“I could bring lunacy and craziness…”
– John Hodgman
My father-in-laws cookies arent as dry as John Hodgmans wit. Currently Hodgman is best known as the bespectacled correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and as the PC to Justin Long’s Mac in a recent series of Apple commercials. But before his television work, Hodgman enjoyed a career as a well respected print humorist for publications like New York Times Magazine and McSweeney’s –a stint which culminated in the hysterical book of lies, The Areas of My Expertise. Hodgman is also a contributor to This American Life, a radio show played nationally. This American Life has now collected some of their best segments onto a CD called This American Life: Stories Of Hope And Fear.
“I’m allergic to a certain level of contrivance.”
– Larry Charles
When the Borat movie was released last year you couldnt even count the number of publicity appearances that Sacha Baron Cohen made in character. Those appearances, along with creating a hysterical and powerful movie, turned Borat into a monstrous hit and a cultural phenomenon that crossed all lines of gender, race and politics.
Much of the attention for the film was given, and rightly so, went to Cohen, but for most movies the director is always an essential element. Borat‘s director is Larry Charles, previously best known for his writer/producer work on Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage. Charles also directed another mop topped Jew named Bob Dylan in Masked and Anonymous. I got a chance to talk with Charles about creating the movie, the politics behind the scenes and how he got those people to say such outrageous things.
“All of us want to offend every single person.”
– Cherry Chevapravatdumrong
You may not recognize or be able to pronounce the name Cherry Chevapravatdumrong but over the next few years she will become one of your favorite writers. Already a valued member of the Family Guy writing staff Chevapravatdumrong has written some of my favorite recent episodes such as “Sibling Rivalry” where Lois decides to gain a lot of weight and “Prick Up Your Ears” which has a Christian group take over sex education class at James Woods High School. Chevapravatdumrong has teamed up with SuicideGirls favorite Alex Borstein to write the new Family Guy book, It takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One, which is the companion book to the upcoming episode where Lois becomes mayor of Quahog.
The Wolfpack is back and in perfect form as The Hangover Part II opens in theaters and brings with it a sequel that rivals the original.
After a nearly half a billion dollar first film, director Todd Phillips brought the heat to amp up the energy for a second feature following Phil, Stu, Alan and Doug, this time as they travel to Thailand for a wedding. It’s Dr. Stu Price (well he’s really just a dentist) taking his vows this time, but he’s bringing his nearest and dearest to his fiancée’s homeland for the ceremony.
The other day I came across a picture which had the caption: “OMG, I love macaroni so much. I’m such a nerd.” This irked me to the very core of my being. Your quaint quirks don’t make you a nerd. Going to see a comic-based movie doesn’t make you a nerd.
Jeff Foxworthy has his famous You Might Be A Redneck If… sketch, and with the rising mainstream popularity of geek culture, there comes a necessity to distinguish true nerds from recent converts, so I thought I’d come up with a similarly styled list of rules to help separate the fo’ realz from the wannabes.
Now, many other lists say that nerds must wear glasses (preferably with tape around the bridge), speak Klingon (binary, C++, or some other geeky language), and have all the social graces of an ostrich with its head in the sand, but these should not be the required defining hallmarks of a great, eclectic group of hardcore fans of all things geek: video games, science, science fiction, comics, etc.
We are more than the negative stereotypes that have often been levied against us. So without further ado, I present my homage to Foxworthy and true geekdom, You Might be a Nerd if…
“SNL? You still watch that? SNL hasn’t been funny since Farley and Sandler left….Dude have you listened to the Verve yet?”
– My older brother, 1997.
“SNL? You still watch that? Even you admit SNL hasn’t been funny since Ferrell left…..Dude, start watching LOST. I have no idea how they’re going to end this thing, but it’s going to be awesome.”
– My best friend from high school, 2004.
“SNL? You still watch that? SNL hasn’t been funny since Fallon and Fey left….No, Matt, I’m not going to disconnect the Wii so we can play Mario Kart on Super Nintendo. You’re 26, not 80. What the hell is a Genesis?”
– My younger, ignorant sister, 2011.
As roughly 30,000 hours of DVD box sets and VH1 retrospectives can attest, Saturday Night Live occupies a truly unique space in the American comedic landscape. Since the show debuted in 1975 with John Belushi offering to boil wolverines, SNL has served as a generational touchstone with a comedic staying power unlike anything else of its kind.
