Category Archives: Comedy

Fame Day: Seth Rogen, Alzheimer’s Disease Activist

sethrogenalzheimersdiseaseactivist

“America whispers the word Alzheimer’s because their government whispers the word Alzheimer’s, and although a whisper is better than the silence that the Alzheimer’s community has been facing for decades it’s still not enough.”

Those make up some of the closing remarks from a man who starred opposite James Franco in a hilarious parody of Kanye West’s “Bound 2” music video. An actor who portrayed a disgruntled barista whose get-rich-quick idea scheme was to create the adult film Swallow My Cockuccino. He’s the one responsible for co-writing a film that starred Jonah Hill being anally violated by a demon [spoilers for This Is The End, my bad].

Seth Rogen is all of those things, but he is also an Alzheimer’s disease activist. Continue reading

Farmed and Dangerous, S1E2 “Passing the Buck”: A Web Show Review

passingthebuck

“-a satire about industrial agriculture. Making fun of serious issues is destructive and hurtful; ask any fat kid. Not to mention that making people laugh around food can cause choking. Perhaps the people behind Farmed and Dangerous could have taken the high road and tried a more appropriate genre, like horror.”

And so the second episode of Farmed and Dangerous begins, with yet another 30-second warning from Ray Wise’s Buck Marshall. With such a short series this marks the halfway point, and I fully expected there to be a ramping up of the stakes. I suppose this does happen, given the episode’s events, but I think the reason they didn’t feel raised is because they decided on comedy. Continue reading

2 Broke Girls, S3E17 “And the Married Man Sleepover”: A TV Review

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I’m gonna be upfront with this review, the basic plot of this episode is a complete mess. There are too many threads that are technically connected to the main storyline but ultimately feel disjointed or are completely lost. All that being said, I’m going to sum up what happens in the next paragraph and then focus on two particular issues that were dealt with Monday night on CBS, from 8:30 to 9:00.

Essentially Caroline doesn’t want to have anything to do with Chef Nicolas, but he tells her that he and his wife have an open relationship. She and Max get their hair done, and then a Skype call with the wife confirms that she’s good to bang the Frenchman if she’d like. Caroline decides to go to dinner to turn him down, doesn’t, sleeps over, doesn’t sleep with him. The end. Continue reading

Fame Day: Kroll Show

goodjobkrollI’ve just started watching Kroll Show (named for its star and creator, comedian Nick Kroll) recently but it’s already risen to the top of my list in terms of TV- so much so that I’ll be taking this Fame Day to recommend it to you.

Now in concept alone, Kroll Show isn’t anything new. Each episode is comprised of skits (interspersed lightly with commentary from Kroll and his comic co-stars) riffing on television, with reality TV taking the brunt of the riffs. You’ve probably seen this done before in less successful enterprises or recognize it as roughly 50-85% of all Seth McFarlane jokes.

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Farmed and Dangerous, S1E1 “Oiling the Food Chain”: A Web Show Review

Farmed&Dangerous

The first episode of Farmed and Dangerous begins not when the twenty minutes start counting down, but in a way that works exclusively because of the format. As a Hulu-exclusive show it of course kicks off with a 30 second commercial, but this one features antagonist Buck Marshall, who tells us that “surely there’s something better to watch on Hulu. Avoid Food Inc., though. More hippie propaganda.”

It’s a delightful introduction to the show as a whole, and establishes the smarmy villainous businessman persona that Ray Wise’s character is going to be embodying throughout.  Continue reading

Fame Day: Chipotle’s Farmed and Dangerous

I am a man who likes a number of different things, but high up among them are food and environmentalism. When it comes to the latter my immersion into all things animal-related at a young age [Kratts’ Creatures, anyone?] made me care deeply about their habitats, and that extends to this day. As far as food goes it’s something that has kept me alive for the past 23 years. Big ups to food.

Just last December I ate at Chipotle for the first time. While I was extremely unimpressed by my burrito assembler’s assertion that the medium salsa was “pretty spicy”, everything else was great. A good quantity of good quality Mexican food at a reasonable price, plus great chips- what’s not to like? Or, I guess I should be asking, what more is there to like?

goodjobchipotle

How about a Hulu-exclusive show that lauds sustainable agriculture and humane treatment of food animals with one hand while damning the modern world of industrial agriculture with the other?

Continue reading