Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. I was watching The … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Steven Wright’s first appearance on The Tonight Show
On Chandler Bing’s Job by Megan Garber I’m not my cohort’s resident expert on the sitcom about a sextet of New Yorkers who will be there for one another when precipitations obeys the law gravity. So it with humility that … Continue reading Outside Reading — Transponster edition
Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. To coincide with the … Continue reading Laughing Matters — The Anal Retentive Chef: Cajun Style
A Bronx Upstart. A Logo With a Tilt. Now It’s Everywhere. by Shane Goldmacher I wrote about the inspired messaging of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s inaugural political campaign three years ago, right after her upset victory in the primary set her … Continue reading Outside Reading — One of Us edition
When I devoted myself wholeheartedly to the television series St. Elsewhere, I didn’t know that the actor who donned Dr. Daniel Auschlander’s white coat brought practically the whole history of Hollywood with him. I just knew the performance was flinty … Continue reading Norman Lloyd, 1914 – 2021
There are many building blocks of the internet, but the cornerstones are think pieces, offhand lists, and other hollow provocations meant to stir arguments and, therefore, briefly redirect web traffic. Engaging such material is utterly pointless. Then again, it’s not like I … Continue reading Bait Taken — Rolling Stone’s 100 Best Sitcoms of All Time
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie: The oral history by Adam Carston The big-screen iteration of Mystery Science Theater 3000 hardly seems to have enough significance to merit a lengthy oral history on the occasion of its anniversary, but I’m … Continue reading Outside Reading — This Island Earth Doesn’t Shine for Me Anymore
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. There are a lot of ills and injustices perpetrated by modern-day capitalism. I am aware of this. … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — American Express, “One Hour Photo”
Today marks five years since Garry Shandling died. There was an immediate outpouring in the comedy community, and that’s been remarkably sustained. There is the occasional recounting of Shandling’s remarkable commitment to a complex joke, even when it was delivered … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Garry Shandling on The Tonight Show in 1981
Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. It’s always a good … Continue reading Laughing Matters — The Kids in the Hall, “Preacher”
Coffee for Two 