Animation Domination Review

Overall a surprisingly strong night.

First, we have American Dad, which has been moved to 7:30 ET, instead of its usual 9:30 ET slot. In "Stanny-boy and Frantastic" Stan and Francine decide they need to befriend a couple. They eventually meet an alcoholic/adrenaline-addicted couple. The couple is younger than them, and lamented hanging out with a previous couple in their 40s, and Stan and Francine decide to lie their true age, and the fact they have kids. The couple eventually wears them out, with the constant benders, and risky activities, including parquor (amazing sequence). Stan and Francine decide to slow them down by ruining their contraceptives. The couple break up, so it's up to Stan and Francine to get them back together. Meanwhile, Roger and Steve order a cotton candy gun (yes, it's exactly what you think) they see on TV, only to get it, and see that it doesn't work. They call the company and are put on hold for a number of days.

This episode had a lot of funny moments, and I was surprised to not find a cringe moment. Some hilarious moments include.

Cirque de Solei Moon Frye.

Cirque de Hey Hey Hey (a tribute to What's Happening)

Stan and Francine coming home drunk, and the morning after.

The parquor scene.

Stan and Francine enter carrying a vacuum cleaner and a hanger, after their new friends break up after getting pregnant. "I know what we have to do, clean up all these clothes first, and then get them back together.

Believe it or not, "Homer the Father" was a strong episode this season. This season has been ridden with a lot of Lisa episodes, that annoy the hell out of me, so this was a welcome change of pace. As always, Bart episodes are usually the better ones. Plus, it was nice to see Homer take a departure from "Homer the Jerk," and trying to be a good father. In this episode, Homer starts watching a TV-land-like TV channel, and becomes addicted to "Thicker than Waters," a parody of almost every 80s family sitcom--overall it seems to parody the Cosby Show (with the sweater the father wears) and Growing Pains. Homer decides to emulate the father on the show by wearing his sweater, and trying to actually be a good father--which upsets Bart, who wants a new bike. After studying and getting good grades, Homer doesn't give Bart his bike, saying to Bart that getting good grades is a reward. Bart then decides to take advantage of Homer's carelessness at the nuclear power plant by offering nuclear secrets to the international community for a bike. Enter the CIA, or the Chinese Intelligence in America, who accept Bart's offer. Bart ends up spending a lot of time with Homer, and manages to get the nuclear secrets, and his new bike, but Homer ends up rewarding Bart for being so nice to him lately, by giving him the same bike. Will Bart take the nuclear secrets back?

Funny parts:

Anytime Homer watches "Thicker than Waters," or any of the related shows on the retro TV channel, including a cross between "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" and "ALF," and what looks like to be a parody of "Doogie Hauser" except it's a girl, and she's a Supreme Court Justice.

The behind the scenes special on "Thicker than Waters," which shows the actor playing the father, who apparantly is a British, well-trained actor, swearing immensely and belittling the script of the show. He then hands it to the writer and swears at him. The writer, who is revealed to be a young David Mamet (played by Mamet himself) saying "crap... hmmm...." and begins writing something new.

Bart seeing the cool bike in the bike store window, and exclaiming, "I think I just saw what I'm going to die on."

The chalkboard gag: "Prince is not the son of Martin Luther King."--quick note, even if a Simpsons episode isn't funny, the chalk gag always will be.

The Chinese threatening Bart with toys--that were made in China.

Bob's Burgers isn't for everyone. If you are familiar, like me, with the works of Loren Bouchard (Home Movies, etc.) H. John Benjamin and his frequent collaborators, then you'd like Bob's Burgers. Tonight's episode was pretty good. Bob, about to cook his 10,000th burger (I think, I suck at memorizing numbers), becomes the subject of a documentary about the beef industry. Randy, the documentarian, puts a steer, that they glued a wig on and named "Moo-lissa", outside Bob's restaurant. Bob eventually bonds with the cow, and begins to feel guilty. Meanwhile, Bob's oldest daughter, Tina, believes that the cow is communicating to her through its excrement shaped like emotion-cons. Louise, Bob's youngest, most sadistic daughter, decides to take advantage of this. As well, Bob's son, Gene, tries to get his music on the documentary's soundtrack.

Funny moments

Gene's "music" for the soundtrack, which is a MIDI-like track played on his tiny electric piano, that ends with a dog woofing.

Louise is friggin hillarious.

Great performances from H John Benjamin (Bob), Eugene Mirman (Gene), and Kristin Schaal (Louise). Louise is probably the best part of the show for me.

The dramatic chord that plays throughout the episode, sometimes in inappropriate places.

Gene: This is the best dream I ever had. Let's pee on the floor, everybody!

Bob and Randy teaming up to rescue Moolissa from a petting zoo "We'll do it in infa-red!"

Stuff that didn't work:

Mainly the deadpan tone throughout the show--this doesn't work for people who aren't familiar with the works of Loren Bouchard. But, Kristin Schaal's non-deadpan-ness balances it out.

Scatological references--some people hate them, and there are loads of them in this episode.

