Timmy Loves Julie
Timmy and Julie are married. They are not having kids. They have a tumblr instead.
-
Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #141, September 1971, cover by Jack Kirby and Neal Adams
(Source: comicbookcovers)
-
Link reblogged from Jon's Ego (in print form!)
Last night Dave Bluvband and I brought up comedies that we thought were underrated (or wrongfully critically maligned or just forgotten). We then decided we need to make a master list. Feel free to add on to this list but show your work.
1. THE LONELY GUY: The Jerk is a great movie but I would…Timmy and I had a great conversation last night, and it took me all day to compile this list, but I think it’s a good one.
1. THE LANDLORD: Hal Ashby’s directorial debut (he later directed Harold & Maude and Being There). I LOVE Hal Ashby movies, and this one is always my default for top ten favorite films of all time.
2. BOB & CAROL & TED & ALICE: Timmy mentioned this last night, and I was so happy someone else had seen this movie, and then we both realized we were shocked because no one else we knew had seen it. This was one of those movies that made me want to become a filmmaker. Everyone around UCB should watch a Paul Mazursky film. They are all funny, and dark, and just wonderful all the way through. This one is his first and it’s really good.
3. A SHOT IN THE DARK: A Peter Sellers classic. The only Inspector Cleuseau film that’s not Pink Panther related. If you have some time, watch the first Pink panther movie, and this one in succession and just have a good time.
4. THE HOSPITAL: Another one of my default top ten favorite movies. Written by Paddy Chayefsky and starring George C. Scott. This one is also a pretty dark comedy about the inner workings of a Manhattan hospital, and how the chief of medicine (Scott) has to deal with personal problems like his wife leaving him, and a string of sudden deaths of doctors and nurses. I’m a huge fan of Chaefsky’s writing, and this movie just nails it on every angle.
5. WORLD’S GREATEST DAD: Granted, I tend to like “darker” or “weirder” comedies, so I get why this might be people’s cup of tea, but I love this movie. I saw it twice in theaters when it came out, I’ve seen it twice on netflix since then. I think it’s a really fresh and original comedy, and people should give it more love. Bobcat Goldthwaite is one of my new favorite writer/directors right now, and I can’t wait for his next movie.
Those are my five! Keep this list coming! I want to add more things to my netflix queue.
This list was fun to do! Thanks for those that also threw in their input ( Kevin Hines! Jon Bershad! Dave Bluvband! and more) I thought of a few more!
COLD TURKEY - a Norman Lear film starring Dick Van Dyke and Bob Newhart ( as the antagonist) a small town takes the challenge that they will all quite smoking for a month and if they do, the town will win a tax free check of 25 million dollars. Great movie, really funny performances and a great Randy Newman song in the begging.
STRANGE BREW I need to revisit this but I remember loving it.
THE SEVEN LITTLE FOYS I think this is the best of the Bob Hope “solo” pictures. ( the Crosby/ Hope road ones can’t be beat)
DOWN WITH LOVE great play on the Doris day/ Rock Hudson/ Tony Randall comedy but shot through a modern lens.
THERE’S MORE BUT I NEED TO REMEMBER THEM!
I went to see Down with Love on a date in high school. We were both fairly new to the whole dating thing (she was better at it than I was) and chose a random romantic comedy purely because we felt like we were supposed to. After the movie, she apologized for making me go to it. I turned to her and said, “What are you talking about?! I LOVED IT!”
She broke up with me soon after. I don’t think that was the reason but who knows.
Seriously though, that insane monologue Renée Zellweger gives at the end is absolutely hilarious.
I just thought of one today!
MULTIPLICITY starring Michael Keaton. Actually I would say any comedy starring Keaton is underrated.
Michael Keaton is one of the only celebrities that my wife is in love/would leave me for. I watched NIGHT SHIFT (also underrated although all the Keaton-less scenes are kind of a slog to get through) and when I was telling her about his performance in it she asked “was he still dreamy?” To which I replied “of course honey.”
-
Post reblogged from Improv Nonsense
Thursday night (May 30) at 8pm Neil Casey and I present our sketch show “Small Men.” It’s been running a long time. We officially opened the show a year ago, and had workshopped it for four months before that, and had initially done it one time a year before THAT.
I recently looked back at the first drafts and was genuinely surprised to see how much the sketches had changed. I was also surprised to see that we didn’t really know what the show was going to be like when we started working on it.
Our initial plan was to write a “2004 sketch show” since that was the last time Neil and I had written sketch together. I don’t mean 2004 references, but that we’d do the kind of sketch show that one would have done at UCB-NY in 2004 — not that much video, minimal tech. (The songs in the current show reflect this — they are all songs that were used a lot as transition music in the early 2000s.) It was going to be an unambitious show, something just to get Neil and I back on the sketch scene at UCB.
