The time warp has flipped and landed The Rocky Horror Picture Show at its 35th anniversary. Marking three and a half decades as the premier cult classic, the “sweet transvestites from Transsexual, Transylvania” are celebrating by invading your homes. Comic-Con 2010 brought the announcement that Glee would be doing a RHPS episode (which is set to air on Oct 26th), and now it has been confirmed that Dr. Frank-N-Furter & Co. will also be taking over your games console with a Guitar Hero track pack.
Consider it Conversation Starting 101. To get a group’s attention you need to know three things: what does everyone like, what do some members of the group like, what do some members of the group dislike. And then make some wild claim as though it were fact. For example: You see a bunch of 20-year-old dudes sitting around a coffee shop table. They are all wearing hoodies, jeans and sneakers. Most of them sport facial hair or at least attempts (deliberate or otherwise) at facial hair. It’s safe to assume that these guys have opinions about Star Wars.
I mean, maybe they aren’t hardcore nerds, but even if they say “it sucks” or “the prequels suck” or “Empire is better than Jedi” then you know that they’ll have a conversation for at least ten minutes. It’s just a fact – a fact because Star Wars is a cultural touchstone. Ten minute debate, easy. If you really want to stir the pot, then you pull Conversation Starting 102 and say, “Y’know, when you think about it… Hayden Christensen was the perfect choice to play young Anakin.” Suddenly ten minutes become an hour.
In a depressingly pointless attempt to integrate the two activities occupying most of my time these days – Politico and Hulu (yes, I’ve excluded pin-up sites and pornography) – I’ve created a crib sheet for the political sympathies of the characters on The Office. Reflecting on the exercise, I am not only ashamed at how unnecessarily nuanced the analysis is, but also extremely disheartened that I actually spent a good hour designing a ven diagram representing Andy’s politicial socialization at Cornell.
On October 14th, CSI creator Anthony E. Zuiker will unleash a new Level 26 serial killer. Picking up where his first digi-novel*, Dark Origins, left off, Dark Prophecy follows Special Circs investigator Steve Dark, who this time finds his destiny entwined with that of the Tarot Card Killer.
In the run up to the book’s release, the SuicideGirls community has been invited to participate in a very special mystery. Follow the clues (pictured), and visit this link, and fate may lead you to what Zuiker promises will be “some kind of cool surprise.”
“Eventually I’ll have to do something so I earn some money.”
– David Cross
David Cross is so deadpan, you might not even be able to tell he’s joking. Certainly when you type his text out and read it, it feels totally straight. That’s why it’s funny. He says things that are inappropriate or ridiculous in casual conversation, then moves on. It’s not that he’s “on” like a lot of comedians who aren’t comfortable unless someone’s laughing. Cross might prefer if you didn’t get it and reported a sarcastic remark as fact. Not so fast, David Cross – we’re onto you.
His new show, The Incredibly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, gives Cross another vehicle for that type of humor. The IFC series stars Cross in the title role. He created and wrote the show about an energy drink salesman sent to England to head up the company’s U.K. sales force. Todd keeps lying about his accomplishments, his abilities and even his home address. It makes his bad decisions worse when he tries to cover for his fibs. [..]
“I have a knack for penises,” isn’t the kind of confession you’d expect from a memoir penned by Samantha Bee, The Daily Show’s Most Senior Correspondent. But then I Know I Am, But What Are You? isn’t the kind of book you’d expect her to write. Leaving politics and talk of Jon Stewart & Co. mostly to one side, the collection of humorous essays sheds light on Samantha’s unconventional upbringing, which in turn sheds light on why her recipe for success includes a hearty helping of sexually explicit material – ergo her theory that “we need to bring more of a porn sensibility to our financial regulatory mechanisms” (see April 27, 2010 Sex-curities XXXchange Cumission report).
As most of you probably know, Greg Giraldo passed away yesterday. He was, far and away, one of the best comedians. Every time I saw him perform, whether on television or live, I was always surprised at how smart and incisive his comedy was. The dude knew how to have a take on a subject and how to crack that thing for every morsel. I would actually go as far as to say he was the smartest comedian working today. He tackled subjects intelligently, which is hard to do. You’ll often see comics take on subjects that require intelligence to master, only for them to end it with a dick joke. Giraldo managed to get to the core of most subjects in a hilarious and meaningful way. And he seemed to lose nothing when doing a set on television. That’s a very difficult thing to do.