This was going to be the highlight of my evening--"The Hand that Rocks the Wheelchair." An episode of Family Guy in which next-door neighbor Bonnie goes out of town, and asks Meg to check up on her paraplegic husband, Joe, and her new daughter, Susie. Usually Meg gets a couple of episodes every season (in contrast to the Peter/Stewie/Lois/Brian dominance for the rest of the episodes), and this was one of them. Hopefully, it would have taken advantage of Meg's voice actress, Mila Kunis's, dramatic, and Golden Globe nominated performance in "Black Swan"--great movie, by the way-- and given her a good episode. But, unfortunately, this episode was pushed back (I think for the second time) and "Brian Writes a Bestseller" aired instead. Despite Meg's unpopularity on the show, she has a pretty decent-sized fanbase, so I'm pretty sure they're upset. This has happened before with other episodes of Family Guy. Either what happened was Fox decided to take it out of the line-up last minute, because they thought the episode was too obscene (which, is a cruddy move, considering there were promos airing for it, and the executives or whoever is in charge of deciding if the episode is decent enough, had plenty of time to watch it), or Family Guy's number one enemy, the Parents Television Council, caught wind of the plot early on, and decided to file a complaint with the FCC. The conservative Parents Television Council, has been known to be particularly prejudice towards the liberal Seth Macfarlane, and berate his shows constantly. As well, more than one of their campaigns has resulted in an episode of a TV show they deem inappropriate not airing. The PTC is often hypocritical as well, declaring themselves non-biased, yet purposely targeting liberal and progressive media (the members also work on several other anti-liberal media groups, targeting "liberal biases"). But the PTC usually files complaints after the show airs. Either way, I'm not the only one pissed, and I'm hoping it still airs.

Cleveland used to be a really sweet guy, until he got his own spin-off. Then, in the spirit of other fathers on Fox animated TV shows, he became an a-hole. Compared to the other Macfarlane shows on Fox, Cleveland Show falls dead-last, Family Guy has had a hit-and-miss season, and, despite the fact that Bush isn't in office, American Dad has had a relatively strong season. There were only a few good jokes in tonight's episode, in which Tim the Bear becomes Cleveland's new boss at the cable company, mainly involving the fact that Tim the Bear is afraid of forests, despite being a bear, Rallo messing with Cleveland Jr with the class turtle he (Rallo) had to take home for the weekend, and Rallo finding out the truth about class pets. I wish they'd give the characters more dimension. Cleveland Jr, Tim the Bear and Arianna, and Kendra Crinklesack (the fat woman on the Rascal) have some dimension, so an episode focusing on Tim the Bear, like this one, usually is slightly better. So far the funniest thing that happened on the entire run of the Cleveland Show was Cleveland Jr taking vengeance on his father, and giving him and his friends non-alcoholic beer, causing them to fight.

Animation Domination-Tonight

On this blog, I won't be only focusing on live-action comedy, but on animated comedy as well. I'm going review tonight's Fox Animation Domination. So look for reviews later tonight or tomorrow.

Fox's animated comedies are the only things I like about the fox corporation (well, that and House and Hell's Kitchen).

Comedy Genres

The following is a list of modern comedy genres I will be discussing. Yes, even comedy has genres.

Stand-up: Whether it's in a club during amateur night, or on an HBO special, this is one of the most accessible forms of comedy. It consists of one person doing a comedic monologue about various topics. Some have specific specialities, others don't. As well, stand-up is abstract, and any other comedy sub-genre can be applied to it. But there is still the standard traditional stand-up comedy which is the best if you want to get laughs from a crowd.

Examples of Traditional Stand-up Comedy Practitioners:

George Carlin

Jerry Seinfeld

And many more.

Rant: Rants can be put into any stand-up act, and are often disguised as such. Rants are different than stand-up because they are monologue discussing the annoyance or dislike towards a relatable subject, whereas stand-up consists of more than that. Rants can be hard to do. You cannot come off as angry, because it is unsettling, and it will look to the audience like you're some angry, hate-spewing performer. Toss in some jokes, have charisma, and make it relatable, though, and you're golden. Rants can cover anything from politics to everyday subjects.

Behold, the ultimate ranter, Dennis Miller.

Satire: Satire is as old as the Greeks, who would often satirize current events into their comedies, creating smart, political humor--that is until the Spartans took over Athens. Satire has since been recovered and evolved into a more biting, yet entertaining genre of comedy. Satire can be in the form of whole plays and movies, allegories, books, parodies, and sketches. Satire is still a popular modern comedy form, and continues to evolve as new satirical comedians produce their work.