But in the course of writing and performing sketch that all faded and a different show emerged — one with long scenes and lots of dialogue and an unplanned recurring theme of celebrating people with minimal power, kind of.
I’ve never done a show with the long development period that Small Men has had, and so for the fun of it I want to show how one of the main sketches came to be. (consider this blog entry to be “sketchnonsense” not “improvnonsense”)
So this is “Liberty Plaza” a sketch in which two employees of a small town argue about approving a left-hand turn lane into a shopping plaza. Here’s a sample from the first draft:
-
Photo reblogged from Connor Ratliff
THE COMPLETE PEANUTS: 1987 TO 1988
It almost goes without saying that Charles Schulz’ Peanuts is one of my favorite things ever, one of the most popular and acclaimed works of art of the 20th Century. It was also, most importantly, a deeply personal work of art: made by Charles Schulz, alone, every day for 50 years. Sure, there was tons of merchandise and TV shows and movies and all sorts of ancillary Peanuts material, but the comic strip was his and his alone.
Schulz retired from Peanuts in 2000 and then promptly died before the syndicate had even finished publishing his final strips.
But one of the things that made Peanuts so great was also a big part of why it got deeply odd in the last 10 or 12 years of him doing it. I grew up reading it in the newspaper and reading reprints of the 1950s-70s strips in little cheap paperback books, and all that stuff was terrific. Then, in the late 80s and early 90s, I started to feel like the strip was getting strange. There were strips that made no sense at all and there were strips that seemed like they made sense unless you spent an extra 5 seconds to realize that they were completely insane.
In the latest volume in Fantagraphics’ Complete Peanuts series, things are just starting to get weird. The characters are beginning to shift slightly from their distinctive early personas to be more like a bunch of surrogates for Schulz himself. I guess that was always the case, but they seem less and less like adult-sounding kids and more like a bunch of cranky old people complaining about what’s on TV.
For instance, Sally Brown is supposed to be in 1st or 2nd grade, right? Yet by this point, she is reading Tess Of The D’urberviles for school. In a lot of cases, it almost doesn’t matter which characters say something, you could substitute Charlie Brown and Sally for Linus and Lucy or Patty and Marcie and it would make almost no difference.
The above strip feels oddly out-of-place— Schulz rarely gets political. It’s a good example of how, at this point, Schulz was just using the characters to say stuff he wanted to say; their personalities don’t matter, they are often just mouthpieces for Schulz who happen to look like Peanuts characters.
Why is Charlie Brown not at all bothered that his dog is carrying a machine gun? (This comes at the end of a sequence in which the Snoopy was accidentally issued a driver’s and then a fishing license instead of a dog license.)
This isn’t even the weirdest example. I’ll post some other ones as it gets weirder and weirder in this and the coming volumes.
-
Link reblogged from My Name Is Bluvband
Last night Dave Bluvband and I brought up comedies that we thought were underrated (or wrongfully critically maligned or just forgotten). We then decided we need to make a master list. Feel free to add on to this list but show your work.
1. THE LONELY GUY: The Jerk is a great movie but I would…Timmy and I had a great conversation last night, and it took me all day to compile this list, but I think it’s a good one.
1. THE LANDLORD: Hal Ashby’s directorial debut (he later directed Harold & Maude and Being There). I LOVE Hal Ashby movies, and this one is always my default for top ten favorite films of all time.
2. BOB & CAROL & TED & ALICE: Timmy mentioned this last night, and I was so happy someone else had seen this movie, and then we both realized we were shocked because no one else we knew had seen it. This was one of those movies that made me want to become a filmmaker. Everyone around UCB should watch a Paul Mazursky film. They are all funny, and dark, and just wonderful all the way through. This one is his first and it’s really good.
3. A SHOT IN THE DARK: A Peter Sellers classic. The only Inspector Cleuseau film that’s not Pink Panther related. If you have some time, watch the first Pink panther movie, and this one in succession and just have a good time.
4. THE HOSPITAL: Another one of my default top ten favorite movies. Written by Paddy Chayefsky and starring George C. Scott. This one is also a pretty dark comedy about the inner workings of a Manhattan hospital, and how the chief of medicine (Scott) has to deal with personal problems like his wife leaving him, and a string of sudden deaths of doctors and nurses. I’m a huge fan of Chaefsky’s writing, and this movie just nails it on every angle.
5. WORLD’S GREATEST DAD: Granted, I tend to like “darker” or “weirder” comedies, so I get why this might be people’s cup of tea, but I love this movie. I saw it twice in theaters when it came out, I’ve seen it twice on netflix since then. I think it’s a really fresh and original comedy, and people should give it more love. Bobcat Goldthwaite is one of my new favorite writer/directors right now, and I can’t wait for his next movie.
Those are my five! Keep this list coming! I want to add more things to my netflix queue.
This list was fun to do! Thanks for those that also threw in their input ( Kevin Hines! Jon Bershad! Dave Bluvband! and more) I thought of a few more!
