Animated Conversation

Animation is not just for kids, folks. I mean there was a time when that was the case...Bugs Bunny and Porkie Pig didn't really appeal that much to adults. But Bugs and Porkie are gone, long gone (apart from those rubbish looney toons movies that pop up every now and again). Today's cartoons are adult, offensive and very very funny!

The Simpsons

There's a reason that this show has been on for 20 years and produced over 400 episodes. There's a reason why you can say "D'oh" to anybody, anywhere in the world, and they'll understand what you're getting at. The Simpsons is brilliant. Yes, the show had an iffy five minutes somewhere around the 12th season mark, but hey, we all make mistakes right? The most recent episodes and the long awaited movie have both been brilliant and reminded us just why we fell in love with the show in the first place.

Family Guy

Some might consider its random flashbacks as lazy writing....others may say that the show is just a rip off of The Simpsons...all I know is that it's damn funny, gloriously offensive, instantly quotable and so popular that it was brought back from cancellation TWICE! Watch it, and bask in how dirty you feel afterwards!

Futurama

I remember how disappointed I was when I heard Futurama was going to be cancelled. The show was just beginning to build up steam, with funny moment after funny moment and so many classic episodes. The only problem with Futurama was the dreadful and completely laugh free first season, which put the show on borrowed time. But, much like Family Guy before it, huge public support brought the show back from the grave with 4 DVD movies on the way and (if we keep our fingers crossed) a possible brand new season after that as well. For Futurama, the future's looking bright.

Video Courtesy of youtube.com (user foxabulous)

Photos Courtesy of cartoonary.com and tv.com

A-Z of comedy (or as close to Z as possible)

A - Ab Fab - Hit sitcom starring Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley
B - Bill Bailey - A self confessed hippy comic
C - Charlie Chaplin - One of the defining faces of British comedy
D - Dara O' Briain - Irish comic and host of Mock the Week
E - Extras - Ricky Gervais' hit comedy starring anyone and everyone
F - Friends - Surely you don't need info about this one
G - Goodness Gracious Me - Possibly the first and most successful Asian sitcom
H - Have I Got News For You - BBC panel show using the news for comedy
I - I'm Alan Partridge - Steve Coogan plays the failed television presenter
J - Jeeves and Wooster - Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry do PG Wodehouse
K - Kath and Kim - Australian comedy
L - Life of Brian - The Python's most famous work
M - Michael McIntyre - Fantastically British middle class comedian
N - Nighty Night - Sitcom about a 27 year-old woman with a lust for life
O - Only Fools and Horses - DelBoy and Rodney, need I say more
P - Porridge - Prison based BBC sitcom starring Ronnie Barker
Q - QI - Panel show presented by Stephen Fry with regular Alan Davies
R - Ricky Gervais - Award winning creator of The Office and Extras
S - The Simpsons - Matt Groening's famous yellow family
T - The Two Ronnies - Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett's favourite moments
U -
V - Vicar of Dibley - Dawn French's famous fat vicar Geraldin Grager
W - Whose line is it anyway? - Improvised comedy show in the USA and UK
X -
Y - The Young Ones - Lives up to the stereotype that students are disgusting
Z - Zoolander - A model is brainwashed to kill the president of Malaysia

Images courtesy of: Sodahead.com, digiatllobsessed.com, Tvscoop.com

Fonejacker reviewed

(picture source: http://www.webtvhub.com/)

It is one of the most common and popular pranks everyone has done at one stage in their lives but it is still entertaining and fun every time to listen to people making fools of themselves. The British Iranian television actor Kayvan Novak made a show of it. A show that is not necessarily everyone's cup of tea, that some may even find childish and unoriginal. But also a show that has won the BAFTA award for the "Best Comedy Programme" in 2008.

Fonejacker first appeared in May 2006. The first series started in the UK on 5th July 2007 on Channel 4 and consisted of six episodes. The second series began 17th September 2008 on E4 and 6th November 2008 on Channel 4. DVDs were also released of both series on 8th October 2007 and 27th October 2008.

Recurring characters - some examples:

Mr Doovde - the first character seen on Fonejacker: An illiterate fan of electrical goods, who mistakes abbreviations for actual words like for example he pronounces HMV "Hoomv", DVD "Doovde" and VHS "Vhurs".

Charlie Wong: Leader of the Chinese DVD Gang. He is part of a group of illegal, obese Chinese students who try to buy and sell on as much dodgy DVD copies as possible. He ends every conversation with "You want to buy DVD?".

Dufrais Constantinople: One of those guys who always finds something to complain about and calls any information and customer services hotline. He always has difficulty spelling out his name using words, annoyingly slowly and hesitant: "D for Donald/Derrick, U for up, R for raspberry, A for apple, I for is and S for stratosphere."

Steve: A young Scouse male, who is remarkably similar to Steven Gerrard. He calls here, there and everywhere from prison looking for a job, listing his work experience as a babysitter for his drug addict sister's children and cooking in the prison kitchen. 

My First Live Stand Up

I must admit that before this week I had never watched a stand up performance from a comedian either live or on DVD. But when writing this blog I felt that I should try to embrace all aspects of comedy so last night I sat down and watched Ricky Gervais Politics on DVD.

I have never been a great fan of Ricky Gervais type of comedy, from

The Office to Extras, the style of comedy just does not appeal to me. So when I started to watch his performance I was sceptical over whether I would enjoy it. 

