of Alec Baldwin’s head? So many great great lines by Tracy Morgan — “People are like Lemmings, Harvey Lemmings, my lawyer.”
There is so much cool art out there by so many unknown underground snarling sparkling artists, I keep this thing as a sort of inspiration diary of all the amazing creative noise going on off the mainstream. Visit my artfolio at http://rishisatsangi.com.