COLD TURKEY - a Norman Lear film starring Dick Van Dyke and Bob Newhart ( as the antagonist) a small town takes the challenge that they will all quite smoking for a month and if they do, the town will win a tax free check of 25 million dollars. Great movie, really funny performances and a great Randy Newman song in the begging.
STRANGE BREW I need to revisit this but I remember loving it.
THE SEVEN LITTLE FOYS I think this is the best of the Bob Hope “solo” pictures. ( the Crosby/ Hope road ones can’t be beat)
DOWN WITH LOVE great play on the Doris day/ Rock Hudson/ Tony Randall comedy but shot through a modern lens.
THERE’S MORE BUT I NEED TO REMEMBER THEM!
-
Link reblogged from Talking Comics with Kevin Hines
“They’re missing the full spectrum of these character’s emotional lives. The most important thing is the long, involved soap operas. It’s a type of narrative that you don’t get anywhere else except on very long-running soap operas, where characters can go into depth. 20 pages every month going…
-
In honor of our 2 year wedding anniversary watch our favorite sketch that we did together.
-
These are the teams I regularly perform with. Think of this as a Comedy Menu and order whatever you like.
RAMONA
A very spicy dish and not for the feint of heart. You may at first start to feel like a heart attack when Ramona starts (again Spicy!) but these are trained professionals who have been in the game for a long time and know what they are doing. As soon as Ramona has commenced you will be begging for a second helping.REGIONAL BOXES
This is like a nice Veal or Lamb Chop. Young, full of energy, and refuses to take no for an answer. This team was just thrown together blindly and randomly at Indie Cagematch and went on to win, TWICE.TIMMY AND MARK EAT FOOD
A slow, quiet intimate meal. Mark Dowling and I eat real food while doing improv. I love doing this show because 1) I am often hungry while doing improv and 2) Mark is a crazy good improviser.TIMMY & A.J.
This is not an Improv team. A.J. is my hilarious and charming writing partner and we host tons of improv shows. TONS! We may even host yours if you wish. We have been called “The Best!” (by Julianne Cross) and “Wow, you guys actually planned something and didn’t phone it in.” (by Anthony Apruzzese) We promise to be charming and funny and not take up too much time. How annoying is it when the hosts go on and on and on forever? Super Annoying!FORD MODELS PRESENTS THE DRAMATIC IMPROVISATION SORÉE
A very expensive dish. This is actually my cousins team. He goes by the name of “ə” and he is a model. No jokes during this set. All pure dramatic improvisation. Prepare to feel catharsis!Those are my regulars. Book us, Danno.
-
Last night Dave Bluvband and I brought up comedies that we thought were underrated (or wrongfully critically maligned or just forgotten). We then decided we need to make a master list. Feel free to add on to this list but show your work.
1. THE LONELY GUY: The Jerk is a great movie but I would say that Lonely Guy is just as good, plus Charles Grodin who I always loved is also great as a “Lonely Guy”. There are so many great jokes in this film. If you like The Jerk then watch it.2. AFTER THE FOX: A Peter Sellers vehicle in which he plays a thief posing as a film director in order to steal gold that will be imported into a small Italian village. They tell the town they are shooting a movie and the town gets super excited. Quite funny and has been cannibalized quite a bit. I see jokes stolen from this movie all the time.
3. THE OTHER GUYS: I know a lot of us (comedians) like this movie but almost every other person I talk to hates it or dismisses it by saying “I heard all the funny parts where in the trailer”.
4. TOYS: An INSANE surreal film that I am surprised ever got made. It’s no wonder that this was considered a flop. Anyone remember the SNES game?
5. The BROTHERS SOLOMON: A bad movie, yes. Lot of the jokes don’t work but the few that do are very very funny.
6. NIGHT AT THE ROXBURY: Wrongfully accused of being the worst SNL film, everyone knows that It’s Pat is the worst SNL film. (Sorry It’s Pat fans)
7. SAVING SILVERMAN: A movie that should be terrible but the co-stars Jack Black and Steve Zahn save it. THEY SAVE A MOVIE. This is right before Jack Black blew up and he is great in this.
8. JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS: I fully admit that I am biased because I
hadhave huge crushes on both Rachel Leigh Cook and Rosario Dawson but there are some clever jokes in here.9-10 BACHELOR PARTY and THE ‘BURBS: Tom Hanks is very funny in Bachelor Party. It’s really dated and some of the jokes about sex and drugs are a very much of their time, but again Tom Hanks kills every line he has. The Burbs is just a cool Twilight Zone-ish comedy.
11. THE CABLE GUY: The best movie Jim Carrey made during the height of his peak. Yes, as kids we all thought Dumb and Dumber and Ace Ventura were funnier, but as an adult Cable Guy shines the brightest.
There are more I am sure but I need to ponder on them. What are some of yours?