From the opening video Gervais makes jokes about controversial topics, from sweatshops to sex and orphans. 

One reviewer said "Politics is essentially an excuse for Gervais to poke fun at any target that takes his fancy in the most politically incorrect way he can."

Gervais talked a lot about his childhood and one of the more funny parts of the performance was when Gervais talked about fables. He questioned the morals of stories like Jack and Jill and The Boy who cried, where he claimed the moral of the story is not to tell the same lie twice.    

At times his jokes are funny and make me smile but whilst watching the DVD I did not laugh out loud. Even though I do have criticisms of Gervais' Politics I must admit that he bravely takes serious and risky topics and makes them funny.   

After reflecting on my first live stand up I was neither disappointed or impressed, it was pretty much what I expected. Though at times I found Gervais funny in the future I wouldn't watch or pay to see live stand up comedy on a regular occasion. I am still not a fan of stand up comedy. 

(Image from bbc.co.uk)

Come with us to The Mighty Boosh

The Boosh has finally arrived. I ordered my tickets well over a year ago and it is finally here. So tomorrow night I will be going to Wembley Stadium and enjoying the live creations of Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt.

So come with us to The Mighty Boosh. Here we shall take a look into the world of the Boosh and its dark, twisted humour. Ok, basically The Boosh, as its more commonly known as, is the brainchild of Fielding and Barratt. The first series was set in a Zoo called the "Zooniverse". Although the zoo was the backdrop for series one the characters often find themselves well outside the confines of the zoo gates.

The two main characters, Vince Noir and Howard Moon, played by Fielding and Boosh respectively are two clashing personalities. It is this clash that makes the whole show come together. Howard's attempt at educating Vince in the world of Jazz, poetry and art is a lost cause. Partly because Vince is so concerned with his appearance, in particular his hair, which in the words of Vince himself is "practically a hat"and has 21 people working on it at any one time.

The pair are accompanied by Bollo, a gorilla, and Naboo, a shaman who runs the gift shop, despite having the power to exact voodoo vengeance on the wrongdoers.

Along their journey, which starts and ends at the Zooniverse, they encounter many strange characters such as Old Greg, a cave dwelling, seaweed creation who is obsessed with Baileys, The Hitcher whose green skin and unusually large thumb would be enough to stop any normal person from offering him a lift and then of course there is Mr Susan, a creature made out of chamois who dwells in the world of mirrors.

The further throughout the three series you travel the more twisted it becomes. They venture out of the zoo and into a flat in Shoreditch and then onto a shop called Nabootique. The journey is a wonderful one, if not a bit disturbing, and randomly filled by polos. Enjoy the ride.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.

LOL, ROFLMAO, and other ways to describe Comedy Blogs

People like blogs. People like laughing. Put the two together and you've got something real good going on. Here are some of the most popular (and more importantly, my favourite) comedy blogs on the net!

I'm Sure I Don't Know: Daily Ravings Of A Disturbed Mind
Best Post: Fun Facts About Fat People, where the Nemesing One talks freely about how hard it is for fat guys to get clean in the shower and why he hopes that a 20-year-old skinny redhead never shows any interest in him.

The Other Side of Normal

Best Post: Drummer Or Porn Star?? Can you tell the screaming mouth of a drummer from the mouth of a screaming-in-a-completely-different-kinda-way porn star? This little quiz is fun for the whole family!

Wit's Bitch
Best Post: Oddity. Simply because I doubt anybody could resist reading a post starting with "today I saw a man get his head stuck up an elephant's ass".

The Junk Drawer-Humour for the Masses
Best Post: My Punishment for Flying First-Class: 'Tis better to have flown first class and then by a cruel twist of fate end up forced to catch a six hour red-eye flight sat next to a definite psycho, than to have never flown first class at all.

Photo Courtesy of superstock.com

The Funniest man in America?

Steve Carell may be known in the UK as the actor who portrays Ricky Gervais’ character David Brent (Michael Scott in the US) in the US’ version of TV hit The Office but Carell is thought to be one the funniest men in America.

Born in Massachusetts in 1962 Carell found fame as a correspondent on spoof program The Daily Show. He has later gained award recognition for his rise to fame in both TV and film. The multi-talented actor, writer and comedian won a Golden Globe and many Emmy nominations for his role in The Office.

On the big-screen Carell got praise for supporting roles in comedy films Bruce Almighty (which led to the spin-off film Evan Almighty, where Carell played the lead role Evan Baxter) and 2006 hit Little Miss Sunshine.

Despite being the most expensive comedy ever made Evan Almighty, released in 2007, was slammed by critics, one critic calling the film "a paper-thin alleged comedy" in a Chicago Sun-Times review.

Despite the criticism of films like Evan Almighty Carell has found success in the lead roles of films such as 40-year-old virgin and Get Smart, where Carell plays secret agent Maxwell Smart in the 2008 movie remake. Carell's role in Get Smart saw the actor star in a high profile action film aswell as combining it with his usual comedy. Carell plays title character Andy Stitzer in The 40 year-old virgin, which one critic called "a charmingly bent comedy".

With numerous awards success and consitent praise from many in the business Carell has found comedy success on the small and big screen. Whether or not he is the funniest man in America, Carell is now a regognised and celebrated comedian.

(Image from MSN TV)