progressive politics and regressive entertainment. like peanut and butter.
August 26, 2012 Leave a comment
Last Thursday’s Louie returned to its standup roots at the start, opening with Louie performing at the Comedy Cellar.
LOUIE: I, uh, I actually, I have been having a lot of trouble sleeping – as we all should.
Some semi-spoilerish reactions after the jump…
August 18, 2012 Leave a comment
Last week’s Louie moved me because of the insider comedy interactions between Louie, Sarah Silverman, and Mark Maron. This week’s Louie moved me because of the poignancy and the ridiculousness of his flight from dad, and how committed Louis is to following his ideas above and beyond their logical conclusions.
August 10, 2012 2 Comments
This season of Louie continues to be a comedy nerd’s dream, and last night’s episode has got to be the pinnacle of that. If you want to be surprised, please run off and watch the episode before reading on, as I can’t contain the spoilers for long. I can already feel it bubbling over…
August 6, 2012 Leave a comment
Pretty much every episode of this season’s Louie gives us something new. Last week, Louis CK chose not to open with any stand-up, but with a black-and-white sequence of an open grave. There’s a guy who has eyes like Robin Williams. And you know what? It’s Robin Williams. Or rather, it’s the character “Robin,” played by Mr. Williams.
August 1, 2012 3 Comments
Two weeks ago on Louie we were treated to appearances of Maria Bamford (yay!) and Parker Posey (yay!). Last week on Louie we were only treated to Parker Posey, which was as expected, and I was determined to think of it as a glass half full.
LIZ: Can we walk? Let’s just walk!
July 24, 2012 Leave a comment
Part I of “Daddy’s Girlfriend” had me in its corner from the moment that Maria Bamford appeared on the small screen. Maria Bamford is one of my favoritist comedians, quirky and original, and a comedian’s comedian. I’m not sure how those outside the comedy community regard her, but within that world of humor aficionados, it’s not uncommon to have veterans like Marc Maron who are simply smitten by the Bamford. (She was on her own episode of Maron’s WTF podcast and also appeared as a live guest not once but twice.)
MARIA: I hope nobody here is deeply religious. If you are, please just rest in the glory that I am wrong.
July 14, 2012 5 Comments
Louie goes to Miami, and it’s just as you (and he) might imagine. Going to the beach, he encounters enough fun-in-the-sun to make a middle-aged man gag…
July 8, 2012 4 Comments
For the second episode of season three, “Telling Jokes / Set Up,” Louie offers us rape as the entree. But first comes the appetizer, in the form of a little humor analysis. Louie’s daughters are telling knock-knock jokes, and Louie explaining to an audience at the Comedy Cellar just why he enjoys their humor so much.
LOUIE: I’ve been doing comedy for twenty-five years. I know every joke. Even if I haven’t heard it, you start to tell me a joke, I know how it’s gonna work. But her jokes — I have no idea what’s gonna happen. I have no idea. This is the joke she told me the other day. She said, “Who didn’t let the gorilla into the ballet? Who didn’t let the gorilla into the ballet?” Already I love this joke. I love this joke! I have not heard this joke.
July 5, 2012 1 Comment
Season Three of Louie arrived last week with “Something Is Wrong” — the very title of which signals that something also must be right, because we expect (we want and desire) Louis C.K. to give us comedic insight into everything from the awkward to the horrible. He starts the season off by talking about how, as he ages, he now has to masturbate while wearing reading glasses. It’s difficult to explain to people who don’t know the show how this humor is poignant, no matter how far he pushes it…and he does.
July 4, 2012 Leave a comment
Quite often, it’s easy to tell that an older guy and younger woman appear in some movie or TV show because some older straight guy is inserting his personal desires into the writing. With this episode of Louie, that’s also evident, but with a twist, as Louis C.K. puts his self-deprecation into the mouth of a beautiful younger woman.
June 30, 2012 13 Comments
I had high expectations going into this episode of Doctor Who, as it came highly recommended by friends on the interwebs as well as by friends in the material world. And yeah, they were all right. Keep out if you’re scared of spoilers, but come on in if you want to read me fawning over a top-rate forty-four minutes or so of Doctor Who.
DOCTOR WHO: Your life could depend on this. Don’t blink. Don’t even blink. Blink, and you’re dead.
June 26, 2012 2 Comments
When we rejoin the Doctor at the start of “The Family of Blood,” he’s not quite himself. Turned into a human in order to hide, the Doctor is now John Smith. John Smith simply doesn’t know what to do when faced with a family of aliens who have killed some humans, taken over their bodies, and employ scarecrows as soldiers. It’s up to Martha.
MARTHA: Don’t just stand there, move! God, you’re rubbish as a human!
