There are just so many reasons to love Sir Patrick Stewart.
He gets into the Halloween spirit, for one.
Posted in comics, Fame Day, film, games, internet, television, video games
Tagged Amnesty International, Combat Stress, Comic-Con, Comicpalooze, Doctor Who, domestic abuse, Fame Day, feminism, Hamlet, Harry Potter, Ian McKellan, Jean Luc Picard, Lord of the Rings, Men, Patrick Stewart, Professor Xavier, Refuge, respect, Ring the Bell campaign, sexism, Star Trek, Star Wars, Stargate, television, video games, Violence, women, X-Men, YouTube
GORDON: We have been graced, dearly beloved, by a topic recommendation from our ever-faithful reader Ben, who asked that we “address the absurd and current culture’s take on reality.”
To which I say, “pink octopus comb.”
And apparently, that’s a real thing, and not just some facetious absurd phrase I made up…
EVAN: To be a tad more specific, the way our culture presents that reality via television, which is something that I very definitely have opinions about. I have opinions about television, everyone.
GORDON: He really does. You should ask him about them. Continue reading
Posted in bizarreness, cartoons, Comedy, Culture War Correspondence, media, television
Tagged 30 Rock, absurd, absurdism, absurdist, absurdity, cartoons, Community, Culture, Culture War Correspondence, Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, escapism, Family Guy, funny, live-action, reality, sitcoms, television, The Office, The Simpsons, TV
When I was growing up in Syria, we had two channels. One was the state-run propaganda channel, the other was the same channel, but with slightly less static. When my family did make an infrequent trip out of the country, the first thing on my agenda (after ratcheting up the AC to somewhere between “high” and “arctic gale”) was to plop down at the end of the bed and flip on the TV to see if they had Discovery or National Geographic or- best of all- The History Channel.
Of course, this was back before.
[Editor’s Note: Since 2009 The History Channel has gone by the one-word name “History.” Gordon will continue to refer to it by its original name for old times’ sake]
Now when I covered webcomic Sinfest for a Shame Day, I directly addressed the comic’s creator, Tatsuya Ishida, in the off-chance that he might stumble across what I had written. While I don’t think (1) anyone from the History channel is going to come across this post or (2) give a flying **** about it if they did, talking straight to the source came pretty naturally, so I’m going to be employing the same technique again. Continue reading
Posted in bizarreness, education, media, television
Tagged after armageddon, aliens, Amazon, Ancient Aliens, ax men, conspiracy, countdown to apocalypse, discovery, downton abbey, educational, founding fathers, Ghengis Khan, Hell on Wheels, history, History Channel, ice road truckers, joan of arc, life after people, Lisa Simpson, logic, logical fallacy, Mad Men, Mayans, meme, National Geographic, pawn stars, period drama, Ragnar Lodbrok, reason, sensationalism, seven signs of the apocalypse, swamp people, The Dark Ages, the History channel, theory, tiger repelling rock, vikings
First thing’s first, I had every expectation that this episode was going to be super duper racist. It was not, but I’ll get to that in a bit because of how much of a big deal my second point is: Dang, this one lady could not get a enough of the jokes this week. She had one of those high-pitched shrieky laughs, too; it was nearly impossible to block her out and concentrate on the actual episode itself.
Now, if you type “2 broke girls racist” into Google you get 4,310,000 results. That speaks for itself, really. My review of the third episode of this season even received a few comments from an honest-to-goodness Polish person who wanted to assert that they do not believe that cats are the reincarnated souls of people who die outside. To be perfectly fair things were far worse in the first season concerning Han in particular. That being said, racist jokes on this show used to be a problem. They still are, but they used to be, too. Continue reading
Posted in Comedy, internet, race, review, writing
Tagged 2 Broke Girls, Ally Maki, And the Girlfriend Experience, Beth Behrs, Caroline, CBS, cheesecake, Chloe, Current Total, Earl, fake girlfriend, fan service, fandom, funny, Han, Han's mom, Jennifer Coolidge, June, Karen Maruyama, Kat Dennings, Korean, Korean Beauty June Kim AKA Sapphire, Matthew Moy, Max, new jammies, Oleg, physical humour, prostitute, racist, review, S3E7, Sapphire, ship, Sophie, Su-Min, television, Tumblr, TV
Recently, my roommate has introduced me to an Australian series by the name of Danger 5, a parody show mocking the camp and melodrama of 1960s spy and WWII shows.
I’m usually not a fan of the saying “it’s so bad it’s good,” but there’s really no denying that Danger 5 captures the aesthetic (or lack thereof) of the genre it’s mocking perfectly. Heck, I’d put money down that if you were to slip in an episode of Danger 5 in with Hogan’s Heroes, Mission: Impossible (yeah, it was a show first), and Matt Helm you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
Like those shows, Danger 5 follows a pretty set formula. The international band of agents are briefed on some new ploy by the Axis to achieve world domination (such as using dinosaurs to invade Holland- I kid you not) and are ordered to infiltrate the Nazi headquarters and sabotage their diabolical plot.
…”and, as always, kill Hitler!” Continue reading
Posted in film, morality, news, television
Tagged 60s, art, Axis, banality of evil, bbc, cartoon, cartoonish, cartoonized, cemetary, Danger 5, depiction, der untergang, Dr. Mengele, film, gestapo, GIF, Hilter, history, Hitler, Holocaust, Indiana Jones, Josef Mengele, Leopold II, Mengele, Napoleon, nazi, nazi germany, nazis, Nazism, Pol Pot, propaganda, show, Spy, Stalin, video, Violence, WWII
“There is nothing new in art except talent,” words by Anton Chekhov that I was forced to look up because I’ve already cited Ecclesiastes in a prior post. They’re also words that I feel forced to grasp firmly on to as I’m faced with the deluge of television spin-offs soon to flood your televisions and my laptop with more and more of the same. With that being the worst case scenario, of course.
That being said, I’m going to try my best to take the stance I typically take on these sorts of things, which is that ultimately execution trumps everything else. Chances are that you wouldn’t have thought that a movie about a guy with his arm trapped under a rock would be able to hold your attention, but 127 Hours is great. The premise of a work of art does not damn it, though it certainly colours how audiences choose to approach and experience that work. Continue reading
Posted in bizarreness, media, money, television, writing, zombies
Tagged ABC, AMC, better call saul, Breaking Bad, CBS, Gil Thorpe, How I Met Your Father, How I Met Your Mother, Modern Family, popular, premise, saul goodman, spin-off, spinoff, stuff, Ted, television, The Walking Dead, things, TV
 | Evan on What is the Meaning of “… |
| How to Write and Pub… on Why Does the Billionaire Roman… | |
 | superevilmrevil on What is the Meaning of “… |
| Evan on The “One Size Fits All… |
 | Phi on The “One Size Fits All… |
Culture War Reporters 