Comedy To Watch
An online magazine packed with reviews, news, articles and interviews about all things comedy old and new.
February 21, 2019 June 11, 2019 Alex Finch
Comedy Snippets: 21/02/2019
Jon Glaser Loves Gear
To say I love Jon Glaser's latest show would be a massive understatement, I want to adopt it and shower it with adoration as it's the funniest thing on tv by far and there's a great amount of superb series currently being shown like Corporate, You're The Worst, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Young Sheldon (okay, fine, I may be taking the piss a little with that last one). The amount of bizarre, surreal, silly and daft ideas in each episode is astonishing and I hope once Glaser dies when he's one hundred and sixty eight he donates his brain to science so they can find out why he's such a comedic genius, and I don't use that last word lightly in the slightest. The latest episode was initially supposed to be about photography but as always Glaser quickly took a completely unpredictable direction with it, with Jon discovering that he has a passion for "Tucking", the act of putting your genitals between your legs and pretending to be a lady, and soon discovered a group of fellow fans, and also that his family had a long history of being "Tuckers". There were a crazy amount of hilarious lines and visual craziness, it's a rare event where after twenty four minutes I physically hurt due to laughing so much but so far it's been the case with each and every episode of the show.
Comedy Central really are creating some of the best comedy around right now, and that hasn't always been the case. Corporate might just be the best show they have though, as it follows middle managers Matt and Jake on a day to day basis as they work for the genuinely evil corporation Hampton DeVille and try to stay sane. Indeed Matt wants to think he's still a good guy, and a friend to his underlings, though that was tested this week when he discovered what people really felt about him and decided that fuck it, he was going to be a vengeful God and make their lives miserable. It was slightly out of character but also understandable given the madness of working for such a company, and packed with dark, twisted jokes and lines that made me laugh an awful lot. All of the cast are superb, putting in the kind of performances which should win all of the awards going, and if you've not watched it yet I recommend starting with the first season, it begins strongly and only gets better and better as it goes along.
Now this isn't an out and out comedy by any means and it does have a dramatic edge, but it's also pretty funny, mostly because of the narration from Alan Tudyk's Mr Nobody. If you're not aware of the series it's based on a DC comics superhero team created in the sixties but it really hit it's stride when Grant Morrison took over writing duties in the nineties. Made up of a group of superhero freaks it originally had a lot in common with the X-Men, with both created within months of each other quite coincidentally, but Morrison's take on the characters saw them go in to far stranger territory. Pleasingly the tv series seems to be partially following his template with Robotman, Elasti-Woman, Crazy Jane and Negative Man making for pretty unique characters in fairly unusual situations. The dialogue from Supernatural's Jeremy Carver feels naturally funny, the performances are great, and Alan Tudyk plays villain Mr Nobody with a great deal of camp ridiculousness which fits the character perfectly, his fourth wall breaking narration makes the series feel fresh and original and it also looks great too. So even if you're exhausted by superhero tv shows and films I'd recommend catching this as there's nothing quite like it on tv right now.
Nudist Colony of the Dead
This is a 1991 horror comedy musical film which was shot on Super-8 film and only cost $35,000 – and boy can you tell! I watched a supposedly remastered version but the quality is still shockingly poor, with it often looking like a pirated vhs cam copy of a 70s movie. But despite all of that it is fairly funny in places, it's deliberate cartoonish feel has a mild charm, and the only topless nudity doesn't feel overtly gratuitous. I mean it's definitely gratuitous, how could it not be, but I didn't feel uncomfortable watching it. So that's nice. The songs are largely quite simple and yet oddly upbeat, which makes them strangely endearing, even if lyrically they're occasionally weak. On the downside it's worryingly slightly racist in places – with two antisemitic jokes and the line "Coloured guy knocking at back door" uttered within the first twenty minutes, but I don't think it's intentionally mean, just misjudged. A shame though, as it means I can't wholeheartedly recommend it to people.
Youtube Video Of The Week
As regular readers will know I'm an enormous fan of Maria Bamford, and in this episode of Psych Ward she talks about what happened when she was sectioned in a psychiatric hospital. It's not only fascinating but also incredibly funny, with Bamford taking on a variety of roles and exploring the dark and light sides of mental illness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTdSFEHyTYQ
Alex Finch.
https://twitter.com/comedytowatch
Previous Comedy Snippets:
14/02/2019 – American Dad, Pen15, Afterlife, The Return Of Captain Invincible
07/02/2019 – The Other Two, Hannah Gadsby's Douglas, Roast Battle, Guys And Dolls
31/01/2019 – Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Tigtone, Angie Tribeca, Middle School: The Worst Years Of My Life, Richard Herring's Leicester Square Podcast
24/01/2019 – Oh Lucy!, Blark And Son, Angie Tribeca,
17/01/2019 – The Day Shall Come, Family Guy, Richard Herring's Leicester Square Podcast, Jon Glaser Loves Gear
10/01/2018- Best Week Ever With Paul F. Tompkins, Vice, Catastrophe, Angie Tribeca
Comedy Snippets
Maria Bamford
Previous Tv Review: Miracle Workers Season 1 Episodes 1 & 2
Next One And Done: Time Warped
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