Notable Modern Satirists.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park

An big chunk of SNL

Surrealism and Absurdism: I like to put these both together, because the absurd can often be surreal and the surreal can often be absurd. This genre is an acquired taste, and, now I hate to sound like an elitist, this usually appeals to either intellectuals, non-linear thinkers, and people with open-minds. If a person who doesn't truly "get it" finds it funny, it's usually for a superficial reason. For example, if one watches "The Ministry of Silly Walks Sketch" and doesn't truly understand surrealist comedy, they would laugh because "that man is walking funny." There is not a punch-line, there is no shtick, there is no pattern. It is ambiguous, abstract, but freakin hilarious. It involves normal people or abnormal people in absurd, surreal situations, or a world in which the surrealist twist is the established norm, although since there is no pattern in surrealism, there can be many variations to it. Keep in mind, though, this cannot be confused with OMG RANDOM humor, that people might confuse it with (usually these people are kids, though, but some might have youtube accounts, and upload it, and other kids would find them hilarious and brutally chew out people who don't). Good surrealism has a kernel of truth in it, and is often thickly-veiled satire. One who sees the truth hidden within it truly understands surrealism.

Notable Surrealists/Absurdists:

Monty Python

Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim.

People who are NOT surrealist and absurdists, and aren't even funny.

Fred. Fred ain't funny.

Alternative Comedy-That person is doing stand-up, but he's not doing it in a conventional way, he's not making observations, there are no punchlines. Welcome to alternative comedy, that arrived in the during the British punk movement, with an anti-establishment attitude. It crossed to America in the 1990s in response to the often non-progressive attitude in many stand-up acts. It's hard to exactly describe it, but the only way I can is to say what it's not. It's not done in a conventional form. There are no punchlines. It's not observational. It's not neutral. It isn't following rules. It isn't just a guy and a microphone. Alternative comedy can also encompass character company. Sometimes, alt-com can uses stuff no usually used in a stand-up act, such as a piano, pictures, drawings, songs, people acting in the background.

The best example of alternative comedy that has made it to the mainstream, but still hasn't sold it's soul are:

Demitri Martin

Zach Galifianakis

The Mighty Boosh

Anti-Comedy: No, it isn't tragedy. This is a relatively new phrase. It's comedy without being presented in comedy--in a way, it's alternative comedy, but it's not referring to itself as comedy. It will confuse the audience, but it doesn't thrive on messing with their heads. Like regular comedy practitioners, they want people to laugh and enjoy themselves, but they want them audience to think as well. The anti-comics usually play it straight, and never break face. On TV-shows that fall into this genre, one might crack a joke, usually a bad one, to which no one would laugh, or there would be a fake or awkward laugh. TV shows that are anti-comedy, might confuse viewers to the point of thinking its an actual documentary, drama, etc, and are victim to low ratings, but the true anti-comedians are able to pull it off, and causing their audience to laugh. Anti-comedy usually requires character comedy to pull it off. I will be exploring anti-comedy a lot as it is my favorite genre.

Andy Kaufman, the founder of anti-comedy--whether he wanted to or not.

Best examples of anti-comedy:

God's Pottery

Look Around You

Even The Office

Welcome!

My name's Marielle, I'm a theatre student, and this a blog for an independent study, in which I'll be exploring comedy. But don't worry, there will still be posts after this semester ends. I will be focusing on modern or new comedy, post 1970. This will also include reviews and recaps of comedy shows and movies, possible interviews, and videos of my own stand-up acts (some funny, some bad) and examples of certain types of genre.

Like I said, this is a professional scholarly project, and my professors and peers will be looking at this blog, so keep your comments clean, no spam, no insults, no ads, no creeps, and no trolls. Also, you might notice I have another blog, feel free to read it, but only if you are interested in Japanese giant robot tv shows (yeah, I'm a nerd). But I'll be mostly focusing on this blog for the time being.

Now, you're probably thinking-- why does some chick who's posted a few stand-up acts on youtube, who is not a famous comedian, and who performs mostly in small, amateur venues, and whose youtube videos, some of which are majorly panned, think she knows a lot about comedy. (Just so you know, I don't videotape all of my stand-up acts, based off of the fear of having a bad audience, and looking awkward on youtube, but I have had some really good acts!)

First off, around the age of five, I fell in love with comedy. At age ten I performed my first "stand-up" act, and by stand-up, I mean telling jokes, and a short comedic play I wrote was chosen by Child's Play Theatre, and is now performed nation-wide in other elementary schools. At the age of thirteen I performed my first real stand-up act in stand-up format. In high school, I did stand-up acts in local venues (mainly coffee shops) as part of a city-wide late night program. As well, I started writing sketches and plays and doing improv, discovering I can do more than stand-up. In college, I finally started performing my non-censored, raw stand-up in my dorm's monthly coffee house, and venturing into other formats of comedy. As well, I have written several plays and a few screenplays, most of them comedies.

Also, I watch any TV show that is funny and watch any movie that is funny, dating all the way back to "Some Like It Hot." As well, I watch last comic standing, mainly focusing on the initial try-outs, so I could see what worked and what not worked. I've seen bad stand-up acts, unfunny shows (Full House, anyone?) and I've been in good stand-up acts, and bad one, so I have a lot of personal experience. So, say what you want, but I know comedy.

Sadly, most books about comedy are how-tos, focusing on basic rules (some of which I follow, others I don't), written by a comedian, focusing on their style, written for kids, really old, or that one written by Aristotle, so I hope this will be a reliable source for people interested in comedy. And this will be enjoyable for you to read as well.